In the final session of the ACS "Growing Team Leaders" course I started back in May was held last week, we attended a breakfast with some guest presenters giving insight into leadership. We heard from
- Peter Grant, CIO of Queensland Health
- Anne-Marie Birkill, CEO of ILAB
- John Puttick, Chairman of GBST Holdings
As seen in so many other parts of this series, the common theme was the value of people and of course how to inspire them to greatness.
Peter talked about his, now departed, mentor and friend, the university lecturer who fired him with passion for IT. Not only did his mentor introduce him the world of IT, but also taught him the value of being skilled in all areas, not just those you find interesting.
Anne-Marie talked about taking a leadership role in the (ICT) community by giving something back to it. It was interesting to hear, not only from a successful woman1 and how she got there, but from someone who is in a field not directly involved in IT.
Finally John, talked about his early years and the power of IT in business. John as part of Software Queensland is partly responsible for the creation of the ACS course.
While each presenter had some great things to say, for me, it was Peters comments that spoke to me the most. Peter struck me as a person who understands fully the value of people and providing them with the tools necessary to do great things.
After the breakfast, we convened once more for a final wrap up. This finished with everyone committing to doing something towards growing their leadership skills. For me, I've chosen to embrace the opportunity of representing Ephox at Software Queensland and to work with our local Universities in growing the numbers of students studying ICT.
Discussions with the people at my table indicated that they had all taken something valuable away from the course. It's been an interesting and insightful series, with some very useful gems of knowledge. I'm very glad to have been a part of it.
