What Weightlifting Taught me About Leadership

13th January 2023
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Jim Holmes's profile
Jim Holmes

Director of QA and Performance

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Talk Description

Sometimes we find fascinating, useful lessons while working at two dramatically different things. Some years ago I started working with a trainer to learn technical Olympic-style weight lifting. Very quickly I found connections between that work and my "day job" helping software delivery teams improve how they created complex systems.

This talk walks through a few parallels and how I found being coached helped me improve my own skill at coaching others. You'll (re)learn concepts such as the importance of having goals, breaking complex tasks into small pieces, getting repetitions in, and remembering that even smart, accomplished people make dumb mistakes.

What you’ll learn

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

  • Leadership lessons come from many sources. Be open to finding gems in odd places
  • Goals matter. Setting them in one part of life impacts others
  • Lessons in one walk of life apply to others
Jim Holmes's profile'

Jim Holmes

Director of QA and Performance

Single Dad. Widower. Geek. Veteran. Noobie firearms enthusiast. Around 35 years IT experience. Author of The Leadership Journey. Coffee Roaster. Former Microsoft MVP for ALM. Past President of CodeMash Conference. Diabetic. Liked 5th grade so much he did it twice. One-time setter, middle blocker, and weakside hitter. Blogger (http://FrazzledDad.com). Big fan of naps.
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Tags

  • coaching
  • leadership
  • testbash-leadership