What kind of choral leader are you?
One of my core parenting philosophies is that parents must serve as guardrails – giving as much space for their kids to explore while staying safe. Whenever kids show they’re ready, it’s my responsibility to widen the guardrails. Always widen. Eventually, they’re their own guardrails and you’re ideally out of a job.
It’s a great model for an educational approach for choral leaders, too. We can be dictators, teachers, conductors, too, but the more we can be guardrails, the more we are empowering our musical students to be in control of their own music-making after they leave us.
Be a guardrail.