How to Lead When You're Never in Charge - Francis Ho

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Francis Ho's profile
Francis Ho

Quality Engineering Lead

How to Lead When You're Never in Charge - Francis Ho image
Talk Description
It is a common perception that one has to have authority over others in order to have a voice of opinion and make them do the right thing. When things don’t go our way, we often blame our superiors for not doing their job well and think the only way of changing this is for me to replace them and be the manager. But once you are in that role, you will realise there is always someone above you making the decisions, unless you work for yourself of course. This was my way of thinking until I worked in different organisations and realised the grass is not greener on the other side, and the only constant is myself. I have found that I can effectively lead by using empathy to influence behaviour change in my team and the wider company.
 
In this talk I will share with you my own experience of “leading” in various different organisations ranging from startups to large enterprises without any official title. I’ve found that as an individual contributor, I have often underestimated my ability to create outcomes that benefit everyone. The key factor in creating behaviour change in organisations is influence, and this talk will cover how to create influence and wield it for good. Testers often talk about empathy, and I’d like to extend our understanding of it to include how to use it to influence consensus inside our teams.

Takeaways

The key takeaways of this talk are:
 
  • What it means to lead 
  • How to gain trust through empathy and understanding of context
  • How can you lead others without any authority
  • How to influence behaviour change in your organisation
What you’ll learn

By the end of this talk, you'll be able to:

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Francis Ho's profile'

Francis Ho

Quality Engineering Lead

Francis Ho is the Quality Engineering Lead at Auror, a startup that helps prevent retail crime, reduce loss and making stores safer. They work with some of the largest retailer in the regions, e.g. Walmart, Coles, Woolworths. Francis has previously worked in companies of varying size and many sectors, from Healthcare to Fintech to Big data and now Retail Crime. He is passionate about creating a work environment that allows people to do their best work, and he loves building software that brings a positive impact to the society. He joined his current company in hopes of finding a different way of working than what he has previously done. Francis lives in New Zealand, home of the Hobbits. In his spare time, he is busy exploring with his two years old son and listening to baby shark on repeat.
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Topics

Tags

  • leadership