Chelsea Blasko

Taking a Team from Managers to Leaders

What does it mean to be a real leader? What differentiates management from true leadership? How can you help cultivate the managers you already have into self-directed, confident, and transformational leaders who can bring up the others around them? We have a tendency to "promote" the best artist into management or leadership, but are we truly making the best use of their talent or being the most strategic around team growth? Are we pulling the "right" people into leadership? What factors do you use to determine this potential? What processes allow for this personal growth? How can our industry enable diverse leadership perspectives and embrace new paths to success? We will discuss these questions and more on our quest to continue to make our industry a place where all employees can thrive.

Bio:

Chelsea Blasko strives to create a welcoming environment where talented people can do their best work. As Co-CEO of Iron Galaxy studios, her innovative leadership of Human Resources, Finance, Product Development, and Technology has produced a strong values-based culture that nurtures creative excellence as much as the creators. Her personal accomplishments as a developer have equipped her to improve the production methodologies that enable efficient work and quality products and helped the studio grow from 13 to 270 employees. She keeps her teammates on the evolving edge of continuous improvement by investing in the growth of their skills and careers. As a strong believer that diversity builds better teams, Chelsea has guided the formalization of new policies to take uncompromising care of every employee. The result is a company that delivers industry-leading work that happens in balance with a healthy lifestyle for the people who do it.