What type of person makes a good leader in your opinion ? Are they the type who can give orders on site ? The one who looks after everyone in the team and makes sure they ’ ve all eaten and phoned home ? The detail person who ’ s on top of the budgets and schedules ? Or the one who gives the inspirational talk before a show and rallies the crew ? Do you recognise any of these types of leaders ? Well , over the past two years we ’ ve run a leadership development programme for 25 women in music – we ’ ve seen all of these types , and here ’ s what we ’ ve learned .
I am the co-founder of the Music Leaders Network , a transformational leadership development programme for mid-career women in music . Our network members included live events managers , festival directors , tour managers , communications execs , artists and producers .
Our philosophy is that leaders come in many shapes and sizes , and it ’ s not only she who
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shouts loudest that can lead . In fact , all personality types can be effective leaders given the space to develop their leadership identity and learn how to lead as themselves . We worked with leaders to help them understand their own style and strengths , learn about the theory and practice of leadership and receive individual coaching and support from a group of their peers . We learned that people who took part increased their confidence . They reported being more effective at work . Quite a few people reported increased income , of up to 100 %. That ’ s a sign that they are delivering more , and clients and employers are willing to pay for it – or they were being underpaid relative to their business value . We saw people move to the next level in their career , taking leaps forward in their roles or commanding bigger and better freelance positions .
We also learned that , in line with the conversation that the live events sector had about wellbeing and values during the pandemic , they were working
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Remi Harris MBE
in a different way – standing up for crew mental health , championing sustainability and starting to put limits and boundaries around work – while also still delivering great commercial results .
We all want our leaders to be bold , brave , emotionally intelligent and kind – inspiring , influencing and changing the culture in the industry .
You can ’ t do that without knowing yourself , being authentic and understanding others , having a great network and having a bigger perspective on the industry beyond being good at your technical role . This is something that investing in
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leadership development can deliver .
And as for where to find great leaders ? Look at yourself and the mid-career women around you , and you ’ ll likely find untapped potential there to be developed .
The Music Leaders Network will be running once again in September 2022 , with individuals and their employers able to pay for places on this programme , and applications open on 6 June . An information event will take place on 10 June . Applications are particularly welcome from black women as few applications were received from black women for previous leaders network programmes .
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