Mehuli Mukherjee
I’m Mehuli Mukherjee, a Senior Software Developer at the Bank of New Zealand with over 11 years of experience in full-stack development. I’m leading the innovation projects in open banking, customer analytics, and AI-powered solutions, and I’m the creator of ExtractPDF4J, an open-source Java library for PDF table extraction. I’m deeply passionate about AI, Blockchain, and open source contributions.
Technical skill alone does not determine the trajectory of a career—leadership does. In this talk, I share my own journey of working under poor leadership that stalled growth and confidence, followed by the experience of strong leadership that challenged me, supported me, and fundamentally changed my career direction. Using these contrasting experiences, I’ll unpack the specific leadership behaviours that quietly damage teams—unclear expectations, lack of trust, avoidance of accountability—and the behaviours that enable teams to rise: clarity, psychological safety, honest feedback, and real ownership. I’ll also reflect on how these lessons now shape the way I lead innovation teams in banking. This is a practical, experience-driven session focused on how leadership decisions show up in day-to-day engineering work, how they impact careers over time, and how individuals can contribute to healthier, higher-performing teams—regardless of title. Key Takeaways: 1. How leadership behaviours directly influence career growth and team outcomes 2. Early signals of leadership that causes teams to stall or break 3. What strong leaders do differently to unlock trust, ownership, and delivery 4. How engineers can build influence and resilience—even without formal authority 5. Leadership lessons I apply today while leading innovation teams Audience: Engineers, senior engineers, tech leads, and managers who want to grow their impact and help teams succeed sustainably.