It is not loneliness in the ordinary sense. You are not short of people. Most owners spend their entire day talking to someone — staff, clients, suppliers, family. It's that there is nobody the weight lands on the same way. Research conducted by Harvard Business...
Most writing about AI and leadership is aimed at large companies: governance frameworks, model monitoring, transformation programmes. For a small business, the questions are more immediate. What should I let it do? What should I check? What do I tell my team? And what...
~by Haley Lynn Gray~ The best advice a mentor ever gave me was simple: lean into who you really are, and what brings you joy. It sounds soft. It turned out to be one of the most practical pieces of business advice I've ever received. Why it was hard to hear I'm an...
~by Haley Lynn Gray~ The phrase I hear most often from people I work with is: "Now that makes sense." It usually comes after I've explained something they'd already been told several times — just not in terms that fitted their situation. That moment is what I...
Ask a room of business owners why they started, and a surprising number will mention a boss. Not always as the main reason. But somewhere in the story is a manager who took credit for their work, humiliated them in a meeting, broke a promise about a raise, or called...
~by Haley Lynn Gray~ I have four children, and they've taught me more about leading people than most of the management books on my shelf. Not through anything dramatic. Through the ordinary, daily business of trying to get other human beings to do things — and...
~by Haley Lynn Gray~ For a stretch of years I led three Girl Scout troops at the same time, alongside a full-time job and four children. People assumed that was the part of my life with nothing to do with business. It turned out to be the best leadership training I've...
Most advice about working mothers and guilt is written for employees. It talks about negotiating with your manager, using your leave, and asking for flexible hours. If you own the business, there's no manager to negotiate with, often no leave policy at all, and the...
Most writing about inclusive workplaces assumes a company large enough to have an HR department, a training budget and a task force. In a small business, none of that exists. What exists is the owner and how they run things every day. Which means that in a small team,...
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The word doing the work in that title is still. Peer support sounds like something for people who are struggling. New owners, first-timers, anyone out of their depth. The assumption underneath is that once you know what you're doing, you'll need it less. It's the...
"Losing yourself" in a business usually gets treated as a scheduling problem — too many hours, not enough boundaries, take a holiday. That's part of it. The harder version is that the job changes who you are, and a good deal of that change is necessary. You...
Being the person everyone comes to feels like recognition. It's usually a diagnosis. If every question routes to you, decisions can't be made without you. That caps how large the business can get, guarantees you'll be interrupted constantly, and means your team isn't...
There's a specific moment that changes what running a business feels like, and almost nobody describes it beforehand. It's the first time you're doing payroll and the money is tight. Up to that point, the risk was yours. You could have a bad month and absorb it...
People assume the tiring part of being in charge is the decisions. It isn't, particularly. Decisions are finite — you make them and they're made. The exhausting part is the performance, and it never stops. What emotional labour actually means The term gets used...
It is not loneliness in the ordinary sense. You are not short of people. Most owners spend their entire day talking to someone — staff, clients, suppliers, family. It's that there is nobody the weight lands on the same way. Research conducted by Harvard Business...
Delegation, hiring, difficult conversations, and becoming the boss you'd want to work for.
Pricing, launching, systems, and building something that doesn't depend on you.
Negotiation, the pay gap, and what the research actually says about women who lead.
Being visible without the cringe — podcasts, content, and being remembered.
Courage, your inner critic, time, and protecting what matters most.
The loneliness of leading, and why the best owners don't solve everything alone.