When I reflect on my leadership experience, I don’t only see my titles as a brand founder and CEO. Who I have become as a leader up until this point has been shaped by many things, my culture, family, as well as my personal experiences. I was born and raised in Taiwan and immigrated to the U.S. when I was eleven years old, barely knowing how to speak English. The cultural shock combined with my naturally introverted personality resulted in me being a pretty quiet kid growing up. As a young girl, I had a specific vision of what a leader looked like (like the American President in all the Hollywood movies), sounded like, and an assumption of their life’s milestones and progression. Then, it didn't seem that my childhood and personality fit that mold.
However, over the years, I’ve been given many opportunities to grow into my own leadership skills, in various kinds of roles to get me to where I am today. I have the privilege to lead a small but mighty team at the clean fragrance brand that I started, Skylar. Throughout all my leadership experiences, I can say I’ve made countless mistakes and I’ve had the opportunity to learn a ton. Every day, I’m still learning how to be a more effective, joyful, and empathetic leader. Leadership is a journey that never ends, and below are a few learnings I’m able to share through my leadership journey thus far.
Leadership can start young
As I’ve grown older, I can say that my vision and previous understanding of what a leader is has definitely changed. I confidently believe that leadership begins when you’re able to communicate. We learn to speak at such an early age and with that communication we can speak our mind, influence people, and better understand the world around us. For example, I am the oldest of my three siblings, which put me in my first leadership role at a very young age. In high school and college, I became more involved and took leadership roles in organizations I identified with and was passionate about. In my professional career, I started as an individual contributor like most people and in my late twenties, I started leading teams of 3 people and over time I led a team of up to 500 people. The path to and through leadership does not look the same for every person, each has their own unique journey and I truly believe that it doesn’t matter who you are, you are capable of being a good leader.
Find your motivation and joy in leading
I had a lot of opportunities to lead cross-functional teams very early in my career, but I thought it wasn’t real leadership unless someone reported directly to me and I wrote their performance review. When I finally had direct reports in my late twenties, I felt scared and unprepared. I had been craving this opportunity, and now what? I was scared to mess up, and I felt like I was in a brand new situation I had no experience with. But I did. I not only learned from my own experiences leading in school and in cross-functional roles, but I realized I had gained so much from observing the leaders in my close professional and personal circles.
It quickly became apparent that leadership is not about titles or reporting relationships, it’s about influencing people to affect positive change. And that positive change can be measured in business results (like business growth year over year), and it can also be measured in your impact on the people you lead. I can recall a specific experience with one of my direct reports early in my career. She expressed to me an interest in transitioning to a new role on a different team within our company. With her hard work and determination and my guidance and support as her manager, we worked together to develop a plan that would ultimately propel her into this transition and the next stage of her career. All these years later, she is now a high-level executive on the team she transitioned to, thriving and growing in her own leadership role.
Leaning into your strengths and becoming an empathetic leader
My culture and upbringing really has formed my understanding of what it truly means to be a strong and influential leader. I’ve learned that leaning into your strengths and practicing empathy is paramount to not only being an effective leader, but giving you a sense of joy and accomplishment within the teams you impact.Each person can and should have their own leadership style. It shouldn't look one specific way or be embodied in just one kind of person. We are all unique and different in our strengths and we should allow these to shine when we find ourselves in roles of leadership. I, for example, love looking at data and using it to help drive important decisions in our business. I’ve learned to incorporate this strength throughout my career so that I can inspire confidence among my teams through the use of data. Combining my own strengths and the strengths of others on our team allows us to make the best decisions possible.
As we let our strengths shine, it is important to give attention to our areas of growth as well. An area I strive to grow further in is practicing emotional intelligence and being an empathetic leader. The Asian culture tends to put more emphasis on efficiency and output. While that is part of the equation, we are ultimately leading people not managing robots. At the end of the day, it is all about people, and this shift in my focus has dramatically influenced who I am as a leader today.
As we let our strengths shine, it is important to give attention to our areas of growth as well. An area I strive to grow further in is practicing emotional intelligence and being an empathetic leader. The Asian culture tends to put more emphasis on efficiency and output. While that is part of the equation, we are ultimately leading people not managing robots. At the end of the day, it is all about people, and this shift in my focus has dramatically influenced who I am as a leader today.
Over the years, I’ve found joy in leading teams, I’ve learned to see those I am leading as people first and foster that sense of trust and teamwork. Because of this foundation, we share a strong sense of purpose and work hard toward common goals. This is where you reach a sweet spot as a leader because you can focus on guiding and motivating the team to be productive and ultimately grow into the best version of themselves.
