Who Keeps the Boss Accountable?

There are two types of businesses, ones that are growing, and ones that are shrinking. There is no in between. Where are you? Really. If you’re really honest with yourself, whether you own a salon or run your own chair. The true test is to go and ask people who will really tell you the truth, and get a real perspective on what other people are observing.

I recently just went through this, and took some risky bold moves in order to position our company for the future. The biggest emotion I encountered was fear. And fear is not a bad thing. It’s actually quite necessary. It keeps us alive. But it isn’t really designed to help us thrive. So what was I really afraid of? Losing what I’ve already attained. Failing. Afraid of not looking good.

But at the end of the day. The real lesson in overcoming fear was re-aquainting myself with what really matters to me, and acknowledging those who I’m accountable to — really getting the impact that playing small has for all of us. If I’m truly committed to creating a future for myself, my family, our students, and our guests, then I have to be willing to be bigger then myself.

Find someone other than your team, someone outside your organization, who you can be straight with, people who will really hold you accountable to what you want to accomplish in this world. You know you’ve found those people when they tell you things you don’t want to hear. Not the ones who tell you what they think you want to hear. Those people are left for cocktail parties.

Reflections from Beyond the Chair
by Andrew McAleese, Owner of La Luma Salon & Academy