Music & Coaching

Music has been part of my life for as long as I can remember. It is also, in many ways, where my thinking about leadership was actually built.

I currently conduct the Gower Community Band and the CLB Regimental Band in St. John’s, Newfoundland. Both organizations bring together musicians of different ages and abilities, and the work of a conductor is the work of making those individuals function as something larger than the sum of their parts. That requires clear communication, the ability to read a room, an understanding of when to push and when to ease back, and the patience to let preparation do its job. These are not skills exclusive to the podium.

I’ve played saxophone for most of my life. There’s something about the discipline of an instrument that resists shortcuts: you either have the fundamentals or you don’t, and the ensemble knows it. That’s a lesson that applies well beyond music.

The coaching side of my musical life has been equally formative. I’ve worked with youth through the York Regional Police Youth Band, and have spent more than two decades coaching young people across hockey, curling, softball, and soccer. Youth development is where you learn that preparation matters more than talent, that trust has to be earned before it can be leveraged, and that the best thing a coach can do is build the conditions where someone else can succeed.

If there’s a thread connecting conducting, consulting, and coaching, it’s this: in every context, the person at the front of the room is responsible for the conditions, not for doing the work themselves. Getting that wrong is the most common failure in leadership, at every level.