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Award-Winning Leadership Speaker, Executive Coach & New York Times Best-Selling Author

Tony Pante

SAP Global SVP offers four questions to connect with your team.

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The first call Tony Pante has with new team members involves nothing about business. Instead, he asks them about their families, what they’re reading, what motivates them, and what they value. No, he’s not doing it to break the ice in the traditional sense; rather, he’s developing a rapport that he hopes will later turn into a full-blown relationship.

These aren’t the only questions the inquisitive Harvard Business School grad asks, but he knows that if he as leader can draw teammates in conversation, they’ll get to know each other better and trust will develop.

He sets the example himself. “In my leadership meeting every Monday, I always spend the first five minutes talking about a weekend experience with either my boys or my wife, or the dogs, or a drink that we had or food that we had,” Tony said. “And I do that on purpose because then it gets other people started talking about their weekends and creates a safe psychological space.”

A former football player at Lafayette College, Tony built and currently runs the new Global Digital Center of Excellence for the Customer First/Customer Success organization at SAP. His team is responsible for helping SAP customers realize the full potential from the cloud products they have purchased to help them run their organizations.

Early in his tenure as the center’s leader, Tony was charged with understanding more about how SAP was helping its customers. So, he charged his team with opening up the lines of communication and starting the conversation, preferably by telephone, one customer at a time.

In the years since, that outreach program has grown from a handful of customers who picked up their phones to some 30,000 offering feedback either on the phone, online, or live. To keep the momentum going, Tony began opening quarterly staff meetings with a rundown of the top four client success stories. The practice proved so effective in team building that it led to team members competing to provide the best customer success stories to begin each meeting.

In the podcast, Tony shows how attention to the “human side” of competing in the global technology sector fosters resilient teams and more trusting customer relationships.


You will learn:

  •  5:30   4 questions you can ask to establish strong connections.
  •  9:30   The keys to competing against yourself.
  • 12:00  How leaders can motivate their teams without getting in their way.
  • 14:30  How Tony’s team captures customer success stories.
  • 22:00  The principle of coaching curiosity to avoid complacency.
  • 24:30  The best interview question to reveal your candidate’s curiosity.
  • 27:00  How to get momentum on your side – and keep it there.


You will learn:

  •  6:00   How easy it is to cut corners in practice and why you’ll suffer as a result.
  •  8:00   How to emphasize the power or “we” on your team.
  • 11:00  How living and working in Japan in the aftermath of the Fukushima disaster taught Lane that caring was the universal language of respected leaders.
  • 15:00  The level of employee interaction required to achieve success.
  • 18:30  The difference between being accountable and responsible.
  • 27:00  How to identify a meaningful friend or mentor.

Resources:


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Greg Brenneman

Greg Brenneman

Home Depot Board Director

“Don, you have mastered the skill of interviewing and asking great questions. That is a great skill all leaders need in order to understand their team members’ thought processes.”

John Maxwell

John C. Maxwell

Best-Selling Author, Leadership Expert

“I am a subscriber because you are one of the greatest teachers, one of the best storytellers I have ever met, and I know you will maximize the people you have on the podcast. I’m telling everyone because when you find gold you point everyone to it.”

Simon Sinek

Best-Selling Author, Inspirational Speaker

“Don is one of the best storytellers I’ve ever met. I’ve known him for a long time and every time we talk I walk away wiser and more inspired. He is the best in the business at teaching you a skill – storytelling – that will last you a lifetime.”

Beth Brooke

Beth Brooke

Global Vice Chair of Public Policy for Ernst & Young

“The ability for athletes to get hired is carried on through you because you are putting out the message that lessons learned from sports are important in life. It is embedded in this podcast, what you’re doing is significant.”

RIck Hendrick

Rick Hendrick

NASCAR Hall of Famer, Owner of Hendrick Motorsports & Chairman of the Hendrick Automotive Group

“We speak the same language. I am inspired by the stories you tell, the people you have met, and the things you’ve done. Those of us that are competitors like to follow others that have been down that journey, so it is always fun talking to you!”

Bill George

Bill George

Longtime Medtronic CEO, Harvard Professor

“Many of the leaders I have worked with were excellent athletes, and I think there is a direct correlation. You’re one of the few people that really has pursued this study, Don. Keep up the great work. What you are doing really makes a difference.”

Savannah Gallagher

Producer

Jon Rousseau

Design/Development

Francisco Nunez

Editor

Brett Rutherford

Editor

Special thanks to Dave Moore, Lauren Hafner, Samantha Clark, and the Florida State University Internship Program for consistently supporting our research team.

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