Stephanie Mobley

I have some definite advice that was given to me. When I worked for Limited Brands, I had an amazing leader, Kirsten Kopieadsky, we all called her KK, and she was my boss. She really took me under her wing and gave me so much great advice. One of the things she told me was that you need to make sure that you have to surround yourself with people who are as good or better than you. She said you have to build teams that are going to challenge you, push your thinking, and really ultimately will make you a stronger leader. You know, always looking for people who work as hard as you, or are smarter than you, because trust me, I'm never the smartest person in the room. Those people that can really help evolve you as well, and get you to the place that you want to go as an organization or as a team. I always think about that when I'm interviewing people - how are they gonna make me better? One of the things we've talked a lot about at RH is being comfortable in the uncomfortableness, being comfortable being uncomfortable. When you're uncomfortable, that's when you're probably growing the most. When things aren't easy, you just have to stop and think about how much you're learning in that moment of discomfort, and how much it will evolve you. And then the last little thing I always think about - we were at one of our conferences at RH, and Gary, our CEO, said change your words, change your world. He said words matter, and they make a difference. I don't know why that struck me so much in that moment, but I think about that every time I'm coaching someone, or having a feedback kind of moment with somebody. I always think about the words that I'm choosing in order to get that feedback across, because it can ultimately change the course of how that feedback is received, or how that coaching is received.

I really think that you have to be ready and willing to do the hard things. If you really want to be successful, you have to be able to do the hard things, and it's not easy. Retail life is not easy if you're really doing it successfully. I also think it's important to have confidence sharing your point of view, and knowing that your voice does matter. Sometimes when you're working in larger corporations, especially in the retail field, maybe you're a store leader, or you're an associate leader, whatever it is, you may feel like, well, I'm just new, or I don't know enough, but I just think it's important to really know that your voice matters. And then, be open to new opportunities and willing to take the risks. Sometimes that opportunity might be different than what you've always done. I had never even thought about going into the furniture industry, and that opened that opportunity, and it was a hard jump, because I'd been with the company for 16 years, and that was a hard jump to go from being the expert of what you're doing every day to knowing absolutely nothing. But it ended up being a risk that got me to RH, into this whole different world of luxury design that I never would have even thought I could do. So I think always being willing to take the risk.

I would honestly just say, because it is furniture and design, supply chains are really complex right now, and when you have the economy and the housing market all taking such a hit, it's always going to kind of impact furniture and design business. But I will say, when you have a really strong organization and really strong leaders at the helm, you'll get through it. We'll weather through it. We always do. It's just all about the long game. Our CEO always talks about the long game. You have to keep your sights on getting through it, and you can't be super reactionary in the moment on the business. It kind of is what it is. We just have to navigate it, and we'll always come out the other side. These things happen - I think about 2008, when I worked for West Elm, that's when the housing market crashed, and the gas prices were crazy when I was in California, and it felt really stressful. It always feels like, oh my gosh, are we gonna get through it? And we all did. We'll always come out on the other side. There'll just be a little rocky go for a little bit, but great leadership at the helm, your companies will make it through.

First of all, I'm a high-integrity person. I just think you have to have really strong integrity, both in business and your personal life, because I believe they do bleed into each other. There's not a separation. Who you are outside of work is who you are at work. Humility is also super important to me. I try to really be humble in the work that I do, and just who I am, because I think having humility and just knowing that we all are human - we're gonna have really great highs, and we're gonna have probably a lot of lows. So I do feel like that's super important to have humility. And I just think leading with empathy is something I learned maybe even a little later in my life. I've always felt like I've been an empathetic person in my personal life, but I think for a while there, when I was younger, I led a little bit more hardcore, and I think as I got older, I realized that you really learn a lot. You really do learn as you grow. You really learn that you have to lead with empathy, and with a curiosity, and that allows you to be a stronger leader when you're a little bit more empathetic. Not empathetic to a point that it's to a fault, but you do have to have empathy in your life to be able to better understand the people that are around you and even working for you.