Deiandra Cottingham

I attribute my success to the mentors I've had along the way who trained me in their own right. My mother, Deidra, has been the most influential person in my life - she's a military veteran, and nothing has ever come easy for her. Seeing the way she was able to organize herself, stay structured, and maintain excellent follow-up, especially in a male-dominated field, inspired me deeply. A lot of people don't realize that upper management in retail is still male-dominated, and I wanted to prove that I could do it, if not just as good, but better. I've also been fortunate to have mentors like Tia Jennings, my HR mentor who gave me great, sound, and sometimes firm advice to keep me on the straight and narrow, and Thalia Ovalles, who also guided me throughout my career.

The best career advice I ever received was to not get too high with the highs or too low with the lows, but to take each day as it comes. This advice has helped me maintain perspective and balance throughout my career, especially in the dynamic retail environment where things can change quickly.

My advice to young women entering this field is to never doubt if you belong here. It is okay to be passionate - passion is not aggression. Passion means that you care. In a field where upper management is still male-dominated, it's important to stand firm in your conviction that you deserve to be there and that your passion and care for the work are strengths, not weaknesses.

I think the biggest challenge in my field is being respected as a retail leader. Some people feel as though retail is not a career, but it's actually one of the biggest driving forces in the U.S. through consumer resources. The opportunity is being able to show people that we give something back to the economy as well. I chose this field - I didn't choose to be a doctor or a lawyer, but I do make a difference in everyday people's lives. I may have the next president on my hands in their first part-time job, and they'll remember me giving them transitional or transactional skill sets. It's about teaching them that it's just nice to be nice, it's okay to root for the underdog, and it's okay if you don't have the answer today because we can come back at it tomorrow. Those are the opportunities that make this work meaningful.

One of the values that is most important to me is treating people how you want to be treated. I know it sounds so simple, but I think in today's climate, if we could just go back to some of the things we learned in grade school, life would be a little more simple. No matter what your political stance is, no matter what your religious affiliation is, it's just nice to be nice. I don't think that costs us anything. The moment I work for a company who doesn't put people first, that's not the company for me, because I put people first in everything that I do. It's just nice to be nice.