Musicians have a saying that if you don\u2019t practice for one day, you\u2019ll notice. If you don\u2019t practice for a second day, other musicians will notice. And if you don\u2019t practice for a week, the audience will notice.<\/p>\n

So, what are you practicing now?<\/p>\n

My dear friend Russ Ferrara,\u00a0who I first met in college and with whom I recently created a performance piece, is a trained classical musician.<\/p>\n

Part of practicing for him, of course, has always been about maintaining his technical skills. \u201cRunning scales from the bottom to the top of the instrument\u2019s range \u2013 or that wicked arpeggio that ties your fingers in knots,\u201d as he told me.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s most of what musicians need to practice when we are starting out,\u201d he underscored.<\/p>\n

\u201cEarly on,\u201d he said, \u201cpractice, for musicians, is becoming acquainted with your instrument.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBut, at this point, after playing professionally for nearly four decades,\u201d he added, laughing, as he does so easily, \u201cI\u2019m pretty well-acquainted with this instrument.\u201d<\/p>\n

So now he focuses more on rhythmic challenges, or new concepts, or working on particularly difficult pieces that require enormous dexterity.<\/p>\n

The notion of practicing is intriguing to me because I believe it is something that leaders could learn a lot about by listening to musicians.<\/p>\n

What are you practicing?<\/p>\n

It is not something that most leaders think \u2013 or even talk \u2013 about. We usually just do \u2013 whatever it is we\u2019re doing.<\/p>\n

We live more in a world of doing than practicing.<\/p>\n

But musicians, regardless of how accomplished, always practice.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s interesting to think about.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

What would be different if you were practicing?<\/p>\n

Would it be communicating your vision?<\/p>\n

Implementing your plans?<\/p>\n

Measuring progress?<\/p>\n

Recognizing success?<\/p>\n

Mentoring others?<\/p>\n

Honing your intuition?<\/p>\n

Staying focused on what is important?<\/p>\n

Being more flexible?<\/p>\n

Getting more in tune \u2013 with yourself?<\/p>\n

Connecting more \u2013 with others?<\/p>\n

Listen. And learn from musicians.<\/p>\n

To take your leadership skills to a whole new level, figure out what you are\u00a0going to start practicing.<\/p>\n

Today. Tomorrow. And next week.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Musicians have a saying that if you don\u2019t practice for one day, you\u2019ll notice. If you don\u2019t practice for a second day, other musicians will notice. And if you don\u2019t practice for a week, the audience will notice. So, what are you practicing now? My dear friend Russ Ferrara,\u00a0who I first met in college and with whom I recently created a performance piece, is a trained classical musician. Part of …Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":32,"featured_media":556,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[17],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.calipercanada.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/334"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.calipercanada.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.calipercanada.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.calipercanada.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/32"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.calipercanada.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=334"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/www.calipercanada.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/334\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":559,"href":"https:\/\/www.calipercanada.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/334\/revisions\/559"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.calipercanada.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/556"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.calipercanada.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=334"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.calipercanada.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=334"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.calipercanada.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=334"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}