The Practice of Leadership
As we close this year of Chora Insights, we return to a timeless question: what does it mean to be a good leader? Leadership is not a title or a personality trait. Titles can be granted; credibility is earned over time in the way you act, especially when things are uncertain or hard. Personality helps, but it doesn’t carry you through conflict, complex change, or the slow work of building trust.
For many leaders in museums and cultural organizations, leadership doesn’t show up in stirring speeches on momentous occasions. It transpires instead in the daily discipline of how you run a meeting, how you respond to feedback, how you handle mistakes, and how you talk about success and failure with your team.
At Chora, we see leadership as a practiced craft: a disciplined way of working that combines self-awareness, clarity, and humility in daily action. The seven practices below are not a checklist to master overnight. They are invitations to experiment with concrete behaviors that, over time, define what kind of leader you are—and how it feels to work with you.
1. Talk Less, Listen More.
Leaders who listen well make better decisions. Use meetings not to display authority but to understand what others see, know, and feel. The best ideas often come from those closest to the work.
Example:
In one planning session, a museum director opened the meeting with a single question: “What are you seeing that I’m not?” Then she put her notes face down and didn’t speak for the first 20 minutes. Staff, a bit hesitant at first, began sharing what they were hearing from visitors, noticing in galleries, and struggling with behind the scenes.
When she finally did, she began with, “Here’s what I’m learning from what you’ve said…” and reflected back the room’s ideas before adding her own. Staff later said it was the first time they felt they were truly shaping the direction rather than reacting to it, and the meeting led to practical changes that wouldn’t have surfaced otherwise.
Listening is not passive. It’s an active choice to let other people’s perspectives change your own.
2. Clarify Expectations and Intentions.
Your team needs clarity — not control. Be explicit about what outcomes you expect and why they matter, but trust your staff to find the path. End every meeting by summarizing what was agreed upon and confirming alignment.
Example:
During the kickoff for a complex multi-year project, a leadership team realized they each had a different way of explaining the work to come. Some focused on funding, others on construction, others on internal politics.
The project lead paused and asked, “Before we talk about tasks, can we agree on what success looks like?” Going around the table, a mental picture emerged: three years from now, visitors will experience the museum as more welcoming and easier to navigate; staff will have clear roles; and finances will be stable enough to support the new operation.
Once they had that shared picture of success, the project lead said, “If this is what ‘good’ looks like, I don’t need to design every step. I need each of you to design the path from your side — programs, operations, finance, visitor services. My job is to keep us honest about the end goal.”
They spent the rest of the meeting crafting a simple three-sentence description of that end state and agreed to use it with staff, trustees, and funders. From there, departments were given room to propose their own strategies. When the project hit inevitable bumps, the team returned to those three sentences to decide what to adjust — the tactics, not the destination.
Clarity lowers anxiety and frees people to make good decisions without constant supervision.
3. Build Problem Solvers, Not Problem Describers.
A strong team doesn’t hand you problems — it brings you options for solving them. Encourage autonomy and a tolerance for learning through error. Confidence grows when people know they can try, fail, and try again.
Example:
A department head once had a manager who came to her weekly with a list of problems: understaffed shifts, confusing visitor signage, bottlenecks at the ticket desk. After a few weeks, the leader changed the script.
“From now on,” she said, “when you bring me a problem, bring two possible options for resolving them and the one you recommend. I may not choose it, but we’ll start there.”
The first few conversations were awkward. The manager would shrug and say, “I’m not sure.” The leader held the line: “Take 24 hours, think about it, and let’s talk tomorrow.” Within a couple of months, the manager arrived with ideas, small experiments, and data from what she had already tried. She later told colleagues, “I used to feel like I was just reporting bad news. Now I feel like I’m actually making a difference.”
The next time someone brings you a problem, ask: “What have you already tried? What are two options you see? Which one do you recommend?” Over time, you’ll find the conversation shifting from “Here’s what’s wrong” to “Here’s what I’d like to try.”
4. Lead with Trust and Respect.
Trust is a leader’s currency. Disrespect or condescension — especially in front of someone’s peers — drains it instantly. People will work hard for a leader who corrects them; they will withdraw from a leader who humiliates them..
Example:
During a staff meeting, a new manager presented an update and stumbled over a key number. Before she could correct herself, the senior leader cut in with a laugh: “Have you even read the report?” A few people smiled politely; most looked down at their notes. The manager’s face flushed, she rushed through the rest of her slides, and said almost nothing for the remainder of the meeting.
Afterward, a colleague pulled the senior leader aside and said, “You were right about the number, but the way you addressed it had a negative impact.” To his credit, the leader took it in. At the next meeting, he opened by saying, “Last time I corrected a mistake in a way that was disrespectful. That’s not the environment I want to create, and I’m sorry.”
From then on, when errors came up in public settings, he shifted his approach: “I think there may be a typo here—let’s check it after the meeting,” or “Numbers aside, the core idea is solid.” Problems were still named and addressed, but never at the cost of someone’s dignity.
A leader who corrects in private and protects in public sends a clear message: “Your dignity matters more to me than my need to be right in the moment.” That is the ground on which real trust is built.
5. Practice Visible Humility.
Admitting you don’t have all the answers strengthens credibility, not weakens it. “I don’t know,” “I don’t have all the answers,” and “I was wrong” are not signs of weak leadership – they are signs of honest leadership.
Example:
In a town hall meeting about a major change, staff asked a pointed question: “Can you guarantee there won’t be layoffs?” The leader could feel the room holding its breath. In the past, she might have tried to smooth things over with vague reassurances.
Instead, she said, “I don’t know. I wish I could promise that, but I can’t. I don’t have all the answers yet. Here’s what I do know…” She walked through the facts they had, the questions they were still working on, and the timeline for making decisions. The anxiety didn’t vanish, but the room relaxed. People felt they were being treated like adults.
Months later, another initiative the leader had championed turned out badly. The workload was too heavy, the assumptions were off, and staff had raised concerns early on. At an all-staff meeting, she said, “I pushed hard for this project. I didn’t listen carefully enough when some of you said the scope was unrealistic. You were right. I was wrong.” Together, they agreed to scale back and redesign the work.
Several staff later said that moment was a turning point. Not because everything suddenly became easy, but because they saw a leader who was willing to be humble — to say “I don’t know” when she didn’t, and “I was wrong” when she was.
Humility isn’t about shrinking; it’s about telling the truth. When leaders are honest about what they don’t know and where they’ve missed the mark, they create space for others to bring their best judgment, ideas, and expertise.
6. Begin with What Works.
Positive feedback isn’t indulgent — it’s strategic. By recognizing what’s effective before dissecting what’s not, you build morale and sharpen focus. Sincerity is the difference between motivation and compliance.
Example:
A program team was meeting to discuss a disappointing season of public programs: lower attendance, fewer memberships, tired staff. Everyone arrived braced for critique.
The leader opened differently: “Before we talk about what needs to change, I want to spend ten minutes on what worked this season. What are you proud of?” At first, people hesitated. Then someone mentioned a particularly strong partnership with a community group. Another pointed out that families who did attend were staying longer and engaging more deeply.
The leader wrote these on a flip chart, circled them, and said, “These are assets. Whatever we change, we’re going to protect these.” The mood in the room shifted from defensiveness to problem-solving. The team left with a clearer sense of both what to fix and what to keep.
Try starting difficult conversations with, “Here are three things that are working well,” before moving into what needs to change. People are more open to critique when they know you see their strengths clearly.
7. Take Blame, Share Credit.
When something goes wrong, own it. When things go right, spread the credit. Leadership is less about taking center stage and more about building a stage where others can shine.
Example:
After a successful exhibition opening, one director thanked the curators, registrars, visitor services, facilities staff, volunteers, and the front desk team by name in front of the Board. She called out specific contributions — a registrar who solved a last-minute shipping issue, a front-of-house team that managed long lines with patience and humor, a facilities crew that turned over galleries overnight.
When a later project missed its targets, that same director told the Board, “I approved the schedule and the scope. If there is blame to assign, it’s mine.” She also made a point of saying to staff, “You worked hard under the constraints I set. The miscalculation was mine, not yours.” Staff noticed both moments — and they remembered who stood where when the lights were bright and when they were harsh.
Leadership is not perfection — it’s consistency. It’s the discipline of showing up with clarity, curiosity, and care. Every day.
