Micha-Rose Emmett: Leading by Example

As a team made up of citizens from across the world, CS Global Partners encourages the idea of being a ‘citizen of the world’, a phrase denoting interconnectivity, global responsibility and empowerment in a world that is becoming increasingly unpredictable. In this sense, they have first-hand knowledge of how important, worrying, and sometimes emotionally taxing a second citizenship or residence decision may be for an individual and his or her family. The goal is thus to make this decision easy and headache-free and to provide a constant guiding hand to their clients throughout their second citizenship or residence application. Ultimately guaranteeing each of its clients a long-term personal and financial security and increased international mobility. This is accomplished by focussed efforts of the international, multicultural, and multilingual team at CS Global Partners. They are fluent in fourteen languages, including the Romance languages – French, Italian and Spanish; the Germanic languages – English, Finnish, German, Finnish; as well as Greek, Russian, Arabic, Mandarin Chinese, Cantonese, Hindi, Punjabi, and Afrikaans.. Additionally, the firm holds government mandates to promote the citizenship by investment programmes of St Kitts and Nevis, Dominica, and St Lucia.

In fact, Micha positioned CS Global Partners as a leading private client legal advisory group by primarily focussing on building a seasoned team. She looks for individuals who are talented, passionate and, most importantly, those who embody the vision of the company. “One can have the brightest, slickest employee but if they do not embody the ethos of the company, it will never be a good fit,” states Micha. As for keeping them motivated, she believes in leading by example. “If you believe in what you are doing, that energy permeates through an organization,” adds Micha. “I also believe that it’s important to keep communication lines open – my team know that my door is always open. If employees feel fulfilled and empowered in their roles, they perform well. And this also means that they will be happier outside the workspace, which is an important factor too. One needs to take a holistic approach when dealing with employees as there are myriad of personalities that require different approaches.”

In order to better manage diversity in the workforce, Micha points out that not only is CS Global Partners led by a woman, but a large part of the workforce is also made up of women. Though this does not make it easy to operate in a male-dominated industry, she has decided to employ young, dynamic individuals, regardless of their gender. “I find that empowering women and men equally in the workplace, giving them the tools necessary to not only strive in their goal but progress as individuals, is a crucial obligation if you want your company to grow,” affirms Micha.

Even so, building a business from the ground up takes a whole lot more than just building a smart team. Micha reminisces learning the importance of self-care the hard way. She would generally work on a schedule of 15 hours a day, sometimes 7 days a week as well. And in the fifth year of building the company, she realized how important it was to look after her health and wellbeing too. “Even though I was passionate and motivated by what I was doing, eventually, your energy runs thin and I was not able to perform optimally,” recalls Micha. So by cutting down some work hours, taking up pilates and mediation, spending more time with friends and family, and learning to enjoy life outside work, Micha started taking care of herself while taking care of the business. “When one is building a business, it is easy to get caught up in the work, but you lose perspective. Some of my best ideas have evolved when I was on holiday because my mind was clear!” adds Micha.