Adele Tetangco | Co-Founder Garmentory
Creating A Cohesive Leadership Team To Enable Growth
OVERVIEW
Adele Tetangco co-founded Garmentory, a fashion marketplace for independent, emerging boutiques and designers. As a venture-backed company, Garmentory experienced significant growth over the past five years. As a member of the executive team, Adele and her colleagues were tasked with growing the company. The CEO brought on Rick to work with the executives as they grew the team and scaled their production.
OBJECTIVE
Work more effectively with other key leaders to manage and coordinate projects that intersect, rely on each other, and have different leaders, but are all meant to work harmoniously.
CHALLENGE
The executive team had different ideas about how they should achieve growth. They were located in two separate offices, one in Vancouver and one in Seattle. Team members were also challenged by differences in personalities and working styles. They also lacked the proper structure to scale the company.
SOLUTION
Futurity Resources | Executive Leadership Coaching
“A lot of the people I refer to Rick are women even though, most of the time, they would prefer a female coach. However, Rick is a feminist, I love working with him, and I highly recommend him.”
Adele Tetangco | Co-Founder Garmentory
CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE
I’ve been meeting with Rick once per week or once per month for the past two years.
When I started working with him, I was an executive leader at Garmentory. My partner brought Rick in to teach us the proper structure to scale a company. We learned a strategic management process for goal setting, KPI tracking, and meeting procedures that not only helped us scale but also boosted the efficacy of our work.
One of the key things I learned was that, with the proper structure in place, you can scale a company with a small team. I was able to learn and apply that knowledge to create significant revenue growth at Garmentory.
One of my personal challenges was having difficult conversations. A lot of the time when I build something, I feel very emotionally tied to it; it’s my baby. As a co-founder of Garmentory, I naturally cared for what we were doing.
I needed help in navigating conversations, where I was not seeing eye to eye with someone, without becoming overly emotional. I’m one of those people that try really hard to do a good job. I struggled when colleagues challenged me because I would feel that I wasn’t being taken seriously.
Rick taught me how to come around and get behind whoever it is that I am confronting in order to understand why they are thinking the way they are without jumping to conclusions. It sounds simple to do. In reality, it takes a lot of practice. One of the things that Rick taught me is that it takes time to learn how to listen.
Rick helped me realize that as a leader of a team, it’s ok if there are times when my team members don’t like me. However, I still need to communicate to them in a fair and understanding way while getting my point across. Rick has helped me realize and execute that.
RESULTS
The management structure and self-awareness that I learned from Rick was incredibly valuable while working as a leader at Garmentory and in every career move thus far.
After leaving Garmentory, I was able to bring those skills over to a new company to set up methods and processes for setting and tracking KPIs per department and person. This has been instrumental in achieving company goals brought before me.
Rick taught me that clarity is key. I’ve been able to pass these processes on to my team, ensuring that we are always on the same page with clear expectations.
I still rely on Rick to navigate tough conversations, such as when I was not too thrilled about the work my team was producing and how they were acting. Rick continues to help me shape these conversations so that they are effective.
Most recently, I needed to address an issue regarding diversity and inclusion. It felt confrontational and, therefore, uncomfortable. Rick helped me find my way and my voice and avoid coming across as condescending.
If I were to give a number, I would say 150% of my professional growth can be attributed to my time spent learning from Rick. How to be prepared and how to understand and talk to people when they disagree with me are the biggest obstacles that Rick has helped me overcome.
