As Vice President, US Channel Sales, I’m passionate about creating pathways for Black excellence through partnership and innovation within the Black and African American community. As Black History month comes to a close, I’d like to share additional information regarding our effort to ignite, grow, and invest specifically in this community through Microsoft’s Black and African American partner growth initiative. Recently, we launched the Black and African American partner growth initiative to: Expand the diversity

The time has come to say goodbye to 2020. Before I do, let me spend some time reflecting on how the year of “Perfect Vision” has provided me some treasured learnings that have allowed me to see more clearly in 2021. The Value of Time – It is true that time is precious and not renewable. How you choose to spend your time every second of the day is up to you. I can assure you

One of the Top Ten Most Influential Women in Cloud in 2020 As a Vice President of Microsoft’s US One Commercial Channel Sales Organization, Lani Phillips is driving digital transformation across its customers in Commercial, Mid-Market and Regulated Industries in the United States with its partner ecosystem. As an inquisitive child, Lani Phillips was always fascinated with technology, so it was no surprise that she started her career as a systems engineer. Although it was

Welcome partners! As we finish FY21 planning, I cannot help but express how grateful we are for your continued commitment to partnering with Microsoft and delivering on our customers’ business outcomes. Every partner can co-sell with Microsoft! All solutions, apps, and service offerings are ready to co-sell with Microsoft. Partners can use these co-sell programs targeted to their solution area: Business Applications: use the Business Applications ISC Connect programApplications & Infrastructure and Data & AI: use the

Listen with Intensity One of the most critical skills you can develop as a compassionate and inclusive leader is your ability to truly listen to your people, stakeholders, customers, and partners. In a digital world where we are always on and connected, it becomes difficult to focus, which impacts our ability to listen intently. We can all probably think of that time when we found the courage to speak up or just wanted to share

Today the modern leader understands the value of creating strong cultures rooted in empathy. To create that strong culture you must be willing to demonstrate vulnerability to build trust with your organization. Being vulnerable is not a sign of weakness but strength today. It allows you to demonstrate you are human and do not have all the answers. People want to work for leaders who are genuine and can relate to their people. They want

Many of us as leaders are slowly finding a new normal during this pandemic. It has been disruptive to most businesses and has negatively impacted our employees, customers, and partners. As each state slowly re-opens, we are starting to see a surge in case numbers.  Now health departments are begging their governors to close back down.  In this time of uncertainty, we are facing new challenges as it relates to re-imagining our future.  We are

In the last few weeks, like many others, I finally hit the wall. I was deeply saddened by all the events in succession that happened, COVID-19, Ahmad Aubrey, Brianna Taylor, Christian Cooper, and George Floyd to name a few. I decided that enough was enough and I had a responsibility to do something right where I am planted. It all started with a strong desire to create space for my organization to share how they

Many of us as leaders never anticipated the day our world would be shaken to its core and force us into immediate social isolation due to a disrupting pandemic. This had a profound impact on me and my family. We immediately found ourselves confronted with homeschooling a child on the autism spectrum, working from home full-time, being a long way away from family, and managing our individual anxiety associated with the unknowns of this virus.

Throughout my career, I have purposefully focused on technology, as I see it as a vehicle to make a real difference in the world. I am excited to be among so many female “tech” entrepreneurs who are using their love for technology to solve key business and world challenges. Women in Cloud represents my community of trailblazers who are committed to creating economic opportunities for all. As a member of the Women in Cloud community,

Earlier this week, I attended Episerver’s #Ascend2019 Conference in Miami, FL. Our keynote speaker was one of the most inspirational people I’ve ever encountered, Amy Purdy. I was first introduced to her as I was scrolling through channels and saw her on Dancing with the Stars. I was immediately smitten by her ability to dance so gracefully, never mind that she did not have any legs. Fast forward 5 years, and much to my surprise, I learned

It’s a chilly November day in the Bellevue office. I’m in town taking care of business and encountered an experience that really touched me. During a quick break to the ladies’ room between meetings, my thoughts were racing, paying little attention to my surroundings. I washed my hands while glancing up and was struct by a collage of Post-It notes that had encouraging words on each one. Unable to move, my heart filled with gratitude as I read

Customers are the center of our universe and the key to actualizing Microsoft’s mission to “empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more.” We make our mission possible through you, our partners. My role leading Channel Sales for US One Commercial Partner puts me in a unique position to never lose sight of what is essential to our customers while ensuring that we leverage our talented partner ecosystem to meet customer

As a leader, I can attest to the truth of this statement, and it’s why I strive to create a working environment where people can be their authentic selves and do their best work. Whether we acknowledge it or not, we communicate culture daily through our actions, and an organization’s leaders have an enormous impact on creating a welcoming, inclusive environment. Why do we all hear so much about inclusion and diversity in business these

Over the past few months, I’ve had the opportunity to conduct a “Listening Tour” across the US, meeting with our field Sales Teams and Partners to hear about their co-selling experiences with Microsoft. As the new leader of US co-selling efforts in One Commercial Partner, I wanted to understand what’s working, and where we need to improve and refine our strategies. I want to share the main insights from the Listening Tour. Here are some