008 Paul Werner - What Successful Leaders Do

My guest for this conversation is Paul Werner. Paul is a 25-year veteran of the tech industry with successful and proven leadership experience in large and mid-cap technology companies serving global customers. Currently Paul serves as the Vice President of Sales for the Western U.S. at F5 Networks — a security and application delivery company.

In this conversation, Paul shares the essential focus that enables him to produce sustained success. We explore how to create holistic balance when you are leading a competitive Career, and Paul reflects on the attributes of great salespeople, and the leadership philosophy he applies to promote the best in people.

• How do you create sustained success? Carving time to rejuvenate is critical to achieving high performance. One way to rejuvenate is to focus on a singular activity that shuts out the noise.
• “My development came from immersive experience with strong leaders.” Finding strong leaders as mentors can make a huge difference.
• “Getting to know each member on my team, and connecting at a human level, is how I succeed.”
• The clues for career development are often right in front of you. In Paul’s case the clue was: “I was doing most of the selling, and the salespeople were making most of the money, and so I realized I should try sales.”
• The most successful salespeople are truly curious, are disciplined and organized. These attributes make great salespeople:
  • Curiosity: inquire deeply to understand
  • Discipline: show up organized consistently
  • Engagement: Pull on all organizational assets
  • Drive: demonstrate innate desire to be successful
• If you embrace the fractal idea, where the atomic structure reflects and mirrors the galaxies around, framed in the scripture with the idea that man and woman are made in the image of God, and that As Above, So Below — then if the universe is made of three quarters of unrealized potential then you and I too are only accessing a small part of our potential.

FULL SHOW NOTES: http://www.avivconsulting.com/cnf8