I started Leaderly Life while I was in college studying business. I had left management and was just behind the chair, discouraged that I had failed at being a salon manager, and determined to learn more about the topic and do better my next time around. I had failed not only because I quit. But I had failed because I had made no positive difference in the lives of the people I was serving as their leader. I took this to heart. While I consider myself to have a high level of common sense and am also a friendly person who can make quick connections with people, I felt like I didn't have all the tools that I needed to help stylists succeed. I had a blueprint on how I was successful in my career, but everyone's version of success is measured differently. Everyone not only beats to their own drummer, but they also have different dreams, desires, and drivers that make them do, or not do things. And when I decided to go to college, well into my thirties, I just needed answers – I needed to know how to impact salon professionals. Fortunately, I picked an incredible college (or it picked me) that opened my eyes to this whole world that I didn't know existed because you don't know that you don't know something until you learn about it. And what I learned in college was leadership. More importantly, I learned how important leadership is for our entire world. That the world is run by more people who have titles but lack leadership, and also run by micro-managers who think more about the processes that need to be done versus the influence that can be made.
Ask anyone if they've ever had a horrible boss and every person who has had work history will tell you their own story of a boss who didn't care about them, who made them feel worthless and only gave them horror stories to tell. While I've had my fair share of horrible bosses, I've mostly had bosses who just didn't know any better. They, and myself, were never educated on the possibilities that they could do more than just bark orders. And it's to no fault of their own because managers are just doing what their managers tell them to do, while those managers are doing the same. I once heard that leadership trickles down from the top, but what about the effects of the "telephone game" where once the message gets to the last few people, the story is completely different. My point is, leadership cannot come from the top and trickle down, it has to come from the bottom and branch out like a sturdy oak tree. Leadership for the manager means you are teaching others to be leaders too. You are showing people how a leader speaks, acts, and engages with everyone. Because a leader is more than a title, it is a way of being, intending to make great changes in the lives of others.
The other big chunk of things that I learned in college was that business is business no matter what kind of business it is, and the whole world is one giant business. Everything that is happening can be seen as a business. Therefore, the implications mean that every manager, and every person, has a responsibility to be a leader in their own lives. With this leadership ability, a business can flourish and be successful even through failure. Leadership means that even if you fail, you get back up and you do it again, just with little tweaks here and there so you don't make the same mistake twice. My goal with Leaderly Life is to teach this. The principle idea that leadership is not only good for business, it's good for the greater good of the world. Living a Leaderly Life means living a successful and abundant life that is full of your potential. One of my favorite motivational speakers, Les Brown, says that the graveyard is the richest place in the world because it's filled with hopes and dreams that were never fulfilled. I'm paraphrasing, but the point he makes is grand. Do you want to take your hopes and dreams to the grave? When you're lying on your death bed, what do you want to say as you reflect on your life? Don't you want to feel good about all of your
accomplishments with the things you did, the words you spoke, the relationships you made?
Leaderly Life is all of those things for me. I want to look back on my life and see how many lives I was able to help and how many leaders found their potential and helped countless others. I want to see the domino effect of leadership going on and on for decades. And while my writing can seem utopian and fantasy-like, Leaderly Life is concrete. I've created a leadership guide that managers can utilize in their business and I'll have an online leadership course for those that want to dive deeper into leadership. I'm also creating Leaderly Life as a brand where I'll have merchandise for people to purchase and have as a tool and reminder of their true potential to have a leaderly life. Because the possibilities are endless. You can pave whatever road you want and make it however long you want. And I hope that Leaderly Life is just the beginning of your leadership journey.
I hope you'll join me on my path of living a Leaderly Life.