Being bold is crucial to breaking through the noise and differentiating yourself in business. CEO of the 65-year Australian skincare company Ella Baché, Pippa Hallas, shares why stepping into your power and making bold moves is good for business.
Hallas became CEO of Ella Baché in 2009, just after the GFC hit. She found herself overcome with imposter syndrome yet knew she needed to step into leadership and keep pushing the company forward. Within a year, she was clear on the vision, got the “right people on the bus and the wrong people off” and re-defined company culture to be more inclusive, all the while holding true the company’s philosophies, values and heritage. At first, she had to really back herself, even when filled with self-doubt. However, by aligning with the right team and putting in the hard work and passion to push the brand forward, she ensured Ella Baché’s success coming out the other side of the GFC.
Ten years on, Pippa has penned Bold Moves, her debut book which dives into both her own and a series of influential Australian women’s stories on how they stood up, stepped out and made their own bold moves.
Below are Pippa’s top 5 tips to help you push through self-doubt, step into your power and make your next bold move.
1. Get clear on your purpose, goals and priorities, then work backwards to achieve them.
You need to know what you want, which requires reflection. Write it down your vision. Getting things out of your head and down onto paper helps to organise want you need to achieve. Visualization really helps. Once you’ve put pen to paper, break your goals into smaller achievable steps and work on achieving these one by one. Each daily action should be aligned with your vision.
2. Surround yourself with people who can lift you up and help you play at a higher level
The statement by speaker Jim Rohn ‘You’re the average of the five people you spend the most time with,’ rings very true in business. Surround yourself with people who push you forward and give you momentum and if they don’t, it’s okay to go your separate ways — sometimes for the short term and sometimes forever. This makes space in your life for the right people to come in. So often we think it’s our skills we need to develop, or further education we need to embark on, but often it’s more important to surround yourself with the right people.
Surround yourself with people who can support you to achieve your goals or vision, or people who will be kind, honest and give you that support unconditionally and expand you by bringing different but equal strengths to the table. The greater the diversity, the deeper the thinking and the more chance of coming up with innovative ways of doing things. You can’t do it alone.
3. Follow your intuition—it’s usually right
Sometimes you need to break things to rebuild them. It requires a lot of letting go, being able to back yourself and steering the change, especially when it’s what everyone has known for decades. You need to follow your intuition, and with the support of data—it won’t fail you in the end, but it may take a few goes to get it right. The biggest mistakes I have made are when I haven’t followed my intuition or taken too long to act on something. It just festers and the issue gets bigger.
When work gets overwhelming and I think maybe I’ve bitten off more than I can chew I always remind myself to ‘come back to the moment’. I break it down and compartmentalise my thoughts, then follow my intuition.
4. Don’t drag yourself down by comparing yourself to others, getting caught up in their negativity or dwelling on your setbacks and failures
By comparing yourself to other people, you ultimately dilute your message and what you and your brand stand for.
I think what stops people boldly going after their dreams is mostly their fear of failure. Living a bold life is about accepting the fact that failure is part of the process and it WILL happen. We need to become comfortable with making mistakes because when you set out to try something new it’s the mistakes that teach us the lessons that ultimately get us to where we want to be. Learn from your mistakes and move on.
5. Fight for what matters to you
If you’re really passionate about something, speak your mind and go for it. Being bold in business and fighting for what you believe in, will set you apart and give you ownership of your story. If it doesn’t work, don’t let it dishearten you and instead use the experience as ‘fire in the belly’ to innovate, keep pushing boundaries and make bold moves.
Bold Moves is available at Dymocks, Booktopia, David Jones, Ella Baché salons nationwide and online
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