Chris Simon - From InLoop and LanternPay to NAB acquisition and Dev Cycles

This episode’s guest is Chris Simon. Chris is the technical co-founder of https://www.inloop.com.au, home of Australian Fintech success stories https://www.flexischools.com.au and https://www.lanternpay.com (Recently acquired by NAB).

Since 2021 he has been coaching startup CTOs through Dev Cycles Technology Advisory (https://devcycles.io/page/consulting/) as well as supporting executives & boards with strategic technology advice, and engineering teams with training, mentoring and consulting.

In this episode Chris shares:

• The hard shift leaders encounter when they never intended to become a leader
• How leadership skills can be learnt in the most surprising places
• The challenge of realising there is an inherent power dynamic when building trust with employees
• How not giving employees enough direction because you want to respect them can lead to disaster
• Learning that you may make the same mistake multiple times
• How he deals with how his own frustrations can cause tension in the team

Key Quotes

“Be directive without being a dictator and be assertive without being an arse.”

“If you’ve not given them clarity on what’s expected then that’s not fair.”

“If something is not going right (with the team) I start by looking at what have I done?”