Pete Behrens

Businesses are investing in Artificial Intelligence (AI) at an unprecedented scale. The transformative potential of AI is too great to ignore. But so are it's costs.

This talk explores the multiplying effect AI is making and why that might be a problem. What role do we play as leaders toward this outcome? What forces can we multiply to change it?

I may be “old”, but my career has lived at the forefront of every technology wave: software, data, agility, wireless, mobile, cloud, and now AI. Each brought new opportunities and sped growth. And now?

The AI wave is different from the rest. Bigger, sure. A tsunami. But who benefits? Past waves enabled content and capability building. They provided new rungs on our career ladder. This one replaces content and capability building. It's smashing the rungs altogether.

We formed the AI Leadership Lap in 2024 to better understand the impacts of Generative AI on business and leaders. Exploring productivity to performance, design to decisions, and goals to governance, we'll discuss insights and impacts to leaders.

Influence is the essence of leadership. But what shapes our ability to influence?

This session explores multiple sources of leadership power including cultural, positional, prestige, and personal. It further helps leaders tune their own power for more impactful results. Understanding your default power as a leader and learning to harness a balanced power based on respect is the key to effective leadership at every level.

Titles grant authority to influence, but the best leaders influence others regardless of their title.

This session walks through the tension between authority and respect, influence and manipulation, empowerment and alignment, reflection and action, discussions and decisions, and more. Through discussion, we'll uncover practical strategies for better balancing your leadership power.

Key Topics:

1. Explore the components of a leader's default power.
2. Understand how your title of authority may hinder your development as a leader.
3. Learn to hone and balance your power to improve your leadership.

As leaders, we're often are called upon to solve problems. Not just technical problems; business and organizational problems too. The problem is, many of those cannot be solved.

Here are a few examples of organizational problems that cannot be solved: plan vs. adapt, go quick vs. do it right, empower vs. align, hear people out vs. make a decision.

In fact, they aren't problems at all, they're tensions. They will never go away, and can only be managed. Any efforts to find “answers” to them only serves to surface more frustrations than fixes.

Understanding the difference between problems to solve and tensions to manage is crucial to effective leadership.

This session is designed for leaders seeking to improve their business performance and organizational health. It's not about implementing new frameworks or tools, it's about learning to manage tension better.

Unlock your full leadership potential with actionable insights and strategies to take you to the next level of your leadership journey. This immersive, hands on workshop promises no slides- just deep, meaningful discussions and real-world applications to elevate your awareness and capacity to lead.In this session, we walk the path of technical leadership - from solving problems to guiding programs to developing people - and the key challenges and changes required at each stage. Blending research with pragmatic and applicable practice, you’ll leave with new clarity and actionable steps to accelerate your growth as a leader.

Led by Pete Behrens, an engineer turned leadership trainer and coach, this workshop draws on 20 years of his experience developing technical leaders and transforming organizations for sustained performance and health.

Key Topics Include:

1. Understanding how technology and change are shaping new leadership approaches.
2. Differentiating your authority as a leader from the respect required for effective leadership.
3. Recognizing how your own technological mastery impedes your growth as a leader.
4. The art of letting go - and why it is only half the battle to becoming a better leader.
5. Developing a more strategic orientation, and aligning and engaging others towards it.
6. Navigating the fine line between influence and manipulation and how to know if you’ve crossed it.
7. Honing your power as a leader to foster safety, shared ownership, and engagement.

Note: This workshop is limited to 30-participants, ensuring an intimate, highly interactive experience for leaders at all levels.

Most leaders gain their position based on their expertise. That makes sense. However, it is that same expertise that often traps them into less effective leadership patterns. The expertise that got you into leadership is not the expertise you need for leadership.

Yet, letting go of your expertise has it's own challenges. It not only disconnects you from the real work; your teams are often left aimless. Letting go is only half the battle.

Effective leadership is not about stepping forward or back;
it's about stepping up.

This session guides leaders to better balance their expertise with openness by understanding how their focus is impacting their effectiveness. It further provides space for leaders to explore alternatives to re-blend their focus in ways to improve their impact as a leader.

Key Topics:

1. Learning how expertise is necessary and yet traps us in bad habits.
2. Understanding the three lenses of leadership: do, lead and coach.
3. Discovering that effective leadership is about blending, not shifting.
4. Blending your focus as a leader for improved impact.