Beauty in mind with Dagmar Cholsta: COSSMA

photo: Dagmar Cholsta, Managing Director,  A.w. Faber-Castell Cosmetics

We are living in uncertain times – climate change, international conflicts, inflation, political upheaval, migration, gender debates, pandemics, divided societies and across most economies a lack of skilled workers. A sense of doom and gloom seems to prevail.

When speaking with other leaders in the beauty industry, they all sense a shift in attitude towards work particularly in the younger generation.

The war for talent has reached new heights and what was once regulated via salary, bonuses, a company car, pension plans and some extra benefits (e.g. home office opportunities), has turned into a catalogue of ‘this is what I want and unless I get it, I won’t even start to think working in your company…’.

Utmost flexibility with regard to choice of location, working hours and work-life balance have overtaken the more traditional offers an employer can make.

In order to become an employer of choice it seems one needs to jump through more than a few hoops and juggle more than 10 balls at once. So, how does leadership factor into all this? Do leaders and organisations have to create a different atmosphere and change their culture to retain talent and ensure success for their business through employee satisfaction? How do you gain and retain motivated and skillful teammates? And how do you lead this new generation that appears to be so uninterested in the motivators of Generation X?

In our uncertain times, a sense of belonging to an organisation, a team, a company can make a huge difference. If we are able to make people feel safe in seemingly unsafe times by making them part of ‘the tribe’, by creating a common purpose and a joint vision, they will feel much more inclined to stay with the company.

If we as leaders lead by example and radiate humility, our teammates will perceive that we truly put the team first and that they are valued and recognised, in short that we feel they make a difference.

Empowering people to take charge, to matter, to make decisions and take ownership will create a sense of being part of something bigger and put people in the driver seat. This can help alleviate the feeling of being at the mercy of our everchanging and increasingly hostile world that drives many people into a kind of inner resignation and exile.

And if we create this ownership, if people are entrusted with responsibility, they are much less inclined to fingerpoint, seek the easy way out or feel entitled. As the old saying goes: be part of the solution not the problem.

As leaders we can instill passion and joy in our teams by showing up and being counted. Yes, the world seems crazy, and we are all facing an uncertain future but if we listen, put the team first and create a safe space in which people can flourish, we will ultimately win over the mind and heart and thus the capabilities and potential of a new and different type of teammate. This is beauty in the making.