Aqeel Shahid is the Vice President of Global Strategic Partners at Vonage, a company that delivers communication devices and platforms to businesses. In his role, he works with and supports key strategic channel partners and distributors globally to develop and implement a successful distribution channel. With over 20 years of experience building sales channels and programs for business cloud solutions, Aqeel maximizes sales volumes through relationship building, coaching, planning, negotiating favorable deals, and securing strategic alliances.
Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn:
- Aqeel Shahid shares his thoughts on empathy in workplace culture
- How remote work improves talent acquisition
- The importance of leading with empathy
- Strategies for building customer relationships
- Aqeel discusses how Vonage helps organizations implement technology solutions
- What should businesses consider when preparing for technological trends?
In this episode…
As technology continues to evolve, businesses face new challenges in communication and culture. Executives must adapt their leadership style to reflect this change. Yet, studies show that only 47% of managers are prepared for this future role. So, how can you conform to business needs and foster engagement?
Leadership expert Aqeel Shahid maintains the value of leading with empathy to promote effective communication. Validating your team and customers’ demands encourages transparency, streamlines operations, and builds a thriving company culture. When solving customer challenges, it’s also necessary to build relationships and understand their business environment to generate trust and create beneficial solutions.
In today’s episode of What The Teck?, Rolando Rosas and Dave Kelly interview Aqeel Shahid, Vice President of Global Strategic Partners at Vonage, to talk about inspiring success in developing workplace cultures. Aqeel shares how remote work improves talent acquisition, the importance of leading with empathy, and strategies for building customer relationships.
Resources mentioned in this episode:
- Rolando Rosas on LinkedIn
- Dave Kelly on LinkedIn
- Global Teck Worldwide
- Circuit Loops
- Aqeel Shahid on LinkedIn
- Vonage
Sponsor for this episode…
This episode is brought to you by Global Teck Worldwide.
We are a full-service online retailer of professional headsets, webcams, and speaker phones from top manufacturers.
Since 2002, Global Teck Worldwide has provided affordable, high-quality communications equipment and customized telecommunications services to organizations of all sizes.
Our specialists have invested hundreds of hours in technical training, certifications, and seminars to assist customers with purchasing decisions.
We have served thousands of customers in a variety of industries with value-added services, including ergonomics, employee work accommodations, and hearing-impaired services.
If you are a government agency, small business, or Fortune 500 company, contact us at https://circuitloops.com/contact-us/ to discover a solution that fits your communication needs.
Episode Transcript
Intro 0:00
Welcome to the What The Teck? podcast where we talk about business and Office Technology and put our 20 years of expertise to discussing trends and issues impacting the workplace.
Rolando Rosas 0:16
And welcome back. And we’re live again, Dave, I’m your host this time around. How you doing? I’m doing fine. I’m doing fine. How are you? How’s it going over there?
Dave Kelly 0:31
It’s gone pretty well. I’m in a different office. I’m in a different office today.
Rolando Rosas 0:35
I see yours.
Dave Kelly 0:36
Because now what pretty soon, we’re all gonna be moving around. And we will be working from anywhere.
Rolando Rosas 0:42
Well, that’s right then, with with everything going on, you know, you can’t be surprised with how people are moving around. And we did that episode with Sasha about the best cities and people going to different places. So you may just who knows where you’re going to show up next, right?
Dave Kelly 0:58
Yes, but I did a test today. It is definitely about the network.
Rolando Rosas 1:04
The network, your your your internet. You’re good to go with that.
Dave Kelly 1:08
Yeah, we’re good here. We were on location earlier, and it just wasn’t strong enough. So nice. Yeah. See, this is plant this is Plan B.
Rolando Rosas 1:15
Well, you know, you sound and clear, and you’re coming in just fine to me. So let’s let everybody in on what we’re doing here today. We’ve got Aqeel Shahid, Vonage, who’s going to share some inspirational stories, success stories, we’re going to talk a little about empathy and a Harvard Business Review study say that that’s a mouthful. A Harvard says they say Harvard study, a Harvard study that looked at six of it was the you know what your from your from the neck of the woods, right? You pronounce it the way it’s supposed to be pronounced, right?
Dave Kelly 1:50
You know what, anytime I would travel, they’d say, Hey, I pack the car in Harvard Yard. I’m like, I’m not saying that.
Rolando Rosas 1:57
I gotta love the accent. I love it. So Harvard did the study. And they looked at successful managers. And they found Dave, that empathy was one of those characteristics that indicated that a manager would really be successful. And we’re gonna lean into that today. And it’s really not a word, unless you’re like paying attention to Gary Vee, which we’re gonna roll over some clips on him. The lot of people are not talking about how empathy is a way to create an culture and an environment of success in the management ranks. Me I have been, I’ve been in the corporate world 20 years, and it’s only the last six months that I’m hearing empathy. And it may have something to do with the pandemic, but that that was always there before, right?
Dave Kelly 2:45
You know what it was there, I don’t know, if anyone really thought they realized that it was categorized as being empathetic, you know, managers today, they’re in a position where they can say to their employees, hey, I understand. And then whatever that scenario is, because we are in these different environments, where different situations and sometimes, sometimes you’re stolen away for a couple of minutes, and having a manager that is empathetic, even if the person doesn’t realize that that is what is being expressed to them, you can feel that. And I think when we were studying this, when we were planning for this conversation with Aqeel that you know, what, it makes a huge difference those of the managers that you seem to respect or that you feel more comfortable with, and that you want to work for and be successful for.
Rolando Rosas 3:34
I want to work for I know, I’ve had my share of really crummy managers, and everybody who’s listening and watching can relate to that. And I know that some managers just rule by like a hard thumb on everybody. Right. And that’s, you know, intimidation. And I think that’s a lot of old school tactics, you know, to get everybody in line. But I don’t think that’s always been the best approach, but that probably whatever. A lot of people I know, for me, I’ve had many different managers, I had some that were that approach, you know, hard weapon, lining everybody into shape and trying to get the best out of them that way. But it seems like that’s really not the best. The best way, there may be a way but not the best way for all environments. So, Dave, why don’t we jump into our trivia questions, so we got a lot to talk about with a keel. All right. All right. You want to go ahead and roll that trivia? All right. So we wanted to find out which of these four streaming services has the most subscribers since we’re talking to a keel? Vonage, talking technology things that have to go through the internet, like voice and video. Which of these four Hulu Amazon Prime Netflix or Disney plus who has the biggest subscriber base? Stay tuned to the end to reveal the answer? All right. Alright, let’s go to showing Aqeel’s wonderful mug. And let me tell you a little bit about Aqeel. He has more than 20 years of experience in building sales channels and programs for business cloud solutions here that businesses business cloud solutions. His expertise has been instrumental in growing Vonage, Vonage, his channel program called Vonage partner network as he continues to enhance solutions, tools and support partners in their journey, so that they can drive better business outcomes. And without further ado, let’s welcome a keel shaheed. Hi everyone, how are ya? What’s okay, what do we ever make there? There he is. Hey, Aqeel. Hi, everyone. Hello, thank you for joining us to Aqeel uh, maybe I think I didn’t, I had my producer scream in my ear because I jumped the border. I was a bit excited and fired the gun a little too fast. So you can hang. Alright, good. So you can hang in there. I’m going to I’m going to say a couple of more things. And we’re going to go to some footage here in a second. So before we roll to some footage here that I want to get your your thoughts and opinions on, I want to remind you to for those that are watching us the like and share, follow subscribe, hit the bells, hit the notifications, we’re going to be doing some some really cool extra overtime things, some nuggets we’re releasing. And if you like this content, share with somebody who needs to see this. And if you happen to be watching this video during the playback, we will have timestamps at the bottom of this description in our YouTube channel so that you can go to the sections that you like or find most relevant. All right, so Alright, let’s go right into some footage regarding successful managers and empathy. Let me cue this up. We’ve got Gary Vee, if you don’t know who Gary Vee, maybe you’ve been under a rock for the last five years, he is a stand out. Success in terms of investing in early in companies. He’s got a huge track record Tumblr, Twitter, snap Coinbase, which just went public recently. So if you’ve never seen Gary Vee, here’s an intro to him and what he’s got to say about empathy. Go ahead. Alright, roll that.
Gary Vaynerchuk 7:27
wareness are the two core tenants to why I think I know how to build culture. And I’m great at it. And it’s because I’m self aware enough to know what I’m good at what I’m bad at. And empathy allows me to really put myself in the position of the other person from the person that started yesterday, on their first day, to the person that was our, you know, the first employee we hired that’s still here.
Rolando Rosas 7:49
So there you go. There’s just a little bit of sound on on him. Talking about empathy is really the approach and we got another one. But I want to get your thoughts on what he’s got to say, Aqeel. Yeah,
Aqeel Shahid 8:01
I agree with what Gary had to say. I mean, you know, honestly, being a leader and managing teams, as long as I have been, that has been a key factor that has made me successful, right. And not only not only with our employees, but also with our customers, right, because empathy has to go even down to your customers, as well as really understanding their environments, empathizing with them on exactly their situation that they’re in, and using that, obviously, to help design the solutions that will help resolve their problems. So I think it’s a critical factor, and I 100% agree with
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