Discover powerful leadership insights from Taylor Swift’s songs.

Nicole and I are diehard Swifties. Nicole went to Swift’s Warsaw concert in early August and said the magical experience was worth every penny. (Concerts are not my thing, so Duke and I watched her movie on TV.)

I draw inspiration from her songs and thought it might be fun to capture insights for you based on various titles and link them to my recent articles. 

What inspirations do you draw from her work? Reply and let me know! 

Avoid Miss Americana and the Heartbreak Prince, and hire people likely to buy-in to your standards. Highly talented people who engage in toxic behavior are subtraction-by-addition, because they drag down the performance of their peers and others around them. Yes, their individual numbers look great, but everyone else’s suffers. Overall performance elevates once the toxic behavior is out of the picture. 

No, your business is not part of The Great War in your marketplace. I dislike most combat metaphors for business because they trivialize human suffering while providing little practical insight. The song’s focus on friendship and taking care of people offers better advice: get to know your employees as people and take care of them, and they’ll contribute their best. Your culture doesn’t eat breakfast, but it can derail the best-laid plans and most innovative ideas.

Photo courtesy of Nicole Kauss.

Sometimes you are The Archer, and sometimes you are the prey. You cannot always control what happens to you, but you can control your response. Resilience means bouncing forward. Avoid rewarding people based on outcomes, because sometimes those result from good or bad luck and factors beyond their control. You could unintentionally reinforce bad behavior. Look instead for how well they execute, learn, and innovate.

Awesome! You cannot spell awesome without we or me, and the “we” always comes first. At the same time, obey the gas mask principle: you have to put on your mask before trying to help others. We at the expense of me is the logical outcome of servant leadership and why you shouldn’t embrace it.

You can trace your Cruel Summer Back to December because you did not adapt your business plan to a changing marketplace. Five-year “strategic plans” are a fantasy, and besides, a strategic plan is an oxymoron. Strategic plans are an inverted Goldilocks: lacking the clarity of a strategy and the details of a plan, they’re not quite right on either count. A 3-5-year strategy gives you a longer-term view, and updating your business plan annually keeps you agile without creating hyperactivity.

You Need to Calm Down. I used to rage when I messed up or fell short. I didn’t have a bad temper; I mistakenly thought that getting upset showed that I cared and would hold myself accountable. I discovered that making new mistakes and learning from my own experience and those of others was more effective. Cutting away that behavior made me a much better leader and more fun to be around.

Genuineness is the most important part of your Style. You shouldn’t imitate The Man. Be yourself as you act on credibility’s three elements: being appropriately authoritative, consistently supportive, and an effective manager. 

Some people are just plain Mean and their toxic behavior does not make us better or more resilient. Don’t let them live in your head rent-free. Acknowledge and label their abusive behavior, commit to acting differently than they did, and imagine them floating away from you forever. I Forgot That You Existed. 

Complacency occurs when you do the same things over and over and expect the same results because that mentality means you are not innovating. “This is how we’ve always done it and the outcomes are All Too Well” worked for Sears, Kodak, the U.S. government in Afghanistan, and many others until their competitors innovated. 

Let me know your favorite Taylor Swift song, and I’ll reply with a leadership insight you can apply.