A sense of perspective is vital in business, says Terry Greer-King, vice president of EMEA Sales, at Sonic Wall Inc. Take time to look at how individual challenges link together. And he’s seen it’s OK to be driven, but leaders need to work with their team.
IoT Now: As a child what job did you want to have when you grew up?
Terry Greer-King: That is an easy one for me, there was only one job I dreamed about, being a pilot, an ideal inspired by the movies I watched growing up. It was every boy’s dream and I dearly wanted to be a fighter pilot. Some years ago, I took about six hours of the private pilot’s licence but required a total of 40 to actually become accredited. Unfortunately, my dreams were dispelled. The joys of sitting in a trainer aircraft never quite matched up to the spirit of watching World War II movies, with Spitfires hurtling around the sky.
I did try again five years ago and had a fantastic lesson but the end state was that they let me go. At the end of that, I would have signed up for anything. Unfortunately, they were not very sales-inclined, a fatal flaw that let me slip away from becoming a pilot.
IoT Now: If you had one business lesson to share with your younger self what would it be?
Terry Greer-King: Looking back, I would choose a sense of perspective. Sometimes, I think that it is too easy to get wrapped up and absorbed in the moment, to go immediately from one challenge to the next. Now, I have moved away from this model, instead choosing to sit back and look at how individual challenges link together within the wider situation. For me, a good way of looking at this is by looking at business as a game of chess.
Where I am now, I like to think a couple of moves ahead, so when something happens I am always thinking about the next steps, whether that is with customers, partners or business. When you are younger, you tend to run around from one activity to the next, working quite hard but often not very efficiently. As you get older, the efficiency comes more to the fore.
IoT Now: Without naming and shaming, tell us about your worst ever boss.
Terry Greer-King: My worst ever boss came with it all, big title, big global responsibility and joined the company a long time before me. The issue was centred around workplace culture: he was incredibly aggressive, hugely driven in how he went about his work. To say that he was self-assured would be somewhat of an understatement. It was a case of my way or no way and he would not listen to anybody who thought differently.
On the positive side, he was very driven and made definitive decisions but was exceptionally demanding and didn’t work well in a team environment. We would follow orders to the letter because that is what we were expected to do. Surprisingly, [...]
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by Anasia D'mello, Khareem Sudlow
