Veteran executive turned professor discusses what he has learned about leadership

This week on Leaders and Legends, host Aileen Black interviews Mark Weber, former president U.S. Public Sector for NetApp, former president of Weber Strategies and current professor at Catholic University.

Interview Highlights:

• Weber explained why he architected his career in sales following his father’s example of a successful work-life balance.
• Communication, Weber said, is one of the most important aspects of leadership. “Keep it simple and lay out the truth. People appreciate trust and honesty in leaders.”
• Weber explained the three types of decisions leaders make: “There are some you make as a group, there are some you make with input, and there are some you just need to make as the leader. Just be clear and communicate to your team what type of decision you are making and why.”
• “Diversity of thought” increases your success rate. Weber said it’s important to make sure your team comes from different backgrounds and experiences.
• Weber said it’s critical to catch someone in the act of doing something right. While at NetApp, “someone would send [the president] an email about a good thing someone would do and he would stop everything and send a note to that person. People really appreciate knowing they are doing a good job.”
• Weber explained how he teaches the next generation sales professional as a professor at Catholic University with competitions, internships and mentorships in the tech industry.

Mark Weber is a veteran executive with over 30 years of experience in technology sales and engineering. Mark has served in a variety of roles within the information technology space, most recently serving as Senior Vice President for the Americas at NetApp.

Under Mark’s leadership, the Vienna NetApp office was ranked in the top 10 of Best Places to Work in Washington D.C. six times by the Washington Business Journal as well as repeatedly listed in the Washingtonian’s Best 50 Places to Work issue.

Weber was the first Executive-in-Residence for The Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C. where he currently teaches a course entitled “Selling and Sales Management.”

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