Name: Anthony Iannotti

Title: Solution Engineer Manager

Organisation: Oracle

30+ years experience in Finance (Brokerage & Banking), Information Technology (NBA, Adecco) and Tech Sales Support (Oracle). I live in Long Island NY with my beautiful wife and 4 teenagers. when not working for College tuition or on some kid's field/court, I am on my fat tire bike riding the Long Island coastline.

Thank you to the 2,000 leaders who’ve generously done the 7 Questions on Leadership!

I hope Anthony's answers will encourage you in your leadership journey. Enjoy!

Cheers,

Jonno White

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

Synthesizing the multiple personalities of the organization at all levels.

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

It has been happening organically since being captain of all my competitive sports teams from High School to today. I came to Oracle hoping to remain a single contributor as I was exhausted of leadership but my management had other ideas to use my skill and talent for leadership. I fashion myself as a "reluctant" leader.

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

I get my body moving and ready for the day with 1-2 hours of exercise and breakfast aligning my brain before even logging on. I spend the next hour or so reviewing the previous day and understanding what needs to get done today. The rest of the day is executing the big rock tasks, reacting to my team's questions and meeting I have to further any sales cycles that are active.

I am structured with start and end time so I can spend time with my family and hobbies (usually reading) my team and management knows if it cant wait for tomorrow it requires a phone call or text - The IT guy remains where I can be available based on a phone call. Sleep is also the same time as well.

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

I am continually reminded that your direct reports will run through a wall for you as long as you are authentic and spend the time to get to know them personally and professionally to understand what motivates them. There are 2 quotes that I live by - "Leaders can allow failure but good leaders dont let you be a failure" and "Leaders arent good because they are right, theyre good because they are willing to learn and trust" both by Brigadier General Stanley McChrystal, US Army.

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?

Team of Teams by Brigadier General Stanley McChrystal. It helped me to understand that authenticity is key to leadership and coupled with my background in team sports that everyone on the team has a role to play if you want to be successful.

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

Be yourself, Be Authentic and care about what you do and ask others to do.

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

There are so many... but one that comes to mind is earlier in my career I was interviewing for a position at a San Fran startup and I had been through a full day of grueling interviews with one more to go with the SVP of Marketing .. He came into the conference room that was stacked with boxes and very dark and I must have looked like I was hit over the head with a lot of interviews and he showed emotional intelligence by saying .. You look like you need a cup of coffee lets go take a walk .. and we had a conversational interview outside sitting on a planter in downtown San Fran.. Best interview I ever had .. I decided not to take the job after being offered but it changed the way I related to people on, not only interviews but, all interactions at work. Emotional intelligence and empathy are essential to a great managers play book.