Musicians are highly disciplined, skilled, and independently motivated individuals capable of learning and performing well in stressful, fast-paced, and competitive environments.

Now, I’m sure many of you nodded your heads at the above statement but here’s the thing — though this is a worst-kept secret and universally recognized as true by those who understand music as a skill, it’s the thing most misunderstood by individuals outside the realm of music.

• Sure, during my music degree I may not have taken any marketing classes, but I had to learn those skills and get good at marketing really quickly when it came time to advertise myself as an independent performer and educator post-graduation.

• It’s true that until my master’s degree I had no clue what project management was as a formal process, but I had been using it for about five years prior to learning about it — planning concerts, gigs, recording projects, and other group initiatives for myself or the ensembles I was affiliated with.

• Maybe I’m not the most skilled web designer, but I had to get proficient at using website tools or I wouldn’t have a platform for clients to find me.

• I may not have a background in business consulting or coaching, but I had to coach myself through high-stakes performance situations — the ones where school acceptance, scholarship money, or a sense of identity were on the line. And now, I’m coaching a few of my students through those same pressures.

The skills we develop as musicians aren’t just useful for rehearsals and performances — they’re also directly transferable to leadership, teamwork, and organizational success. Over the years, I’ve noticed a pattern: the habits and experiences that make someone a strong musician often mirror what makes someone an effective leader.

So, whether you’re leading a team, managing a project, or simply trying to become a more effective collaborator, here are six key leadership and professional skills that music helps us develop — along with ways to apply them beyond the rehearsal room.

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1. Active Listening → Empathy & Communication

Playing in an ensemble requires constant listening, and not just to your own part. You have to listen to the group as a whole, and in-real time adapt your timing, dynamics, and phrasing according to the group as a whole. In a leadership context, leaders who actively listen can successfully read their team’s needs, adjust their approach, and make decisions that are inclusive and effective.

2. Deliberate AND Habitual Practice → Continuous Improvement

Focused, structured practice teaches us how to break down complex skills, track progress, and refine weaknesses until we improve. But the consistent habit practicing leads to greater skill improvement over time, than inconsistent focused practice. Leaders benefits from the same mindset and process: reflect, identify gaps, adjust, and iterate. But don’t just do so periodically, even if improvements and changes seem minor when increasing frequency, overtime the improvement in performance and leadership ability will be greater.

3. Leading a Section → Team Building & Influence

Guiding a section, mentoring younger musicians, or cueing entries in an ensemble requires clarity, motivation, and collaboration. These ensemble and section leaders must build trust, delegate effectively, and align their team’s efforts inspire higher performance. Effectively doing the same thing as non-ensemble based leadership personnel.

The next time you find yourself in a team leader situation, don’t envision your team as your means to succeed in the project, and instead view the process of collaborative teamwork as your means. This will allow you to be much more collaborative with your team members, and build trust

4. Improvisation & Adaptability → Creativity & Problem-Solving

Improvisation or being able to adapt to mistakes made by an ensemble during a performance with a certian level of seamlessness requires the ability to not just rapidly problem solve, but be creative in doing so. Unexpected challenges happen all the time in business and leadership. The ability to pivot and be innovative with how that pivot is executed is critical for any leader.

5. Giving & Receiving Feedback → Coaching & Emotional Intelligence

In rehearsals, lessons, or other peer-to-peer performance spaces, musicians constantly are receiving feedback from others, and providing feedback to others. Constructive critique helps everyone improve while maintaining morale of the ensemble.

Being able to see through the inevitable “hurt” of your musical interpretation or skills being misunderstood, misinterpreted, or even just incorrect for the piece that is being interpreted, and take constructive peer and mentor feedback in the constructive nature most (but not all) are given, is critical as a professional, leader or not, in order to continually increase your performance and progress within your career.

This combined with the ability to provide constructive feedback in a way that is sensitive to the emotional nature of music, while not shying away from difficult discussions of misinterpretations, or misunderstandings of the music, and faults in technique, is just as important as being able to gracefully receive such feedback. If ever a time that you are professionally required to give feedback to a team member, doing so with empathy and honesty can build stronger, and more resilient teams with a higher sense of psychological safety and continued advancements in performance.

6. Performing Under Pressure → Resilience & Decision-Making

Live performance, auditions, or competitions push musicians to manage nerves, and make split-second decisions based on real-time auditory processing feedback. Or, in less complicated terms, you have to correct mistakes in the second that they occur, and ensure that you’re focusing on the aspects of performance most important to sensing critical mistakes while performance.

Leaders (and professionals) who can stay composed, think clearly, and act decisively under pressure earn trust and guide teams through challenges. Even if you don’t know what you’re doing, simply walking into the room confidently, with a graceful composure and a smile can do WORLDS more for your credibility to your team then almost anything else.

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Conclusion

I could talk all day about the way that music education and practice is one of the best things to prepare any young human and professional for whatever they end up doing in life, and at some point soon I will be (wink wink, nudge, nudge). For now, take your time digesting these six examples and thinking of other ways your musical skills can teach you about leadership, or what your leadership skills could learn from music.

Now the next time you’re in a rehearsal or a meeting, I’d like you to ask yourself one these questions:

What skills am I currently utilizing that could be applied in a non-musical and/or leadership context?

OR

What skills are currently being used in this meeting/position that I can relate back to music education or performance?