Clarity Strategic^TM

Tanya Ross-Lane calls herself a "teacherpreneur." And when you're in a conversation with her, as I was recently, you might decide she's got a delightful problem: she's not someone who falls into categories you see every day.

We can see clearly that Ross-Lane is an entrepreneur. She has been since she was a child. Opening doors for folks locked out of her apartment building. Baby-sitting. Cleaning golf shoes for her father and his golfing buddies. Pressed linoleum print Christmas cards. She had the entrepreneurship bug from an early age.

Later on, after college, Ross-Lane found herself cleaning offices and restaurants, and saying "if I can take this little cleaning company, and branch out..." But even though that was among her interests, she found she had a special gift: "I could find out what people were good at" – even if they did not know themselves – and could find ways to make them better.

With this gift, even when she moved away from company owner to employee, the stores where she worked became training stores. And ultimately, she became a training manager for a large Stark County (OH) employer. She went on to a Master's Degree, and her abilities were noticed – to the extent that when the economy plummeted and she was let go, she had a track record which enabled her to start her own business.

Eventually, Ross-Lane discovered her calling as an "ambassador of generosity."

We must look at things differently [from others]. We must give out of a sense of abundance rather a sense of lack. If we give, expecting nothing in return, then not only will we feel good about it, but our giving will also open us up to a world of possibilities.

And she learned to look at what the customers get from what she does, rather than what she does alone. "I found I was in the peace-of_mind business." Because people do business with someone they trust, and because she'd been a networker her entire life, she gave people the opportunity to trust her, resulting in their peace of mind. She taught them how to learn and how to teach. And this is something she continues to do:

The difference between management and leadership is teaching. A leader can teach, and that enables others to follow. We learn to manage ourselves first, then we learn to embed leadership in everything we do.

She explained to me, at the end of our time together, her view of the steps to successful learning:

• curiosity – we begin to understand the world around us
• creativity – we begin to add to the beauty of the world
• collaboration – we begin to work together to make new things happen

We welcome Tanya Ross-Lane to the working world, and look forward to the difference she's going to make. :-)

Tanya Recommends

Andy Andrews, The Traveler's Gift

Andy Andrews, The Final Summit