Leadership Lessons from Microsoft Partner Innovators: My Practice Leading Retrospective

Neil Benson [00:00:00]:

Good day, and welcome to Practice Leading, a podcast for emerging and curious practice leaders of Microsoft partner businesses. If you're anything like me with an unquenchable thirst for improvement and zero tolerance for BS, you've come to the right place. Hi. I'm Neil Benson, and this is my personal invitation for you to join me on my own journey of discovery. Together, we'll learn from innovators and investors, executives and entrepreneurs, business leaders, and business coaches that have already left their stamp on the Microsoft community and those that are exploring new and smarter ways of building their businesses. Whether it's groundbreaking innovations, hiring high performing teams, or the sheer force of will to disrupt our industry, each episode is a masterclass from the trailblazers who have already achieved significant success. Find practice leading on YouTube or visit practiceleading.com and learn from the mentors you wish you had earlier in your career. Good day, and welcome to practice leading.

Neil Benson [00:01:00]:

I'm your host, Neil Benson. I started practice leading last year to learn from other Microsoft practice leaders who are a few steps ahead of me. In every episode, I share the key lessons I took away from my guest, and I try to put them into practice in my business, Superware. This episode is a retrospective on what I've learned from the first eight guests on the show and the results I've had experimenting with the ideas that they've shared with us. Superware is a Microsoft business apps ISV and systems integrator that I cofounded in 2020. We focus on building engagement apps on the Microsoft Power Platform, Dynamics three sixty five, and Azure for public sector and Australian financial services organizations. It's mid May twenty twenty five as I record this, and we've welcomed superhumans number twenty five and twenty six to the team this week. We'll be 30 people by the end of our financial year on June 30.

Neil Benson [00:01:49]:

There's lots to celebrate, but growing and leading the business is still as challenging as ever. Let's recap what we've learned. Episode one, culture over hierarchy. In our first episode, I caught up with Mohammed Mustafa, CEO of Tech Labs London. Ever since then, I've been using Mohammed's secret interview question in almost all of my interviews to assess whether a candidate is a good culture fit for us. Asking candidates to reveal something that isn't on their CV or LinkedIn profile has helped me to get to know them better. If I hadn't asked that question, I'd never have known that Raj, who who joined us in April, is a keen basketball player. We're still keen to build an onboarding and development program for trainees and apprentices who have less than a year's experience with Microsoft Power Platform or Dynamics three sixty five, but we're not there yet.

Neil Benson [00:02:37]:

We're recruiting two associates next month who will have one or two years of experience, but apprentices would require an extra level of investment in a training and development program that we're just not ready to provide just yet. And I think it would do them more harm than good if we're not ready to provide them with a structured training program. So if you know of anyone with a successful onboarding program for consultants with no previous experience, let me know so I can invite them onto the show. Mohammed and I also discussed hiring people with more industry experience. Both Tech Labs London and Superware focused on building apps and delivering services to specific industry sectors. We're building an app for superannuation benefit and insurance claims, which requires a lot of industry experience of those business processes, the regulations, and the challenges within the existing systems that are available in the market. We recently engaged a consultancy that specializes in this domain, and we're using them every sprint to help us to refine our requirements, provide feedback on our features, and plan the next set of enhancements to develop. Once the claims application is ready to take to market, I'd like to hire a consultant with superannuation claims experience to help us deploy it in our customers' organizations.

Neil Benson [00:03:45]:

So that's a key hire in the plan for later in the year. Episode two, what's your why? In my discussion with Joel Lindstrom, we discussed managing yourself first before you can lead others. My journey of improving my own health span and biohacking continues. I still track and optimize my sleep with my Oura ring. Not a great score last night. I've switched my magnesium supplements up to magnesium l threonate, which seems to help me get a better deep sleep later into the night. Unless our daughter jumps into bed at 03:00 in the morning, I'm continuing to exercise four or five times a week, and I've recently added high intensity hill sprints into my routine in a v o two max challenge with my best mate. He's a keen cyclist.

Neil Benson [00:04:24]:

He's way ahead of me. I've also tried something new at MVP Summit this year. It's easy at conferences to get carried away, joining in all of the social events, and staying out too late into the evening. This year, I checked into the Bellevue Club. It's a beautiful hotel with amazing fitness center and a health club. I got to bed early every night. I got up early, and I hit the gym every day, which I've never done before while trolling for work, especially at conferences. Taking it up another level, I also joined Upgrade Labs for that week.

Neil Benson [00:04:53]:

They are a network of biohacking facilities with a center in Bellevue near Microsoft's, campus in Redmond. I got a total body scan. I I tried the Pulsed, electromagnetic blanket. That was an experience. The AI adaptive bike, the AI adaptive weight machine, the Vibe plate, the red light, the sauna bed thing. I also did the cryotherapy chamber three times down to minus a 30 Fahrenheit, which is minus a hundred and five Celsius for three minutes. That was a blast. I can recommend the Upgrade Labs facilities if you're visiting Redmond or live near another Upgrade Labs location.

Neil Benson [00:05:29]:

Another key lesson I learned from Joel, I've been blessed successful with. Joel sends a Monday morning video message to his team who are, you know, distributed across time zones in different cities as a way of keeping in touch and communicating key messages. I experimented with a Friday video message intending to create one every two weeks, but I haven't recorded the second one yet. I'm probably overthinking it, overproducing it. Instead of recording something short and simple, I turned it into a mini podcast episode, which just takes too long to produce. I'm gonna see if I can create a five minute video update in in ten minutes to keep the team up to date. Joel also encouraged me and you to keep our technical certifications up to date. Many of us have had a career on the tools, building Microsoft apps and services for our customers.

Neil Benson [00:06:13]:

And now we lead teams who do the same. Those Microsoft apps and services keep evolving, and Joel implored us to keep our certifications evolving too. And I'm still not sure I agree with Joel on this one. He's the power platform practice director at Hitachi Solutions America. And it might make sense for Joel to maintain his certifications if his team or his customers still expect him to provide technical leadership and guidance. But has the CEO of Hitachi Solutions taken a AI 900 Azure AI fundamentals exam? I'm not sure. If a leader is spending time in technical certifications, are they spending less time in areas like strategy, people, partnerships, culture, and with customers where they should be leading? I waited into that debate on a LinkedIn post from Chris Huntingford. Chris is the director of AI at ANS Group.

Neil Benson [00:07:02]:

His post give me lots of examples of leaders that are keeping their certifications up to date, but they were mostly technical leaders with CTO type job titles. My question to Chris is, has the CEO of ANS Group passed his or her, I think it's his, AI 900 exam? Then James Crowther joined the conversation. He's the managing director of technology management, one of the most highly regarded Microsoft ERP partners in The UK. James leads a business of nearly 200 people. He's grown over thirty years, and he keeps his ERP certifications up to date. He probably also keeps his accounting qualifications up to date as well, and he made a compelling case that we should all do the same. I'll need to have James on the show and hear more about his side of that debate. Before then, I might just try and sneak in a little fundamentals exam one weekend and see how it goes.

Neil Benson [00:07:49]:

What do you think? Should leaders in Microsoft partner businesses keep their technical certifications up to date? And does that apply all the way up and across the organization even to leaders no longer responsible for hands on delivery of Microsoft apps and services? Let me know in the comments on the practice leading page on LinkedIn or on YouTube. Episode three, partner pricing models. I discussed pricing strategies with Ben Vollmer from RSM US, and I continue to heed Ben's advice and focus on micro verticals. Superwire builds engagement apps for superannuation funds, which is a type of retirement account here in Australia, and we've just launched a grants management app for Australian government agencies. We continue to deliver those apps in blended teams working alongside of our customers, transferring our technical knowledge so that they can successfully adopt and support our apps after that initial implementation is done, something Ben and I discussed in that episode as well. And we continue to explore ways of pricing our apps and services that try and reflect fair value. We haven't landed on a solid subscription pricing model for our apps yet. There are some constraints on the pricing models available in Microsoft AppSource.

Neil Benson [00:08:52]:

And frankly, most customers don't seem ready to pay for apps based on metrics such as the number of customers in the CRM application or the number of complaints or claims handled or the financial value of funds under management or grants awarded. But we continue to keep an open mind and explore the options. That's one of the beauties about being a start up. So you don't have the baggage of legacy contracts to maintain with hundreds of thousands of customers, and you can do a few custom deals for enterprise customers until a pattern emerges that more and more of your customers want to adopt. One key lesson that's still in my plan and we still haven't executed yet is to hire someone to deliver what Ben called an empowerment capability. This might be as simple as hiring a trainer to deliver public agent in a day workshops as well as private technical training for our customers. It's still on the backlog of ideas to grow the business, but it hasn't made it to the top of the backlog just yet. Episode four, empathy, influence, impact.

Neil Benson [00:09:46]:

Areddy Iles from Telefonica Tech challenged us to tap into our empathetic leadership style in episode four. Areddy discussed the importance of clear communication regarding career goals for our team members, coaching them towards those goals, and setting clear expectations and providing meaningful feedback. I've made a few tiny, tiny improvements in this area, but honestly, I'm a long way from a world class boss. Career development conversations just don't come that easily to me. They didn't when I was an employee trying to advance my career, and they still don't come easily now that I'm a, you know, leader responsible for helping others advance theirs. But I've got some ideas I learned from Bob Bell in the next episode that I'll share in just a moment. Thanks, everybody, for reminding me and inspiring me to keep working on becoming a more empathetic manager. I don't think I'm a terrible boss, but for whatever reason, I'm more comfortable either working on my own, creating something, heads down myself, or facilitating group sessions or presenting in front of a group of people.

Neil Benson [00:10:44]:

Having more meaningful one on one sessions and learning to enjoy them is something I definitely need to keep working on. Episode five, hiring a talent manager. Talking about career progression, Bob Bell, CEO at ITK Consulting, shared how one of his key hires was a talent manager. His talent manager delivers HR operations function day to day and then switches into the role of talent acquisition when ITK needs to expand the team. I love that idea, and I set about trying to hire a talent manager for Superware. Given our size, a part time talent manager seemed to make a lot of sense, and I interviewed a candidate who was a parent returning to work and looking for a part time role. But I didn't keep the conversation going quickly enough, and she took a role with an HR consultancy. So now now we're in discussions with them about engaging them as a service provider while I'm still interviewing a couple of potential talent managers to come and join us on a part time basis.

Neil Benson [00:11:35]:

We need lots of help with some HR projects, formalizing our policies and procedures, the, role descriptions, career progression plans, bonus plans, and employee, feedback and incentive system. That's another idea I picked up from Joel in episode two. The training and development plans, an employee handbook, you know, how how do you reclaim expenses, lots lots more. I've also learned that talent operations and talent acquisition are quite separate specialties. Not many HR professionals can do both well. So I'm in discussions with a recruiter about becoming our talent acquisition service provider, which will involve much closer collaboration with the recruiter instead of just paying eye watering fees whenever they place a candidate with us. Perhaps I can invite Bob and ITK's talent manager onto a future episode to learn more about how they run talent management there. Episode six, mentorship and hackathons.

Neil Benson [00:12:25]:

Edith Kapkari from Orbis SE taught me about the value of being a great mentor. I like my conversation with already Isles. This one took me to the edge of my comfort zone. Edith meets with each of our team one on one, thirty minutes every week. I meet with mine once every six months. That's how far I got to go in my journey. Superwares team do have five other cofounders available to mentor them. It's not like we've abandoned them completely and left them to fend for themselves.

Neil Benson [00:12:51]:

And my cofounders are much closer to the delivery of our work every day. But still, it reminded me that I need to do better. Natural leaders like Edith make it sound so easy and routine. Of course, we make time to meet one on one every week and discuss career challenges and career progression goals. Does having those kind of conversations come naturally to you? They don't to me yet. But I am a work in progress, which is why I love learning from people like Edith and Areti on this show. Another idea I picked up from Edith that's on our backlog is to organize a hackathon. I'm not sure Superwire is large enough yet to run one internally, but I'm on the committee of the Queensland business apps user group.

Neil Benson [00:13:26]:

And a hackathon would make a great user group event, so that's on my backlog as well. Episode seven, building a team culture. Catherine Hooksetthe, CEO at CRMK, shared her lessons along the way as she's built the team from four to over 40. Today, CRMK is probably the most highly regarded Microsoft business apps practice in Sweden. We shared stories about our common challenges of finding it difficult to pause and celebrate significant milestones and the team's achievements. I had my conversation with Catherine in mind when I booked Superware's recent team dinner to celebrate winning our third significant project from one of our public sector customers. And it felt good to pause and say, well done, to acknowledge everyone's hard work and the quality of the the applications that we strive to deliver every day. I'm continuing to noodle on Catherine's lesson about having an external advisory board member or two.

Neil Benson [00:14:16]:

Today, we bring an outside expertise for product development, which I just mentioned. We have a fractional CFO. I have a business coach and a cofounder, so a team coach. And I mentioned my plans for HR advisory and operations, but none of those are what you would call a board member. We might have to raise some funding to accelerate our product development efforts soon. And if we raise equity funding, I imagine we'll find ourselves with an external board member to bring some scrutiny into the business whether we want one or not. Another lesson I learned from CRMK is their dedication to their team's culture and to their learning and development. They bring their team together every Friday morning for breakfast and a short team meeting, and the rest of the day is spent in learning and development.

Neil Benson [00:14:52]:

That means their team are spending 20% of their time on training. So I hope their rates are 20% higher as a result given they've probably got the best credentialed team in Sweden. I don't think Superware's current customers are ready to lose 20% of our team's capacity just yet, which would probably add 20% to our project timelines unless that learning development translated into a faster velocity. But I've invited the team to spend one day a month on professional development and learning and training. And if that goes well, we'll increase it to two days a month. But one day a week? I'm not sure we're gonna get there anytime soon. Thanks, Catherine, though, for setting the bar so high. Episode eight, insider secrets.

Neil Benson [00:15:29]:

In this recent episode, Chris McNulty of Signageur reminded me of the importance of partnering in alignment with Microsoft and not just trying to run a technology business somewhere on the same planet. Chris' years as a product manager inside Microsoft, really came to the forefront in this episode. He acknowledged the challenges and the complexity of partnering with the world's biggest company. It's 8,000 times bigger than Superware. To be honest, we haven't made much progress here. Unfortunately, we've been unable to make any headway with the financial services industry team at Microsoft Australia. And I get it. Like, we are tiny and we're unproven, and established partners are probably bringing them deals.

Neil Benson [00:16:06]:

But we're working on several significant opportunities to displace Adobe or Microsoft. But we are working on several significant opportunities to displace Adobe or Salesforce with Microsoft Dynamics, and we still can't get the account exec or solution execs to reply to our emails. We're meeting the board and the executive teams of their customers, and we still can't get Microsoft to join us in the room. Better news, though, Microsoft has has made a couple of interesting partner announcements recently. One was great news, at least. I read it on, Lucy Bourne's LinkedIn post. Lucy was a partner development manager at Microsoft and now runs Oka Studio, helping Microsoft partners strengthen their Microsoft alliance and their businesses. Actually, she'll ask Lucy to join me on the show as well.

Neil Benson [00:16:46]:

In her post, Lucy shared an announcement for dual recognition. This means Microsoft business apps partners like Superware can get recognition for helping a customer evaluate and deploy Microsoft software even when another partner transacts the licenses. Frustratingly, we've lost recognition on several mid market and enterprise deals where we provided all the services, but the customer wanted to acquire their licenses through an existing CSP relationship. And that other partner couldn't even spell CRM, let alone deploy it. You'll find a link to that announcement in the episode description. On the other hand, Microsoft has also announced new authorization requirements for CSP partners, which will come into effect on the October 1. And I think it's gonna make it much harder for small partners like Superware that focus on a small number of enterprise deals to continue to remain a Microsoft CSP partner. You'll find a link to that announcement in the episode description as well.

Neil Benson [00:17:40]:

We might have to accelerate our plans to get some help from someone like Lucy and sort out our partner relationship. We might have to accelerate our plans to get some help from someone like Lucy and sort out our Microsoft alliance before we get kicked off the dance floor and dragged out of the studio. We might have to accelerate our plans to get some help from someone like Lucy and sort out our Microsoft alliance before we get kicked off the dance floor and dragged out of the disco by the air. One lesson I took away from my conversation with Chris is the reminder of the investment Microsoft has made and its customer engagement facilities. They're also known as, customer, executive briefing centers, experience centers, innovation hubs. It depends, I think, on what's offered at each location. There are world class physical facilities in more than 50 cities worldwide where customers can experience an immersive session to learn how Microsoft services can help their business. We're trying to arrange a session for one of our investment management prospects to visit the Microsoft Innovation Hub in Sydney as they evaluate replacing Adobe and and Salesforce with Dynamics three sixty five across their business.

Neil Benson [00:18:44]:

If we can just get the account exec to reply to our emails. Big thank you to all eight guests we've had so far. I hope you've learned just as much as I have from the lessons they've shared about how they run their Microsoft practices. I'd love to hear from you. What's been your biggest takeaway so far? Have you experimented with any of the ideas you've learned about, and can you share any stories about how that's come? Send me a LinkedIn message. I'd love to hear from you. You can download takeaways. There's a a cheat sheet available for each episode.

Neil Benson [00:19:09]:

If you wanna come and join, the lab, there's a free tier available at lab.practiceleading.com, and you can sign up there and get access to those cheat sheets. Or if you just wanna leave a review on Apple Podcast or Spotify and share your favorite lesson, which helps other leaders find a show, that means we can continue to attract amazing leaders onto the show in future. And we've got lots more to come. Nancy Calder, a global executive from Avanade, joins me in the next episode to discuss building a culture of innovation at scale. I can't wait to share our discussion with you. Make sure you don't miss it. Go to practiceleading.com/ follow, and you'll find subscription links to major podcast players and the YouTube channel. If you'd like to share your leadership lessons with other practice leaders, you're welcome to come and join me.

Neil Benson [00:19:53]:

Visit practiceleading.com, click on guests at the top of the homepage, and submit your details. Until then, thanks so much for joining me. Keep experimenting. I hope you enjoyed this practice leading episode and found it just as inspiring as I did. If you did, please consider leaving a review on Apple Podcasts or on Spotify. Reviews help other like minded practice leaders like you find this podcast and grow our community. I'd rather have a four star rating with a suggestion for one thing that I could improve than a five star rating. But, you know, five star ratings are pretty cool too.

Neil Benson [00:20:27]:

Until next time, keep experimenting.