Leading an IT Team Workshop

This is a full-day workshop I have presented at several conferences. It's drawn from my book The Leadership Journey (http://leanpub.com/theleadershipjourney) and is meant to help attendees discover skills and behaviors they want to improve in order to lead a team of IT professionals.

Last updated after Romanian Testing Conference 2019.

Transcript

1. LEARNING TO LEAD AN IT TEAM
2. Leader Qualities Task: Get with a new person Talk, think of two things that make a leader great Write on chart ONE OR TWO WORDS!!
3. Great Leaders Task: With same new person Talk, think of two Leaders NOT INSPIRATIONAL Write on chart
4. Slides: http://speakerdeck.com/jimholmes
5. Jim Holmes Jim@GuidepostSystems.com @aJimHolmes FrazzledDad.com
7. USE THE BOOK! IT HAS PRACTICAL EXERCISES!
8. FORMAT
9. Discussion Exercises Sharing
10. Lean Coffee
11. More Exercises in the book!
12. INTERACTION
13. Managing Jim
14. GOALS
15. LEARN how to understand the business
16. LEARN where and how to improve your communication
17. LEARN how to grow
18. Leave with a roadmap of ideas
19. QUESTIONS FOR YOU TO THINK ABOUT
20. DO YOU WANT TO BE A LEADER?
21. HOW TO BE A LEADER?
22. WHY BECOME A LEADER?
23. WHAT DO I WANT FOR LEADERSHIP STYLE?
24. WHY I THINK YOU SHOULD LEAD
25. SELF- FULFILLMENT
26. FILL A NEED
27. WE HAVE TOO FEW GOOD LEADERS!
28. Why NOT? Task: Write two reasons why you shouldn’t or don’t want to become a leader
29. WHAT MAKES A GREAT LEADER?
30. Exercise Results
31. Mentor Inspires Calm Delegates Solves Problems Focused Protects team Knows the mission Decisive
32. RESPECT
33. INTEGRITY
34. GREAT LEADERS HAVE PROPERTIES YOU CAN LEARN AND EMULATE
35. GROWING INTO LEADERSHIP
36. DEAL WITH YOUR FEARS
37. I’ll lose my technical skills!
38. Yes Maybe Deal with it
39. Mentor
40. Pair
41. Broaden your skills
42. Move your skills up to business level
43. I don’t have the tech skills to lead a team!
44. No Maybe Deal with it
45. Do you actually need them?
46. Your TEAM is strong!
47. Fight your FUD
48. Remember your strengths!
49. HOW
50. Learn the mission!
51. Demonstrate aptitude, interest, ability
52. Ask for more responsibility!
53. IMPROVE YOUR COMMUNICATION
54. Good communication is about them not you
55. Meyers-Briggs
56. DISC
57. Decisive Interactive Stability Cautious
59. Wait Ten Minutes
60. Find your tripwires
61. One Thing Task: Share one thing you can do to grow as a leader
62. LOSE YOUR FEARS IMPROVE YOUR COMMUNICATION ASK FOR RESPONSIBILITY
63. UNDERSTANDING THE BUSINESS
64. Learn to communicate in the language of your business!
65. Understand what your team’s mission is
66. How do you contribute value to your organization?
67. Who do you help? How do you help them?
68. Talk to your boss Talk to their boss
69. What’s Your Mission? Task: Pair up with someone new Them: Discuss what their team’s job is You: Ask questions
70. UNDERSTAND YOUR ORGANIZATION
71. What’s the business’s mission?
72. Understand your organization’s structure
73. UNDERSTAND PROJECT STRUCTURE
74. Who’s the stakeholder?
75. Is there an Executive Sponsor?
76. LEARN YOUR ORGANIZATION’S BUSINESS
77. BE A GREAT LEADER
78. REMEMBER: KNOW THE MISSION
79. DEALING WITH WEAKNESSES
80. Strengths and Weaknesses Task: Write down two strengths you have Write down two weaknesses you have
81. Validate Is it an honest weakness?
82. Journal Keep track of wins & fails
83. Transparency
84. Accountability Partner
85. Constant Improvement
86. LEVERAGING STRENGTHS
87. Do more of it
88. Mentor / Pass it on
89. Share your wins
90. Build a pattern of success
91. — Adm. William H. McRaven, US Navy SEAL IF YOU MAKE YOUR BED EVERY DAY IT WILL GIVE YOU A SMALL SENSE OF PRIDE AND ENCOURAGE YOU TO DO ANOTHER TASK ” “
92. Wins! Task: Share one success from last week
93. A DAY IN THE LIFE
94. Manage Expectations (Up and down!)
95. Flip negatives to positives Think of value
96. IT’S A GOOD IDEA BUT WON’T WORK ” “ NOT
97. WE SEEM TO AGREE THIS IS A GOOD IDEA. WHAT WOULD IT TAKE TO MAKE IT HAPPEN? ” “ INSTEAD
98. Focus on Value Task: Think of a situation where you wanted to say “No”. Rephrase in a positive, value- oriented way.
99. Foster Success
100. Safe to fail
101. Smart failures versus Dumb failures
102. Managing your team
103. Dealing with difficult people
105. PUSHING FOR CHANGE
106. Know who to pitch to
107. Know culture around experimenting
108. Pitch value
109. Improve predictability (not speed)
110. Cut waste
111. People
112. Better hiring
113. Better retention
114. What’s a good pitch look like?
115. Clear Concise Problem / Solution / Value
116. How do you make a good pitch?
117. Find the right person LEARN ABOUT THEM Schedule their time Greet Pitch Ask for questions RESPECT their time Thank them for their time!
118. PROJECTING CONFIDENCE
119. Body language
120. Making a Pitch Task: Find a partner Build a pitch Think of an idea Problem / Solution / Value Practice with your partner Deliver pitch!
121. Review Task: Validate your strengths & weaknesses from earlier exercise How can you mitigate your weaknesses? How can you leverage your strengths?
122. MITIGATE YOUR WEAKNESSES LEVERAGE STRENGTHS PUSH FOR CHANGE
123. TAKING CARE OF YOURSELF
124. Get a mentor NOW
125. Mentors Task: Do you have a mentor? If so, how well is that working? If not, think of two candidates
126. Become a time management super hero
127. “NO”
128. Work / life balance is NOT a myth
129. POLISHING YOUR STYLE
130. Praise in public Criticize in private
131. Mentor your team
132. Delegate responsibility
133. Expect don’t just Empower
134. Open your door
135. Default.answer == “Yes”
136. Value your elites Empower others to become elite
137. SUPPORT YOUR TEAM IMPROVE YOURSELF
138. FINISHING UP
139. Roadmap Task: Share two things you want to work on in the next month
140. What’s Changed? Task: Review the first exercise (two reasons why you shouldn’t or don’t want to lead) Do you see those reasons differently?
141. THANK YOU