Remote work and Taylor Swift are not two topics that I would normally think to combine in the same sentence. But if you ask most young women between the ages of 5-30 for the name of one person who has impacted how they see themselves and their place in the world, I think Taylor Swift may dominate the responses. I can appreciate her as a role model, but there’s a lot more to the benchmarks that Taylor Swift is setting that carry over into how we work and live.
Recently I was cleaning out some old stuff and found my first concert ticket. It was for The Moody Blues in 1981 and the tickets ticket price was $14.75. Things have changed! I have older daughters and one of them has been to see Taylor Swift on both coasts at prices considerably more than the $14.75 I just mentioned. So being that that’s my frame of reference I have struggled to understand the whole Swiftie movement.
But there may be hope for me yet. Recently I happened to see a post on LinkedIn by Maria Villablanca outlining some of the unique things about Taylor Swift. I thought it was interesting and commented. I was surprised at how much response it generated, and it got me thinking about bigger aspects of what Taylor Swift means to the planet. While it wasn’t directly related, Hanna Larsson’s latest newsletter sort of gave me the idea for this article and shed new light on Taylor Swift with the story she has crafted for herself and her fans.
Reinvent Yourself
As a non-Swiftie, my daughter had to explain to me the significance of the Eras Tour, the branding around the T-shirts, and the albums themselves. Even if you don’t appreciate the music, it’s impressive to see the journey that she’s been on musically to stay current and relevant with each of her albums. This is something that we all need to do in both our personal lives and our work lives. The pandemic was a perfect opportunity for most of us to reinvent ourselves and many of us did. But there are still holdouts as evidenced by the return to office movement. Some people want to stay locked in the way things were in a fixed mindset. But when you truly embrace a growth mindset you end up with the likes of Taylor Swift.
Reinventing yourself also demonstrates resilience. This is important for both companies and people alike. Holding on to the ways things have always been done, generally doesn’t serve anyone. It’s easy to get complacent, but if we actively make an effort to step out of our comfort zone, we can continue to grow. Not everyone chooses to do this on their own, it takes a life-changing event to get us to take action.
Take Control of your Destiny
If anything has been learned from the pandemic is that there is no certainty in the world and our jobs. More people are starting side hustles and doing their own thing. Over the last three years, workers have gotten used to working on their terms and some CEOs are trying to pull that back with the return to office movement. It’s not going well for some CEOs. It could be beneficial to everyone if they embraced the wave. Workers are taking control of their destiny and many are voting with their feet.
Taylor Swift provides a unique example of taking control of one’s destiny. If you don’t know all of the story, her prior manager ended up owning the rights to her first several albums. Rather than continuing the fight to get them back she simply rerecorded them. Other artists have had similar problems over the years such as Creedence Clearwater Revival, but none of them seemed to think outside of the box enough to do something like this.
We all have the opportunity to take control of our destiny in some way. A friend of mine has been wanting to ease towards retirement and a new career. She didn’t have the option to leave her current career and move into the new one the way that she wanted to. It took a little negotiating and some creativity but she eventually found a solution that allowed her to maintain her current income while still starting the process of a new career. This is a lesson for all of us that there are solutions out there to take control of your destiny.
Stay Connected With Your Team
Taylor Swift isn’t just a performer, she is a leader in many ways. If you had asked me a month ago who her team was I probably would have said a manager, the musicians, her producer, etc. I probably wouldn’t have gone down to the level of the trucking company that moves her around. But that’s something that Taylor Swift did recently in a big way to recognize them as an important part of their team. Most performers give tips to workers on their tour but Taylor went over the top with this issuing 50 $100,000 bonuses to her truck drivers. For most this wasn’t just a thank you, this was a life-changing moment.
And not everybody has the financial resources to do something on the scale but it does highlight the need to reach out and connect to everyone and show their importance. One of the challenges for a lot of organizations with remote work is maintaining that connection when people are not always in direct contact with one another in person. Aside from the extraordinary dollar amount, the key aspect of what Taylor did was the intentionality of it. And that’s the main lesson for us who are working remote and managing remote teams. Be intentional in your interactions and acknowledge the people who are doing good work for you.
Stay Connected With Your Customers
The thing that started me down the path of this article was the comment I made on Maria’s post about Taylor Swift. The thing that impressed me the most about her is her ability to connect with her customers. She is known for reaching out to certain individuals sometimes years after they first contact her to simply check-in, show up at their house, send a gift, or invite them to a show.
Now somebody was quick to point out that she doesn’t do that herself and she has a team that does that. My response was that’s even more impressive. Just like Santa doesn’t deliver all the toys himself, the fact that he has a team to do that helps keep the magic alive. When you’ve got Taylor Swift keeping track of individual fans out of millions regularly just shows that she’s able to scale her outreach like no one else. All of us can take a lesson from this as we deal with our customers and grow. We need to remember that all of our interactions with customers are important and are remembered. There’s a saying that people won’t always remember what you did, but they will remember how they made you feel. We can’t all do the same things that Taylor Swift does on the scale that she does them, but it’s a great lesson for all companies about how to stay connected to their customers and how to create memorable moments for them. And while she can’t impact everyone individually, she has created a message that has resonated with women of all ages.
Impact on Women
Corporate America has never really had the best interests of women at heart. Even when you move away from blatant discrimination and sexual harassment, women still tend to end up on the short end of the stick. Women founders get a fraction of the VC funding that is out there. Law enforcement still has a long way to go just to meet their 30 by 30 (30% by 2030) goals. Women get stuck taking the lion’s share of notes during meetings. Women also traditionally miss out on a lot of senior positions because of family commitments, or later in life because menopause in the office is even less fun. It’s not a great message for young women who want to make a mark for themselves in the business world.
Enter Taylor Swift again. Her mere presence in communities has dramatically impacted the local economies. And there’s that 2.3 magnitude earthquake she created in the Seattle area just for those who might not have been paying attention. Her message is one of empowerment for young women everywhere. If there’s a barrier, you can smash through it. If there’s an obstacle, you can find a way around it. Elton John just completed the most profitable tour on record. Taylor Swift blew it away by an additional 50%.
That Swiftie energy may only take you so far, but remote work is creating more opportunities for women. When implemented correctly, remote work is a great equalizer. Everyone is an equal square on a zoom screen. It doesn’t matter if you are tall, short, man, woman, in a wheelchair, old, young, what you wear or who you love. Asynchronous work can be especially beneficial to women who might otherwise have to choose between work and family. It’s also allowed more women to enter the workforce who might have otherwise not had the opportunity. At a time when women’s rights are under attack, Taylor Swift has a message of empowerment.
Friendship Bracelets Anyone?
Taylor Swift and friendship bracelets are forever linked thanks to the song, You’re On Your Own, Kid
- So make the friendship bracelets
- Take the moment and taste it
- You’ve got no reason to be afraid
It’s a reminder that we need to make connections. The office was a place we went, but did we make our most meaningful connections there? Friendship bracelets might seem like a small gesture, but they are intentional. You don’t just buy them, you have to make them. If remote work has taught us anything, it’s that we need to be intentional about our interactions and value our connections.
I’m sure there are more lessons that we could learn from her, but I’ll leave it to the Swifties to spread the word less one final thought. For all the CEOs who are still holding on to the 2019 idea of the office – just shake it off.
