Today, I had the honour of taking centre stage to present my topic on: How to change your management style to lead effective teams.

What is ConVex?

ConVex is a virtual experience for content developers being held and published across 8 time zones! The experience is organised by the Centre for Information Development (CIDM) and has a host of great speakers and talks. It’s not just the standard presentations that you get at this conference, you get an immersive experience covering test kitchens with vendors, learning interactively with peers, a lively meal/social events including drinks and a slack channel where you can talk to other participants and share your experience. As it is being held across so many timezones, I can catch a session at breakfast, another during lunch and then a few more in the evening! I feel more productive than if I was at an actual conference!

What did I have to say?

This presentation was all based around skills that you can have as a leader to change your own management style to get the most out of your team. It’s a presentation that I have given before but with the current year that we have had, it’s a great time to revisit some of the themes and how they have changed in the past few months. What was even more important for me was the Q&A session, where I got to talk to and answer questions from the audience live. Perhaps one of the most difficult sessions I’ve ever spoken to as the questions were so good! Here are a highlight of some of the questions and answers (paraphrased):

• Isn’t being a Chameleon leader, just camouflage?
  • Becoming a chameleon leader is all about adapting to your environment and surroundings. Yes, it can be partially camouflage but it can also be extremely useful for building a team, helping with unity and blending in and also showing that on a ‘primal’ level, you are not to be feared.
• How does your advice apply to non leader roles? Are these skills important?
  • Yes! Anyone can use these skills to be able to adjust their own behaviours. You can use this when working with difficult team members or navigating tricky client discussions.
• Myers-Briggs: How can you talk to and become another skillset?
  • Myers Briggs shows you what your preference is but does not show all of the ways that you can work. This is a big difference! Just because someone prefers to be introverted, does not mean that they cant display extroverted traits when needed. This is purely to adapt and thrive in their environment.
• What different assessments have you used? Do you think any are better/worse than Myers-Briggs?
  • There are a lot of different assessments out there! I’ve used Gallup Strength finders and C-Me. I think that it is all down to personal preference for which one you’d like. I really like when these files are shared team/company wide so that you’re not having to guess how someone likes to work.
• How can you learn to be politically savvy?
  • I would observe those in your organisation and team and see how they do it. Who are the powerful people within your organisation? I would then use the skills that you have within your skillset to establish your own way of navigating the political mindfield within your organisation.
• Conflict Management has been one of the biggest issues for me. How can you improve your conflict management skills?
  • Conflict Management is a really tricky topic. Conflict resolution is not taught in schools and is a skill that is expected to be learned but it can be a really difficult subject for people to learn how to do successfully. It is not just a case of learning a skill, it can also be an effect of culture on an individual that you need to overcome.

My participation in this conference doesnt just stop with the main stage presenting! I will also be hosting a “Test Kitchen” and baking Gingerbread Men from my own kitchen and showing others how to make my recipe! I really hope that others will join me and I can share some of my baking wisdom!

I really appreciate CIDM allowing me to present and giving me the opportunity to share my knowledge with the technical community.