Her Story
About Gailynn
Gailynn Gluth is a leadership development expert, business coach, and co-founder with a passion for discovering and training future leaders across industries. She is Co-Founder of The Collective Rise, where she leads program development, curriculum design, facilitation, and coaching. She also serves as Chief Unlikely Leader Development at AbbieDee LLC, specializing in developing self-directed leaders, supervisors, and executives. Her experience includes serving as Principal at Quantuvos, Business Coach and Executive Manager for Country Gardens and Nursery, and Human Resources Director for a growing nonprofit. Her career reflects a deep commitment to fostering innovation, developing talent, and creating impactful learning experiences that drive organizational growth and individual success. She holds an Art History degree and was a LEND Fellow at Georgia State University, and is a Certified Myers-Briggs Practitioner.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Gailynn
01What do you attribute your success to?
I attribute my success to not knowing I wasn't supposed to be successful. I just did whatever somebody gave me to do, or redesigned and created it. I'm not afraid of real, honest, critical feedback. I never knew that I wasn't supposed to be successful at whatever I do, whether it's gathering shopping carts in a supermarket when I was a teen all the way up to being in the British Petroleum offices with the CEO. I took off my heels and said I have more experience than you in the last year with all of your workers.
02What’s the best career advice you’ve ever received?
The only thing different between you and somebody else is your experience. When you're young, if you have an experience and ability of authority asks you a question, then they want to hear what you have to say. So be authentic, be yourself, don't be afraid of your own experience. You'll gain as you gain more, you'll just have more to give. My father taught me that.
03What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
If you own your own company, find the best partner, people that lift you up, that you can be 100% authentic. And work with them. Take your ego out of it, and realize that almost every day, 90% of your day, somebody else's issues or questions or mindsets or biases. Just know your own. Be authentic.
04What are the biggest challenges or opportunities in your field right now?
The biggest challenge is that everybody now needs to make a huge profit, so universities and others can't afford leadership development even though they want it. There's greed out there. A lot of people in our industry are training what worked for them versus having done the meta research on what really changes behavior. There's no application. Our approach is different because we deliver content that we believe you can change a habit and improve on, and it has to be applied in a way that sticks so you don't go away one and done.
05What values are most important to you in your work and personal life?
My values include curiosity, balance, beauty, creativity, sustainability, ethics, loyalty, and challenge. I go through my values cards all the time and take my 5. Today it's balance about how I balance all the things that are going on in a way that helps me help others but not when it's myself. I love to create beauty in people's lives, like having an aha moment.
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