As the new ED of the California Symphony, Aubrey Bergauer faced a brutal challenge - turn things around financially in less than two years, or major institutional supporters would pull their funding. She knew that tinkering with the music or marketing wouldn't fix things. So she decided to try something different. Data. As she tells the story, her approach wasn't rocket science. But it was revolutionary for the classical music industry, a radical change that enabled her and her team to double the size of their audience and nearly quadruple their donor base in less than three years.
Read next
Tips to grow your leadership impact, through purpose
Something weird happened during the latest leadership retreat I ran. After spending the morning exploring the organization's purpose, we had planned to spend the afternoon helping members of the leadership team each find their own individual purpose.
I had designed an exercise where people worked in pairs to
Become a more engaging leader with role-play
"Wow! I can't believe how horrible that made me feel!" one of my clients confessed. She and her colleagues were on the verge of discovering how to radically improve the way they engage with their own clients. They all worked for a government licensing group, the
3 questions to make decisions easier
We all have to make incredibly difficult choices in complex situations where there are no right answers. Without a process we trust to guide us, the uncertainty of what to do can paralyze us, leaving us unable to move forward – or eat away at us as we agonize over whether we did the right thing.