Delleck Scrubs CEO Traci Inglis has held numerous CEO, president, and executive marketing roles at well-known fashion brands over the years, including New York & Co., JustFab, ShoeDazzle, and Killstar. Her most recent venture is launching Delleck Scrubs, which makes flattering and functional scrubs.

At Women in Retail Leadership Circle’s On the Road event in Columbus, Ohio last month, Inglis spoke with Women in Retail Leadership Circle Co-Founder Melissa Campanelli about key leadership lessons she’s learned throughout her career, as well as the failures, setbacks and challenges that have been most instrumental to her growth.

On the Effective Qualities of a Good Leader

Inglis recommended a book called “The CEO Next Door,” which breaks down in a quantitative way what makes a good leader. She said one attribute is being able to make decisions quickly.

“A good decision made quickly is far better than a great decision made in a longer period of time,” said Inglis. “You’re going to make bad decisions, so you have to allow for the ability to fail.”

On the Setbacks That Shaped Her Career

Inglis recalled an instrumental moment in her career when she had just moved to Los Angeles and was working for Hot Topic, running the company’s digital marketing and e-commerce teams.

Her team was part of Facebook’s beta launch for paid social — and put $500 in, with a return of almost 500 new customers.

“This was scalable, interesting, new, no one else was doing it. I was so excited,” Inglis said.

But the leadership wasn’t on board.

“The CEO at the time said something like, ‘Can we please stop talking about all this e-commerce crap?’ And I was like, ‘I am in the wrong place.'”

Inglis called it a huge setback, but also a significant motivator for her to find somewhere else to work. She landed at JustFab. Five years later, she was the president of that brand’s global fashion division.

“That setback I used as a catapult to really motivate me to be in the right place and that helped really establish my career,” Inglis noted.

On Showing Customers Your Brand’s Values

The About Us section of the Delleck Scrubs’ website read as follows: “We believe no human is illegal, love is love, Black Lives Matter, women’s rights are human rights, and kindness is everything. We know that having varied perspectives drives better ideas. We create relevant marketing for our diverse healthcare communities. We listen and engage with our customers regularly. And we value teamwork with our diverse contractors, partners, and suppliers.”

Inglis said it was important for her that shoppers know where her company stands on social issues.

“I think diverse opinions and people feeling empowered that they have a place … it just leads to better decision making and it really makes people feel included, understood and comfortable working with us,” said Inglis.

Women in Retail Leadership Circle members can watch all of the sessions from our Columbus event, as well as sessions from our entire On the Road event series, here.