Ted Lasso Made Me a Better Tech Leader and More Importantly, a Better Person
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Locked
Leigh Rathbone
Head of Quality Engineering
Talk Description
There are a few things in my journey of being a leader that have helped shape me as a person, and therefore me as a leader.
In 2016 I saw 'Yes Man' with Jim Carrey and it changed my life regarding saying 'Yes' to challenges instead of shirking away from them. 2021 I saw Ted Lasso in the press for winning awards across the world. I started watching, and realised very quickly that Ted Lasso as a person and leader is what I needed to draw inspiration from, in order to make my next leap in leadershipHere are a few of Ted Lasso leadership principles:
- "All people are different people" is a catchphrase of his, and adopting this mindset has allowed me to help a tester that has ADHD. I now look at each individual tester I work with and take their career path and tailor it to them, their wants, their needs, based off this principle
- "Believe in believe" is another that Im using to coach someone with impostor syndrome
- "See the good in others' ties very closely to the retro prime directive and has helped me go into feisty situations with a different lens
Ted Lasso also gave me the confidence to take on managing and leading developers. By following his coaching principles I was able to go and lead a craft that within tech leadership circles, is still a bit of a bit of a taboo thing (Thats slowly changing though) and that is Test leaders leading Developers.
This talk is my leadership journey, tied into the Ted Lasso coaching lessons. Like Ted Lasso, my journey to become a better leader will never end, and I am always learning, seeking improvements. Like Ted, I've failed, and like Ted, I pull learnings from those.
The pandemic is nearly 2 years old, and what Ted Lasso is, is a feel good factor boxset with key life, coaching lessons weaved in throughout. By sharing my journey of how this programme has impacted me, I hope it will change yours.rath
What you’ll learn
By the end of this talk, you'll be able to:
- Putting people at the heart of your leadership ethos is the right thing to do
- Using some of Ted Lasso's coaching principles will give you confidence to lead people outside of your current comfort zone
- Taking Ted Lasso's leadership principles means I now have more skills in my leadership toolbox
- As a leader you will fail, its the learnings from that which are important
- Being a leader means you are in the spotlight, whether you like that or not. That can have impacts on your health, leaders need to self care as well
Leigh Rathbone
Head of Quality Engineering
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