Stephanie Kramer has climbed the ranks from Chanel to the corner office of L’Oréal U.S. On paper, it reads like the kind of glossy, fashion-world ascent most twentysomethings dream about. But it all started with coffee runs, xeroxing, and turning up earlier than everyone else.
And she says that saying yes to those tiny, unglamorous tasks—especially the ones no one else wanted to do—was the secret that eventually landed her in the C-suite of the world’s largest beauty company.
“At the beginning of my career, I often credit it with the ability to say yes to the very, very little things,” Kramer exclusively tells Fortune. “Who’s going to make the copies and going to get the coffee? Me. Who is going to be there early to set up the meeting? Me. Who is going to go watch which door consumers go in to determine what the best bay or window is for Saks Fifth Avenue that we want to have? Me.”
This can-do attitude was set well before joining the world of work, with Kramer crediting her grandparents as teaching her to show up with “an open mind, a willing heart, and ready hands.” But when it came to her career, the now Fortune 500 CHRO says, each yes opened doors to bigger challenges.
“There comes a time, where you’re saying yes, and you’re like, Okay, who can go abroad and take this very strange project in pre-Olympics China, where we were doing etymologies on fragrances, in which at the time the market was very tiny? I was willing to get on a plane, speaking no Chinese, and take those risks.”
Another big career ‘unlock’: What are your yeses, noes, and not yets?
As Kramer’s career and personal life have scaled with more responsibilities on her plate, she’s had to learn to say yes less—or rather, strategically say yes to the right opportunities.
“I will say that one of the biggest ahas or unlocks in my career has been when I deliberately needed to choose,” Kramer says, adding that her “Achilles’ heel” is saying yes to everything because she doesn’t want to disappoint people.
Now, juggling two young children and tens of thousands of employees, she’s learned to be more deliberate. Her advice for those going from early career roles into management: Be honest about what you actually have time for, know what you can delegate, and don’t feel guilty saying no to the things you can’t take on yet.
“Being very clear about when you can or cannot do something, or when there is someone better suited to do the job, which I think also takes a lot of humility,” she explains.
“So what are the things that are your yes? What are you going to say no to? And then what are the not yets? And I think that’s been a really important way I’ve evolved in thinking about career decisions that I’ve made.”
One framework that helps Kramer decide what to take on—and what to pass on—is following what fuels her energy rather than what drains it.
“I have all of these different pieces of my life. Instead of feeling like I’m just this one person, that you have to pour kind of a little bit of yourself into all these different cups, and none of them are ever full, I flipped the paradigm,” she adds. “Now, I really try to think about all of those things, kind of filling me up every day.”
The CEOs of Walmart, Pret a Manger, and Kurt Geiger got their big break from saying yes
Walmart’s top boss followed a similar path. Doug McMillon started unloading trailers for $6.50 an hour at age 17 in the summer of 1984, before working his way through a string of promotions. Since then, he’s scaled the retail giant’s ranks to become the company’s youngest CEO since its founder, Sam Walton. He said the secret to his success was saying yes to opportunities while his boss was out of town.
Just like McMillon, Kurt Geiger’s CEO got his big break while his manager was out of town. Neil Clifford pinned down the company’s chief to get career advice—and immediately took it, saying yes to moving to a whole new city for a promotion.
And then there’s Pret a Manger CEO Pano Christou, who went from working at McDonald’s for $3 an hour to earning millions as the boss of the British sandwich chain. His foray into management was all thanks to saying yes to stepping up—despite not being quite ready.
“Somebody was meant to go on a course to become a shift supervisor. For some reason, they were fired,” the London native previously told Fortune—so he took up the empty spot. “I was 16, and all of a sudden I was managing the person that was training me two or three months ago, who was close to 30.
“Whenever new, bigger opportunities have been given to me I’ve always taken them—I’ve never said no—even if it really puts me out there,” he added. “I may have not been ready for a while, but I would always like to take it on and give it my best chance, and it has worked out well.”
