One Red Question - Who's the best tech executive you've worked with?
on February 28, 2008 - Comments (View)We've all worked with someone who just blew us away at every level: driven but not manic, more charismatic than autocratic, talented to the nth degree but humble, and possessed of that subtle wash of vision, focus, organizational sense and level-headedness that inspires people to go to war with them. Who gets your vote?
We’ve all worked with someone who just blew us away at every level: driven but not manic, more charismatic than autocratic, talented to the nth degree but humble, and possessed of that subtle wash of vision, focus, organizational sense and level-headedness that inspires people to want to go to war with them.
Who gets your vote?
They may have retired or left the technology sector a decade ago, it doesn’t matter, go ahead and throw a laurel their way.
And if you have the time, tell us what made them great to work with.
Comments
feb 29 2008 00:17
2 Reputation Points
I was in the reserves, between high school and university, working as a radio operator in the artillery. At the end of a 24-hour shift, monitoring three radios, I was well and truly chewed out by a far superior officer on the other end of the radio network, for no good reason.
A passing officer—who had no responsibility in the command post—took sympathy on me, pretended to be the command post officer, and sent me out to get breakfast while he sat down at the radio and defended me tooth and nail. And as I stood outside the door, listening to him claim that I had not done whatever I was accused of, I realised I was in the wrong, the mistake was all mine.
I learned then and there that real leadership is sticking up for your people not because they’re right, but because they’re your people and they need you. The minute you sell them out, the minute you let some other jerk treat them like garbage, those people are no longer yours. You have to go to bat for them, every day, and the reward is they will never forget you and will never leave you swinging.
Lt McNair told me more about leadership before 9 am than I learned in a decade out in the real world, and I hope I act like that every day, myself.
Edit (for another )mar 11 2008 17:07
4 Reputation Points
For me, this has to be Peter Schwartz, former CEO of Descartes Systems
Group. In the mid 90s, he was their VP Sales. A few years later, he took
them to an IPO on NASDAQ and a $4 billion market cap. Not bad when you
consider he started out with $2 million in revenue and fewer than 20
people.
Peter knew the exponential value of talent. His key move was luring Art
Mesher away from his leadership role with Gartner Group’s Supply Chain
practice. By doing so, he legitimized Descartes as a rising SCM vendor and
gave them tremendous competitive intelligence, not to mention accelerated
growth by acquisition.
I learned more about targeting and attracting talent from Peter than any
Edit (for another )other Canadian software CEO.
mar 12 2008 08:34
1 Reputation Point
I have to second the nomination of Peter. He’s been a board member of mine for the past 5 years. Every conversation with Peter is mind expanding. He cuts straight through the crap and focuses everyone on the right stuff.
Edit (for another )mar 15 2008 18:29
2 Reputation Points
Sherry McMenemy. We met at Descartes, and I consider joining her team the pivotal moment in my career development, as it sparked my professional passions in communications, usability, and user experience.
She has the highest standards of any manager I’ve worked for, and her people are expected to give their best because she does. For a kid who always breezed through school, dealing with failing and not knowing everything is a hard but essential lesson. The best way to learn is to have a mentor who both gets it and is dedicated to working with you to grow. Sherry has been, and continues to be, that mentor.
She places the highest value on education, pushing her people to always keep learning. She accompanies instruction on what needs to be done with why. This is imperative in developing well-rounded corporate citizens, and is as critical for learning to navigate company politics as how to gather project requirements.
She has no reservations about starting with diamonds in the rough. You may lack some of hard skills she’s going to need from you, but she is stellar at seeing people’s aptitudes and potential, figuring out how to hook them, and knowing where to begin developing them.
In keeping with Matt’s comments above, she takes care of her people, always. Protects them from political wrangling and rampant egos and corporate instability and even the banal things like endless meetings. She manages it all herself with aplomb. At the same time she does a great job of managing up, encouraging projects to move from planning, talking, and mind-changing to getting things done in the way that will have the best results for those the projects will affect.
She does not suffer fools, her respect must be earned, and balancing her toughness and brilliance is an engaging, warm, resilient, and generous woman possessed of a solid sense of humour, an appreciation of the absurd, and an absolutely rapier wit.
Edit (for another )