Lush’s Stephanie Greben on the moment she understood her role as a leader

Since launching in 1995, Lush has stayed at the forefront of the beauty and personal care industry thanks to its emphasis on good-for-you ingredients, unique product collaborations and ability to keep up with trends. Here, Lush’s head of retail for the eastern US, Stephanie Greben shares her career journey, the best advice she received about how to lead a team and the importance of a brand standing firm to its values. Inside FMCG: Can you briefly describe your professional background before you joined Lush?Stephanie Greben: Before Lush, I ‘grew up’ working in retail at Teavana, which was one of my first jobs.I started as a sales associate and worked my way up to a leadership position as a store manager and manager trainer. I learned a lot of great things [in those roles] about sales and leadership. At the same time, I was full-time in school getting my degree in film. By the time I graduated, I liked my job in retail management so much that I decided to stick with it!How has your background aided you in your current role as Lush’s head of retail?SG: I have worked every position in a retail store and have kept a presence on shop floors throughout all of my roles.Having a deep understanding of what the day-to-day work in our stores is like is essential in a senior leadership role. Lush is a 30-plus-year-old brand. What do you think are the biggest differences in the beauty/personal care industry from when Lush first launched in the market to today? I think the growth of social channels and e-commerce has completely changed our relationship with brands and the products we use. Trends are born and change quickly, and the idea of staying loyal to a particular brand for your entire routine isn’t as strong as it once was. Brands have to work harder to stay relevant and there is more product saturation in the market. Product quality and brand ethics are more important than ever for creating lifelong customers. In what ways has Lush adapted itself to keep up with the needs/interests of its current consumer base?Lush has a really strong blend of core values that drives consistency in our products and innovation that makes them exciting. Even how we make our products by hand has helped us adapt and stay current with what our customers want. An example of this is exhibited by something that happened this summer when we saw our Sticky Dates Shower Gel go viral online.We were quickly able to increase our raw materials purchase and product production to meet this incredible [consumer] demand. It was exciting to share with our customers that the product they waited for to come back in stock was so fresh that it had been made and bottled only days before! We have also opened ourselves up to new channels like product collaborations to excite and introduce ourselves to new customer bases. Throughout it all, we make sure to stay firm to our brand values and work hard to ensure that any partner we work with aligns with our ethics. What can we expect to see next from Lush in 2025?We always focus on building memorable customer experiences in our stores.Our staff are dream makers and we work to make our stores an oasis of kindness for anyone visiting us. We are also working on more exciting updates to our shop’s physical spaces. For example, our location at Tyson’s Corner in Virginia has recently been updated with some fun new displays, one being a floating water faucet that I could stare at forever!What does a day in your life look like?It changes frequently which is one of the best parts of my job. I may have a day in my office at home attending meetings or another day I could be flying to a city in our eastern market to visit a shop.What is your approach to trying to maintain a work-life balance?I make sure to honour doing whatever will make me the happiest when I am not working and to go easy on myself, which can mean saying ‘no’ to plans and staying in to relax. The best piece of advice I ever received was…The best advice I ever got was during a time earlier on in my career when I went to my manager for support because I felt like someone on my team didn’t respect me. My manager said to me, ‘Your team’s job isn’t to respect you, but it is to do the things you are asking them to do. If you focus on that and help them grow, respect will come naturally.’ I know it sounds silly but it helped me check my ego and realize what my role was as a leader. What continues to drive your passion for the retail industry?Honestly, I love to shop. Brick-and-mortar retail has been part of my life from when I would take weekly trips to the mall with my Grandma, to my first job, to my role now getting to work in retail shops all over North America. I will always be passionate about the excitement of finding something new and making connections with people. Outside of work, I’m passionate about…I am super passionate about horror movies! I have posters from the first 3 Scream movies right next to me in my office. I love corny slasher movies and usually have one on in the background at home. My current favourite Lush product is…SG: This is the hardest question. Right now I am obsessed with the Sex Bomb Body Scrub which is part of our Valentine’s Day range. But, my all-time favourite Lush product is the 9 to 5 Facial Cleanser. I have been using it to take off my makeup for 15 years.