The Leadership Spotlight continues this week with Dino Evangelista. For the past three years Dino has been the Business Technology Project Leader for the Broadcast Division of Dave Ramsey’s The Lampo Group, Inc. As Project Leader Dino has responsibility for leading 5 web-based software development teams that serve several businesses including our Radio Team, Endorsed Local Provider (ELP) Program, our MyTotalMoneyMakeover.com subscription site, and most recently our Curriculum and Live Events businesses.
Prior to joining The Lampo Group Dino served as Vice President of Program and Project Management for Confluent Data Systems, Inc. (CDS) based in Washington State. CDS was a startup software development and business analytics company working with various industries including aviation, government services, automotive, and wine industries. Prior to CDS Dino worked for Home Depot as a General Manager after graduating from their “Store Leadership Program”, based on the General Electric “Masters and MBA Leadership Program”, which he started after receiving his MBA from Regis University in Denver, CO. The early phases of Dino’s career he worked as a Network Engineer for such companies as Siemens AG, Perot Systems, and Accenture. In addition to his MBA, he holds a B.S. in Computer and Information Systems from Troy University in Troy, AL. Dino was born a New York Yankee fan in Queens, New York and grew up in Miami, FL where he developed his love for University of Miami Hurricane football. Dino currently live in Franklin, TN with his wife of over 15 years and their three beautiful daughters.
CLo: What is your role in leadership?
DE: As a Project Leader for the Broadcast division, I lead 5 teams of Web Programmers who deliver software solutions that support the various businesses of the division. These solutions include web-based application development and marketing focused development for the Dave Ramsey brand.
CLo: What is the best advice you’ve ever received about leadership?
DE: When it’s not fun for you as a leader, your team will know it and it will become a cancer. If you don’t enjoy what you do, you will never be an effective leader.
CLo: What is the biggest challenge facing leaders today?
DE: To me the biggest challenge I face as a leader is that my younger team members are motivated by their desired feelings of significance on the team. They want to play a role of significance that is sometimes more than they may be ready for. As a leader, we need to help them fulfill that need without putting them in a place where they are set up to fail.
CLo: How do you continue to improve yourself as a leader?
DE: I have a few ways I improve myself as a leader. 1) I read quite a bit and try to apply what I learn directly to what I am doing. 2) I learn from other respected leaders through observation and through time spent with them personally. 3) I ask for a lot of candid feedback from my team members. Quality feedback is something that takes time because your team members need to learn to trust that you can take the candid feedback and that you will change based on the information. It’s tough to hear sometimes, but it is the best way I know to learn quickly.
CLo: How do you invest in others?
DE: I invest in others in a couple of ways: 1) I am a developer (Not software) by nature. I like to hear what they want to be, not necessarily who they currently are. I like to work with them to develop into what God intended them to be. In the end, I like to help others figure out what they need to do to reach their life’s goals, whether it’s finding the courage to step out of their comfort zone or to change directions completely. 2) I love spending quality time with others; whether it’s time taking someone to lunch or going and hanging out at a hockey game. Sometimes it is face to face discussions and sometimes it should to shoulder sharing of life experiences.
CLo: What was the last book you read?
DE: The last book I read was “Making Vision Stick” by Andy Stanley. It’s really short, but I really enjoyed it. It helped me to define the importance of continually communicating the vision to the team in order to keep everyone heading toward the same target.
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