What Dolly Parton Can Teach Us About Becoming an ICONIC Leader

By Abigail Rebecca | Human Design Business & Leadership Mentor

There are a handful of people I’ve never met who have inspired me deeply throughout my life, and Dolly Parton is one of them.

About ten years ago, I had the privilege of seeing her perform live in Glasgow.

There were no elaborate special effects. No huge troupe of dancers commanding the stage. There was Dolly, a microphone, some fabulous outfits, her music and her stories.

And she completely captivated the room.

I've thought about that performance many times since because Dolly understood something about visibility that I believe many women in business and leadership are still trying to figure out.

You can become highly visible and still leave very little behind and you can build a huge audience and still struggle to create genuine connection.

Dolly created connection.

When I look at the way she’s built her career and the affection people have for her, I see something much bigger than talent or celebrity. I see a woman who understood how to use her gifts. And for me, that is at the heart of becoming an ICONIC leader.

What makes someone ICONIC?

I've spoken for years about visibility. I encourage women to talk about their accomplishments. I want you to value your expertise, share your ideas, take up space, become known for your work and allow people to see what you are capable of.

Yet visibility has a higher purpose. Your gifts can only impact the people who have the opportunity to experience them. And when I look at Dolly, I see three qualities that have helped her do exactly that throughout her life.

I call them Dolly's three Gs:

Gratitude. Grounding. Giving back.

And I think every woman who wants to create greater success, visibility and influence can learn something from them.

1. Gratitude

One of the things that has always struck me about Dolly is the gratitude she appears to have for her life.

She’s spoken openly about growing up in poverty as one of twelve children, and yet when she talks about her childhood, there is so much love woven through those stories. She hasn't hidden where she came from. She’s used it to inspire others.

Her experiences became stories, her stories became songs and her songs connected her with millions of people.

When I watched her perform, her ability to tell stories was extraordinary. She could make an enormous theatre feel intimate because she allowed you into her world.

That is powerful visibility, and it reminds me of something I see with so many accomplished women. We're very good at looking towards the next thing. The next client, revenue goal, launch or level of visibility. We can become so focused on where we're going that we forget to acknowledge what we have already created.

Gratitude brings us back to abundance.

It reminds us of the clients who already trust us, the knowledge we've accumulated, the relationships we've built, the opportunities we've received and the life we’ve created.

I've been exploring this deeply with the women in my Expansion Circles through a daily gratitude practice. I've watched what happens when women consciously begin noticing what is already working and allowing themselves to receive it.

For me, gratitude is an energetic practice. When you're constantly focused on what is missing, it becomes very difficult to feel abundant. When you begin recognising what is already present, your relationship with success changes. And that changes the energy you bring into your leadership.

2. Grounding

Dolly became one of the most recognisable women in the world while remaining remarkably connected to her roots. That fascinates me because visibility can do strange things to people.

The more successful you become, the more people listen to you. More people follow you. More people want access to you. Your name starts carrying weight. And there can be a temptation to start believing your own hype.

I've seen this in the coaching industry.

Communities become hierarchies. The leader becomes the queen bee. A small inner circle forms around her and everyone else is somewhere further down the ladder. That has never been my vision of leadership.

I believe the leaders we need now are deeply grounded in who they are and why they’re here. They can own their brilliance without needing to make themselves more important than everybody else. They can talk about their achievements because those achievements may inspire another woman to see what is possible for her.

They can become highly visible while remaining deeply human.

Dolly seemed to embody that beautifully.

There's footage of her walking into an Irish pub and spontaneously singing Coat of Many Colors with the band. What struck me when I watched it was the way she interacted with the people around her. She was Dolly Parton and she was chatting to people in a pub.

Human Design gives us another interesting lens through which to look at this.

Dolly was a 4/6 Sacral Generator. The Line 4 is deeply connected to relationships, networks and opportunities through people. The Line 6 carries the energy of the role model, someone whose life experience can become wisdom for others.

If you would like to find out more, you can watch a video about Dolly’s Human Design here.

Her success was built through her talent, of course. It was also supported by relationships, connection and the way she made people feel.

For women building businesses, leading teams or stepping into a bigger public profile, that’s important because your reputation can often proceed you. People remember how you made them feel and talk about the experience of working with you. People recommend you and open doors for you.

3. Giving back

This is perhaps the part of Dolly's legacy that inspires me most.

She created enormous abundance and allowed that abundance to flow outwards.

Through her businesses, philanthropy and charitable projects, she used what she had created to contribute to other people's lives. This connects deeply with something I have been thinking about as I celebrate ten years in business.

I used to think manifestation was predominantly about receiving.

How do I manifest the money?

How do I attract the opportunity?

How do I create the freedom?

My understanding of abundance has evolved because I now see manifestation as circulation. We receive, we create, we share, we contribute. Money is part of that. So are our ideas, knowledge, experiences, creativity, leadership, stories and gifts.

And this is why I care so much about women becoming more visible.

Because when an incredibly gifted woman hides her work, doubts whether she's ready, stays silent in the room or keeps waiting until she feels good enough, other people lose the opportunity to experience what she can bring.

Imagine if Dolly had hidden. Imagine if she had decided her background wasn't impressive enough or she'd worried that she looked too different.

Imagine if she'd listened to every person who criticised her appearance, her ambition, her voice or her choices.

The world would have missed an extraordinary amount of light.

And that is why I believe your visibility has a higher purpose.

Your success can become a channel for something bigger

This is where Dolly's three Gs connect so beautifully with the work I do through the ICONIC Method™.

Becoming ICONIC isn't about manufacturing a bigger personality. It begins with understanding yourself. Your Human Design, natural strengths, decision-making and gifts.

Then comes the deeper inner work. The fears, beliefs and conditioning that influence how much of yourself you're willing to reveal.

From there, you can develop a magnetic presence that actually feels like you, strengthen your inner leadership and create a visibility strategy that allows the right people to experience your work. And ultimately, you integrate all of this into the way you live and lead.

Because I believe there is a point where visibility stops being something you're trying to achieve and becomes an expression of who you are.

Dolly didn't need to walk into a room shouting, "Look at me." She had presence, she knew who she was, shared her gifts and connected with people. She allowed herself to become successful. And she used that success to give back.

That, to me, is ICONIC leadership.

So perhaps there are three questions worth asking yourself:

• What am I deeply grateful for in the life and business I have already created?

• As my visibility and success grow, what keeps me grounded in who I really am?

• How can I use my gifts, influence and abundance to contribute to something bigger than myself?

Because your visibility is ultimately about far more than being seen. It's about what becomes possible when you allow your light to be seen. And Dolly certainly knew how to shine.

Shine bright darling Dolly, you will be missed.