Leading at Opera: Connecting the Opera for Android teams

November 29th, 2015

At Opera, leadership means building great teams and helping people work according to their talents and skills.

My name is Erik Möller, and I am the Director of Engineering for Mobile, based in Göteborg, Sweden. I am also an employee-elected member of Opera’s Board of Directors. My teams are the people behind Opera for Android.

At Opera, we affect the global tech industry

The work we do affects the millions of people browsing with Opera on their Android phones. Our team members, including developers, QA engineers, leaders and designers, understand that Opera for Android is in a unique position to help connect people across the globe.

For me, heading up this group of highly-skilled people entails a commitment that goes beyond traditional leadership — I want to help these talented people to realize their full potential by challenging them and offering them the best opportunities.

In essence, working at Opera means we all have the opportunity to shape the tech industry as a whole, and Opera understands this.

Shape: An Opera leadership program

Our HR team recently created a leadership program called Shape. It is a nine-month program with meetings in different cities around the world, including Oslo, Miami and San Francisco, so far.

I am one of 50 managers, representing all business units and across all offices, who have participated in the Shape program to date.

The program sessions provide the opportunity for a lot of interesting discussions, as well as a great chance to take a step back from our day-to-day work and have time for some introspection, which is something you otherwise can rarely find time for in your busy schedule.

The things I have taken away from the sessions are invaluable, helping me to be a stronger leader. Also, by communicating what we have learned back to my teams, I help to keep everyone on track, supporting Opera’s goals, and feeling more connected to the broader organization.
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