You can’t succeed in the music industry alone. The reality is that you’ll need tons of supporters in order for you to get to where you want to be. There’s an endless list of people that you’ll be working with & relying on throughout your career, from fans, promoters, record labels, managers, engineers, producers, band members & venues to friends & family.
You need to build & nurture powerful networks if you want these groups of people to grow with you and support you in your mission to succeed.
Social skills are where you tend to notice good emotional intelligence in others or yourself. However, emotional intelligence does not start or end with social skills. It’s a cycle, with all three parts interconnected… Only those who understand themselves and regulate their emotions are able to work well and effectively with others. Understanding this is crucial to developing your emotional intelligence.
So what are the benefits of developing high levels of social skill? Here are just a few of the benefits we come across regularly:
The social musician
- Is a strong performer
- Gets lots of work and gigs
- Has tons of raving fans
- Is great at negotiation
- Makes money from their talent
- Is a fast, effective learner
- Is a great networker
- Collaborates well with others
- Leads people with impact
- Diffuses conflict
- Gives and receives feedback
- Is a powerful promoter
- Stands up for themselves
- Achieves creative outcomes
How do you build social skills?
The term ‘social skills’ refers to a broad collection of skills… From communicating, influencing and managing conflict to managing change, building rapport and collaborating with others. These all need to be built individually, but there are some general places you can start that will impact your social skills across the board. We’ve mentioned a few of these below:
- Find out how good your social skills are using our MEQ (musicians emotional quotient) framework questionnaire.
- Practice giving and receiving feedback in a respectful, controlled manner. We love to use the AID method which you can explore here in our FREE worksheet.
- Build your confidence when negotiating and influencing… You can explore our top tips for building your skill further in our article: kick ass negotiation.
- Learn your communication preferences and the preferences of those around you. We think DiSC is a great place to start exploring this, the Tony Robbins website has a great DiSC assessment that you can access free of charge.
- Listen. Really listen. This takes practice and it’s not easy, but if you listen to what’s being said (not what you want to hear) then your relationships will undoubtedly improve.
- Recognise how you communicate in times of stress. What’s your go to communication style? How does this influence your performance and the performance of those around you?
Over to you
- How easy do you find communicating in the music industry?
- When do you experience conflict?
- What helps you to regulate your emotions?
We’d love to hear your thoughts. We’d also like to see some examples of great social skills in the music industry… Have you come across any powerful examples?
If you’ve enjoyed this article, then please share it far and wide. Let’s talk about building your social skill
