In early 2021, I had the opportunity to see Susie Kuhn do a live video presentation. Susie at that time was the Senior Vice President and General Manager at Foot Locker Europe. I found her insights and journey inspiring and made a note to reach out to her. Several months later, we connected, and I had the opportunity to interview her.
This discussion is an excellent chance to learn more about success stories like Susie’s as you navigate the ups and downs of business and life. It gives all of us the space to not only be encouraged and inspired, but also to absorb practical content to apply in our work lives as we continue moving forward.
Bouncing Back From Being Laid Off
“You mentioned in your presentation how you were laid off from your job when you were 25 years old, and then you bounced back,” I said to Susie. “Tell me more about that experience.”
“I did an executive training program out of college for two and a half years,” Susie said. “I then jumped to Adidas for an entrepreneurial retail gig. From there, I jumped to a dot com, which was lucy.com, a women’s online retailer for sport.
“I was underqualified a bit, but I was learning a lot. I was in the heart of that late 90’s original dot com boom and bust of e-commerce and got a ‘first round’ of e-commerce experience. Ninety percent of people were laid off when the business model needed a pivot to get profitable.
“I was too early in my career to understand the power of having a good career storyline. I had two one-year experiences at that point and not a good storyline for my first four jobs. I messed up with headhunters. I see now that I could have framed it in a way to show that I was being proactive and really developing myself, but I didn’t know how to do that at that point.
“Side hustles weren’t as prevalent for corporate tracks in the 90s and 2000s; it was about being slow and steady. It was an era of keeping your resume healthy and being a bit scared.
“My parents were good business mentors for me as I was going through all this. I realized that I liked work-reward motivated environments, and a bit more structure. This led me to becoming a corporate entrepreneur. I had never taken a business course, so I was learning as I went.
“I started doing targeted calls with my job search. I had a disaster interview at Kohl’s. It was a disaster because I failed to articulate what I’d done already and what I wanted to do in the future. The big learning for me from this whole layoff was about how to build your career through a resume and then present yourself to people.
“Once I got that down, I landed my next job at the company Target. The key was thinking of myself as a business plan and then presenting myself accordingly.”
Mastering that storyline is essential not only in job hunting but in all sorts of environments, so Susie really hit the nail on the head here. I love how she said to think of yourself as a business plan. When you think of yourself as a business plan, you can talk about the value you add through past experience as well as where you’re headed in the future.
The genius I see in Susie’s insights here is how she transforms a job hunt into a strategic endeavor that incorporates the skills of storytelling, business planning, and vision (which, by the way, are essential skills for every leader).
The Power of the Corporate Entrepreneur
“That was an awesome story,” I said. “And it’s inspirational. You said something just now that caught my attention, and I want to ask you about it further before we go on to the rest of the questions. And that’s how you mentioned seeing yourself as a corporate entrepreneur. I’ve never heard a term like that before and it sounds creative and clever. Tell me more about what you mean by a corporate entrepreneur.”
“A corporate entrepreneur is someone who operates within a system that is already created,” Susie said. “It’s someone who finds unusual paths within that system that makes you attractive internally and externally.
“What I’m best at is looking at what’s built and making it better. I’m fundamentally a clean-up, fix-it, turnaround, growth, accelerator person. To help companies grow and accelerate, I’m often identifying new business opportunities, off of the investments that already have been made.
“This is how I know corporations are good for me. These are the environments where I can really clean something up and take it to the next level.”
This is a common theme throughout our whole conversation and it’s one of the keys I hope to leave you with by the end of this blog post: Susie knows who she is. It’s so important to get to know who exactly you are, with all your strengths and weaknesses.
Corporate entrepreneurship is a phenomenal way to leverage your skills, talents, strengths, and experiences in a system that’s already created. And it might be an incredible opportunity for you. What I most what you to get from this section is the power of knowing who you are.
To use myself as an example to show that we all have our sweet spots, my first big job out of college was working for a Fortune 500 company, Stanley Black & Decker, in Towson, Maryland. It was a truly wonderful opportunity and I’m still connected to several people I met while working there who have become lifelong contacts.
I thought and acted like a corporate entrepreneur there and while I learned a tremendous amount and made a real impact, I found that things ran more smoothly for me when I embraced myself as an entrepreneur outside of that role. That doesn’t mean that my way is better than Susie’s way, or vice versa. It means that Susie and I have both found areas and domains where we shine.
And now we’re combining those domains, as I share Susie’s success with you here on my blog!
This is why I love Susie touching on corporate entrepreneurship. It shows that things can be mixed and combined, to find the spot where you best operate. To find an “unusual path” in a corporation takes creativity, boldness, and insight – the same traits that cause people to succeed who are running their own business. A lot of the writing I do as an entrepreneur takes discipline and good habits, and I picked up that structure from my time in corporate America.
As far as being a corporate entrepreneur and an entrepreneur outside of a corporation, both paths are equally valid. A lot of people separate these two worlds, but it doesn’t always have to be that way.
To piggyback off Susie’s wisdom, you can find ways where you are to be an entrepreneur. It’s not always about jumping off the cliff and growing wings on your way down. Entrepreneurially minded initiatives can be right where you are.
Your sweet spot doesn’t have to mean uprooting your whole life. Start in your current role. Where are some areas you can add extra value in your current job through an unusual path? Talk to your colleagues about this. Talk to your boss about this. Be proactive and take initiative to leverage your strengths and make your working life more meaningful and enjoyable.
As I think back to work experiences over the past eleven years, some of my best moments were when I stayed in my role while stepping outside the box and doing something new. This ranged from being involved in strategy discussions, to learning how to leverage social media, to learning how to hire and manage people – things that weren’t in my job description.
Also, keep your eyes open for internal role openings and consider going to your boss when you come across something that interests you. If you’re working for the right company, they’ll be open to you moving into a role that better suits you.
It all connects. Every experience is valuable. Every experience will serve you in some way. And there’s a certain role, function, and/or vocation out there for you that suits you perfectly, that you can do in an exceptional way.
It’s so crucial to identify what you’re good at, what kinds of business situations you gravitate towards, and where you add the most value.
If you haven’t found your sweet spot yet, keep looking – both within the company you work for now, as well as externally. The rest of this conversation will help guide you with that as well.
“Susie Is on the Rise”
“I’m really interested to ask, how did you make the leap to get to the highest levels of the corporate ladder?” I asked. “It’s a ballsy move and a lot of people would like to make that leap, but don’t know how.”
“It’s about embracing those moments that accelerate you,” Susie said. “What do the work and people around you think of you? It’s important to exude some level of knowledge and confidence. For example, I like public speaking. I encourage each person to figure out where they gain their confidence and momentum.
“Perception matters. Self-awareness matters. There were a few critical moments where I had the power of perception on my side. People around me thought ‘Susie is on the rise’. Political intelligence (PQ) is important in a corporate environment. You can’t shy away from politics. They need to be balanced with intelligence quotient (IQ) & emotional intelligence (EQ), but they do matter.
“You don’t have to be the political animal, but it is good to be aware of who the political animal is. Also, pay attention to who does what well. Who does the emotional leadership well, that people connect with? Who is the functional expert, who does the job well?
“Self-awareness is important for your personal brand. I know how to navigate and be good at politics, and this comes from my self-awareness.”
“This is great content,” I said. “I’ve heard it said from a couple of YouTubers and writers that it doesn’t matter how you’re perceived, and it doesn’t matter what others think of you.”
“I don’t agree with that,” Susie said. “I want to know what others are thinking about me. As an empathetic person, I want to know that I’m having a positive impact on people. I couldn’t live not caring what people think. I don’t want to be known for stepping on people, and perception does matter.
“I don’t want to be jumping around from job to job. I want to be working on the same business over a period of time. I don’t agree that it doesn’t matter what others think of you.”
“I’ve never heard it said quite like you put it here,” I said to Susie. “It makes sense what you’re saying.”
This doesn’t mean you’re going to let critics who lack substance stop you from being yourself. But it does mean you’ll use your empathy and self-awareness to make sure you’re landing the right way with people.
Going Overseas: A Life-Changing Experience
Susie then continued with sharing her fascinating journey.
“My time at Nike was valuable,” Susie said. “They believe in globalization, commercialization, and investing money in projects. Nike believes in moving talent around.
“The other thing that created my career is saying yes to an overseas assignment, which I did with Nike Asia Pacific based out of Hong Kong. Hard work, tenacity, being vocal, and being confident is how I rose at Nike. These traits will fuel you to senior levels at corporations.
“I would have missed so much if I stayed in Portland, Oregon instead of taking on an overseas assignment. Leveraging others, trusting others, and learning from others are all essential skills. I had literally no knowledge of Asia. In my overseas assignment, I had to move away from the parts of the business I knew well and challenge myself, which made me a better merchant and leader.
“Bringing this together, regarding my time in Hong Kong with Nike Asia Pacific, there are three things that caused me to grow and rise. One, saying yes to an overseas assignment or to something where you have to truly learn. Two, constant self-awareness, with includes people to look up to and being around people who are navigating well.
“Finally, three, luck. When I did my overseas assignment, it was the perfect time for the Converse business, a subsidiary of Nike. I had an awesome leader that I could make mistakes with, in a safe environment while growing. This made me lucky.”
Leverage Who You Are
“I love how the overseas assignment was so pivotal for you, in more ways than one,” I said to Susie. “Having lived and worked abroad myself for a number of years, I can attest to the power of doing something new. It’s refreshing to hear you had the right environment to grow and develop in.”
“Yes,” Susie said. “I can be an emotional person, and I was taught how to leverage this quality. While I was in Asia, I worked for six years with one team. For six years, in that completely safe environment I was telling you about, there were few changes. I could figure things out without getting criticized. There was minimal politics to tear me down. The fantastic leader I worked for let me make mistakes.”
Having been judged and criticized for being emotional more than once, this part of the conversation really touched my heart. I find it so inspiring that this leader gave Susie a safe environment to make mistakes and grow in.
Changing Everything at 43 (Reinvention)
“On the video presentation I saw of you earlier this year, you mentioned how at 43, you had to change everything,” I said. “What happened and what did you have to change?”
“I left Nike,” Susie said. “They make Kool-Aid that’s really easy to drink and leaving there felt like a divorce. I left Nike after 15 years to go explore what I really wanted to do. I had speed and goals for my career, and needed to be in a place that supported them. I also had a non-compete with them.
“I did a year sabbatical type of thing. I wondered, are people going to think negatively of me? The good news is that it didn’t matter at all when I started talking to headhunters again.
“When changing everything, I found myself faced with a situation where everyone liked my CV/resume. I often heard, ‘You can get a lot of Asia jobs, Susie.’ But I didn’t want to live in Asia at that point in my life.
“What I did was step back and recreate my storyline so that I could really identify what I wanted. Ask yourself, what does your resume get you? It was about really taking that year to write and rewrite that resume a few times, reaching out and re-introducing myself to headhunters.
“What I told to recruiters revolved around saying, ‘Here’s what I want, here’s what I bring, and here’s what I’m looking for.’ I also recommend getting a leadership coach, as that helped me. I was in the hamster wheel of Nike for so long, and I really had to ask myself, what do I want now?
“There were too many options, and it was overwhelming for a minute. I asked myself, how much change do I want to absorb? How much of the 24 years of experience do I want to leave behind? What do I want to abandon and what do I want to keep fueling?
“At 45 years old, I had this weird moment of, I’ve earned the right to choose what’s next – because by that point, I had worked every day since I graduated from school.
“Also, take your time! Say NO to people. For example, something like, ‘This is a lovely job, but not what I want.’”
Are you as inspired as I am right now? I hope this content is helping you as much as it’s helping me. Let’s now move on to Susie’s take on empathy.
How to Have Empathy and Be Empathetic in a Practical Way
“One of the things that caught my attention from your presentation earlier in the year is your mention of empathy,” I said. “It seems like empathy is mentioned all the time these days. Why do you value empathy and how is it put into practice?”
“I want to be empathetic because not enough was shown to me,” Susie said. “I was told to change my personality, which is not an effective way to create a successful human.
“Everyone says to be an empathetic leader, and that’s a pretty broad statement. Here’s how empathy shows up. At an individual level, ask, what kind of management does this person like? Be the leader each individual member of your team needs. Also ask, what motivates? Who on your team needs to split time? Who is taking care of an aging parent? It’s about getting to know people on your team at the right level.
“Sometimes it’s been a long day for someone who reports to me, after they’ve had 8 hours of calls. They would be better off rescheduling the call – that’s empathy.
“There have been moments where I’ve heard, ‘I felt very criticized in the work I’m doing’ and ‘You appear to be micromanaging me.’ I think, OK, these are educational moments and learning opportunities. Of course, I can lean into brand and product discussions at a deeper level because of my knowledge there, but I also have to remind myself that it’s not my role anymore.
“And be empathetic by showing some vulnerability.”
I love how Susie has made this such a practical process. It feels like you can actually implement her tips, right? She lives her message, as her vulnerability is what caught my attention and interested me in sending her an email.
Some gems Susie has just given us that I’d like to emphasize:
- Individualize/personalize your leadership for each colleague and team member
- Be vulnerable to establish a real connection
I’d also like to point out, in a sincere way, how brave it is for Susie to self-reflect and think about ways to improve herself. I say this respectfully: there are many leaders in this world who refuse to self-reflect, instead preferring to point the finger of blame at others. Not enough bosses do what Susie does and is advocating for here.
Susie’s approach doesn’t mean that she’s in the wrong in a given situation, as there are two sides to any given interaction. At the same time, Susie is always thinking about how she can improve and take things to the next level. I LOVE this.
Susie focuses on what she can control. Let’s model this.
Parting Words of Wisdom From Leader Susie
“I love these types of interviews because they help me to clarify my thoughts and get more articulate,” Susie said to me. “We’re at the trailing end right now of the Lee Iacocca world, the world with the cubicles. It’s more about efficiency today.
“We have to constantly break that down so we can understand today’s world and thrive. You don’t have to separate work from personal – for me, a lot of my friends are from work, especially being that I’m now working in The Netherlands and not from here. Work has become my family because I’m away from family. There does need to be some boundaries, so it’s not perceived as favoritism, but it’s OK for that merging between work and personal to take place.
“It’s OK to have gaps in your life and resume. It’s OK to talk about dismissals if needed. From my time with the Nike-Converse team in China, I still talk to my boss from there, and I go to his house when I’m in the Cape Cod area.”
Susie is talking here about the importance of transparency, a core theme of this blog.
Take one insight from Susie and begin applying it in your life today!
Susie Kuhn is President EMEA & GM Foot Locker Europe. Connect with her further on LinkedIn.
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