Alumni Spotlight: Mark Dean

Mark Dean has built a successful career leading and developing high-performance sales-service teams with several Fortune-1000 technology and financial services organizations. In his most recent role as Head of Sales Development North America for LinkedIn, Mark was responsible for driving a team of 130 sales professionals across 5 locations to generate 15,000 lead opportunities and $150 million for three of LinkedIn's highest growth offerings; LinkedIn Recruiter, Sales Navigator, and Learning Solution. His team is also the primary talent pipeline for LinkedIn's Sales Teams.

He has also had the pleasure of learning through his roles leading large sales-service-tech, customer relations, Office of the President and Global BPO partner teams at Go-Daddy, Intuit, First Data, and HSBC.

As a former college basketball player at Old Dominion University, Mark credits his successful track record in building and leading successful teams to his extensive experience competing at the highest level in college sports.

Mark holds a BS Degree in Finance from Old Dominion University in Virginia and an MBA from Troy State University in Alabama. He currently lives with his wife Marstean(Garris) ODU 87, in Phoenix, Arizona

• What were your plans after college. You've had a successful career. Is this how you saw your life turning out?
  • No Way! My vision at that time was to either become a business attorney or work in some financial capacity on Wall Street. If a genie had appeared back then and granted me a wish to plan out my perfect career, it would look nothing like my actual journey. As I think about it, I am happy that the genie never did show up! 😊

• Was there a faculty member that had a lasting impact on your time at ODU?
  • I would say my finance professor, Dr. Bruce Rubin and my advanced accounting professor John...can't remember his last name! I know you said one, but I will ask for forgiveness later (a true business rule that I follow). My accounting professor made me realize that I was not built to be an accountant (even though through my sophomore year I carried a 3.5 in accounting classes). So, after my decision to leave accounting, I spoke with Dr. Rubin about Finance. His level of intellectual practicality and directness on the principles of finance and how these would benefit me no matter what path my career took me on, gave me the confidence to switch majors. I laugh sometimes because in some areas, finance was much more challenging than accounting was for me. Dr. Rubin believed in me and provided me with the resources and support to be successful in all my finance classes. BTW...we still talk today!
• What resources, if any, did you take advantage of or wish you had taken advantage of? Why would you recommend students take advantage of the resources Strome is offering today?
  • Strome has amazing and experienced faculty and resources to help students. I wish I would have participated in some of the business clubs, speaker series, and community programs more. These are all learning opportunities that can help shape your perspectives on people and different challenges that you will encounter. I also think that students should tap into the ODU Strome Business School Alumni Network. I know many alumni would be open to spending some time helping current students in any way they can. With platforms like LinkedIn and our ODU Alumni Network, it makes connecting with alumni easier than ever!
• What skills did you realize you needed to develop that weren't necessarily taught in class, such as networking, negotiation etc.
  • I think there are a few in addition to the ones you mentioned. One important one is decision-making and sales skills. One of the key elements of a successful career are the decisions you make. It sounds straight forward but there is a process around it. The bigger impact of your decisions, the more important it becomes to have those decisions anchored in principles, values, and structure to achieve the outcomes you desire. It is always amazing to me the amount of time organizations spend getting people on the same page. Learn and do this often with your team and this will lead to better and faster outcomes for your business or group. No matter what role you have, I believe everyone should spend time learning and practicing how to sell. Sales is foundational to all companies and most roles are in support of or enabling sales in some way. The better understanding you have of how sales works and the unique service or product your company is delivering through sales, the more effective you can be at delivering value in service to optimizing the overall selling system you take part in.
• Taking into consideration how much the workforce has changed since you entered it, especially leaving a company like LinkedIn to focus on your own business, what advice would you give to students, recent graduates and those graduating this coming 2020-2021 year?
  • Well, I could write a book on this! (ummm ...something to think about) But to give you some things to ponder...
    • Keep learning and developing your skills- you need to develop a "growth" mindset. Never stop learning things and always be willing to learn from mistakes. Be coachable and seek ongoing feedback. Things change so fast, it is important to identify the influential "thought-leaders" in your industry and follow them, read their books and blogs.
    • Actively build your network - as you go through your career the people you engage with will be needed at different points in your personal and professional growth. Don't waste those relationships that you deem valuable. Actively work on this. I spend 2-3 hours a month, reaching out to certain people in my Network and adding new people.
    • Learn a new language - business is global (like it or not) - more people will need skills to engage cross culturally with people from all over the world. Determine what makes sense for you but learn and become fluent in another language (or two).
    • Get comfortable with taking risk - Technology and our global economy have opened up many different avenues for you to build a career and make money. I would even argue that having multiple income sources is going to be more of the norm over the next decade. This is great because you may not always find a primary job that engages the full range of your passions/gifts. So having the ability to not only have a profession but also build something around what really makes you tick will lead to a better quality of life. Experience it all!
• What are 3 things you would tell your younger self going into college and right after graduating?
  • I would have told my younger self ...
    • Be discipline and develop good habits to help manage and prioritize your time
    • Have Fun - 4 years will speed by...and it did!
    • Mistakes are ok - I tend to seek perfection in everything I do!
  • After College
    • All the above, but one edit ....36 years speeds by ... and yes it did !
• What has been your greatest failure and accomplishment and what did each one teach you?
  • I do not look at bad decisions and outcomes that I have had as mistakes. I am of the mindset that all experiences add to your growth as a person and leader. This mindset will remove the fear of not pushing yourself and team outside of their comfort zones.
  • When I think about some of my professional learnings what they taught me relates to the following
    • Always let people know how you feel - by not doing so, I have had situations where we (the team) were not as good as we could have been if I had coached people differently and maybe moved faster to address their behavior. This impacted results and employee engagement in a negative way.
    • Teamwork makes the dreamwork - you cannot drive the business results needed unless everyone on the team is focused on the same outcome. Spend time developing the right relationships with your team and shared vision on what success means for the team and for them.... titles don't win games, teams do!
    • Move faster - I have had many learning opportunities in my career that were derived out of me not moving fast enough. I wanted all the information so I could make an informed RIGHT decision. This delayed approach in several situations hindered me from achieving goals, and more importantly, improper focus on information in pursuit of perfectionism impacted my team's morale and ability to be great. You only need 70% of the data in many cases to make the best decision and this will allow you to move 50% faster.
• Who opened doors for you and how do you plan to do the same?
  • There have been various people inside and outside of my professional circle who have believed and trusted in me. This would include many coaches when I played sports, including Coach Paul Webb, former ODU head basketball Coach. I think the reason people invested in me and believed in me is because I always showed up as my authentic self, had a high say-do ratio, worked hard, got results, took feedback well, and brought new ideas to the table. I mention this because before people will open doors and invest their reputation and time with you, you must show them you are investing in yourself.
  • I give back through personal mentorship and coaching, as well as using my network to help advance their development as needed. I am focused on helping black men and women develop their careers as well. Since in many companies there are not many senior level executives for them to go to for advice ( I unfortunately was the 1st VP person of color in several organizations that I worked for). And yes, it does matter to have a person of color to go to when you are a junior manager / employee looking for career advice, mentorship or just some personal advice.
• What kind of leader would you consider yourself to be and how do you go about developing future leaders?
  • I am a servant leader. I believe in my job as a leader is to help my team/people do the best work of their lives. I need to remove barriers and build a culture of high-performance, fun and where everyone has a voice.
  • I use many practices to develop my leaders, but one thing I tell them is that they own their development, not their manager or the company. They must take responsibility and make time for their own development monthly. One big principle that I learned is not one solution fits all. Everyone learns differently. So, depending on the person and what we are trying to work on, their development plan will be different. However, I use direct and timely feedback, books, online resources, and other leaders (sometime in my network) who are highly skilled in the area they need to improve in. One of the best ways that I found to help people develop as leaders is to have an ongoing process (each quarter) where the leaders ask for direct actionable feedback from their team, managers and partners that they work with each day. I am sure most people reading this could tell you the 1-2 things that they would like to see their manager do differently. And as a Servant Leader this accomplishes the task of what can you do to help your people do the best work of their lives!
• Starting a new business can be hectic, what advice would you give for maintaining a work-life balance?
  • Yes, working in a startup leaves very little time for sleep and fun. I would recommend getting up 45min. earlier and using that time for YOU. Do not look at email or take/make calls but indulge in what you like to do. Exercise, read, meditate, or maybe catch up on a binge show. Doing this will allow you to focus that much better, reduce the stress and hopefully energize you to tackle the day. The more focused and energized you are, the more impactful you can be for your team.
• What goals have you made for yourself now?
  • • Retire! I am serious about that, but I also want to build our company LegalBreeze, into a name brand and platform to help lawyers and firms grow their business online. I want to find a way that I can help our next generation of black leaders in their development. And on a personal note I want to bring my golf handicap down to single digits and learn Portuguese.
• Why Phoenix?
  • Well for three reasons...the weather (it's not 115 all the time and never have to shovel sunshine), the abundant outdoor activities (i.e. there are over 400 golf courses in Phoenix) - supports my goal of being a single digit golfer. And finally, because this is where my wife (87 ODU Alum) told me she wanted to live! 😊