How Staff Influences Your Season

“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.”

-Probably not Aristotle

I’d like to start today’s blog with a question I have posed time and time again on this website:

What defines your season?

Seriously. Take a moment and ask yourself that question. What are the 2-3 things that happen during your season by which you measure its success or failure?

Have you written your answers? No? I’ll wait. 

Okay, got your list?

What ended up on your list? Excellence? Camaraderie? Instilling a deep love of performance & music in your students? Something else?

If you are a reader of this blog, I am probably not the first person you’ve heard rave about all the incredible benefits of music education programs. We hold a special accepting place for students of all kinds to come together and create something truly special. And while many programs in school achieve many similar objectives, our programs hold a special place in schools unmatched by any other program. 

If you feel the way I feel, answer this question: 

What role does your staff play in defining the success or failure of your season?

If you have a staff, the answer might be more significant than you think. 

Top-down or Bottom-up?

In the business world, businesses tend to fall somewhere on a spectrum of top-down or bottom-up management. 

Top-down management is when the owner, CEO, or other high level leader dictates the vision to the employees. The vision is driven from the top, enforced through management channels all the way to the front-line employees who perform the day-to-day work. As an example, Steve Jobs led Apple through a strong top-down approach. This does not mean Jobs was the only person with input or influence, but that he was the primary channel for driving the vision forward in his time at Apple.

A bottom-up approach works in the opposite way. Employees on the front line see more of the day to day picture of the business, then these employees push suggestions to their managers, who push solutions to other departments or straight up the chain of command to higher level executives. Toyota is a popular pioneer of this type of management structure, and the stories of how front-line employees have driven Toyota towards the top of the auto industry are some of the most famous in the business world. 

Which to choose?

You more than likely already have a favored management style. Given your time in school, your experience with other staff members, even your years as an instructor, you likely have favored ways to do things. If you could rate yourself on a scale of 1 to 10, with 1 being fully top-down and 10 being fully bottom-up, where would you rate yourself? (Even though we are using a 1-10 scale, we are not inherently saying bottom-up is better, or vice versa)

How do you rate yourself on the scale? What do you think would be the ideal number for a team?

How is This Relevant To My Program?

As different as their objectives are, pageantry arts programs and large-scale business share many same objectives. Both look to maximize performance, develop and lead large groups of people, and do so with a finite amount of resources.

Businesses strive to “succeed” with different metrics and long term goals, sure. But many of our desired outcomes are shared between these two types of organizations. How we choose to manage our people is just as impactful to us as it is to any business. Yet this can often be overlooked. 

What Does This Have to do with Staff? 

Whether you strive to be a top-down or bottom-up organization (or likely a mix of both), your staff is a critical piece.

What is the primary commonality in both management styles?

In top down, leadership motivates change through their management to front line employees to enact change. 

In bottom up, employees motivate change through management to help leadership motivate change. 

The consistency is management, and in our activity, your staff are your managers. Your staff are the conduit that pushes goals and values from students to the director. Of course, the director of a program certainly has more face time with students than most CEOs, but this does not change the value staff has with the students. 

For some timid students, staff can be a safe space to get to know the culture of the program. For soft spoken students, staff can be an open ear when they have more one-on-one time. Staff can model the values and goals of the director in a holistic way and show students the path to excellence.

Your staff impacts your season in a meaningful way through their service. They bring their experience and their expertise, but they are also one of the greatest drivers in the success of  your goals for the season. Treat their link to students with great care, enable them whenever you can. And continue to develop and grow with them to build the culture you seek from your program.

How do you define your season? If you’re doing this well, through your actions, through your members, and through the support and empowerment of your staff.