During a lunch break at a job in 2003 a co-worker looked me straight in the eye and told me "I think you should take a leadership course because I see something in you. Stop laughing! I'm serious!" I told that person they had the wrong impression of me. But ultimately they were right. 16 years later I can look back at a successful series of events and organizations (both inside and outside of programming) that I have been a part of.

In this talk am I going to share my journey from frustrated developer to confident organizer, navigating my way through and around obstacles to help create the groups I wanted to be part of doing the things I wanted to do.

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Dana Luther at 10:33 on 8 Feb 2019

Excellent - so many true and insightful thoughts on recognizing leadership potential and actively embracing it.

You’re old man. But still not letting the world to the youngsters, ain’t giving the ball to them that easy, you want them to earn it first. Respect.

Eric Morris at 11:13 on 8 Feb 2019

I think Chris's most important take-away is that many of us who have been around awhile may have been leaders in small ways. Recognizing that fact and acknowledging you may have under-utilized skills are the first steps to taking control of your career and becoming a purposefull leader in other ways

Glenn Kimble at 11:26 on 8 Feb 2019

Great talk! Interesting point that a lot of people display leadership skills and don't really realize it / focus in on it. Oh, and I agree, Canada > US. :-P

Robb Erickson at 11:28 on 8 Feb 2019

Inspirational anecdotes from a fellow coder in the trenches. Encouraging us all to find motivation through a common shared need.

James LaChance at 11:29 on 8 Feb 2019

Really good talk at reframing what leadership might mean to you and how you might possess leadership qualities without realizing it.

Made me interested in taking a leadership session or course. Plus you are pretty funny.

Sonny Savage at 13:56 on 8 Feb 2019

Chris convinced me to start intentionally developing my leadership skills.

It's always interesting to learn from a voice of wisdom that comes from age and experience.

Adrian Burden at 10:10 on 9 Feb 2019

Great presentation and very relatable to what I have been through. Thanks Chris!

Cal Evans at 10:32 on 9 Feb 2019

Chris knocked it out of the park once again.

Bill Condo at 14:54 on 9 Feb 2019

Good message and delivery.

Brian Johnson at 16:24 on 10 Feb 2019

An entertaining and easily digestable talk. Easy to walk away w/ the message of recognizing the ways in which you may already be a leader.

Peter Fisher at 19:58 on 10 Feb 2019

I liked how you woven the message of leadership throughout your story. The delivery was great.

A fun speaker to listen to. Thank you Chris for sharing your journey and your thoughts on serving as a leader in both the community and at work. This was entertaining and inspiring way to start off the conference.

Miro Svrtan at 09:40 on 11 Feb 2019

Another great keynote from Chris...

I have only a small suggestion: try to remove some ego from it. I know it's not always easy or possible to remove 'yourself' from a talk about 'yourself' but at the start it felt there was to much 'me,me,me' (which later did disappear)...

Jonathan W at 22:10 on 13 Feb 2019

Loved the stories and his talk!