Oracle Corporation
07/04/2024 | Press release | Distributed by Public on 07/04/2024 11:45
Taking the lead: Three years at Oracle–Cormac Watters
aking the lead: Three years at Oracle-Cormac Watters
July 4, 2024 | 8 minute read
Oracle Careers Editorial Team
For many, leadership is the top of the career ladder. Taking on responsibility for a team can feel like a natural progression after years of building the experience required to lead. However, reaching the strategic level isn't the end of the journey-it's a whole new start full of exciting challenges.
In Taking the Lead, we catch up with executive leaders celebrating Oracle anniversaries and ask them to share their experiences and the lessons learned along the way.
Cormac WattersCormac Watters arrived at Oracle right in the middle of the COVID pandemic in 2020, taking up the mantle of executive vice president and general manager with EMEA Applications. His team represents a large portion of the Oracle business in the region and is responsible for selling, implementing, and following up with customers.
To celebrate his third anniversary, Cormac caught up with Senior Director of Executive Leadership Recruiting, Cyndi Ellis about the value of positivity and what he's learned about leadership.
Outside in
When Cyndi first approached Cormac about leading at Oracle, he already knew a lot about the company-as a competitor!
"It's funny because I spent a lot of my time competing against Oracle from other places," he remembers. "You always form a view that kind of suits the narrative at the time." After speaking to senior leadership, Cormac began to see life at Oracle in another way- one where his passion for people, product, and transformation was a perfect fit.
Transforming at scale
"It is truly a customer-first place, which I know sounds like a sales pitch, but it's genuinely true," Cormac explains. It was a shock compared to what he thought he knew about Oracle as an outsider.
He'd expected an environment that was tough on people, but what he found was much more caring and grounded. There was also the confidence that comes from being an established player with big ambitions. "The organization was and is largely complete now, but you're never finished. We're transforming from a product to a service organization with various subscriptions, infrastructure, and applications. That changes the mindset."
AI impact
It comes down to pride in many ways. Pride in the job, pride in the company, pride in the technology, and the impact it makes. He points to Oracle's fifty-year pedigree and evolution into a global SaaS, IaaS, and PaaS business. It's reason to be excited and generative AI is continuing this trend. Cormac is positive about AI's prospects and the future it promises. So, how does he envision it merging with how we do things now? "I think it's very real and I think it's going to be a superb help to business. AI systems will get to a stage where they just say, 'One moment, you're done here. Have a look at this stuff. Make sure you're happy, now you're done,'" he explains. "It's going to free up folks to drive forward rather than measure backward and that's a significant benefit to every organization." Of course, it's no replacement for people and Cormac believes that like new technologies that have come before, it will free more of us to evolve and do better things than ever.
Early challenges
One of Cormac's biggest leadership challenges in the beginning came down to the pandemic period itself, he shares. "Trying to break down barriers internally and have people feel more connected, and have people in leadership, like myself, be more available and to hear the good and the bad, and then to try to explain what we're going to do about it." Encouraging two-way dialogue across an organization of this size has taken a lot of collaboration. Three-and-a-half years later, Cormac is glad to see everyone, leaders and individual contributors, become a lot more open.
Changing as a leader
"I get lots of great, constructive feedback now, which I think is appropriate," he reflects. It's certainly something that's changed him as a leader. Oracle's scale and the additional hurdle of remote leadership had Cormac exploring a different side of himself to meet his team's needs. "It's quite a challenging thing to move to a new organization where your first interactions are over Zoom and you're trying to establish yourself."
"I had to work on making a better first impression on remote calls," he explains. "I think I've gotten better at that." Oracle's scale means no one person can be the personal contact point for everybody. Cormac needed to be available, but also able to rise above and take a strategic view. "We're a massively successful, large, multi-billion-dollar SaaS business and small changes make an impact, but they do require deeper thinking because it impacts so many people." Face-to-face is a big part of this for Cormac. As much as the pandemic showed the power of remote to get things done in certain circumstances, it pays for leaders to be visible and reachable. "I don't think there's any substitute for face-to-face meetings with customers, colleagues, and partners. I think that makes sense, but we can do a lot more," he explains. A new middle way has appeared in the post-pandemic world that challenges leaders to cherry-pick the best remote and in-person approaches and apply them dynamically.
The power of patience
It's something he's been able to master through the company's suite of communication tools and services. Now, he feels much more connected to his organization. Part of getting things done at scale also lies in being nimble. Cormac feels that large companies can be just as responsive as their smaller rivals-it just takes foresight. And the rate of acceleration at Oracle is greater than anything he's seen before. "We have had to learn to do more pilots and to try it in say the Middle East or try it in the UK or try it in France and then go, 'Yeah that worked, that didn't work, okay, now go everywhere else.' I realized I do things differently than I did before I got here."
"I do take a lot of effort to respond to everything," he adds. "And I think I'm more patient now than I used to be."
Finding balance
Leaders need to be proactive and able to adapt to changing circumstances. As a result, the learning never really stops. Although it tends to be more self-directed and reflective instead of sitting inCormac Quote the classroom. Cormac's approach is to view his career alongside his life stages and see how one influences the other. It's given him some interesting lessons on work-life balance.
"I was talking to my son about this (he's 29) and I told him what I would have told myself at that age. I said that if you work hard and if you continue to try to do the right stuff, the company will notice. I love the idea of work-life balance, but at different points in your life, that means different things," he muses.
"When I was younger, I could work much longer and much harder, and so work-life balance was a different thing, whereas later, I might choose to slow down, but that's a different phase of life."
He describes himself as being "in an almighty rush for a long, long time" in his career, so his recent pivot to a more patient outlook reflects the value Oracle places on employee wellbeing.
Reading the room
Learning in leadership isn't just internal and needs to consider the effect you have on the outside world. And it can be as simple as being aware of your own presence-a lesson Cormac picked up in his early years. "I'm quite tall. I have the physicality that can change the tone in the room because if you see this big lumbering guy walking in and he looks annoyed that has an impact. I make a lot of effort to say, 'No matter what's going on, this room doesn't need to worry about that'. I make sure to be the best version of myself to make sure that I don't change the tone in that way."
"When I was a teenager with five younger siblings to consider, my mother used to say, 'It's not your place to alter the mood based on whatever just happened to you outside.' That's pretty cool advice!" He also has some advice of his own for budding leaders. "You have to know what you're talking about, keep being open to other styles and decide which bits you think are good, which bitsCormac Quote you think are bad, and then take action to resolve them in that direction. And stop being in a rush. It's okay to take your time."
"And portray positive energy and attitude, always be comfortable, and always be prepared. None of those things require talent-they just require a little bit of work!"
Positive thinking
Self-awareness and a commitment to positive energy are also qualities he looks for in team members. It's led him to think more inclusively and seek out budding leadership talent in all sorts of places. "We have amazing women leaders. And they're showing they don't have to be the loudest voice in the room, they're quite comfortable listening, and when they make a point, they are very complete." This culture of inclusion, he notes, fosters a more considerate atmosphere where listening is valued, and a more diverse range of voices are heard. It means that everyone can lead in a way that matters to them-showing the way isn't necessarily something that's just for management. "I love the fact that at Oracle we're working hard to say you can be a very successful individual contributor, just like you can be a successful manager. There are two different paths."
"You've got to be taking responsibility for a wider group of folks, so it might not be for everybody in that context, but there are traits that I think everybody could spend a little bit of time cultivating, which will impact them in a personal way."
Attracting great candidates
The ideal candidate is someone who not only realizes the value of personal responsibility but can also work towards growth. It's all about feeding the positive side of your personality, but negativity has its place, too. "I don't like negative people around me all the time, but I need them every so often, so I can understand what needs to happen," Cormac explains. Thinking negatively has advantages when asking tough questions, but enthusiasm carries the day when it comes to inspiring people. "This is leadership in many ways, and I think enthusiasm attracts many more people than the lack of."
Do you want to work somewhere that empowers you to lead your way while making a global impact? Explore our open roles and create the future with us today.