Helena Cisneros Of Engage3: Five Things You Need To Be A Highly Effective Leader During Turbulent Times

An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis

Not being afraid to hire someone that can do something better or quicker than you. Support them and help them grow. We need to be humble and not afraid to promote and put a spotlight on team members that are excelling. Let them grow organically at their pace & beyond your expectations or intended roles.

As part of our series about the “Five Things You Need To Be A Highly Effective Leader During Turbulent Times”, we had the pleasure of interviewing Helena Cisneros. Helena is a retail industry expert in competitive pricing operations and customer success and currently serves as Enage3’s Senior Vice President of Data Operations & Mentorship. Her background in retail management, including ten years at Target, provided Helena with insight into customer relations, store services, signage, planograms, price changes and vendor relations. Helena moved into retail data management with Comparative Prices International (CPI) beginning with data acquisition operations. She joined Engage3 as part of the acquisition of CPI in 2012. With more than 19 years of experience between CPI and Engage3, Helena is responsible for all in-store pricing data operations while maintaining the company’s high set of service standards for clients and partners.

Thank you so much for your time! I know that you are a very busy person. Our readers would love to “get to know you” a bit better. Can you tell us a bit about your ‘backstory’ and how you got started?

My retail career started with Target. I found a passion learning the different functions & operations of their store. I was hired to answer the phone. Within two weeks, moved into the store’s HR office. After two years, I became intrigued with the backroom and the Price Change team. I did everything from planograms to signage. Unloading freight, logistics and how the backroom is managed. This led me to taking over charge-backs, which are a key driver of profitability for the store.

Eventually, I became intrigued with how the floor was ran. I was given an opportunity to become a Health & Beauty team lead, which included setting end caps and price checking local competitors to ensure we were pricing items fairly. Over time, I then was able to tackle different departments such as Toys and Housewares.

I was moved to managing the front end a while later. We hired hundreds of cashiers through the holidays, at which point running a strong training program became a key requirement. That’s where my passion for training and team building first came into play.

Over time, I made my way over to work for CPI — Comparative Prices International where I became responsible for expanding our network of data acquisition auditors. This was a great opportunity to build upon my newly discovered passion for developing talent. I did that for several years and moved over into Account Mgmt. We ran a very tight, scrappy crew. A lot of potential for growth but we weren’t prepared to make those investments directly. Our owners made the strategic decision to sell CPI to Engage3 at that point.

Engage3’s flagship product, ShoppingScout, was a shopping application that helped consumers manage their shopping trips with the promise of helping them save up to 40% on their groceries.

In 2015, however, Engage3 had a tremendous pivot from a consumer app to B2B. We went from a very large team down to just a handful of us. As a function of the team’s incredible thoughtfulness, hard work, scrappiness, and conviction, we built Engage3 out to where we are now: working with 5 of the top 10 largest global retailers, making it into Inc. Magazine’s list of fastest growing companies 5 times in a row, and growing to 130 teammates and counting, not including our network of auditors.

I suppose my leadership style is best characterized as leading by example. I don’t expect people to do things I can’t do myself. Leading with that, I earned a lot of respect from my team members. I understand as a manager that I might not have the talents or experience a lot of them have, but I do know how to put people together and build energy. With that, we can all partake in a very productive product/workflow with leading people that way.

Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lessons or ‘take aways’ you learned from that?

Back in 2014, our current CEO, Edris, was in a business development role supporting our Founder, Ken Ouimet. Edris was heading to Los Angeles for a friend’s event. He kindly offered to help with a price check while he was down there to save someone else on our team the trip and because he wanted to learn how the process worked.

He recruited a few of his friends who were also attending this event to go into the store to help him with the data collection with the impression they would finish in just a few hours.

It ended up taking them the whole weekend to finish the price checks and they ended up missing the event they all traveled in for! Edris will be the first to tell you that he is not great at conducting in-store price checks himself, but what it helped me realize is that everyone has different strengths and the importance of incorporating that into resource planning.

Another funny side note is that Edris’ friends who helped him with the project actually joined Engage3 in data science and business development roles later — so the work, while difficult, clearly intrigued them!

None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story?

My husband and my son, who both also work for Engage3. There’s a story from when we did our pivot years ago that we only talk about once in a while. One of our clients required us to complete a massive set of in-store scans across multiple stores in markets across Indiana. The three of us flew & moved to an Extended Stay hotel room together for 3 whole weeks to ensure these projects were completed on-time. The dedication that they provided inspired me to push further and do more. To this day, I’m very grateful how supportive they are of my career and to their commitment to Engage3 and their teammates.

Extensive research suggests that “purpose driven businesses” are more successful in many areas. When your company started, what was its vision, what was its purpose?

My husband and my son, who both also work for Engage3. There’s a story from when we did our pivot years ago that we only talk about once in a while. One of our clients required us to complete a massive set of in-store scans across multiple stores in markets across Indiana. The three of us flew & moved to an Extended Stay hotel room together for 3 whole weeks to ensure these projects were completed on-time. The dedication that they provided inspired me to push further and do more. To this day, I’m very grateful how supportive they are of my career and to their commitment to Engage3 and their teammates.

Thank you for all that. Let’s now turn to the main focus of our discussion. Can you share with our readers a story from your own experience about how you lead your team during uncertain or difficult times?

When we were pivoting from a B2C to a B2B model back in 2015, there was considerable uncertainty regarding how we were going to support our customers with less than 10% of the team we previously had. Despite how stressful that was, we had no choice but to figure it out. Instead of hiding away in a corner and trying to figure out how to solve some of our key problems on my own, I opened it up to the total team with complete transparency. I’m big on talking through solutions as a team and thankfully the team was able to come together and figure out how to ensure our customers received what they needed in time to run their businesses due to everyone coming together, tapping into their broader networks, traveling across the country at a moment’s notice, and generally supporting each other to get our projects done.

Did you ever consider giving up? Where did you get the motivation to continue through your challenges? What sustains your drive?

I’ve always put work before my own health and eventually my health became a factor in requiring me to take some time off. One thing I hugely appreciate is that it was my teammates who pushed me to take the time I needed off and then gave me the space to do so.

My teammates were also the reason I came back into the company as quickly as I reasonably could. Finding the balance between work and health has made me a stronger person and it’s one of my goals with my new role, which includes “Mentorship”.

What would you say is the most critical role of a leader during challenging times?

Creating as much stability as possible for the individuals on our team despite what’s going on.

When the future seems so uncertain, what is the best way to boost morale? What can a leader do to inspire, motivate and engage their team?

Interacting with the team and participating in the tasks that they’re challenging with. Bringing them together as a single unit and leading by example.

What is the best way to communicate difficult news to one’s team and customers?

I think transparency is key to my success when building relationships with clients as well as team members. You’re not catching them off-guard when you’re honest and up front by including them along the way. When you run into issues, if you’re being honest & transparent, it doesn’t catch them by surprise when you have a difficult topic to discuss or bridge to cross. This is true for both co-workers and clients.

How can a leader make plans when the future is so unpredictable?

Continue forging ahead and gather ideas from the entire team. Everyone’s ideas when they come together are a key to our success. When we hire talent, we hire people that have more experience in different areas than you might have. Hire people more talented and experienced than you. Come together and push forward.

Is there a “number one principle” that can help guide a company through the ups and downs of turbulent times?

For me, it’s taking care of the team. Supporting them in their growth and taking care of them. Put the team first and they will guide us to the next steps.

Can you share 3 or 4 of the most common mistakes you have seen other businesses make during difficult times? What should one keep in mind to avoid that?

Spending money carelessly or frivolously. Not supporting team members through challenging times. Not believing in your company’s purpose or goals (everyone needs to be aligned for a common purpose). Also, by having leadership micromanage its employees.

Be frugal yet smart about how you spend money when going through turbulent times. Spend extra time & support your team through the rough patches. Be there as their sounding board and listen. Allow team members to prosper and grow with guidance and not micromanaging their tasks. Allow people to grow and not constantly on them telling them how to do their job rather than letting them evolve and become supportive team members. Believe in their capabilities.

Generating new business, increasing your profits, or at least maintaining your financial stability can be challenging during good times, even more so during turbulent times. Can you share some of the strategies you use to keep forging ahead and not lose growth traction during a difficult economy?

We used a Land & Expand strategy. Engage3 benefited from a very good client-base from the acquisition of CPI. It allowed us to build credibility within the market and grow within the accounts we had. Comparative Prices was strictly a data-collection company, however we had more offerings as Engage3 when it came to analytics and broader competitive intelligence and price optimization solutions. Focusing on what our customers wanted and needed and growing with them was a key part of our growth. It helped us build relationships with clients. Many clients had team members that moved on to other businesses within our market. Based on good experiences working with our products and team, they often brought us in to help them address their new business challenges. In turbulent times, building those relationships with our clients and their employees allowed us to continue to grow

Here is the primary question of our discussion. Based on your experience and success, what are the five most important things a business leader should do to lead effectively during uncertain and turbulent times? Please share a story or an example for each.

1. Making sure you have a solid team foundation. Building the right team is key. As mentioned earlier, we proposed a risky pivot that our Board of Directors eventually approved. But that’s when the hard work of executing the pivot plan began: we had to condense our team of over 65 employees at corporate down to a handful. We had to do whatever it took: take significant salary cuts, ask family members for help, work with our vendors on our payment schedules to buy us more time. It’s very rare to find a group of people with that level of dedication and the key to our success was keeping solid team players that were committed to each other and the company. No role or task was considered mundane or beneath these key players. Ultimately, we wanted to get to a point where we could rehire the earlier team back, which we were fortunately able to do for quite a few teammates.
2. Not being afraid to hire someone that can do something better or quicker than you. Support them and help them grow. We need to be humble and not afraid to promote and put a spotlight on team members that are excelling. Let them grow organically at their pace & beyond your expectations or intended roles. I was able to do that on multiple occasions during my career. It’s very rewarding to see team members progress and succeed with increased challenges. The company is able to flourish when this happens. Like Henry Ford said: “The only thing worse than training your employees and having them leave is not training them and having them stay.”
3. Not being afraid to be transparent with your clients and creating partnerships. We’re a retail analytics company yet we had to be creative to navigate uncertainty & challenging times. We experienced this greatly when COVID began. We struggled remaining in the stores when COVID hit but it’s what the clients wanted desperately to see what was happening in-store with pricing, product selection, inventory. We created partnerships with other companies to ensure we had stability with a larger pool of people. We had a team able and willing to follow PPE guidelines and often times had to jump through hoops to remain in-store. Our competitors had to shutdown for a few weeks and we rose to the occasion. We were able to access key locations where others could not and we did it while minimizing risk to our team members, stores & customers. Our PAA team followed protocol, signed in, did temperature checks, wore masks and gloved up. We were able to maintain nicely and our in-store staff was able to provide for their families with the work being asked for. We were pleasantly surprised at our success when others seemed to fizzle out.
4. Never expecting someone to do a task or goal you can’t do yourself while continuing to not be afraid to hire teammates who are better than you at the job duties at hand. I believe I earned a lot of respect by my peers and co-workers by my willingness to work on hard problems with them. By also digging in and helping on even the smallest tasks to get things done. We allow everyone a chance to lead and take ownership of their part. It doesn’t matter who gets credit. Let’s just get the work done. Thinking back to store scans, I would get out and test the equipment myself to verify that it ran smoothly and help set an example. We were setting the bar and expectations using myself as a guide. I wasn’t the fastest. I wasn’t the slowest. But the point is that we showed that no one is above any task and that we’re all a team working towards a common goal.
5. Sometimes it helps to run lean. Set high expectations for a smaller team but make sure to reward them for their performance. This is a much better approach in my mind than hiring many people and having to let many go, as I’ve seen many other companies do. I feel this approach helps with morale. Everyone is participating for the common goal. Keep the performance rhythm going. Letting them know that they’re appreciated is key. At Target, you tend to flow through a lot of people. I would build a roster of cashiers, but rather than shooting for 110, I would shoot for 98. At the end of the season, I was able to keep more. They showed appreciation and it also allowed them to be more accountable to their shifts. Try to avoid having “just a body” to fill a role. I really tried to build relationships & trust with our cashier team. Having a solid scheduling plan with people you can depend on makes a world of difference. It can help with the bottom line in many cases too.

Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?

“A good thing about telling the truth is that you don’t have to remember what you say.”

I’m very open about everything. I try to live by this and often overshare sometimes!

How can our readers further follow your work?

You can keep up on role changes and watch our team grow on LinkedIn. My new focus will be mentoring and helping build career paths for our team members so I would welcome interested candidates to reach out.

Thank you so much for sharing these important insights. We wish you continued success and good health!

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Helena Cisneros Of Engage3: Five Things You Need To Be A Highly Effective Leader During Turbulent… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.