From this talk you should gain some insight on the following:

• Why it is is important as a leader to manage your own mental health and model behaviour for your teams
• How to extend ideas on self-care and personal insight into the workplace and your teams
• Some of the failures and traps Zenon experienced

When you take a leadership role, how you behave and interact with others carries more weight in defining acceptable practices and the culture of your organisation. Zenon believes it is our duty to make sure we are doing the most that we can to make our work environment a safe and healthy place for our people. Modelling behaviour is big part of this and a self-care routine is a vital first step to put yourself in a position to care for your teams and people. Zenon has found this is a vital part of enabling high performing teams.

In this session, we will discuss how to achieve real technical excellence that matters to the Business, how to build trust between Business and Tech, and how Business can react quickly and beat the competition with help from Tech. After many years in professional software development, we experienced the impact of Business’ decisions on Tech, the importance of technical excellence for the Business, and the role of Software Craftsmanship/Craftswomenship in achieving technical excellence.

We learned that Tech is an enabler for the Business, that Business is a key stakeholder, that mastery in practices such as Software Craftsmanship/Craftswomenship leads to technical excellence that really matters. Then, in an unexpected turn of events, we learned these assumptions were flawed, it was much more than that.

People often get promoted into Tech Leadership based on technical excellence and as a consequence, sometimes are not aware or equipped to deal with the greater breadth of responsibilities. Management and leadership positions are seen as a step in the career ladder. Yet it's often a brand new career in itself and you're in the bottom step and realise bugs are easier to debug in code than in organisations and people.

This talk covers things I wish I had known while making the transition and raise awareness in defining and execution of the broader responsibilities of the role. You'll learn:

• How to set expectations and lead your 1:1s.
• How to communicate vision and strategy to the broader team
• Effective ways to ask for help when there's none.