PUBLISHED: September 23, 2025
By Veronica Scarpellino
Originally published by CEW US
As layoffs and uncertainty ripple through the industry, here’s how to anchor yourself and your team.
Does your newsfeed feel like a daily layoff tracker?
It sure seems so these days. According to recent reports, in the past year alone nearly 16,000 global beauty jobs have been cut across the industry. Add in market corrections, changing consumer behavior, restructuring, tariffs, and contraction in travel retail, and uncertainty deepens.
Even if your job hasn’t been affected, that uncertainty ripples through the industry, impacting morale and perceived opportunities for growth. One way or another, you’re directly impacted, or you feel the precariousness of your work. The challenges you face are both professional and personal, and they’re not in your head.
For leaders, the paradox is striking and puts you in a bind: balancing cost-cutting with the need to inspire creativity and innovation. On one hand, you may be asked to cut headcount and streamline. On the other, you’re told to hold onto your best people and keep morale intact. That tension takes a toll on you, your team, and the entire company.
There can be quiet comfort in knowing you’re not alone, and I’m here to assure you there are practical steps you can take to regain some balance. For more than 20 years, I’ve coached emerging and seasoned leaders through forced transitions, voluntary pivots, outsized changes, and everything in between.
I’ve seen again and again how these crucible moments, while painful, can also be turning points. I captured many of these lessons and insights in my book Second Draft: Rewrite Your Midlife Career with Creative Intelligence. What I learned in my early years practicing in the arts — experimentation, embracing imperfection, starting again — became the same skills I now help leaders apply in their careers (no art required).
The pattern is clear: with each downturn comes opportunity when you give yourself space to grieve, reframe, and eventually get excited again. Even in the most difficult circumstances, there are practical ways to steady yourself, get unstuck, and move forward with renewed enthusiasm.
That said, it’s not always clear how to begin when your energy feels scattered, which is where my framework Creative Intelligence (CQ) comes in. CQ helps you grow your capacity to leverage emotions to think creatively and take strategic action.
In my work coaching senior leaders across industries, I’ve seen how moments of upheaval become turning points. When people can steady themselves, think creatively, and resist acting impulsively, they thrive.
Use this simple 3×3 roadmap below to regain your power when the earth feels like it’s shifting beneath you. You can start immediately, no matter where you sit inside or out of an organization.
Emotions
In times of upheaval, overwhelming emotions are often the first signals that something important is shifting. Naming and reframing them helps you regain your footing.
- Emotional Nuance → Literally name what you’re feeling to tease out the layered and contradictory emotions. Ask: “Am I feeling fear, anger, or grief right now?” Write down what comes to mind, reserving judgment.
- Reframing → Take the strongest emotion you named and ask: “What is this emotion trying to tell me I care about?” For example: “I’m angry, and that means fairness matters to me.”
- Curiosity as a bridge → When you catch yourself spiraling, pause and ask: “What else could this [situation or emotion] mean?” or “What might I be missing?” This creates space for new interpretations.
Creative Thinking
Once you’ve emotionally steadied yourself and tapped curiosity, access new ways of thinking for fresh ideas and unexpected solutions.
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- Exploration → Jot down 3–5 “wild card” options for what you could do next. Even unrealistic ones. You never know what insights you’ll gain.
- Imagined Mentor → Name a person (real, fictional, or historic) who would know what to do in this situation, and list 3 things they’d say you ‘should’ do next.
- Sorting → Circle one idea from your ‘should’ list that feels energizing and doable within the next week. Start there.
Strategic Action
With possibilities and options in hand, even the smallest actions can restore a sense of direction and momentum.
- Experimentation → In 15-minutes or less, complete that one action, even if (especially if) it feels unfinished or imperfect. Treat it as a test, not a final decision.
- Be an Anthropologist → Then, write down what you learned, not whether it was “good” or “bad.” Bonus: ask yourself, “What felt playful about this?” Why not enjoy the process?
- Experiment Again → At the end of the week, check back: What emotions resurfaced? Recognize them as part of the cycle; not a setback, but feedback. How can you build on what you learned and try again?
I’ve seen these practices transform how leaders face uncertainty. And I know they work, because I’ve relied on them in my own reinvention. Early in my career, my identity was tied to the work I did in the studio until I realized I didn’t have it in me to make a living from being an artist. I felt utterly lost.
I mourned that version of myself.
But over time, I discovered creativity spans far beyond a metaphorical and literal canvas. I learned to mine my emotions for insight and apply my skills in new domains. That experience became the foundation of my work today: guiding leaders through their own second drafts.
While these personal practices begin with you, they scale beautifully. They can shape how entire teams navigate change together. One CEO in the beauty and wellness space I worked with led with compassion, approachability, and measured, strategic response. Through our work, she came to see those qualities not as anomalies, but as the very traits that inspired her teams.
That’s CQ at its best, even if she didn’t call it by name.
The turbulence in cosmetics, beauty, and fashion right now is real, and much of it is outside of your control. But how you respond — emotionally, creatively, and strategically — is very much within your reach.
Amid the noise, know this: the story of your career is still being written.
Veronica Scarpellino is the founder of Goldfinch Leadership, a “recovering artist” and the author of Second Draft: Rewrite Your Midlife Career with Creative Intelligence. She is an executive career transition coach, ICF-certified as a Professional Certified Coach (PCC), a Board Certified Coach (BCC), and Master Facilitator. Veronica created the framework of Creative Intelligence — the dynamic interplay among emotional intelligence, creative thinking, and strategic action — to help leaders navigate complexity and shape meaningful career transitions. A member of Forefront: Powered by Marshall Goldsmith’s 100 Coaches, Veronica brings 20+ years of experience guiding emerging and seasoned leaders to grow their impact with agility, resilience, and creativity. She is currently at work on her next book, which expands Creative Intelligence insights to leaders and teams who are navigating today’s rapidly changing workplace.
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This article, including text and accompanying images, was originally published by CEW US on September 23, 2025.
