My biggest mistake: Pippa Hallas, CEO of Ella Baché

We all need to fake it ‘til we make it sometimes, but what happens when a young CEO is struck by a case of ‘imposter syndrome’?

Pippa Hallas, who has headed up skincare franchise network Ella Baché since 2010, reflects on her early years at the top — and explains why not having faith in herself was her biggest blunder.

The mistake

When Hallas became third-generation CEO at the family business her great-aunt Ella Baché first created in Paris in 1936, she had some big shoes to fill.

“I had quite a big iconic Australian brand to steer and to look after when I stepped into the role at a really young age,” said Hallas, who was in her early 30s.

“I think my biggest mistake was just having that imposter syndrome and I really didn’t believe I should have had a voice at the table.”

Now 46, Hallas said: “I questioned a lot of the decisions I made, I questioned my intuition, and it certainly resulted in some decisions that I made that I regretted later.”

Being young and female was an intimidating prospect when Hallas would walk into, say, a department store’s boardroom. She would be surrounded by highly experienced male retailers who had firm, if often flawed, ideas on the direction her company should take.

“Some of the opinions that they wanted us to take on board in our strategy resulted in product range failures that we invested in,” said Hallas. “And it was because we were walking away from who we were as a brand, and trying to be like everyone else.”

In one notable example, Hallas was persuaded to launch a body care range — rather than Ella Baché’s usual facial products — in Australia and New Zealand, because such an approach had worked well in Europe for other companies.

That turned out to be “an absolute disaster”, she says.

“Australians don’t like spending money on their neck down, so commercially it wasn’t a great move,” she said.

In her first few years as CEO, Hallas admits she’d often introduce herself by her previous title of head of marketing.

“I really felt comfortable in that title,” she said. “But stepping up into that CEO role, I just felt like an imposter and didn’t feel like I belonged there.”

Looking back, Hallas says her mistake was thinking she had to act like someone else.

The context

Hallas says while there were some female role models around at the time, they seemed to feel they had to behave like men.

“This what was going on in the leadership space in generations ahead of me,” she said.

“They weren’t always there to lift up other females, so I don’t think I had role models.”

Hallas came to the conclusion — for a while at least — that she’d have to go it alone, and change her style to be more like a male leader.

“I felt like it had to be that lonely journey, you couldn’t share your mistakes and your lessons and your feelings — you had to do it alone.”

The impact

It’s difficult to quantify the impact of those “imposter syndrome” years, when the company launched failed ranges including the body care products, says Hallas.

But it definitely cost the company, and slowed down growth.

“I can’t put a dollar value on it, but it certainly wasn’t a drop in the ocean — once you formulate, innovate products, launch products, delete products, lose customers, all those things that are impacts from the wrong decision are quite costly mistakes,” she said.

“It resulted in us having a lot of inventory and lost sales and upset customers.”

With the value of hindsight, Hallas says any time a company makes the decision to walk away from its value proposition — or point of difference — it’s a costly mistake.

The fix

It took a few years for Hallas to fully believe she had a real contribution to make, and that her own strengths were enough to bring success to the business.

“But that comes with maturity and confidence, and the right people around you.”

Those right people arrived after Hallas began making a deliberate effort to reach out to other leaders, and a coach, to create a circle of people she could turn to for support, and vice versa.

“I realised you had to have people around you who lifted you up and people you could trust and be open and honest with,” she said.

“Then being a CEO and a business leader became so much more joyous and also so much more successful.”

Hallas and her team at Ella Baché also became really clear on the company’s vision and its point of difference in the market, so they would never veer away from it again.

“That’s your north star,” she said. “Everything else can change around it — technology changes around it, how you formulate products change around it, but absolutely learning that you can’t mess with your north star and your vision and values.”

The lesson

In the grand scheme of things, Hallas says the aborted body care range sounds like a minor mistake.

“But I think it was a big lesson for me really early on that just because men are sitting around boardroom tables and have always held that space … don’t let yourself be fobbed off and make sure you really put your own vision and strategies on the table.”

As leadership environments continue to evolve, Hallas says she’s grateful that women (and men) can play to their own strengths, and not have to pretend to be someone else.

“To lead a business and to transform a business, which is what everyone needs to do in this changing world, you absolutely need to be able to back yourself, be yourself and take risks,” she said.

As for that imposter syndrome? That’s firmly in the past.

“I won’t do something that I know is going to cost the business money and is not the right decision, absolutely not,” Hallas said.

“Just to please someone, absolutely not.”