The Top 20 Fortis Enterprises Interview Questions To Prepare For

Adam: Thanks again for taking the time to share your advice. First things first, though, I am sure readers would love to learn more about you. How did you get here? What experiences, failures, setbacks or challenges have been most instrumental to your growth?.

Greg: I moved into the payments business more than 25 years ago, right after I graduated from business school. I put some money down with a friend and we started a small startup. Even though the result wasn’t great, it was my first experience in the field and taught me a lot, mostly about what not to do when trying to grow a business. I quickly discovered many organizations in this industry were not created to scale or drive business efficiently. My career went in a more corporate direction after we sold the business. I was able to use my entrepreneurial spirit to help corporations improve channels and distribution, add more features, and streamline operations while meeting the needs of a new type of customer and partner.

Getting ideas, people, and even organizations from point A to point B has been my key to success, from failing as an entrepreneur to using my business experience. Since then, I’ve spent the last 12 years of my career working for equity-backed companies, where I focused on alignment, scale, and making changes to strategies and services to help companies grow.

I learned that thinking about the times I failed in my career was important for where I was going next because it helped me see the need to switch from selling enterprise clients to filling the gaps that came up when a business changed its image. By reliving and analyzing those missteps, you allow yourself to see your core competencies and the little “wins. ” The key is leveraging both into new areas for growth and development.

Greg: Strategy – Develop a vision along with a strategy and make it visible to the entire organization. As part of this strategy, set annual priorities and goals to help the company stay on track. You have to know where you’re going, how you’re going to get there and set targets. Along the way, you can make changes, but it’s important to keep the whole team moving in the same strategic direction.

Execute – Leverage your core capabilities and execute flawlessly. Getting non-essential tasks and activities out of the organization is important so that the team can focus on the most important things. Set goals and KPIs every year, every three months, or even every month to hold leaders accountable and keep track of their progress. Learn from wins and losses and make necessary changes along the way. Understand what you are really good at and do more of it in a replicable fashion.

People—Finding the right people with the same passion and buy-in on the vision who are also very good at carrying it out is just as important, if not more so. This means having people who know how to grow and scale a business and can be counted on when things go wrong. This could mean hiring too many people for some roles. Any leader should help the people by giving team members the tools they need, making sure everyone knows the rules, and realizing that it takes more than one person to run a business, let alone grow it. As a mentor once told me – let the horses run!.

Greg: Be patient and set winning expectations. It’s okay to make small changes or tweaks, but wait for things to settle down and form the right shape. When things go really badly or systemic problems show up, don’t be afraid to make changes. But be patient. In my career, impatience has counteracted my best efforts at times.

Find a “win” along the way that you want people to work toward and celebrate those wins, no matter how small they are. The teams I’ve led worked best when they were given direction and inspiration – and people like winning. This tells me that people want to know what “wins” are in the first place. They also want the chance and the patience to get those wins, and they want to be able to celebrate them when they happen.

People who lead teams should help their employees set goals and keep track of their progress to make this advice work. I strongly believe in checking in every three months, planning once a year, and making changes once a week or once a month to make sure that everyone is successfully overcoming the obstacles that stand in the way of their wins.

What are the most important tech trends that business leaders should know about and understand? What should they know about these trends?

Greg: From the metaverse, to blockchain and the cloud, there’s a lot of innovation to go around. Remember that it’s not a “winner-takes-all” situation. That’s why you need to be patient and use strategy. A change in any business ecosystem, especially when fragmented, takes time. It’s important to be near new ideas, but it’s also important to invest in the infrastructure that’s already there and plan for and adapt to how technology is changing around us.

“If you build it, they will come” is a quote from a great movie. Many in technology believe this Field of Dreams, if you will. Any business leader can have a great product, but it won’t get used or grow if they don’t set up the right sales and distribution channels and strategies to get people to buy and use it.

Greg: One important thing leaders need to learn is how to listen more and recognize that they aren’t always the smartest person in the room. Leaders, people who want to be leaders, and everyone else involved can learn from each other’s experiences and points of view. This helps leaders understand all the facts, respond more tactfully, and lead better. From our teams and staff to other leaders and more, we never stop learning from those around us.

Greg: Position your organization for tomorrow. Sell the future internally and externally but be realistic in the short term. Build a solid distribution strategy to effectively share your vision. And when holding others accountable, be prepared to adjust.

Greg: Having empathy is a big part of getting and keeping the right people on your team. People join your team because they want to either follow a vision or work with you, and often they do both. All people want to be included, loved, believed and trusted. Balancing these becomes the moving target leaders have to hit.

Another question we didn’t touch on here is what do leaders do when times are tough?

It can be a lonely area for leaders because it requires making hard decisions. I think that great leaders really shine during times of growth and times of hardship. Great leaders give their teams credit when they win, and during hard times, they pick up the pieces of the puzzle and take full responsibility. They try to figure out what the real issues are and make good (but not perfect) decisions based on that information. Sometimes this means making the tough choice by themselves. You can’t always make everyone happy, but you should be honest and know that not all problems can be solved easily. Ownership and leadership around tough decisions separate the great leaders from those simply doing the motions. Adam Mendler is the CEO of The Veloz Group, a company he helped to start and that runs businesses in many different fields. Adam also created and hosts the business and leadership podcast Thirty Minute Mentors. On this show, he has one-on-one conversations every week with some of America’s most successful people, including Fortune 500 CEOs, founders of well-known companies, Hall of Fame and Olympic gold medal winners, and political and military leaders. Adam has written a lot about leadership, management, business, marketing, and sales. His over 70 articles have been published in major news outlets, such as Forbes, Inc. He has also done more than 500 one-on-one interviews with America’s top leaders through his various media projects. Adam is a top leadership speaker who uses what he has learned from starting and running businesses and talking to hundreds of America’s most powerful people as a keynote speaker for businesses, universities, and non-profits.

Adam can be found on Instagram and Twitter as @adammendler. You can also listen to and subscribe to Thirty Minute Mentors on your favorite podcast app.

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