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I recently learned that much of my supervisory toolkit was developed while sitting on a piano bench. In particular, the methods that I’ve used with success for the millennial generation are derived from things I learned during piano lessons. This article is an installment of my ongoing musings about drawing inspiration for better supervision from my time in piano lessons. My college piano instructor was particularly focused on frequent performance. At the time, I hated it. My peers were at all the recitals and I could never seem to practice enough to be as good as I wanted to be in front of them. But what my instructor understood and what I eventually learned was that those frequent recitals were making me comfortable on stage. The butterflies never went away, but I learned what I needed to do in the practice room to make stepping out on stage less traumatic. By the time I performed my senior recital, I could do so with confidence. As a supervisor, I try to provide many recitals for my staff. There will be a time when they need to lead an important meeting. So, we start with leading discussions in staff meetings. Then we move to prepared presentations on specific topics. I encourage presenting at conferences so staff become accustomed to speaking in front of groups. As many opportunities as possible are made available so when that important meeting or training looms, stepping out there in front of the crowd is familiar and comfortable. What other techniques do you use to help staff become comfortable speaking in front of a group? Check out the first four posts in this series: Part One, Part Two, Part Three and Part Four 
