1. What have you found most challenging as a leader?

Establish an ecosystem where your team will follow you because they believe in you.
1. Believe in your values
2. Believe in fact they can learn from
3. Trust you to protect them and back them up when needed.
4. Have your team back you up when needed

2. How did you become a leader? Can you please briefly tell the story?

It is mostly demonstrated during my last position, where we needed to undergo a massive transformation plan which included a serious reduction in Headcount, which impacted on the business.

I had to prepare a counter plan, securing the mission critical people on the team. This was a test for me to apply my leadership towards the team. Meaning, not only execute management's policy, but also mitigating the impact on the team while doing so.

3. How do you structure your work days from waking up to going to sleep?

I try to prepare my days in advance. Of course, actual day vs. plan differs a lot.
I prioritize customer issues first, and then team issues and management issues.
The welfare of the team is very important to me, since a functioning team is a key and answer to many of the arising issues.

4. What's a recent leadership lesson you've learned for the first time or been reminded of?

People from the team, and also other employees in the organization look up to you expecting you to show them the way.

A leadership lesson I recall is when one of my project managers escalated to me an issue that was causing a deviation from our revenue and margin plan. I knew we misconducted what we needed to do, but I've backed him up and supported him in front of the customer. It was much appreciated by him, as I was able to lift up the constraints he had, and he was able to keep functioning later on.

5. What's one book that has had a profound impact on your leadership so far? Can you please briefly tell the story of how that book impacted your leadership?

The book is called the "Wisest Man".
"Ecclesiastes" Romanized: "Kohelet", Is one of the Ketuvim ("Writings") of the Hebrew Bible and part of the Wisdom literature of the Christian Old Testament.
An unnamed author introduces "The words of Kohelet, son of David, king in Jerusalem", which was thought to be the wisest man ever existed.
This book speaks about Kohelet’s advice for any manger or human-being. It takes some verses from the book of Kohelet and translates their meaning in a way which reflects on our everyday routines and actions.
The book truly inspired me.


6. If you could only give one piece of advice to a young leader, what would you say to them?

1. Always listen first. Leaders listen first. Then they speak and act.
2. A leader is a team member. Not a Boss
3. Lead by example.

7. What is one meaningful story that comes to mind from your time as a leader, so far?

In one of the programs I managed, I had two (2) classified site locations that needed to communicate with one another, yet no one was able to complete the required series of actions to make this work.
Solving this was imperative to complete the program.
The fact it was not solved caused chaos in the work environment.
Although not being fully aware of what is required in order to complete and maintain this connection, I communicated to everyone that this will be done and completed. I showed accountability and confidence that this will be done, even though I didn’t fully realize what needs to be done.
Once the vote of confidence was diffusing in the organization, I did some detailed analysis on how to handle this situation, but under a calmer and trusting environment.