What Leaders Can Learn from Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour Part 1: Leadership & Culture
You don’t have to be a Taylor Swift fan to learn from the Eras Tour.
Over the past week I finally made the time to sit down and watch the Eras Tour documentary series, including the final two episodes that were released last night. And maybe its because I struggle to ever turn off my founder / leader / people and culture lens, but I honestly thought this this is one of the clearest leadership and culture case studies I’ve seen in years.
In fact, whether you love her, feel indifferent, or simply don’t get the hype, the lessons here are still incredibly relevant.
Like all influential leaders, Taylor attracts devotion and criticism. That’s the nature of impact.
The real work of leadership is staying open minded enough to learn from examples that may not immediately feel familiar or comfortable to us.
Because buried inside this tour is something every founder, CEO and people leader needs to understand: how extraordinary teams are actually built.
And when you’re looking at a business that reportedly generated over $2 billion in revenue, it’s worth paying attention to how that outcome was created.
1. “Stage manage the sh*t out of this show” - The invisible work of leadership
When Taylor says this, she’s not being dramatic. She’s describing what real leadership looks like.
Every moment of the Eras Tour, the pacing, the energy shifts, the emotional flow, the transitions, the logistics, has been thought through. Nothing is left to chance.
So when the audience feels calm, connected and carried through the experience, it’s because someone else already did the hard, unglamorous, invisible work.
This is what “great leaders don’t react, they prepare” actually means:
They think through the pressure points before they arrive
They build buffers, not just plans
They remove friction their teams may never even see
They create environments where others can perform at their best because the chaos has already been absorbed upstream
This is why strong leadership often looks effortless: the effort has simply been done earlier.
2. Giving space for others to shine
One of the most consistent themes throughout the documentary is how deliberately Taylor creates room for others.
Her dancers are not a uniform background.
Her musicians are not hidden.
Her backing vocalists are not anonymous.
Their names are known.
Their stories are told.
Their journeys are shared.
By the end of the tour, fans don’t just admire the star, they admire the team.
That doesn’t happen by accident.
It happens because the leader actively chooses:
not to shrink others
not to hoard attention
not to make success a zero sum game
When leaders make space, people rise.
3. “We sing together” - Why language shapes culture
One of the most quietly powerful moments in the series comes from Jessalyn, one of Taylor’s backing vocalists.
She tells a story about being at a party when Taylor introduced her not as: “this is my backup singer” but as:
“This is Jessalyn — we sing together.”
You can feel, in the way Jessalyn tells that story, how deeply it landed.
Because language shapes identity. And identity shapes performance.
That one sentence says:
you matter
you belong
you are not beneath me
we are in this together
That’s culture being built in real time.
4. Belonging is the real performance driver
Taylor often refers to her dancers and musicians as her stage family.
Not in a hollow corporate way - but in the sense that they are genuinely known, supported, protected and valued.
Belonging creates:
safety
trust
loyalty
discretionary effort
When people feel they truly belong, they stop working to survive and start working to contribute.
5. Wiley & Amanda - Leadership exists at every level
One of the most meaningful leadership moments in the documentary doesn’t actually come from Taylor herself.
It comes from Amanda, one of the dancers.
Wiley deeply wanted to dance a routine that had originally been created for the female dancers.
Amanda saw how much it mattered to him.
She taught him the choreography.
She lent him her costume.
She advocated for him with Taylor.
And when Wiley finally performed that dance on stage, the camera cuts to Amanda watching from the side, her face glowing with pride.
That is leadership.
It shows us something powerful:
Culture is not shaped only by the person at the top. It is shaped by every person who chooses to notice, care, and act.
Great organisations are full of Amandas.
What this means for founders & leaders
The Eras Tour is not just a show. It’s a masterclass in how extraordinary teams are built.
It reminds us that:
Preparation creates safety
Language creates identity
Belonging creates performance
Leadership happens at every level
And that the most magnetic cultures aren’t manufactured through policies or perks, they are built, day by day, through conscious human choices.
Part 2 will explore how this translates into employer brand and why your internal culture always becomes your external reputation, whether you plan for it or not.