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GENE BABON

"Pick a lane. Keep driving."


TEAM LEADER

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My team leadership journey began when I was hired by Warner-Lambert Company
(later acquired by Pfizer) to launch a 10,000 square-foot fitness center at the
pharmaceutical company's New Jersey corporate headquarters. I hired, trained and
managed a team of six full-time professional staff to deliver health and fitness
services to 3,000 employees.My focus shifted to technology in the 2000s. In 2006
I was selected to join Boston University Center for Digital Imaging Arts (CDIA)
to help train the next generation of web designers and developers. Classes
ranged in size from eight to 14 participants. I mentored young professionals by
helping them develop individual and team web projects. I continue to champion
their career successes by acting as self-anointed Alumni Director for more than
180 certificate program graduates.Currently, I lead a tribe of 28 Boston PHP
Meetup members in upgrading their artificial intelligence skills with a
six-week-long learning opportunity called Career Essentials in Generative AI.



Team leadership is a skill that needs to be maintained and calibrated, just like
a vintage automobile. To that end I have established a library of 60+ business
books on leadership topics and 80+ business books on strategy topics.

While I do not possess an MBA, I have the next best thing -- My Business
Advisors. My Business Advisors write books.For example, some of my Advisors are
affiliated with Harvard Business School:

 * Michael Porter -- On Competition

 * Clayton Christensen -- Competing Against Luck

 * John Kotter -- A Sense of Urgency

 * Bill George -- True North

Even though I have not met these Advisors, I will continue to read, summarize
and refer to their collective work as my journey down the lane of team
leadership rolls on.

So, how do I decide which business books offer the greatest potential for adding
value to my leadership body of knowledge? Every year, for the last 12 years, I
have analyzed book recommendations in leading business publications and
cross-checked those recommendations with reader reviews at Goodreads. The result
is my annual publication of Best Business Books.

My team leadership style can best be summarized as Strengths Based Leadership.
This approach espouses that, to be an effective leader, you should focus on your
strengths and the strengths or others on your team. To learn more, access a
summary of my top five strengths, as well as, an outline of strategies for
leveraging each strength to meet the four basic needs of followers.


PROJECT MANAGER

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My project management training and experience also began at Warner-Lambert
Company. I was hired to launch the company's corporate fitness center and
discovered that I excelled at planning and organizing. I am proud that my team
won two corporate human resources awards during my nine-year tenure in this
role.A personal highlight of this career phase included the planning and
execution of an audacious goal: qualify for and compete in the Boston Marathon.
A sub-3:10 performance at the Marine Corps Marathon met the qualifying
standards. Once I crossed the finish line at Boston I began a new project:
detail a training plan for other runners to follow in a book called The Race to
Boston.



This project management experience came in handy as I helped guide several
hundred students in developing individual and team-based web projects while I
was an instructor at Boston University Center for Digital Imaging Arts (CDIA). I
am humbled and honored to have received 88 LinkedIn recommendations, largely as
a result of this people-management and project-management experience.

I carried this project management mindset forward to my work with Boston PHP
Meetup in developing a virtual self-study group initiative that help to position
Boston PHP as the largest education focused Meetup in New England. Twelve
separate technology practice groups have evolved over that past decade and are
showcased under Web Apprentices banner.

My default productivity framework is David Allen's Getting Things Done. My
default productivity tool is Trello, rated #2 in user satisfaction among The Top
20 Project Management Software.

I have earned the following project management certificates:

 * Become a Project Manager from LinkedIn Learning

 * Become an Agile Project Manager from LinkedIn Learning

 * Prepare for the PMI ACP Certification from LinkedIn Learning

 * Project Management for Beginners from the Project Management Institute

 * Basics 0f Scrum, Agile and Project Delivery from Udemy

 * **Agile Fundamentals ** from Pluralsight



Project management is a skill that needs to be maintained and calibrated, just
like a vintage automobile. To that end, I am currently preparing to sit for the
PMI-ACP® exam. The textbook I am using to prepare is the following:

 * Head First Agile O'Reilly Media, Inc. (6 of 9 chapters completed)

My agile project management knowledge is on display via the Agile Appetizer
initiative I coordinate for Boston PHP Meetup members.

Finally, my all-time favorite project management movie is The Great Escape.


WEB DEVELOPER

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My transition back to technology came into focus in 1999 when I moved to Boston
from New Jersey. I hold a B.S. in Mathematics from Penn State and started my
journey as a "junior seismic analyst" in the oil industry.



A certificate in Client Server Programming and Web Applications Development from
Clark University CCI formalized this transition. Upon graduation I was offered a
role as teaching assistant. That client-facing experience, which combined both
people skills and technical skills, led to an instructor role at Boston
University Center for Digital Imaging Arts (CDIA).

I have received positive ratings from more than 100 peers on LinkedIn for each
of the following three technical skill areas:

 * HTML (99+)

 * CSS (99+)

 * Web Development (99+)

Four personal projects that demonstrate these technical skills are as follows:

 * Beantown Web

 * Web Apprentices

 * CDIA Alumni

 * Gene Babon



Web development is a skill that needs to be maintained and calibrated, just like
a vintage automobile. To that end I have established a discipline of continuous
learning.

My current technical focus is front-end web development with the following
training:

 * Front-End development Bootcamp from Frontend Masters

In addition, I am working my way through three LinkedIn Learning certificate
programs totaling 81 hours of training:

 * Become a Front-End Web Developer (5 of 11 courses completed)

 * Become a Junior WordPress Developer (4 of 12 courses completed)

 * Become a Software Developer (3 of 11 courses completed)

Most importantly, a website is only as valuable as its content. That content can
only be found via the marketing that drives traffic to that website.I have
earned the following social media marketing certificates:

 * Inbound Certification from HubSpot Academy

 * Digital Marketing Certification from HubSpot Academy

 * Content Marketing Certification from HubSpot Academy

 * SEO Certification from HubSpot Academy

 * Social Media Marketing Certification from HubSpot Academy

 * Inbound Marketing Certification from HubSpot Academy

 * Become a Digital Marketing Specialist from LinkedIn Learning

 * Yoast SEO for WordPress from Yoast SEO Academy

My social media marketing knowledge is on display via the Social Side Dish
initiative I coordinate for Boston PHP Meetup members.


CONTACT

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Team Leader | Project Manager | Web Developer
... actively seeking next management-level opportunity.

 * LinkedIn
 * Twitter
 * WordPress
 * Meetup
 * Blogger
 * GitHub