Coaching for Leaders18 Elo 2025

745: How Music Can Help Us Lead, with Mort Sherman

Mort Sherman: Resonant Minds

Mort Sherman is the retired Senior Associate Executive Director of the American Association of School Administrators, known for his visionary leadership as a superintendent dedicated to elevating academic standards and promoting equitable education. Throughout his career, he championed initiatives that addressed achievement gaps and empowered communities to foster inclusive, impactful learning environments. He is the author, along with his daughter Sara Leila Sherman, of Resonant Minds: The Transformative Power of Music, One Note at a Time.

So many of us love music, and it’s often at the core of a lot of our personal lives, celebrations, and emotions. But we don’t often think about how we can leverage its power at work. In this conversation, Mort and I explore how music can help us set the tone for better leadership.

Key Points

One way to nurture our teams and ourselves is a continual call for leaders, and music is an avenue we don’t often consider.
Using music as mindful action, coupled with executive function skills, supports the habits of successful leadership.
Start meetings with music or mindfulness exercises for collective focus, productive discussions, and creative outcomes.
Create team playlists to build community. Combine playlists with meetings to help support trust and respect.
Use music to reinforce a message or theme, tied to the needs of the moment.

Resources Mentioned

Why Cooks Cook from The Bear

Interview Notes

Download my interview notes in PDF format (free membership required).

Related Episodes

The Power of Leadership Through Hospitality, with Will Guidara (episode 688)
How to Better Manage Your Emotions, with Ethan Kross (episode 719)
What Leaders Should Learn from Taylor Swift, with Kevin Evers (episode 739)

Discover More

Activate your free membership for full access to the entire library of interviews since 2011, searchable by topic. To accelerate your learning, uncover more inside Coaching for Leaders Plus

Tämä jakso on lisätty Podme-palveluun avoimen RSS-syötteen kautta eikä se ole Podmen omaa tuotantoa. Siksi jakso saattaa sisältää mainontaa.

Jaksot(792)

789: The Counterintuitive Secret to Creativity and Focus, with David Epstein

David Epstein: Inside the Box David Epstein is the author of the #1 New York Times bestseller Range and The Sports Gene, both of which have been translated into more than 30 languages. He was previous...

29 Kesä 39min

788: How to Work with Poisonous People, with Leanne ten Brinke

Leanne ten Brinke: Poisonous People Leanne ten Brinke is an Associate Professor at the University of British Columbia, where she directs the Truth and Trust Lab. Her research investigates trust, decep...

22 Kesä 39min

787: Better Leadership Through Humor, with Chris Duffy

Chris Duffy: Humor Me Chris Duffy is an award-winning podcaster, comedian, and television writer. He hosts the podcast How to Be a Better Human and you can find his comedic TED talk, “How to find laug...

15 Kesä 38min

786: The Problem with Reorgs and How to Do Better, with Phil Le-Brun

Phil Le-Brun: The Octopus Organization Phil Le-Brun is an executive in residence at Amazon Web Services and a former corporate VP and international CIO at the McDonald’s Corporation. He is a sought-af...

8 Kesä 37min

785: Make Your Task List Work for You, with Liane Davey

Liane Davey: Thoughtload For the past 25 years, Liane Davey has researched and advised teams on how to achieve high performance. She is the author of You First and The Good Fight and is a regular cont...

1 Kesä 39min

784: How to Protect the Organization You Love, with Eric Ries

Eric Ries: Incorruptible Eric Ries is the creator of the Lean Startup method, and the author of the New York Times bestseller The Lean Startup, The Leader’s Guide, and The Startup Way. Over the last t...

25 Touko 38min

783: How to Take Back Your Evenings, with Guy Winch

Guy Winch: Mind Over Grind Guy Winch is a psychologist and bestselling author who advocates for integrating the science of emotional health into our daily lives. His TED talks have attracted over 35 m...

18 Touko 38min

782: How to Help a Team Get Unstuck, with Gustavo Razzetti

Gustavo Razzetti: Forward Talk Gustavo Razzetti is a culture change instigator, speaker, and CEO of Fearless Culture, a culture design consultancy. He helps leaders build teams that talk about what ma...

11 Touko 38min