We're at the longest day of the year this month with the summer solstice on 21st June. The Irish word for Solstice is 'Grianstad' which literally translates as 'sun-stop'. It reflects how people experienced this moment of the year, when the sun seemingly stands still for an extended moment, right when the light is at its absolute fullest in the year and before the days begin shortening again towards winter.
I love the idea of thresholds - those in-between bits where one thing is ending and the next hasn't quite started. My son is doing his Leaving Certificate (the final exam in Irish secondary schools) over these two weeks - a true threshold that most Irish people have shivery memories about. One way or another, the Summer after Leaving Cert, between the exams in June and results in August, is special - a natural pause in young Irish lives as school days are left behind before adult pathways start to form.
In this sense, thresholds are fertile places - where the old slips away and the new emerges. Inevitably, I'm finding a resonance in tourism (what a surprise!). I believe tourism is thresholding right now, with leaders navigating the space between two paradigms. This month's article goes deeply into the Four Eras of Tourism and the Leadership Brief gives a handy diagnostic tool to support it.
Have a read and see what you think. If it chimes with someone you know, do send it on. Do also send me a message to let me know - I love to know if what I'm writing is of any use!
Beannachtaí na Gréine ort, a chara
Beir bua
I sat in on a masterclass today delivered by a Leadership Coach. She remarked that leadership today is rarely about being certain. It is about the ability to exercise good judgement in the midst of uncertainty. That's what this article is about - identifying the changing contexts for tourism leadership, offering a simple framework to help name where you are now and what is happening in that space. The idea of thresholds is relevant - I feel tourism in general and tourism leaders in particular may be standing in a moment between two ways of working, two different mindsets, two diverging organising lesnes. Reply and let me know if this resonates.
