Meet Melanie: Leading with customer focus and empathy in Germany

My first job was working for my father’s engineering company when I was 14-years-old, helping with small tasks like paperwork and keeping the office organized. It was a small company of just 10 employees, and as my father, my mother, and I all worked there, it became our entire world. This experience has really shaped me into the leader I am today by helping me to have laser focus on my customers, partnering with my team, and leading with empathy. 

I have the privilege of being senior director of the German Sales team for Financial Services. Whether you are working for a small company or a large company like ServiceNow with 12,500+ employees, sales is about focusing on the customer’s needs. What makes sales at ServiceNow really unique is that we’re not measured on selling products. We believe our customers’ success is our success and that’s why we’re held accountable for delivering superior workflow experiences and creating great experiences for them. We don’t just step away from a deal once it’s done, we really care about the adoption and we work with our customers as their strategic partner. 

For me, leadership is not about leading from the top, it’s about being a sparring partner to your team. Sparring is a boxing term I’ve adopted to describe how I get together with my team to brainstorm how we can best serve our customers, scenario plan, find blind spots, and mitigate risks. You’re only as good as the team you surround yourself with and that’s why I’ve built my team based on the different skills we need to make our customers successful. When we are sparring together, this is when we can drive the best possible outcome for our customers.  

Our CEO, Bill McDermott, once said: “When humility meets passion, there is no other way than success.” I live by this motto by leading my team with humility, passion, and empathy. It’s a huge responsibility to be a leader—people are dependent on you to make sure the team is successful. Covid-19 has really highlighted this and I’ve been investing a lot of time with my team this year to support and motivate them. We introduced a new initiative called “Positive news of the week” where the team take turns sharing success stories (business and personal) they are most proud of. I also put a lot of focus on recognition and making sure we call out the people who contributed to the customer win and celebrating together. This really helps to energize and motivate not just my team but the cross-functional team we work with together to drive success for our customers.  

Every day working at ServiceNow is an opportunity to learn something new. I’m so thankful for the opportunity to be part of this hypergrowth company. Being natively born in the cloud makes ServiceNow so unique and I can’t wait to see where my career at ServiceNow takes me. 

Interested in joining us? Explore our careers site. 

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