There's a huge problem in our industry, I call it "inertia-driven leadership".

We promote our "rock star" engineers, with their excellent technical skills, into leadership positions; then we sit back and watch as they fail.

We wonder why they fail at leadership but the answer is simple, we don't support them to improve their people skills!

In fact, we often don't even help them realise that the role of a "senior developer" is drastically different to that of a "leader"

What we can we do to stop inertia in our new leaders?

How can we support them to learn the soft skills they need?

How can we position with them that those soft skills are important to their career?

That is what we will discuss in this session.

Many software engineers are lead into the false assumption that we are hired to write code. This talk challenges that perception and discusses the real reason we are paid to turn up to work every day.

Coding is fun, but we are paid to solve problems.

I will try and convince you that you can add more value, and have more fun, by concentrating on the problem, not the code.

Everyone thinks they are a good at communication, but... how many times have you been at an event talking to someone you really didn’t want to talk to? Been sold to by someone who didn’t get that you weren’t interested?

These are examples of bad communication and they all have a few things in common, they weren’t efficient and they weren’t effective

.They didn’t go into the communication with the right mindset and the right preparation

Also, sorry to say it, but your own communications probably suck too. But after this talk you’ll have a leg up on your competition: you’ll know your communication sucks... and you know how to fix it.

Everyone thinks they are a good at communication, but... how many times have you been at an event talking to someone you really didn’t want to talk to? Been sold to by someone who didn’t get that you weren’t interested?

These are examples of bad communication and they all have a few things in common, they weren’t efficient and they weren’t effective

.They didn’t go into the communication with the right mindset and the right preparation

Also, sorry to say it, but your own communications probably suck too. But after this talk you’ll have a leg up on your competition: you’ll know your communication sucks... and you know how to fix it.

Many software engineers are lead into the false assumption that we are hired to write code. This talk challenges that perception and discusses the real reason we are paid to turn up to work every day.

Coding is fun, but we are paid to solve problems.

I will try and convince you that you can add more value, and have more fun, by concentrating on the problem, not the code.

Everyone thinks they are a good at communication, but... how many times have you been at an event talking to someone you really didn’t want to talk to? Been sold to by someone who didn’t get that you weren’t interested?

These are examples of bad communication and they all have a few things in common, they weren’t efficient and they weren’t effective

.They didn’t go into the communication with the right mindset and the right preparation

Also, sorry to say it, but your own communications probably suck too. But after this talk you’ll have a leg up on your competition: you’ll know your communication sucks... and you know how to fix it.

Many software engineers are lead into the false assumption that we are hired to write code. This talk challenges that perception and discusses the real reason we are paid to turn up to work every day.

Coding is fun, but we are paid to solve problems.

I will try and convince you that you can add more value, and have more fun, by concentrating on the problem, not the code.

"Soft skills" is a terrible name, isn't it? There are all sorts of challenges in leadership that one would typically class as "soft skills" but are most definitely hard. Letting someone go, for example.

I prefer "Emotional Intelligence" or "EQ", to counter-balance your IQ.

For the past 2 years I've been teaching EQ to Software Developers and I will layout the model I use train it ... and the concepts I use to convince the more technically minded individuals that it's important.

Oh, and we will also test your own individual EQ.

Everyone thinks they are a good at communication, but... how many times have you been at an event talking to someone you really didn’t want to talk to? Been sold to by someone who didn’t get that you weren’t interested?

These are examples of bad communication and they all have a few things in common, they weren’t efficient and they weren’t effective

.They didn’t go into the communication with the right mindset and the right preparation

Also, sorry to say it, but your own communications probably suck too. But after this talk you’ll have a leg up on your competition: you’ll know your communication sucks... and you know how to fix it.

There's a huge problem in our industry, I call it "inertia-driven leadership".

We promote our "rock star" engineers, with their excellent technical skills, into leadership positions; then we sit back and watch as they fail.

We wonder why they fail at leadership but the answer is simple, we don't support them to improve their people skills!

In fact, we often don't even help them realise that the role of a "senior developer" is drastically different to that of a "leader"

What we can we do to stop inertia in our new leaders?

How can we support them to learn the soft skills they need?

How can we position with them that those soft skills are important to their career?

That is what we will discuss in this session.

Everyone thinks they are a good at communication, but... how many times have you been at an event talking to someone you really didn’t want to talk to? Been sold to by someone who didn’t get that you weren’t interested?

These are examples of bad communication and they all have a few things in common, they weren’t efficient and they weren’t effective

.They didn’t go into the communication with the right mindset and the right preparation

Also, sorry to say it, but your own communications probably suck too. But after this talk you’ll have a leg up on your competition: you’ll know your communication sucks... and you know how to fix it.

There's a huge problem in our industry - we promote our "rock star" engineers, with their excellent technical skills, into leadership positions; then we sit back and watch as they fail.

We wonder why they fail at leadership but the answer is simple, we don't support them to improve their people skills!

In fact, we often don't even help them realise that the role of a "senior developer" is drastically different to that of a "leader".

What we can we do to stop inertia in our new leaders? How can we help them recognise the skills they need to succeed.

How can we support them to learn the soft skills they need?

How can we position with them that those soft skills are important to their career?

That is what we will discuss in this workshop.

Everyone thinks they are a good at communication, but... how many times have you been at an event talking to someone you really didn’t want to talk to? Been sold to by someone who didn’t get that you weren’t interested?

These are examples of bad communication and they all have a few things in common, they weren’t efficient and they weren’t effective

.They didn’t go into the communication with the right mindset and the right preparation

Also, sorry to say it, but your own communications probably suck too. But after this talk you’ll have a leg up on your competition: you’ll know your communication sucks... and you know how to fix it.

There's a huge problem in our industry, I call it "inertia-driven leadership".

We promote our "rock star" engineers, with their excellent technical skills, into leadership positions; then we sit back and watch as they fail.

We wonder why they fail at leadership but the answer is simple, we don't support them to improve their people skills!

In fact, we often don't even help them realise that the role of a "senior developer" is drastically different to that of a "leader"

What we can we do to stop inertia in our new leaders?

How can we support them to learn the soft skills they need?

How can we position with them that those soft skills are important to their career?

That is what we will discuss in this session.

There's a huge problem in our industry, I call it "inertia-driven leadership".

We promote our "rock star" engineers, with their excellent technical skills, into leadership positions; then we sit back and watch as they fail.

We wonder why they fail at leadership but the answer is simple, we don't support them to improve their people skills!

In fact, we often don't even help them realise that the role of a "senior developer" is drastically different to that of a "leader"

What we can we do to stop inertia in our new leaders?

How can we support them to learn the soft skills they need?

How can we position with them that those soft skills are important to their career?

That is what we will discuss in this session.

It's something we all struggle with, admitting we don't know something. But I'm here to show you the power of saying "I don't know" to people.

Saying "I don't know" doesn't have to be the end of a conversation, in fact it can be the start of an entirely new, exciting conversation with learning opportunities for all parties.

We will talk through scenarios where we don't feel comfortable saying it, ways we can feel comfortable saying it, and the good things that come from it.

Everyone thinks they are a good at communication, but... how many times have you been at an event talking to someone you really didn’t want to talk to? Been sold to by someone who didn’t get that you weren’t interested?

These are examples of bad communication and they all have a few things in common, they weren’t efficient and they weren’t effective

.They didn’t go into the communication with the right mindset and the right preparation

Also, sorry to say it, but your own communications probably suck too. But after this talk you’ll have a leg up on your competition: you’ll know your communication sucks... and you know how to fix it.

Everyone thinks they are a good at communication, but... how many times have you been at an event talking to someone you really didn’t want to talk to? Been sold to by someone who didn’t get that you weren’t interested?

These are examples of bad communication and they all have a few things in common, they weren’t efficient and they weren’t effective

.They didn’t go into the communication with the right mindset and the right preparation

Also, sorry to say it, but your own communications probably suck too. But after this talk you’ll have a leg up on your competition: you’ll know your communication sucks... and you know how to fix it.

There's a huge problem in our industry, I call it "inertia-driven leadership".

We promote our "rock star" engineers, with their excellent technical skills, into leadership positions; then we sit back and watch as they fail.

We wonder why they fail at leadership but the answer is simple, we don't support them to improve their people skills!

In fact, we often don't even help them realise that the role of a "senior developer" is drastically different to that of a "leader"

What we can we do to stop inertia in our new leaders?

How can we support them to learn the soft skills they need?

How can we position with them that those soft skills are important to their career?

That is what we will discuss in this session.

It's something we all struggle with, admitting we don't know something. But I'm here to show you the power of saying "I don't know" to people.

Saying "I don't know" doesn't have to be the end of a conversation, in fact it can be the start of an entirely new, exciting conversation with learning opportunities for all parties.

We will talk through scenarios where we don't feel comfortable saying it, ways we can feel comfortable saying it, and the good things that come from it.