“Do the uncomfortable thing,” Ellie Quartel from Fossil Group

Meet Ellie Quartel, Senior Vice President at Fossil Group, where she serves as the Chief Digital Officer and Head of Direct to Consumer. In her role, Ellie leads Fossil’s digital investment agenda and transformation globally, while also managing ecommerce, marketplaces, and store business. In her seven years at Fossil, Ellie has held a variety of roles across digital, DTC, marketing, strategy, and marketplaces. She has won awards for leadership and teaching and is passionate about solving problems, leading change, coaching, and retail.

Ellie joined Deirdre Locksley, Associate Director, Content Marketing, to reveal her inspirations behind doing hard things like creating boundaries, networking, and showing your humanity in the workplace. 

Do the uncomfortable things.

Highlight: “The moments in my career where I wanted to do something different were when I had to push myself to go network and make connections to new people or new teams that I wasn't comfortable with. And I'm still uncomfortable with that, but that would be the advice that I would give young Ellie, is like, ‘Push yourself to do those uncomfortable things, including networking and meeting new people, that maybe don't inherently come naturally to you, because it'll be worth it, and you will form connections that then feel more authentic and organic, even if not instantly in that moment.’” - Ellie Quartel 

Have the hard conversations. 

Highlight: “One of the things I needed to be able to tell the Chief Commercial Officer was, ‘I really want to take this job, and I'll work really hard for you. But I have boundaries in my personal life that I need to respect, and I need to hold to.’ And I was so nervous for that conversation… That job was a huge stepping stone for me that let me take on different digital roles and P&L ownership roles in the future. So that sticks with me as one of those moments in my career where I was so grateful that I talked myself into saying yes, but also that I had the hard conversation with someone who intimidated me. And since then, he's become a mentor to me, and I really value that.” - Ellie Quartel 

Show people that they matter.

Highlight: “I read something once that said, the people who are the least engaged in an organization are not the people that receive bad feedback. They're the people that receive no feedback. And, to that point, even tough conversations are really valuable in terms of showing people that they matter and that you're invested in them.” - Ellie Quartel 

Talk about successes and failures.

Highlight: “I'm a huge believer in transparency, so I tend to share more and not less. And the theory for me is that it builds trust… I think setting that expectation on transparency is really important… I've also learned that it's really important to talk about your personal shortcomings and your personal failures, not just your successes… Back to the idea of trust building I found openly talking about my successes, but also my failures, what I tried that didn't work, has really worked for both the optimists and the pessimists on my teams as it opens them to share both sides of the coin, which I think is really important.” - Ellie Quartel 

Say no, and explain why.

Highlight: “I've had a few leaders who had a hard time making big decisions or sharing tough news, and I get that, like it is not fun. No one wants to be the bearer of bad news, and it's really hard to say no. However, I have seen in my career that the best leaders are the ones who can say no, and can explain why, and are willing to share those hard conversations with you… I think when I've seen leaders who don't have those tough conversations, it reinforces, for me, why I need to put on my big girl pants and have those tough conversations, because I know how hard it was for me as a person on their team when they didn't.” - Ellie Quartel 

Show that you’re a person.

Highlight: “One thing that I have learned from leaders that I think is really valuable, man or woman, is that you should show that you are a person and that that opens the doors for people who work for you to show that they're people, too, and to empower them to set the right boundaries and make the right decisions, for themselves, their job, and their family.” - Ellie Quartel 

Ellie’s courage to do the uncomfortable things opens the door for women following in her footsteps and exemplifies the openness and vulnerability it takes to be a great leader. For more inspiring content, check out the Pass The Mic page.