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WOMEN & LEADERSHIP CONFERENCE
Conference held in Toronto on April 27, 28 & 29, 2005
Chairs: Christianne Dostie, Allstate Canada; Katherine Rethy, Noranda Inc./Falconbridge Ltd.; Brenda Eaton, Province of British Columbia; Anne C. Soucie, Atlantic Pilotage Authority
CD-ROM: Over 10 hours of video presentations
To purchase, please contact Federated Press.
LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT & EXCELLENCE
Emotional intelligence (EQ) & its evolving value in leadership development
Christianne Dostie, Allstate Canada
- Gender differences
- Emotional Intelligence (EI) and leadership
- Strategies to strengthen your Emotional Quotient (EQ)
"There are direct connections between emotional intelligence and leadership. The emotional intelligent leader creates a collective aspiration, creates resonance, creates a friendly and effective climate, and attracts and retains talented people."
Video: 41 minutes • Overheads
Transforming women into leaders: career management strategies
Janet Yale, TELUS Communications Inc.
- Importance of mentors
- Role of volunteer boards in learning skills invaluable to career and life and in developing networks
- Considering higher-risk assignments
- Give back to the community: you'll receive more than you give
"One of the things women forget to do is set up their opportunities and ask. Don't be afraid to ask; self-promotion is good."
Video: 32 minutes • Overheads • Notes
How to prepare for a position of power & leadership
Dina A. Palozzi, BMO Nesbitt Burns/BMO Financial Group
- Type of preparation needed requires clarity on core values, credentials, and capacity
- Reputation building activities
- Marketing yourself to get ahead: networking strategies
- Overcoming stereotypes
"So, how should women prepare for a position of leadership? Women must be sure that they are clear about core values, that they acquire the necessary credentials, and that they have the requisite capacity."
Video: 36 minutes • Overheads
Best practices for creating inclusive leadership development programs
Cheryl D. Irving, CIBC Asset Management
- Grassroots leadership
- Tabula rasa thinking
- Self-directed teams
- Inclusive vs exclusive leadership
- Failure: it is an option
"Grassroots leadership is about making a difference in peoples' lives. It's about giving people the vision, the processes, and the tools to succeed collectively. It's about building your staff's skills and giving them the confidence to be effective. In the end, it's about making them proud of what they do."
Video: 32 minutes
Gender differences & dynamics in leadership style & career management
Carole Briard, CGI Group Inc.
- What is leadership?
- Can gender influence leadership?
- Possibility and true value of women's leadership
- Ways for women to further develop their sense of ambition and abilities
"Advancement in the business world frequently is based upon principles most men subconsciously learn as they grow up. Women who fail to understand the importance of office politics (which means to look upward instead of downward), going through the proper channels, and being able to make decisions quickly put themselves at an automatic disadvantage."
Video: 20 minutes • Overheads
PARTNERING, NETWORKING & OTHER KEY SKILLS
Best practices to marketing yourself with confidence
Catherine Swift, Canadian Federation of Independent Business
- Facts and background regarding women business owners
- Adding versatility as a dimension to leadership
- Strategies for becoming an effective leader
"Given that no one leadership style or approach is going to be appropriate for all situations, I would add that versatility also matters. Some people may have some very strong characteristics that can be very positive in certain situations, but they don't know when to use or not use them. It's like that old saying - when your only tool is a hammer, everything looks like a nail."
Video: 32 minutes • Overheads
Stress management tips
Katherine Rethy, Noranda Inc./Falconbridge Ltd.
- Dealing with stress: it really is all about you and your unique answer
- Building a practical versus philosophical framework
- Criteria for job satisfaction
- Values and beliefs regarding family life
- Stress management tips
"Develop your philosophical base by consciously examining those around you and by learning from your experiences. Change your base and modify it as you grow. Draw on your base to give integrity to all of the roles you perform. Take guidance from your beliefs as you face decisions in each of your roles."
Video: 33 minutes • Overheads
Negotiation tips & techniques for achieving success
Sylvie Giguère, Bell Canada
- Effective negotiation and its link to leadership
- The role of attitude in negotiation
- Planning for the negotiation
- Male versus female approaches to negotiation
"Planning for the negotiation is critical when you are the party seeking the negotiation and wish to influence the other party. The key is also to present a win-win scenario during the negotiation. You must do the research and the legwork to determine what those needs are."
Video: 23 minutes
Conflict resolution strategies for emotionally-charged situations in the workplace
Palma Barbieri, Canadian Tire Corporation, Limited
- Types of behaviours during conflicts
- Conflict resolution process
- Strategies for conflict resolution
- Link to leadership
"To effectively resolve conflicts, one must understand how people behave. Certain behaviour can fuel the fires of conflict while other behaviour can douse those flames. There are four basic types of behaviour, each with its own fundamental motive."
Video: 46 minutes • Overheads
Headhunter perspective: what senior executive women can do to sell themselves
Betsy Gibbons and Denise Tobin-McCarthy, Korn/Ferry International
- Guidelines for managing your present position
- Guidelines for preparing for your next position
- Research findings: leadership versus thinking styles
- Guidelines for succeeding in your new position
"When you're entertaining a new position, it's important to assess how compatible that new position fits with your life goals. It's also critical to do your due diligence by carefully examining the company's culture, financials, company mission, and what kind of performance is really valued."
Video: 48 minutes • Overheads
INCLUSIVE WORKPLACE MODELS
Current issues & challenges for women in business
Susan Black, Catalyst Canada Inc.
- Catalyst's study findings of where women are in the corporate world in Canada
- Women's advancement in recent years and barriers to overcome
- Is work-life balance a woman's issue?
- Where is room for improvement?
"Work-life balance is not a woman's issue, it's a people issue. There's also a stigma attached to men who want to take paternity leave. The sooner that we recognize this stereotype and overcome it, the better off we'll be as a business community."
Video: 35 minutes
Creating a flexible work environment
Melissa Sonberg, Aeroplan
- Defining the employment experience
- People processes and practices
- Total rewards philosophy
- Structure and communications
"Creating a flexible work environment is not only a women's issue. Creating a flexible, responsive employment experience provides huge opportunity for differentiation in a tight, demanding labour market."
Video: 42 minutes • Overheads
Case study: recruiting, developing & advancing women in the workplace
Brenda Brown, Compass Group Canada
- Working towards workplace equity/diversity
- Communication tools to deliver satisfaction
- Tools that support flexibility
- Recognition programs, mentoring, talent management programs
"Respect and communication are intimately connected. One of the strongest ways to demonstrate respect in the workplace is through the sharing of information. Some of the communication tools that we use to deliver satisfaction include town halls, CEO update tours, community councils, publications, and social activities."
Video: 31 minutes • Overheads
Recharging your batteries: the value to you & your company
Brenda Eaton, Province of British Columbia
- Do sabbaticals work?
- What's in it for the employee and for the employer
- How do you make it work?
- What goes into the planning?
"Why should an employer agree to your sabbatical? Contrary to what you might think, sabbaticals help retain valued workers, who return motivated and committed, have more energy and perspective."
Video: 38 minutes • Overheads
SUCCESS STORIES
Keynote address: tapping into talent in a global enterprise
Maureen Kempston Darkes, General Motors
- Lessons learned from working in a volatile business
- Designing flexibility into plans
- Understanding and valuing cultural diversity
- Keys to creating a climate for success: focus on results, know your customer, seek the very best talent, foster teamwork, establish stretch goals, and value diversity
"Let me share some of my observations on creating a climate for success. First you need to focus on results. Always keep the end game in mind. No matter what culture you work in, results are what matter."
Video: 18 minutes • Overheads • Notes
Women & governance
Anne C. Soucie, Atlantic Pilotage Authority
- Obstacle to women on corporate boards: old boy's network
- New recruitment process and increase of women on corporate boards
- Practical strategies and advice for women leaders to bridge this gender gap
- Importance of soft skills in governance
"In the wake of the numerous corporate scandals of recent years (Enron, Parmalat, to name a few), the public, taxpayers, shareholders, leaders, leading opinion-makers and elected officials all agree that things have to change; and things are changing. We are now witnessing a professionalization of boards of directors in both the public and private sectors, and even in professional associations and non-profit organizations. Boards of directors are now being held accountable, which translates first of all into recruitment based on merit of the individuals, and on achieving a balance of skill sets for a board as a whole."
Video: 32 minutes • Overheads • Paper 5 pgs. (2,288 words)
Panel: The power of mentoring relationships
Catherine Mossop, Sage Mentors Inc., Sonya Kunkel, Catalyst Canada Inc., Stephanie MacKendrick, Canadian Women in Communications
- Dynamics of formal vs informal mentoring programs
- Types of mentoring relationships
- Rules of engagement in mentoring relationships
- Selection process: who is qualified to be a good mentor?
"What does a mentor do? The mentor facilitates the process of arriving at insight. The mentor encourages the exploration of complexity in problem analysis, calculated risk taking, and political awareness. The mentor also "holds up the mirror" to push accountability and confront bad behaviour. Learning from mentoring relationships results in innovation and improved decision making to produce better results."
Video: 68 minutes • Overheads |