Meet Shawna Lucey

 

We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Shawna Lucey. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Shawna below.

Hi Shawna, we’re so appreciative of you taking the time to share your nuggets of wisdom with our community. One of the topics we think is most important for folks looking to level up their lives is building up their self-confidence and self-esteem. Can you share how you developed your confidence?

I am very lucky to have been influenced by my grandfather. He came to the US with $20 and an eighth-grade education. He was deeply influential in my upbringing, always telling my sister and I to believe in ourselves. He often told us – some people will tell you that you can’t do what a man can do. You know what those people are? Cowards. He fundamentally believed in us and was there for us every step of our childhood, adolescence and early adulthood. Knowing how much he overcame, how tough he was and his total confidence in us shaped us to be the strong women we are today.

Thanks, so before we move on maybe you can share a bit more about yourself?

I have been a stage director of opera for 15 years, working all over the world. My work has been seen in San Francisco, Barcelona, Kansas City, Santa Fe, Moscow and beyond. In 2022, I proudly became the General Director & CEO of Opera San José. We are the great incubator of opera’s next talents – focusing on enhancing the careers of emerging singers and leaders of this glorious art form. In 2024 we will launch our 41st season, bringing sexy and arresting performances to the California Theater in downtown San José. I am proud to lead OSJ, an organization that has been a force of innovation and taste-making in opera since its inception.

If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?

-Being people-focused + building my listening skills: Relationship building has been the key to every chapter of my career. I have been so fortunate to work with some of the greatest operatic talents in the world. Because of the trust I cultivate in our rehearsal experiences, we create the most compelling performances together. That translates outside of the rehearsal room in my work in the development sphere. Connecting donors to their impact by being a key driver in the creation of great art is a passionate inspiration for my career.

-Having a high tolerance for experimentation – which means there will be failure! In a conversation with a scientist years ago, he bemoaned the fact that strictly successful experiments were ever captured in published papers. Knowing that hundreds – or thousands – of failed attempts were behind that one article, I understood at that moment how important boldly trying really is.

-Choosing influences carefully: We are all shaped by our peers, our mentors and outside influences. Curating the bosses, supervisors, and directors I assisted was very important to me. I wanted to be shaped by truly authentic and respectful atmospheres and artists so that I would always channel that as my working center.

We’ve all got limited resources, time, energy, focus etc – so if you had to choose between going all in on your strengths or working on areas where you aren’t as strong, what would you choose?

I love this question! I had a wonderful teacher years ago who said: “It’s ok not to know the answer as long as you know where to find the answer”. My strengths do not lean towards math and sciences. I’ve long accepted those weaknesses because my facilities lie elsewhere. I can synthesize material at a high level and depend on staff and colleagues to shore up my understanding with their expertise. Similarly, I can’t sing! As crazy as that sounds (since I run an opera company), it gives me a profound appreciation of what my colleagues can do. I think what makes a symphony great are the diversity of players. Lean into your strengths – and build your squad to compliment. Ideally, there is overlap and also a beautiful strength in true diversity.

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Ken Howard

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