Back in 2014, I entered the Leonardo da Vincilaan Belux Office to grab a laptop, lunch with colleagues and join the Best Sales Force of the world. I was a bit nervous coming from a pure Belgian Infra company to an American IT Advisory company - I had the feeling of starting an MBA, only daring to think about the next 2 years.
The day after I boarded for my first trip to US to “embark” at the Fort Myers Sales academy. I met many folks who are now top achievers or Client Directors, Sales Managers, etc. Only the very Best !
When you start at Gartner academy you pick an adjective starting like your first name. Mine "Emotional" Emmanuel. And the emotions seriously accelerated during the next 10 years.
I remember my first meeting with a well renowned Chief Architect trying to understand the largest Agile at scale transformation - practicing Value Selling on steroids. I still keep the reputation of Mister WHY (fortunately Questioning even became a discipline 😊)
From Peer to Leader was the next adventure, overseeing the Banking and Insurance, Luxembourg & Business Development teams. Some Cool team names like “The Wolves” , “Nutcrackers” came out of long team identity workshops.
And in December 2020 I took the crazy challenge to take over the Belux region, and to reshape the team and the culture. Engagement was done through walks, virtual celebrations and finally led to coming back to the office after 1.5 years! Yes, that’s VUCA.
Gartner has been a fantastic platform for personal growth - the talent density, being at the core of sales and tech research, facing everyday very talented C-Levels internally (my dear EPs!) and externally (our wonderful CIOs, CISOs and CDAOs..) nurtured me into being the person I am now.
This journey helped me transform into a better person as a leader, colleague and family member. The biggest gift I received is the conviction that everything is possible; if you do the right things, great results will follow.
Earlier this week, I had the privilege to celebrate these first 10 years with my colleague Kelly Pauwels, the team, and a wonderful blue cake! I also received a happy work anniversary card with touching messages. I will take this one from a recent hire. “Congrats on 10y and, more importantly, the exceptional team atmosphere and collaborative spirit you have created here (something which unfortunately cannot be captured by any best practice metric... ;)).
To our clients and associates: Thank you. You have made an impact on my life, and I hope that together with the Gartner team we have done the same for you.
Manu
#lifeatgartner #belux #sales
Startup Founder and CEO
4moman! crushing it! And after meeting you - i am sure you are going to get it done! all the best brother