Confessions of a not-so-accidental leader

Slides from my opening talk at SunshinePHP 2019

Transcript

1. Confessions of a Not-So-Accidental
   Leader
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2. "We would replace your talk with a Muppet re-run"
   -- Adam Culp
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3. The year is 2003
   I think
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4. "I think you should take a leadership course."
   -- my co-worker Peter, head of customer service at a cheat-on-your-
   partner dating web site
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5. L
   O
   L
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6. "No, really. Why are you laughing?"
   -- same person
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7. L
   O
   L
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8. So what if he was actually right?
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9. What if I had leadership qualities
   but were in denial?
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10. What does leadership actually
    mean?
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11. Let's roll the clock back to the late
    1970's and early 1980's
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12. "Hey, I want to play baseball in the
    park?"
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13. "Is anybody else playing baseball in
    the park?"
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14. "Grab your gloves and a bat, we're
    going to go play '2 Against The
    North'"
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15. Let it roll further to the mid-to-late
    1990's
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16. "Hey, I want to play dice-and-paper
    role playing games"
    Confessions of a Not-So-Accidental Leader
    

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17. "Is anyone else out there wanting to
    play?"
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18. "Great, make up your characters and
    come and play at my place. I have
    room in my computer room
    upstairs!"
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19. Roll it all the way up to 2012...
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20. "Hey, there are no PHP-centric conferences where I live"
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21. "Who wants to help me organize one? I'll be the hype man and take
    care of the speakers!"
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22. "Thank you all for coming to the 5th and final year of
    TrueNorthPHP!!!"
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23. So what was the common thing?
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24. Scary parallels to product development
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25. I found a pain point I had
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26. I wondered what it would take to
    solve that pain point
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27. I created a solution
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28. Does that mean I had "leadership
    skills"?
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29. (snicker)
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30. I believe my old co-worker was
    correct
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31. Are you a potential leader without
    knowing it?
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32. Uncomfortable assumptions about
    leadership
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33. Many folks would have you believe that tech
    leaders are:
    • young
    • aggressively overconfident
    • always working long hours
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34. Maybe that is people who sell you
    seminars on leadership?
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35. Maybe this is people who know their
    ideas won't make money and want
    to cash out before anyone figures it
    out?
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36. I am only one of those things
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37. Except I have a beard (which
    conveys MASSIVE authority in tech)
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38. Outcomes matter more then my
    awesome beard
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39. The people I know who are best at
    leadership do not all look the same
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40. What they have in common is a
    process
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41. 1. Articulate ideas clearly
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42. 1. Describe goals and directions
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43. 1. Convince others of the values of 1 and 2
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44. If you've ever done that...
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45. CONGRATULATIONS! YOU ARE A
    LEADER
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46. So back to the title of this talk...
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47. Most of my career had been pretty
    deliberate
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48. Jobs provided opportunities to build
    skills and network
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49. Conferences provided opportunities
    to build different skills...and network
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50. Social media provided opportunities
    to express ideas and attract cultists,
    er, followers
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51. All of them together helped me
    realize that leadership was
    something I was willing to do
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52. Except manage people for money
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53. The same thing might be true for
    you
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54. Think about the "Grumpy Tripod Of
    Leadership"
    $1 to me via PayPal to use in your own talks
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55. 1. Identify a pain point you are having and find fellow sufferers
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56. 1. Identify a pain point you are having and find fellow sufferers
    2. Come up with solutions and invite others to join you
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57. 1. Identify a pain point you are having and find fellow sufferers
    2. Come up with solutions and invite others to join you
    3. Execute a plan to implement that solution
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58. "But Chris, how does this work in the
    real world?
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59. Open Source!
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60. (Comes with a massive amount of
    privilege to have the time to work on
    it)
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61. OpenCFP
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62. "Hey, I need to build something to collect talks for TrueNorthPHP
    because what we used the first time wasn't doing it for me"
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63. "I'll open-source this so we can other people to help build it out
    because it's more than enough work for one person..."
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64. "I can't believe so many people use this now! Let me take a look at
    those pull requests..."
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65. That is leadership.
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66. Find a group and keep them all
    moving in the same direction
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67. Mentoring
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68. "Hey, I wonder if there are folks struggling to figure out how to
    advance their career..."
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69. "Is there a centralized place I can go and offer to help?"
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70. "Hey, is Skype good for you? Talk to you at 9pm once my kids are
    in bed?"
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71. That is leadership
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72. Welcome to not-so-accidental
    leadership!
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73. Thank you and enjoy the conference
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