SPEAKERS

Session Name: Effective Leadership Strategies for Managing a Team With Diverse Skill Sets

I've managed teams before—first as a sales engineer, then as a network engineer. In those leadership roles, I knew the jobs of those I was managing because I had done them myself. Now I find myself in the position of managing a very talented and diverse team of developer advocates, but here’s the rub: I’ve never actually done their job before.

How could I be an effective leader? How could I relate to their challenges when I’ve never faced those challenges before? I soon found that other leaders in the organization, those who know about the role of the people I manage, were happy to share their knowledge and lend their support. Their desire to help went so far as them teaching me about the tools my team uses so I could better empathize with their challenges. The big lesson here was to never stop learning: seek out opportunities to do so, whatever it is that will make you a better leader.

Everything in life, work or otherwise, is about relationships and how you build and strengthen them—it’s the foundation for everything, and I’ve seen amazing results within my team after fostering an environment in which they can connect with each other on a human level.

Join Jeff Bull, Senior Manager of Developer Advocacy, as he describes his experiences in managing a developer relations team at Cisco DevNet. Jeff will share what he’s learned about how to manage a team of those whose job you have not done yourself and the strategies that have helped him excel as a leader

Speaker Bio:

Jeff Bull is a Manager of Developer Advocacy with Cisco DevNet, where he leads a team focused on being the voice of the developer for DevRel and Cisco's product BU's. He launched DevNet's first Technical Advisory Group (TAG) gathering customer & partner feedback through its field technical sellers. Prior to joining Cisco DevNet, he worked in a variety of roles ranging from Network Engineer to Network Manager across various tech sectors. He is a husband, father, and an at home baker, Star Wars & tech geek, and storyteller.