Leading performance: transposing musicianship into the leadership debate

Abstract

This article reflects the personal experiences of its author: a musician, teacher and current leader in the secondary independent sector. It provides an initial exploration of the link between leadership and musicianship, pivoting on the concept of performance and how specific socialised and embedded skills and experiences developed through musical performance resonate with notions of leadership in education. The intention is to raise awareness of the positive attributes of musicianship which are sometimes lost in the mist of artistic endeavour. Setting technical mastery aside, a raft of experiences, including presentation, formality, organisation, collaboration, a blend of aesthetic and academic enrichment and emotional sensitivity equip a capable musician with skills that transpose seamlessly into the role of leadership. Many of these experiences apply to other artistic fields within education and perhaps this debate will encourage those who appoint leaders to reconsider the attributes of artistic experiences. Bourdieu’s conceptual lens provides a theoretical foundation highlighting habitus and field as useful tools to filter leadership experience in a musical context.