By Jim Digby, PMP
Every so often I come across posts about how hard touring is — posts calling for sweeping changes to the industry. These always leave me with mixed feelings.
Because, personally, I love the work because it’s hard.
For me, “hard” doesn’t mean miserable. It means complex. It means solving problems that don’t have obvious answers in an industry few people have the privilege to work in.
It means finding a way to get from challenge to result.
It’s…
– inspiring team problem-solving that reminds everyone that they’re good at this.
– conquering all the micro-challenges that leak into each day and still making doors.
– showing up for each other on the good days and the difficult ones.
– the exhaustion at the end of a long day knowing what it took — collectively — to create the conditions for success.
– knowing that together, we helped give the audience the joy and lasting memory they came for.
Empowering a team with the trust and support to confidently bring their A-game IS leadership, and that kind of leadership pays dividends. You feel it in the instant gratification loop — team success on one hand, audience response on the other.
So when I read deeply negative reflections on the industry, I find myself asking a different question: Is it really the industry that’s broken — or is it the inherited old-school leadership methodologies we must mature away from?
Maybe the hard being described in those posts isn’t a reflection of the industry — maybe it’s a reflection of some of those who lead it.
I keep coming back to this quote: “People don’t burn out from work; they burn out from leaders who make every day a battlefield.” — Jill Avery
Maybe the business isn’t that bad after all.
Maybe it’s time to expect more from those who lead it.
Maybe that’s the conversation we should be having.
Can authentic, human-centered leadership fundamentally change the experience of touring?
