Zoe: How did you get into working in the technology sector?
Sascha: Working in IT Tech was not just a goal for me, it was a clear direction as I was exposed to it since I was a youngster. Technology has changed my life and is in my DNA. When I was 13 I got my first Zenith 8088 from my Uncle with all the options and capabilities. I quickly become engulfed into programming and used all my free afternoons, evenings and weekends for years to develop my skills. In return for the Zenith 8088, I delivered logistic programmes for my Uncle’s company. Programming solutions for problems in the real world, architecting resilient infrastructure was more fun than work for me. And this is where my relationship with tech started.
My first tech role was during my internship at school, where I was placed in a hospital, responsible for understanding the process flows and building small programmes to ease life and improve quality in IT management. This helped shape the future development steps for me where I then worked for Aachener & Münchener, where I designed and programmed commission systems on mainframes.
Zoe: What has been your career highlight?
Sascha: I know this sounds cliché, but my current role, running Technology Sales for the Central Region at Veritas is my career highlight, so far. We have hired and built a team of passionate people and combined with the opportunities outside and inside we can change business outcomes, but also the culture and thinking.
Zoe: Why do you work for Veritas?
Sascha: I see tremendous potential in the people, the products and the company. At this given point in time data protection, data transfer and data analytics are the key elements to successful companies. At Veritas, we have the product sets, we have the talent and we have customers appreciating what we do to help them to achieve their goals. If we just unleash the power that our people have we can make a big change in the market, as well as in our professional selves.
Zoe: What do you enjoy most about your role at Veritas?
Sascha: I enjoy working with customers and with our people. Bringing those together, showing how to better use capabilities and seeing the positive change is always a great feeling. People wanting to work with each other, learn and win. But this is not a one-way track. I learn in each of these interactions.
We have many highly skilled people in different departments across the business and seeing how different people tackle the same problem differently opens new perspectives for the future.
Zoe: What is your management style is?
Sascha: I believe in open leadership. Being open and honest and integrating people into the decisions made wherever possible. Everyone in my team has good ideas and bringing it all together collectively allows us to find better solutions.
When we bring together talent, passion and the organisation we can really achieve great results and have good fun winning. Another good way to describe this is the thinking of “Team of Us”.
Zoe: What leadership traits make a good leader?
Sascha: Honesty, Inspiration and Accountability are the key traits of a good leader. I’ll explain what I mean in more detail here:
- To lead, people need to trust, people only trust honest leaders in the long term. It requires you to be aware of individuals’ motivations combined with empathy to steer your own behaviour.
- To lead, people need a goal, a target and an inspiration. They must understand what’s in for them and why, together with the reasonable optimism that this is achievable. Then it’s possible to focus.
- To lead, you need to gain accountability from everyone to focus, make decisions and execute on them.
Sascha: Motivation comes from everyone internally, it’s intrinsic. When we lose motivation, this is just a symptom of another root cause. You are most likely not motivated because you don’t understand the journey, you don’t see your role and importance. Why is that? This is often attributed to a lack of communication to share the vision and how you integrate people in it and exhibiting unreasonable or no optimism in leadership layers. Here starts the work. Being clear about the vision. Being clear about the individual’s role. Being clear about the team’s role. Sharing why it’s reasonable to be optimistic. In this process, not everyone is travelling at the same pace, and I make sure that everyone feels integrated.
Zoe: How do you define success?
Sascha: To have success you must be clear about what you want to achieve. Success is not just a state of mind. It’s about facts and targets that are achieved.
Zoe: Why should people come to work for you at Veritas?
Sascha: Veritas is a great place. We operate in a fantastic marketplace. Products that are ranked as cool products and we have a solid backing of revenue streams.
Zoe: Describe Veritas on one word?
Sascha: Opportunities! A place to win.
I’d like to thank Sascha for taking the time to answer these #LifeAtVeritas interview questions and providing our blog readers with a glimpse into his early career and management style. It was great to hear how passionate Sascha is about working at Veritas and how he motivates his team and that he has an inclusive management style. I especially liked how he defined the traits of a good leader as being honest, inspirational and accountable, values are key to leadership and practising what you preach enables you to achieve your goals.
So, if you enjoyed this interview as much as I did and you’re interested in joining our German team, then check out our latest job vacancies and apply today. There are plenty of opportunities at Veritas! Why not join our growing team?
Finally, watch out for more #LifeAtVeritas blogs and podcasts coming soon!
