Building Tomorrow’s Leaders: Tammy Cooper’s Approach to Mentorship and Community Impact

Intro: Broadcasting live from the Business RadioX Studios, it’s time for Women In Motion. Brought to you by WBEC-West. Join forces. Succeed together. Now, here’s your host.

Lee Kantor: Lee Kantor here, another episode of Women In Motion and this is going to be a good one. But before we get started, it’s important to recognize our sponsor, WBEC-West. Without them, we couldn’t be sharing these important stories. Today on Women In Motion, we have Tammy Cooper, and she’s with Technologent. Welcome.

Tammy Cooper: Thank you.

Lee Kantor: I am so excited to learn what you’re up to. Tell us about Technologent. How are you serving folks?

Tammy Cooper: So, Technologent is a woman-owned, WBENC certified global provider of IT solutions and services, and we service the Fortune 1000 companies, the large companies.

Lee Kantor: Now, I know you weren’t the founder, but you are the CEO, but can you talk about the genesis of the idea? This big company, tell us when it was small and it was a germ of an idea.

Tammy Cooper: Okay. So, Technologent started in 2002, a husband and wife owned it, and it was a startup at that time. I joined the company in 2004 and helped grow it. And as I helped grow it, in the late 2019, 2018, the husband and wife got divorced. And the man founder, he really wanted to take a back seat and go out of it. He approached me to see if I’d like to buy into it with him and run it. So, at that point in January of 2020, I bought into the company, and now I am the CEO and CFO of Technologent, and we couldn’t be more blessed to flourish the company.

Lee Kantor: Now, was that a difficult decision for you to take the reins like that in an ownership position.

Tammy Cooper: Well, I was very blessed to be offered this position. We have someone here who we made our president. As a CEO and CFO, I handle the back office. I do the HR, I do the accounting, and I do the the legal. And our president does the sales and the engineering. So, we work together in tandem and we provide a good basis for the company to grow.

Lee Kantor: Now, earlier in your career, had you been an owner of a company or were you always working for somebody else?

Tammy Cooper: So, I’ve always worked for someone else. I had my accounting degree. I’ve gone up through the ranks comptroller. However, I’m a people person, so additionally I’ve always taken on the HR roles at the companies I worked for. And by taking on the HR roles, dealing with people as well as dealing with accounting, I was a natural fit. As the banks came out over the years to speak with us, we didn’t have a CFO, we didn’t have anyone higher than myself, so I was the person they had to deal with. So, I finally got the title and the confidence in me to lead the company go forward.

Lee Kantor: Now, can you talk about that journey of kind of being a worker bee to now I’m a leader. Did anything change? Did you have to gather new skills? Did you have to have any changes internally in order to make that transition?

Tammy Cooper: So, as I made the transition, I have a woman who’s been here almost as long as I have, and she became my controller because I was the controller, and so she has a workforce behind her. And then, I hired a VP of HR to take the HR role, and he has the HR people, the benefits, the payroll people under him. So, they both report to me. So, I have my signature on everything, but I have people who are doing the work below me who are very, very talented and skilled in the arena.

Lee Kantor: Now looking back, was that kind of ability to delegate and to really find that A team to put around you, looking back, is that something that you would recommend other people in leadership try to do?

Tammy Cooper: I would recommend that you’re only as strong as the leaders around you, I believe, so I believe you have to put around a very A team next to you. The guy for VP of HR – we didn’t have anyone. It was me running the HR – he’s from Toyota so he had the skills, he is certified, and he has the bandwidth to be able to run the HR portion. So, I’m just fortunate to have both of the people, but you have to give them the tools, the power to be able to do their job.

Lee Kantor: And how did you learn how to do that?

Tammy Cooper: So, I’m a very engaging person. I am out there. I network. I’m gone four nights a week, networking, meeting people, all different types of industries. We’re a large company. We’re not a small, small company. We are a large company. We’re pushing $1 billion in revenue. So, I network. I talk to other people in my industry. I talk to other people in other industries. And I knew to have an effective leadership position such as myself, I have to have other people behind me that I can bring up along the ranks and train. We have leadership training classes that we put them in, so they’re on the vision to take over from all of us.

Lee Kantor: Now in your journey, are you doing the things that you had done before in previous jobs? Or is this something that you’re like, “Okay. I’m in charge now. Now, these things are important to me. I have to figure out a way to put these people and this type of system in place in order to empower other leaders.”

Tammy Cooper: So, I had not been the top dog at the other jobs. I had been, like you’re saying, a worker bee and did all the things required of me. So, I had to take the leadership necessary to be able to put these people behind me. I have moved more into a strategic role, finding the shape for the company where I didn’t have to do that before. I was just doing the accounting and the HR. So, now, you’re working on strategy. How are you going forward? What are you doing with AI? You can’t stay still. Your company has to always evolve and grow and you grow with that so that you can keep it going forward for the next generation.

Lee Kantor: Now, did you have mentors to teach you how to do this or is this something you’ve just said I have to learn this so I’m going to have to figure this out on my own?

Tammy Cooper: So, the only mentor that I would say in my whole life that I have was the owner of this company. As my mentor, he had the faith and ability in me to see what he saw to push me forward. However, what I have done is I have started a mentorship program here at Technologent. There are about 70 mentors and 70 mentees belonging to the program. I match them up. I give them a workbook of what they have to do. And usually it provides for three lessons. But now, they still meet later on in life, because I feel that once they’re connected, they’re really always connected. So, I’ve started the mentorship program because I never want to hear my employees saying I work a 9:00 to 5:00 job and it’s just boring. I give them the tools necessary for growth so they can help their career path forward.

Lee Kantor: These mentor-mentee relationships, are they within one division or department or is it cross-functional?

Tammy Cooper: This is totally cross-functional. I believe that if you’re in accounting, you don’t need another person in accounting to be your mentor because that person has access to you every day. Our company, we’re headquartered in Irvine, California, but we have offices all over the United States. So, usually your mentor is someone who’s not physically near you. We do get together once a year as a whole company. You can get together with that person, Zoom, other methods. But we put you with someone that would provide strategic growth for you.

Lee Kantor: Now, are there any kind of do’s and don’ts you can share for other leaders who are thinking about putting together a mentorship program?

Tammy Cooper: Have a playbook. I had a playbook. I developed a playbook. I worked with somebody called The Channel Company. They’re a part of our professional network, and I worked with them, and we developed a playbook. It has homework for them. It tells what a good one hour mentor session is, what the mentor gets out of it, what the mentee gets out of it. None of my mentors have more than two people, because I don’t want to burn them out. I want them to be able to provide for their mentees their full capabilities. And a lot of times the mentees have a question like, “Hey, I’m given this career opportunity to pivot. Should I do it? Should I not do it?” And if they can’t get the skill they need from their mentor, the mentor knows to reach outside of our network and get someone else.

Lee Kantor: Is there any stories you can share of mentees getting to new levels? You don’t have to name their name, but maybe name where they needed help and how their mentor was able to help them.

Tammy Cooper: So, I have a mentee. He’s a business analyst. He works for my chain of command. And he wanted to see the vision of operational leadership of the company. So, we have an ops guy that’s in our Denver office, and I put him in contact with the ops guy, and they’ve been together maybe four years already. And the ops guy provides leadership for him. And he went back to school to go get his master’s. He thinks that he needed a little more schooling for himself to be able to achieve where he went, but he wouldn’t have got that without the ops guy telling him this is what I did. He’s our CBO for our company, and it allows him to seek how to. And he’s only the business operation guy. He’s 25. He’s young. The ops guy, he’s in his 40s, and he’s done the full chain of command and he showed him how he did it.

Lee Kantor: So, is that unusual to have a relationship last that long or is that just how you guys do it?

Tammy Cooper: I don’t know of any that have gotten cut off. I still see people come in from other offices to us and take out their person to lunch, let’s get together for lunch. So, I’m hoping I’ve always been there as a resource. So, if something didn’t work out and we made a bad match, that I would fix that. But so far, knock on wood, I have not got a bad match. They’re still together.

Lee Kantor: And what is kind of the rhythm of their communication?

Tammy Cooper: They talk to each other about once a week or maybe once every other week. They contact via either Webex, Teams, Zoom, any kind of method. So, my playbook went for three sessions. It only went for three sessions. And so, anything after three sessions, it’s on their own. So, it’s free for all, free talking. Just using someone as a mentor to help you navigate life’s challenges.

Lee Kantor: So, you got them started and gave them some escape velocity, and then they were kind of on their own to figure out the relationship from that point forward?

Tammy Cooper: Yes, that is correct.

Lee Kantor: So, now are you seeing some traits of good leadership now that you’re in this leadership role? Can you share maybe some of the qualities you believe make a great leader?

Tammy Cooper: So, a lot of our head leaders that we have right now are 50s and 60s in age. So, we just started looking at succession planning. So, what we did with succession planning is we hired a leadership coach. And a leadership coach, we picked nine of our best and brightest within the company who we see as our next level. And we sent them to Leadership Training School within our company. So, this coach met with them a couple of weeks ago and outlined a course where she’s going to be meeting with them one-on-one every month they’re going through this course. So, we’re giving them the bandwidth and they have the structure to eventually take over from us as a next generation.

Lee Kantor: Now, are there some traits, common traits in the group, the cohort you put together?

Tammy Cooper: The cohort, all the people had been with us, one girl 18 years, majority over ten years. And they are the next up and coming. We wanted to give it to a skilled leadership group that had showed potential that have done almost what we do but at a lower level, and we wanted to give them the reins to be able to move to the next level.

Lee Kantor: Now, any advice for the young person, the aspiring leader? What are some of the things they could be doing to get noticed by senior leadership so they can be part of a future cohort?

Tammy Cooper: So, this became very noticeable within our company because these people were called out. We have a weekly newsletter from marketing that goes out. So, these people were called out that they were selected for this. So, younger people, I would advise them to get noticed. We have people that are younger that work hybrid and don’t come into the office. But your manager will see someone who is very willing to take on additional tasks when needed, when necessary. Get noticed. Get yourself involved. Ask for help if you don’t understand something. And you will get noticed and moved up in the ranks.

Lee Kantor: Now, why was it important for you and your firm to become part of the WBEC-West community?

Tammy Cooper: So, I am fully supportive of empowering and giving back. I am fully supportive of that. I am a forum first chair right now for Orange County for WBEC-West. I don’t take my matter lightly. I fully believe in encouraging and supporting. I have three people that I currently work with that are up and coming in the WBEC chain. I work with Neetu, a recruiter who recruits for our company; Lisa Riggs, we give out socks. She’s a sock queen; and Andrea Pereira, she does branding of our merchandise.

Tammy Cooper: So, I fully believe in giving back. I feel very honored and blessed with the position that I have. And if I’m able to help and to be able to provide resources and collaborate with them and share skillsets, I can help build their confidence and skills to move forward for them.

Lee Kantor: Now, you’ve been sharing how it’s important to have this succession plan, it sounds like legacy is important to you, and the work that you’re doing seems to be towards that end where you’re trying to give an opportunity to the next generation behind, is there anything else that you’d like your legacy to do? Like what do you want to leave behind?

Tammy Cooper: So, legacy has a clear vision. And my legacy, of course, is more than just profits of the company. I want to be remembered for ethical standards, commitment to values, accountability, respect. That’s part of our company’s DNA. I focus, as I said, on developing the next generation of leaders. I invest in their growth. I encourage their innovation. And I want them to take ownership of their work. And I help them succeed and encourage people. Our company, as well as myself, we need to be adaptable. Market conditions change, technological advances change, social society shifts, and we have to build resistance in our company that leaves a legacy of durability and allows us to thrive in uncertain and unknown positions.

Tammy Cooper: But my biggest thing right now is community impact. I am on the board of Big Brothers Big Sisters, American Red Cross, and Girl Scouts. I believe a leader who gives back and provides a society impact leaves a positive mark on the world, and I believe in contributing to my community and being out there.

Lee Kantor: So, what do you need more of? How can we help you?

Tammy Cooper: You know, I always look for ideas. I go to WBENC, they have a national event, they have a local event, I go to that and I go around. A lot of the women have different tables that they shine with what they do. And I grab the cards and I tried to see how they can fit in my company. Like I said, I have a big company. I have my own marketing team, my own recruiting team, but I can’t partner with a lot of them. But I could give back into various methods that I do and be able to use them to provide merchandise to give out to customers, hard to get recruiting that my recruiters can’t get internally. So, I fully believe in giving back.

Tammy Cooper: I was recognized by WBENC this last go around as someone who really believes in the WBEs. I belong to a company called Octane. Octane is an incubator. It’s for startup. And I try to encourage many of the women to go there. You can get funding and growth for your company, to grow within the company. They’ll give you tools to succeed if you go through their pathway. It’s funded by the government, so it’s not that you have to pay, but it’s additional resources to help. So, I’m a champion for them. I just feel very honored and blessed to my life what I have been, so I fully believe in giving back and sharing.

Lee Kantor: Well, if somebody wants to learn more about Technologent or connect with you or somebody on your team, what’s the website and what’s the best way to connect?

Tammy Cooper: So, our website is www.technologent.com, that’s G-E-N-T-.com. And you can reach me at Tammy, T-A-M-M-Y, .cooper, C-O-O-P-E-R, @technologent.com.

Lee Kantor: Well, Tammy, thank you so much for sharing your story today. You’re doing such important work and we appreciate you.

Tammy Cooper: Well, I appreciate the opportunity and the chance to get our story out there.

Lee Kantor: All right. This is Lee Kantor, we’ll see you all next time on Women In Motion.