Leading with Excellence; vol. 6

“For this Leading with Excellence spotlight, I would like to highlight Rick Segal, AbeTech’s VP of Sales & Professional Services. As I reflected on the best way to introduce Rick’s spotlight, the words 'courage to lead' became the recurring theme of my accolades.?Leadership requires poise, passion and a love for people.?Rick is masterful at these.?Rick has a wonderful courage to lead mindset and he is always willing to go first and embrace the hardest challenges head-on.?He is willing to step into the chaos and lead people through that chaos. This is his superpower.

Rick also has a perfect balance of foresight (long-term thinking) and action (managing the here and now). He can see around corners to anticipate roadblocks and he’s excellent at helping our employees find solutions.?Rick helps all of us remember that even when a situation might not be fun, you can always make it funny.?

Finally, trust and loyalty are at the core of Rick’s leadership and relationship style. Rick is a leader that builds trust and lives accordingly.” - Chris

Q:??Over the years you have performed many interviews and have a knack for finding talented people ?in unexpected places. How did you learn or hone that skill?

A:??As a leader, I take the approach that there are several aspects of our jobs that we cannot control and being aware of that is key. I focus on three things I can’t control and are critical when adding a team?member: attitude, aptitude, and team integration. We can teach everything else. How we show up to?work, apply ourselves and work together on a team, I have no control over and for me these three areas are table stakes.

Q:?Elaborate on your ability to mentor and help people identify their superpower?

A:?I have been very fortunate to have some key mentors that I lean on regularly, but I honestly do not consider myself a mentor. I really enjoy working side by side with the team and getting in every situation they face on any given day. I get the opportunity to be in some of the most pressure packed parts of my teams’ days. This is when all that data presents itself. I try to give feedback and make adjustments with them and solicit their feedback as well. To me it’s not an event, its small adjustments we do together.

Q:?From where or whom have you drawn your strategic mindset?

A:?I have a couple go to books. More importantly, I study other businesses, compare parallels, and see what?is delivering results. There is no strategy without a result. Once we are able to identify the deliverable or result required, that is when the strategy starts to fall into place. I lean on my team in a lot of ways, their perspective is huge. Most recently working with you, has pushed me in a lot of ways. Having?someone drive me that has been there and delivered results has been awesome. Every situation is full of good information if you are willing to pay attention.

Q:?What energizes you about taking on the most challenging business problems?

A:?I wish I had a deep philosophical answer, but it boils down to its fun to me. If you’re going to do something, then do it. I don’t worry about failing… ever. This is not to say we can’t fail, it’s the opposite. Failing is always there, especially if it’s something worth doing. The only option to me, is to outwork any problem until we break its will and find a solution. Not to mention, I have an incredible team that pulls all these challenges across the finish line.

Q:?What excites you about the future of our industry?

A:?Having been in technology for 20+ years, our industry is right on the front line to continue to innovate and evolve while still staying relevant. AbeTech’s position in the market (and our team is equally important), is?that we have some special sauce here and will be able to evolve and continue to bring value to our clients.

Q:?Humor is a powerful tool in your leadership toolbox.?What has influenced you to make humor such an important part of your communication style?

A:?It is how I lead my life. I am the same person outside of work as I am at work. I want to have fun all the time and feel if I can’t stay loose then the problem, situation or barrier is too big for me. I also find that when the team is able to laugh and not feel all the pressure, they perform better. The team is the backbone and ultimately carry the most, so I make sure they know we have a job to do but we can laugh about it too. I remind myself the sun's coming up tomorrow whether I like it or not. Working at AbeTech is the best job I’ve ever had. Whatever it is, we’ll figure it out.

Contact info: [email protected]

AbeTech's website: www.abetech.com

LI Contact: Rick Segal | LinkedIn