Can you describe your leadership philosophy? "First and foremost, always promote a shared vision. A true leader has the ability to both articulate a clear vision and motivate others to also believe in that vision. Second, establish credibility and trust by personally modeling the values and norms that you are trying to reinforce in the culture of your organization, and do so visibly. Third, view change as an opportunity to innovate and improve. It is the mark of a true leader to welcome change, and take advantage of the opportunity it presents even if at first the change involves some potential risk. And fourth, delegate and empower. True leaders share responsibility. They encourage learning and growth in others by challenging them to take on new responsibility, encouraging them to succeed and supporting them if they fail." How would you characterize your management style? "I would characterize my management style as participative and collaborative. For an organization to achieve its true potential, it must make full use of the depth and breadth of its human resource capabilities. By creating a team environment based on honesty, openness and accountability, a powerful synergy will develop across the organization that leads to consistent results and continuous improvement." What are your greatest strengths? "There are five strengths that I have developed over the course of my career that make me an effective leader and manager. The first is my awareness and empathy towards others. By being able to listen to employees and customers, to really understand their needs and requirements, I can focus on how to achieve what is really most important in any situation which is producing results. You need four skills to get there, all of which I would consider my other greatest strengths. Being creative, innovative, intuitive and decisive. The first two will help you identify the best solution or alternative, the last two are critical for execution, effectiveness and credibility." What are your weaknesses or areas for improvement? "With a management style that involves being innovative and decisive, taking risks is a normal practice. While early in my career I might have pressed forward with a course of action regardless of the potential risk, experience and lessons learned have taught me to evaluate all alternatives prior to just charging forward. Despite my current confidence as a decision maker, I always need to make sure that I fully understand the potential impact before moving forward with a particular course of action. Another area that I have focused on improving is how I actually handle the decision making process itself. When you become a manager you tend to use only your current knowledge, or just gut instinct, to make decisions. Unfortunately, this can limit the quality of your decisions. I realized that by using input from others as part of my decision making process, I both improve the quality of my decisions and engage others in being a part of developing the solution. Making this change can be a true paradigm shift for many managers, however once done, they will truly realize a new level of effectiveness and results." How important do you see creativity and innovation in guiding an organization? "Creativity and innovation are critical for any company in today’s business environment. Change is happening so fast in every industry. Whether your company is facing the decision to outsource or offshore a certain function, or you are considering implementing a technology to automate part or all of your operations, a company’s leadership must be prepared to anticipate change and evolve accordingly. How many times do you see a product released to the market that was already out of date or did not have the feature set that customers now require. With product life-cycles now reduced to many months versus many years, anticipating what you need to deliver, while managing cost and schedule, has never been more important. We’ve seen IT projects costing millions of dollars scraped because the requirements were based on customer needs over three or four years old. Today’s customer and overall business climate require much more agility and adaptability." What is your view regarding employee satisfaction and customer service? "I see employee and customer satisfaction being related in two ways. First, if you have a motivated and satisfied employee, they will be more effective and positive while interacting directly with a customer, resulting in good customer service. Second, if you develop a culture in your organization that is focused on both satisfying employees and serving customers, you will create a synergy between employees and customers that results in a overall positive experience today while setting the stage for future business opportunities." How do you motivate your staff? "First, as a manager, I need to have an awareness of what culture and mindset exists in my organization. I also need to understand what motivates each member of my team as each employee will have different interests and concerns that need to be considered. If a company has experienced rapid growth, your perception of what exists as a culture in your company may not be in line with reality. In fact you may be really out of touch. Second, I work to be an effective listener and communicator. Being open and accessible, getting out of the office and spending time with employees and customers, sends the message that you are involved and interested. And third, I try to gain buy-in and consensus before making decisions. Whether I am looking to change the way work is being performed or I am trying to brainstorm through a problem or issue, my goal is to engage all involved to be a part of developing the solution as a team." Can you describe a professional accomplishment of which you are very proud? "With MICROS Systems, I led an IT consulting practice that averaged about thirty ongoing client engagements, each having its own specific set of requirements and challenges. With a staff of about seventy consultants, we found that each employee came to us with a somewhat different academic and technical background, including varied experience in the industry. To be able to effectively cross-utilize our consultants across many different projects, we realized that a formal training program to develop a standard set of both soft and hard skills would be very beneficial. We spent six months developing, piloting then launching the program, which included multiple training modules. We focused primarily on developing communication skills, project management skills and a core technical capability depending on each employee’s general area of specialty. The results were immediate. We saw increases in employee satisfaction and productivity as each employee felt more empowered and confident in their ability to be effective in their roles. Our customer satisfaction survey ratings also increased, as clients received the benefit of our being more efficient and focused on their needs. Along with these positive results, our company elected to use the program as a model for a corporate wide training program that became part of the career development track used by our human resource department." How do you see ethics playing a role in business today? "I see more and more companies making ethics a part of their core organizational value system. Some will do it to comply with the requirements of regulations such as Sarbanes-Oxley. Others will do it because they see a benefit in creating an ethical climate that can increase investor confidence, improve customer trust, create greater employee commitment and in the end, improve financial performance." What is your philosophy on creating a work/life balance? "In many organizations, especially startup or growing companies, employees usually end up working well beyond the expectation of a traditional nine to five workday. Employees can thrive in this environment for a while, but then they eventually run the risk of burning out. The challenge is to strike a balance between making sure work is completed while allowing employees time to breath, and re-energize, for the next set of challenges. Managers can facilitate this balance by providing performance expectations that are based on aggressive, yet achievable, objectives. Then, both managers, and employees, need to maintain an open line of communication regarding progress towards those objectives and how each is doing to ensure they are sustaining the necessary work/life balance." What books have you read recently? "There are two books by Jim Collins that I feel are very relevant to being a manager in today’s business environment. The first, ‘Built to Last’ provides an interesting perspective on what it takes to be a visionary company. The second, ‘Good to Great’, provides some compelling insight on how to build an organizational culture poised to achieve the highest level of success."