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Your section leaders aren't failing at leadership — they're missing social skills no one taught them. Here's how to build that foundation in your band program.

Leadership contracts create compliance, not ownership. Here's how to build real student leadership in band that transfers culture year after year.

If your drum majors fall apart when the show ends, they're not leaders — they're mirrors. Here's what that means for your show design and student leadership development.

Your new drum majors and section leaders are ready to lead students — but nobody taught them to lead each other. Here's why that gap exists and how to close it.

After-action reviews transform band leadership meetings from announcements into real leadership training. Here's how to run them with drum majors and section leaders.

Build student leadership contracts that create real accountability for drum majors and section leaders who process authority differently than previous generations.

Once you've selected your leaders and trained them to be the team you need them to be, it's time for them to do the work and for you to be their North Star along the way. One of my mentors guides his leaders with the philosophy of "trust and follow up." He will always give tasks to the students and then provide them with the space to execute the tasks without being micromanaged. But he always leaves time in the process to check their work and correct any errors. The result is a team of students eager to do their job and nail it the first time. While he never sacrifices the step of checking their work, he rarely needs to correct anything.​How do you get your band program to this level?

Once your fledgling leadership team is selected, now begins the work of developing those students to be the core of the band that you need to have a successful organization that hums along like a well-oiled machine.​There are two phases to your leadership training that you need to consider. First, instill in your students the values of leadership. Second, teach your students all the processes and procedures of your band program that they'll be leading.

Student leadership is a vital component of a band program. Even in the smallest of schools, having a leadership structure helps to take some of the pressures off the instructional staff (and the band director). By and large, the instructional information should come from adults hired to teach - but numerous other organizational tasks still function better by students guiding one another and handing down institutional knowledge. Additionally, only some 14-year-olds will inherently have the intrinsic motivation that makes band kids so unique. Having other young adults to look up to will help those newer members develop that sense of responsibility and individual contribution that will make your band function smoothly.So, how do you choose who your leaders will be?