Taylor Swift and a Different Model of Leadership

I watched the Taylor Swift End of an Era docuseries over the Christmas holidays and couldn’t stop thinking about it as a case study in female leadership at scale.

Taylor Swift has built one of the most commercially successful entertainment businesses in history. These are some things that stood out to me:

• An obsessive commitment to the customer (the fan), at every possible touchpoint

• Creating safe, affirming night-time spaces for women, children and LGBTQI+ people to experience collective joy

• Making responsible commercial choices, like saying no to dynamic pricing and donating to 1,400 food banks across every city she visited

• Building a diverse, loyal, long-retained team in an industry known for churn and reportedly rewarding her crew with $197m in bonuses

• Maintaining long-term relationships, including working closely with her family throughout her career

• Making billions of pounds while doing all of the above

This isn’t “soft”. It’s not accidental, and it’s not charity. It’s rigorous, values-led, commercially exceptional leadership.

Which makes it staggering that, in 2026, women still hold around 7% of CEO roles across the FTSE 350. Just 19 women are leading 350 of the UK’s most powerful companies.

Honestly, this is what motivates me in the work I’m doing at Branch.

Having babies is still far too often the point at which women quietly fall off leadership paths, not because of a lack of ambition or capability, but because the system isn’t built to retain them.

Every leader brings their lived experience into the decisions they make. They can’t help but do so. Imagine the choices leaders might make having lived through birth, maternity and motherhood.

I can’t help but wonder (and fantasise): if even 50% of leadership looked like this, how different would the world be?

Watch the docuseries. It’s a joy and an education. And yes, you will walk away a Swiftie.