I’ve spent more hours in airport lounges than I care to admit.
Some people use them to catch up on sleep. Others answer emails.
I watch people.
After a conference or a meeting, something interesting happens. Once the polished presentations are over, the panel discussions have ended, and the LinkedIn posts are already taking shape, the atmosphere changes.
People become more candid. A customer quietly admits that a transformation is running six months behind. An investor asks the questions they would never raise during a keynote. A vendor concedes that a launch is not going to plan. And even a competitor can become unexpectedly helpful.
It feels like the second you walk into the lounge, people leave the corporate act at the door.
I’ve learned more sitting in airport lounges than I have sitting in conference halls. Not because people are careless with confidential information, but because, for a moment, they stop performing.
That made me realise something.
The best business insights rarely come from the stage.
They come later, after the applause, when people have stopped selling the room, stopped pitching the narrative, and simply start telling the truth.
As leaders, we spend a lot of time looking for answers in reports, dashboards and strategy presentations.
Maybe we should spend a little more time listening when people have stopped trying to impress us.
Because that’s usually where reality is waiting.
The conference tells you what an industry wants you to believe. The airport lounge tells you what’s really going on.