I recently got accepted into the MindTrust Leadership program held jointly by the Sprott School of Business (Carleton University) and Telfer (University of Ottawa) School of Management. MindTrust offers CEOs in Ottawa the opportunity to impart their knowledge and experience with the future leaders of tomorrow. The program is broken into multiple sessions as follows:
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Module – 1: Program Launch – Themes in Leadership – Challenges and Issues
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Module – 2: Communication and Influence – Leadership from Within
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Module – 3: Leadership From Within
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Module – 4: Balancing Personal and Work Demands
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Module – 5: Team Facilitation
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Module – 6: Leadership in Action
On Friday Jan. 15th we had our first session at Telfer. After a good lunch, we got started and covered leadership dimensions.
Leadership dimensions:
Self Awareness: Recognition of our personality our strengths and weakness and our likes and dislikes.
Engagement: Engagement happens when the values of an individual align with the work they are doing.
Results Orientation: A strong drive to set challenging objectives and achieve results by competing against high standards.
Communication: A process which we assign and convey meaning in an attempt to create shared understanding.
Relationship Building: Building effective working relationship, networks of contacts and partnership with individuals by acting with integrity, building trust, demonstrating respect, and valuing people.
Vision: A mental image of what an individual or organization would like to achieve or accomplish in the mid-term or long-term future.
Are leaders born or made?
There were many disagreements when answering this question. In the end we believe what we want to believe. I am personally of the school of thought that some people are born with some skills and develop other through the many experiences in their lives. A leader can be born with with ambition and determination. With time and experience the person becomes a leader by dealing with conflicts, teamwork and you find your passion.
Panel Discussion - Challenges & Issues:
Julia Elvidge (ChipWorks): “Practice leadership skills. It’s not a natural process, but the difference is noticeable. Learn how to moderate your body language and constantly ask for feedback.”
Don Hewson (HBS Marketing): “Economy made use re-evaluate and adapt our vision. Dealing with inter-generational challenges is a part of a leader’s role. Technology has become a commoditizing profession. It’s a great time to hire talented people on the market. Companies can’t be just profitable, they have to become more transparent and great citizens. They should keep thinking about sustainability of culture. Remember the value of brand and that nothing is forever!”
Claude Haw (OCRI): “I’m a student of the Terry Matthews school of hard knocks. Vision is important when dealing with a multiple group organization. Communication is important. Try and communicate one-on-one goals and motivators. Need to figure out not only where you want to be, but what your values are. Public speaking is very important for an engineer to communicate well with his/her audience. Face-to-face meeting reinforces the importance of community.”
Larry Poirier (Nitro Microsystems Inc): “Try not to be somebody you’re not. Focus on what you do best rather than pleasing everyone. Hire people who compliment your best skills. Know yourself. What gives you value and makes you feel good? I am trying to learn the motivators for our new generation.”
Danny Osadca (Med-Eng Systems): “Look beyond growth and realize that you need to sustain it. When you’re small you can rely on institutional knowledge. When you grow beyond that, you realize that you need to grow a culture. Work hard at creating a vision and have a passionate drive for results. Build a team that is synergistic. You can’t all have the same skill sets since you need to complement each other. Strategy is directional because you can always change it. Go from liking doing and achieving results by moving others to like doing.”
Ed Ogonek (Bridgewater Systems): “Leadership + Strategy (2 of the most loaded roles). There is a confusion of leadership and who’s in charge. You have to do everything in that house to get things done. Unfortunately, when dealing with a large team it is next to impossible to do so. Find the leaders in your team and communicate with them. Many leaders are not managers necessarily. Leaders earn trust and know how to get things done. “
Q&A:
What do you look for in new hires?
- enthusiasm in the company
- drive to achieve something and grow within organization
- skills to solve current need in organization
Do you see any new waves of businesses other than tech?
- still tech, just different technology
- telecom wave passed. it is now growing only in emerging markets
- clean tech, content creation, animation and social networking
- online entertainment because it’s content you don’t have to pay for
- we distinguish our culture by innovation since work can be done cheaper and as fast in other emerging markets
How do you manage collaboration and communication between generations?
- pure money doesn’t matter to younger generation, more social efforts needed in workplace
- get them to understand each other
- remind them the common goal
- sponsor time off for charity work
How do you recognize opportunities in the industry?
- understand the environments and cultures of your locale
- recognize what’s important to you
- look for speed of innovation and get with the pace
What is your retention plan for keeping leader in Ottawa?
- OCRI to provide info to Ottawa students
- There are two times as many businesses since 2000 and same number of employees
The session was very insightful and i enjoyed being part of a group considered to be the leaders of tomorrow. I look forward to the next session on Jan. 22.
