How A Lesson In Accountability Can Make You A Stellar Leader

The Manila Folder
Aug 24, 2017 · 2 min read

Someone’s got to talk about accountability. Someone’s got to raise some hell. It might as well be me.

Thank you Jimmy Buffet.

A couple months ago, I sat down with Q. Wade Billings, VP of Technology Services at Instructure. We had a great conversation that lasted well over an hour. We discussed his love of the craft (computers), the movie War Games, cybersecurity, building a true DevOps organization and one of the moments that helped forge him into the leader he is today.

His journey into engineering leadership is pretty epic and probably one that any new leader (regardless of function) can relate to. Actually, the faux pas he committed early in his career is one any of us can learn from. And it forces us to beg the question:

When something goes wrong at work, who is truly to blame? The offender or the leader?

It may seem cut and dry, but few things in life really are. Wade’s leadership journey shows us that the best leaders know accountability is rarely one-sided.

This episode is Part 1 of Wade’s story. His episode about building a rock solid DevOps culture will be up in the coming weeks, so subscribe to the show and stay tuned.

About Wade

A seasoned professional with over 20 years invested in technology, leadership, and innovation. In the mid-1990’s, he was a founder and part owner in SetSytems, one of the first online e-commerce sites, which was subsequently sold to Digital River. Wade has worked with, and for, leading organizations like Intel, Sprint, Excite@Home, and Lowermybills.com where he honed his leadership, security, networking, and systems architecture skills. When not working to deliver software and services to make people smarter and improve their lives, he feeds his entrepreneurial cravings, and is currently working with a few local startups as a technology advisor and mentor.

He is currently the Vice President of Technology Services for Instructure.

In This Episode

Connect with Wade: LinkedIn | Twitter

Music by: Gyom & Bensound

Checkout The Manila Folder for more posts, podcast episodes, and resources.

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The Manila Folder

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Stories, musings, insights and advice for young business leaders and entrepreneurs.

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