My boss and I held our organizations leadership meeting in Austin Texas a few weeks ago. We wanted to ensure our leadership team was focused on ending the year strong and starting the year with significant momentum. We asked Michael Capellas to visit with us and address the team to close the meeting on the second day, then join us for a great dinner. Michael, as he always does, asked us what we wanted to cover and we asked for two things.

• Talk about how he sees the market for cloud based computing evolving
• Talk to the team about leadership

Michael did not disappoint, he positioned himself in front of the room in a chair facing everyone, conversing with everyone in his jovial manner as he prepared to begin. Michael then started his closing content for the meeting and it is most simply said that he has a unique way of working a room. Michael will ask everyone in the room what they want answered, he will demand you be direct and that you have an opinion. Once everyone has had a chance to ask questions or make comments, he begins the process of answering everyones questions in a inspirational conversation which covers past, present and future perspectives, making sure he covers every persons question with direct and honest answers. This format forces you to consume your answers in a broader context which is instructive to anyone who leads a team of any size.

Working in the military prior to my business career starting, I witnessed a similar delivery by General Schwartzkopf and General Powell. They each, during intelligence briefings, would amaze you by their ability to store information prior to them initiating questioning on a subject. To understand this you need to understand how intelligence briefings would work. Typically a Lieutenant or Captain would be given briefing packages from each analyst responsible for topics which were being covered in that briefing. The briefer would stand at a podium in the front left of the room with a large screen to their right capable of showing digital content (pictures, videos, slides).

Each analyst having content presented would sit in the back of the room, or at its sides, in chairs away from a large conference table in the room. Surrounding this table would be each of the Generals staff and civilian advisors. The individuals at the table where very typically those they hand picked to help them navigate the business of defending the United States interests in their area of responsibility. The General would sit at the head of the table with nothing more than a pen and a small notebook (which I never saw used). After each briefing package was verbally presented, the Generals would then turn to the analyst responsible for creating the content and recite statements made in the briefing package for clarity or to further question.

Generals understand the dance between thinking and acting, both strategically and tactically. They waited to receive all briefing content to assess all aspects of the information delivered. So that they could appropriately address the inter-relationship between the information in the context of local, regional and global interests.

Michael’s engagement with my team was precisely what was needed as each individual had a different perspective on our opportunity in the market. Every individuals questions were a calibration point for Michael to package the data points that were most important to my teams perspective. The then effectiveness of his subsequent delivery is immeasurable. When you are led you want to have high confidence that your leader understands a broad base of perspectives including those you have not yet considered.

I and my team are inspired each day by the leadership we have at VCE, to include our leaders at our parent companies. I hope that I may one day inspire the teams who work with me, in the manner that I have seen leaders inspire me and them. At VCE we feel very lucky to be in an organization that is directly tied to an incredible coalition of companies (VMware, Cisco, EMC & Intel).

Trey….