When Han Wen got a job at L’Oréal as an entry-level marketing associate, she didn’t even know what marketing was. The interviewers didn’t care. They spent the bulk of the interview talking about her bold outfit, which she got off the sales rack at J.Crew just an hour before. Fast forward to 2022, and Han became the CMO of L’Oréal USA at just 39-years-old. Talk about a full circle moment. Han shares how she made impressions throughout her corporate career, and how she’s gotten really good at listening – even when it might be hard to hear.
In this episode of 9 to 5ish, Han shares:
Why her work stint in France was nothing like “Emily in Paris”
The best lesson she learned about being a people manager
What she focused on instead of chasing after titles during her career
How having kids destroyed any illusion of control, and how it carries into her work
Why L’Oréal encourages some rule-bending to make great products
On The Surprising Dinner Party Guest She’d Want to Sit Next To
Han: The first person that popped into my head, funny enough, is my seven year old. He's so funny right now. He has a lot of philosophies in life that I don't think that I get to hear it as often as I would like. He just told me last night that the reason why he doesn't say “I love you” all the time is because he thinks that I should know it already. He spent ten minutes explaining why you shouldn't have to say something that the other person knows. I just thought that was really sweet.
On Why She Started to Implement a “Listen First” Approach
Han: When I think about, “Well, that that did not go well” or when there's a situation and it turned out worse than what I thought it was – nine times out of 10 the reason why is because I had impartial information and I decided too fast. That's a toxic combination, especially when you begin to believe in the cult of your own personality. That's even worse. As you advance in your career it's the trap that a lot of people fall into which is the confirmation bias…you kind of overlook the things that weren’t good. So when I evaluate, when I look at the past six months and I think about all the things that I wish I had done differently, it was always impartial information acting too fast.
On a Lesson From Motherhood That Helped Her at Work
Han: One of the moments that really changed me to think differently about outcomes is when I had my first child, who's now seven.The first couple of years of my being a mom, I was incredibly KPI driven. I was incredibly like, “how much is this baby eating? How much is this baby like peeing and pooping”. Inputs and outputs. My success is really around how much does he weigh? What does his growth chart look like? As a baby, that's probably fine. They mostly are just an input-output machine. At some point, they develop a personality and you realize that you actually cannot control the outcome. What you control is what you surround them with and your understanding of what they like, what they dislike, and the general environment. But you can't actually turn them into what you want them to be. I think that actually has had a huge positive impact on how I think about my career.
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