Meet Daniel, Whose Approach To Leadership Has Nothing To Do With His Rank Or Authority
Coming out of a trainee programme and being thrust into a leadership role can prove quite intimidating. How are you supposed to lead those who have been in L’Oréal for years? Will they even listen to what I have to say?
Initially Daniel doubted himself, he needn’t have! He took the skills he had learnt from a variety of backgrounds to become a well-rounded young L’Oréal leader. Find out more below!
How did your L’Oréal story start?
I joined the L’Oréal Management Trainee program in 2014 straight from University. During the program, I completed three rotations in Sales, Marketing & Market Development. This was my first taste of L’Oréal and I loved it! From there, I became an Account Executive, and just last year, began my current role as National Account Manager.
Tell us, what is the key of leadership for you?
To me, leadership is intrinsically linked to the empowerment of others. After focusing on development and empowering people with the skills and confidence to perform; loyalty, effectiveness and results follow.
My approach to leadership is to use whatever little knowledge and experience I have to help those around me especially junior members of the team. Even amongst those more senior, there’s always opportunity to demonstrate leadership by coming up with new and improved ways to do things.
‘’The worst thing we could do is allow our ability to influence and lead be limited by the seniority of our title.’’
What is the most challenging part of being a young leader?
As a young leader, you can’t help a little bit of doubt creep in about whether people will take you seriously. Adding to that is the fear that a lack of experience will result in you not performing your job well. However, it’s good to remember that L’Oréal & our managers believe in our ability, which is why they have given us the opportunity in the first place. More often than not, the only person who doubts your ability to lead or perform is really just yourself.
We are curious to learn more about your team!
I’m part of a fantastic team!!! There’s three of us (plus a Management Trainee & Business Manager). While we work on seperate retailers we try to help eachother as much as possible.We’re all relatively new Account Managers, so we lean on each other for much needed support.
Give me an outlandish fact about yourself
At Uni, I played the Ukulele. For a bit of fun, my friend and I used to record ourselves and put the odd music video on YouTube. There used to be a video of us playing/singing “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” in my bathroom which got over 100,000 views.
Ironically, I haven’t told anyone at work about this, but I guess they’ll be finding out now (Sorry, no you won’t find the videos on YouTube any more… unfortunately!)
What inspired you to apply to L’Oréal?
What struck me most about L’Oréal was its focus on entrepreneurship and the level of responsibility they entrust Junior’s with. Combine this with L’Oréal being a global marketing powerhouse, and I knew this would be the perfect place to begin my career. I’ve always wanted to work at a multinational with the opportunity to work for the same company in multiple countries and brands. L’Oréal provides me with the opportunity to do just that.. Three years on, and I’m having a blast!
Has there been anything that surprised you about working at L’Oréal?
Heading into work on my first day, I couldn’t help thinking that I wasn’t going to fit in. In my head, everyone at L’Oréal was a certain type of character, person, background etc. And me being a guy with no knowledge of the beauty industry (“what’s a mascara?”), I thought I would definitely struggle!
I couldn’t have been more wrong. There is so much diversity within L’Oréal, with people from many different cultures, experiences and backgrounds. This diversity breeds a culture of acceptance, belonging and the sharing of knowledge.
“ Each person adds their own experiences and talents to make L’Oréal a well-oiled machine”
Who is the most inspiring leader you have met at L’Oréal?
When I started out in the Commercial team, my manager’s manager was Sam, Group Sales Manager of the Pharmacy channel in Australia. What inspired me the most about Sam, was that even though he managed a big team (12 Head Office and 20+ Field staff), he always made the time to teach and coach even the most junior members of his team such as myself. Sam was really good at his job and delivering strong results, but he always put his team’s development first. This made him not just a great manager, but an incredible leader.
Any words of advice for aspiring L’Oréal future talent?
Try and seek out any opportunities where you can demonstrate and develop your leadership skills. Whether it be getting involved in sports teams, student groups or the community, the leadership skills you develop will be incredibly beneficial once you start a career at L’Oréal.
If you want to follow Daniel’s advice and pursue a career in L’Oréal check out our careers page where your next awesome career opportunity awaits!
