588: Tara Viswanathan (CEO Of Rupa) - Handling Rejection, Creating Magical Moments, Leadership Hiring 'Must-Haves,' Learnings From Lululemon, and Keys To a Great Off-Site Retreat
Jun 23, 2024
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CEO of Rupa, Tara Viswanathan, discusses handling rejection, creating magical moments for employees, importance of high expectations in leadership hiring, and keys to a successful off-site retreat. Emphasizes the difference between being nice and kind, and the essential qualities for hiring a leader like raw intelligence, communication skills, and a sense of humor.
Setting high expectations is the kindest action, pushing individuals to reach their full potential.
Developing confidence involves keeping promises and fulfilling daily commitments for long-term growth.
Facing rejection builds resilience, desensitize to rejection through therapy, persistence is key in overcoming obstacles.
Fostering a supportive company culture entails creating magical moments, prioritizing small details, and showing care for team members.
Deep dives
Setting High Expectations for People
Setting super high expectations for individuals is considered the kindest action. The podcast discusses a shift towards a new market in healthcare and wellness, emphasizing the importance of setting high standards. It challenges the notion that being nice equates to being soft on individuals, emphasizing the significance of pushing people to achieve their full potential.
Influencing Confidence Development
Confidence is viewed as a multifaceted trait that evolves over time based on various life experiences. The discussion delves into the importance of developing confidence through keeping promises to oneself and consistently showing up. Confidence in different aspects of life is highlighted, indicating that individuals can gain confidence by fulfilling smaller daily commitments that contribute to long-term goals.
Navigating Rejection in Business
The episode delves into the resilience needed to endure rejection and failure in the business world. The speaker shares personal experiences of facing rejection over 50 to 100 times while securing funding for the company. Approaches such as rejection therapy are explored to desensitize individuals to rejection, emphasizing the importance of persistence in overcoming obstacles.
Family Influence on Grit and Work Ethic
The discussion sheds light on the impact of family upbringing on instilling grit and a strong work ethic. The speaker reflects on how her parents' relentless dedication to work and business served as a model for her and her brother. The story narrates how family values, dedication, and confidence building played a crucial role in shaping the speaker's entrepreneurial journey and approach to challenges.
Introduction to Lifestyle Medicine and Functional Medicine
The podcast episode introduces the concept of lifestyle medicine and functional medicine in the context of healthcare innovation. The speaker shares a personal experience of encountering chronic illness, leading to a realization of a burgeoning market in health and wellness. The discussion emphasizes the significance of proactive wellness approaches, customized solutions through advanced testing, and the transformative impact of adopting preventive healthcare practices.
Creating a Supportive Company Culture
The episode highlights strategies for fostering a supportive company culture that empowers employees and instills a sense of ownership. It underlines the importance of transparency in sharing company goals and performance metrics with the team. The speaker discusses the value of creating a work environment that prioritizes employee well-being, continuous learning, and mutual admiration, reflecting on the positive outcomes of cultivating a culture of shared goals and accountability.
Rejection as a Learned Skill
Rejection therapy, as discussed in the podcast, involves seeking rejection to desensitize oneself to the fear of failure. Tara Viswanathan shared her experience with rejection therapy, highlighting the importance of getting comfortable with rejection to build resilience. By engaging in activities that push boundaries and involve asking for wild requests, individuals can overcome the fear of rejection, allowing them to become more adaptable to setbacks and challenges.
Creating Magical Moments for Team Building
Tara emphasized the significance of creating magical moments for team members to show care and foster strong relationships. These moments, such as personalized team love framed pictures and thoughtful gestures like name tags and seating charts at off-sites, help in building a sense of connection and belonging within the team. By focusing on small details and intentional actions, leaders can enhance team morale, promote a sense of community, and strengthen bonds among team members.
This episode is supported by Insight Global. Insight Global is a staffing company dedicated to empowering people. Please CLICK HERE for premier staffing and talent.
Rejection is a learned skill. Tara has gone through rejection therapy. Go out and ask for something crazy big. Get comfortable with being rejected. Hearing the word no. Go big.
Confidence is about keeping promises to yourself. Create evidence for yourself.
Create magical moments for the people you’re leading. Show them how much you care for them. The small touches are a big deal. The magic is in the small details.
How to have fun at your company: Fun (and culture) cannot be outsourced. You cannot delegate “culture carriers." You (the leader) are the ultimate culture carrier. It has to come from you.
"Ask for money, get advice. Ask for advice, get money."
"If it's too easy, you get soft."
It's important to set high expectations for the people you're leading. "The boss I respected the most was a hard ass and very demanding."
The difference between nice and kind:
Nice = Soft, easy.
Kind = Set high expectations. Hold you accountable to them. You're better long-term being kind.
Tara's "must-haves" when hiring a leader:
Raw intelligence - How quickly can you learn? Must be a clear and critical thinker.
Fantastic communicator
Intensity, drive, hunger
Sense of humor - Need to be able to laugh and have fun.
Values:
Business owner
Kid at heart
Design thinking - Craft for the end-user
Peak performance
Be human
Keys to a great off-site retreat
Craft for the people
High energy
Sense of connection - get to know each other
Peak performance workbook - set goals
Small touches - personalized gifts for the team (like picture frames with personalized pictures in them)
Tara worked at LuluLemon while in grad school at Stanford. It was a useful learning experience for her. She worked for a world-class manager.
What Tara learned from her parents:
Leadership is about modeling the right behaviors.
Advice - "If you want to be extraordinary, you can't fit in."
"Give way more than everybody else."
"Follow great people and be around greatness."
Tara created a 50-slide PowerPoint while going for a role as a part-time content writer. Going above and beyond for that leader left an impression and that woman who Tara impressed remains a mentor, investor, and friend to this day more than a decade later. You never know what will happen if you consistently over-deliver for people.
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