A creative leadership approach: Ashley Herd mixes career experience with creative knack with viral results

作为一名中央学院的本科生, Ashley Herd ’03 fed her creative itch in the theatre department while majoring in international studies and Spanish.  

Little did she know those theatrical skills would come to play a big role in helping her launch a successful business and connecting with hundreds of thousands of people across the world.  

群的旅程, 和其他许多人一样, didn’t follow a straight path to the professional fulfillment she enjoys today. 

“我有完整的职业生涯, from sales to law to HR and this is what my career quilt looks like,”她说。. “A lot of times you look back and think, ‘How did I get here?“但一切都把我带到了这里.”  

Crucial early stitches that that quilt were set after graduating from Centre, 当路易斯维尔号, 肯塔基州, 本地人搬到华盛顿, D.C.，应聘公司销售的工作. 在推销咨询服务时, Herd’s work there eventually centered around helping human resource leaders, 为她的职业道路定下基调.  

Herd went on to attend law school at Emory University in Atlanta and worked as a labor and employment lawyer. She later joined a national firm and became general counsel and head of HR. 在澳大利亚工作和生活期间, she had the idea for own business — Manager Method — based around guiding leaders through the difficult terrain she saw lead to lawsuits when not handled properly.  

她甚至买了一个网站域名, 但我把它搁置了几年, unsure when the right time would be to make the leap. It was daunting to leave a secure corporate job to become self-employed at a brand-new startup.  

“But in my heart,” Herd said, “I always had this really creative bent.”  

So about two years ago, she took the plunge and launched Manager Method.  

She tapped into her sales, legal and HR experience to build and market her expertise. She also tapped into some lessons learned at Centre under professors Tony Haigh, 纳伊夫·萨姆哈特和大卫·安德森.  

“我想成为一名剧作家，”她说. “And those professors always found a way to leverage creativity, so I kind of used that spark.”  

Centre’s faculty also gave Herd a template for what a caring professional environment could look like long before she was charged with fostering that sort of workplace as an HR leader.  

“我记得有一次我没去看医生. Anderson’s class and was above the bookstore getting lunch and he was in there,” she laughs. “我被逮住了，但他问，‘一切都好吗?’  

“That level of care, I was lucky to learn that in my undergrad.”  

That heartfelt approach was a common thread in the leadership videos Herd began recording in 2022, posting them on social media — to “no audience whatsoever.”  

但随后神奇的事情发生了. 的视频, in which Herd role-plays different scenarios, started to gain a following. 大批追随者.  

“The first time I got 100 views, I couldn’t believe it,”她说。. “Then, I hit a wave in the algorithm last summer and gained about 100,000 followers in six weeks.”  

Herd’s Manager Method accounts now boast more than 200,在抖音上有5000名粉丝, Instagram和LinkedIn, the latter of which recruited her to become a LinkedIn 学习 instructor. 的视频, 是她自己制作的, have gained so much attention that Herd has become something of a celebrity — leading to some funny and rewarding moments.    

One early realization that her audience was becoming widespread took place while out with her daughter. A concert-goer seated nearby recognized Herd from her online videos.  

“My daughter, who is 12, was out-of-her-mind loving it,” Herd said. “这太疯狂了。.”  

然而, any level of notoriety online comes with some negativity, but Herd said she has largely received support from her followers.  

“The best thing I hear is when people reach out to say, “我是经理, 现在我从一个新的角度思考问题,’ or ‘I hadn’t thought of approaching it that way.’” 

This article first appeared in the Centrepiece alumni magazine.