On April 23rd, I had the pleasure of facilitating a 1/2 day workshop: From Tester to Leader, at the Targeting Quality conference in Waterloo, Ontario. To get things rolling, we examined what it means, and what it takes to be a leader in the context of a QA group. We used the Group Wisdom Without Groupthink process to list the qualities of the best leaders that the participants had worked with.
The group generated over 50 ideas, and then ranked them. Here are the ones that the group felt where most important.
Tier One
Honest
Tier Two
Developing team members
Responsible and accountable
Stand up for the team
Tier Three
Respect
Show appreciation
No micro-management
Positive and enthusiastic
Tier Four
Flexible work life balance
Set Reasonable expectations
Motivator
Communication skills
Tier Five
Solution-focused, not blame-focuses
Ethical
Lead by example
Always has time for staff
Knowing where I stand
Trusting team members
You might find it interesting to compare these results with those from some similar exercises:
IEEE Group Answers: "What makes an engineering manager great?"
The Most Important Qualities for an Engineering Manager to Possess
Retaining Key Contributors
The second half of the conference, I got to participate in some of the other sessions. I really loved the premise of Taming The Toddlers, which was about dealing with difficult people in the workplace. Next, I went to a panel discussion on Developing Employee Skills. It's a topic near and dear to my heart. I already knew and respected one of the panelists, Selena Delesie, whom I had met at the Amplifying Your Effectiveness conference. She, and her fellow panelists didn't disappoint. The discussion was wide-ranging and full of real-world tips and tricks.
Over all, I was impressed with how well organized, and well executed the conference was. Kudos to Rob Bowyer, and the rest of the organizers.
Cheers,
Chris
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