Skims的联合创始人Emma Grede表示，优秀的领导者不会让员工在工作中感到措手不及。在Rich Kleiman主持的《Boardroom》播客节目中，她谈到了自己作为领导者如何做出艰难决策。在她看来，有效的领导力在于在同情心与企业的实际需求之间找到平衡。“你可以同时成为一个极具同情心的领导者，并将团队和员工的需求放在工作的最优先位置，”Grede对Kleiman说，“但同时，你也必须具备一种‘企业家的思维方式’，去做出对企业有利的选择。”
Skims cofounder Emma Grede said good leaders won't let their employees get blindsided at work. During an appearance on the "Boardroom" podcast hosted by Rich Kleiman, the entrepreneur discussed how she approaches difficult decisions as a leader. To Grede, effective leadership is about balancing empathy with what the business needs. "You can, at once, be an extremely empathetic leader and have the needs of your team and your people at the absolute forefront of what you're doing," Grede told Kleiman. "And yet, what you must have is an enterprise mentality to do what is right for the business."
她强调，企业首先需要保持财务健康，才能为员工提供必要的支持。作为创始人兼首席执行官，她的首要职责是做出有利于企业发展的决策，即使这意味着有些员工可能不再适合继续留在公司。“作为领导者，你必须做出艰难的决定，”她说，“我的职责不是成为你的朋友，也不是把每个人都当作家人一样对待。但这并不意味着我可以忽视同情心或对员工不好。”
At the end of the day, a company also needs to be financially healthy before it can properly support its people, Grede said. As founder and CEO, she said her first responsibility is to make decisions that serve the business, even when that means acknowledging that some employees may no longer be the right fit as it grows. "As the leader, you have to make difficult decisions," she said. "It is not my job to be your friend. It is not my job to treat everybody as though this were a family. But that doesn't mean that you miss empathy or that you treat people badly."
Grede回忆起Starbucks前董事会主席Mellody Hobson给她的教诲：诚实并不意味着要刻薄或冷酷无情。作为多个消费品牌的联合创始人（包括牛仔服装品牌Good American和运动时尚品牌Off Season），她所处的环境要求“彻底的诚实”。这意味着员工很少会对关于自己表现的反馈感到意外；由于这些沟通很频繁，因此“没有人会感到惊讶”。
Grede recalled a lesson from Mellody Hobson, the former chair of the Starbucks board, who taught her that being honest does not require being harsh or brutal. As the cofounder of several consumer brands, including denimwear brand Good American and sports fashion brand Off Season, Grede said she works in an environment where "radical honesty" is required. That means employees are rarely caught off guard by feedback about their performance, Grede said — and because those conversations happen regularly, "nobody's surprised."
她补充道：“我和任何处于领导职位的女性一样，没有责任去迁就所有人。我们只是像其他企业一样运营公司，目的是以‘企业家的思维方式’去做对公司最有利的事情。”
"It is not the job of me or any other woman in a position of leadership to have to kind of cottonball everybody along the way," she said. "We run a business just like anybody else, and that is with an enterprise mentality to do the best things that are right for the company," Grede added.
除了她的领导风格外，格蕾德（Grede）还坦率地表达了自己对于成功职业与事业发展所必需的严格职业道德和高度投入度的看法。2025年5月，她表示：当求职者谈论工作与生活的平衡时，她认为这其实是一个危险信号（即这些求职者可能缺乏必要的职业责任感）。她说道：“工作与生活的平衡应该是你自己的问题，而不是雇主的责任。”
Beyond her approach to leadership, Grede has also been candid about the demanding work ethic and level of commitment she believes are necessary to build a successful career and business. In May 2025, Grede said she sees it as a red flag when job candidates talk about work-life balance. "Work-life balance is your problem. It isn't your employer's responsibility," she said.
同年4月，她明确反对远程办公模式，称其为“对职业生涯的自我毁灭行为”，并强调在职业生涯初期与同事共事的重要性。今年早些时候，她在接受《华尔街日报》（The Wall Street Journal）采访时提到自己周末的育儿时间最多只有三小时，这一观点也引发了广泛讨论。
In April, she took a firm stance against remote work, calling it "career suicide" and saying that being around colleagues can be especially valuable early in a career. Grede's approach to work and motherhood also sparked discussion earlier this year when she described herself as a "max three-hour mum" on weekends in an April interview with The Wall Street Journal.