It’s one thing to hire strong individual leaders—it’s another to treat them as a collective whose power can drive your business to new heights.
If not for the wise counsel of the two leaders who help steer her firm, Ashley Gilbreath might have found herself lost, overwhelmed—or worse, still operating a retail store. “We closed our two shop locations a couple years ago because I didn’t have time to run them,” says the Montgomery, Alabama–based designer. “I was going to have to drop a child, drop a husband or drop a shop—and luckily for my sweet husband and children, I dropped the shop.”
Still, wistfulness for the whirlwind of retail occasionally creeps in. When it does, Gilbreath’s leadership team quickly nips it in the bud. “Several times since then, I’ve said, ‘I think we can do the shop again now,’ because I miss the creativity and people and fun aspects of it,” she says. “Before I can even finish the sentence, they are like, ‘Stop. We’re not doing that again. You do not have time. We closed the shop for a reason.’ And they’re absolutely right.”

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