Rita’s boss approached her 3 months ago to take on a new project of significant size – it was something totally outside her skill set. Rita was intrigued with the challenge involved and she was ecstatic to have such an opportunity to learn new skills.  But now, Rita is midway through the project and she’s stuck. Several of the key employees she needs to complete the project have left the team. She’s not able to influence the team to move forward effectively and in fact, she’s missed several milestones. Rita feels overwhelmed and as a result of the problems with the project, her boss had to step in and provide direction with the team to salvage the project. Rita and this story are fictitious and are meant to illustrate an important way that leaders learn – through hardship.

Leaders often can identify significant lessons or turning points in their development that was directly related to a hardship of some type. Unfortunately, the best learning doesn’t occur until after the experience, once you’ve taken the time to reflect on what has occurred. According to Russ Moxley what is integral to the hardship is a sense of loss – loss of credibility, loss of your identity, loss of self-confidence. He describes 5 types of hardship and the lesson learned for each as follows:

This finding was supported in the research I conducted in 2006 in Calgary, Alberta with 31 female executives. Several of the women described hardships as one of their developmental experiences as a leader. They described challenges such as meeting a business challenge head on, managing a company that was in trouble, or overcoming a business obstacle in addition to personal hardship such as being a single parent or dealing with family problems.

The Good News  - What this means is that even though hardship is difficult, leaders who are willing to reflect on their experiences and sort through them actually do come out with a huge lesson that can make them a stronger, and more effective leader. I think this is a very positive message.

If you’d like more information on what you can do as a developing leader, I invite you to purchase my book either through my website or through Amazon at www.amazon.ca. You can also buy my book at the following bookstores: Self-Connection at both the north and south stores, Pages in Kensington and Chapters at Dalhousie Station N.W. And, I’d love to hear from you once you’ve read the book.

Programs & Events
March 6, 2012 Lunch with Calgary’s Leading Women

Mark this date on your Calendar!!

I will be hosting another Lunch with Calgary’s Leading Women event on Tuesday, March 6, 2012 followed by a forum and call to action brainstorming session at the Calgary Chamber of Commerce. Work is already underway with most of the panel confirmed, as well as a guest presenter. I’m pleased to announce that Deborah Gillis, the CEO of Catalyst Canada will be joining us. The format this year is going to be a little different, as I am incorporating a planning and brainstorming session. You can have some influence on what we can do as a community of Leading Women to make a difference in the advancement of women here in Calgary. I’m so pleased that the following women have agreed to participate on the panel:

Special Guest, Deborah Gillis – CEO of Catalyst Canada
Sloane Muldoon – VP, Agriculture, Canada, Scotia Bank
Margaret Byl – VP, ERP Consolidation, Suncor Energy Inc.
Angela Lekatsas – VP & Treasurer, Agrium
The panel will be moderated by Ruth Parent, Program Manager, Global Health, University of Calgary. I’m still waiting to confirm that 5th panel member.

Registration information will be available in December and I will be sending out an invitation to attend. As always, please pass on the information to women that you think would be interested in attending – it’s open to all women who aspire to be effective leaders.

Congratulations to These Leading Women:

Catina Aronson – Calgary Office Manager at McLennan Ross LLP

Karen Radford – has joined Enbridge as their EVP of People and Partners

Lisa van Hemert  - moved to Connacher Oil and Gas as their Marketing Manager. Lisa is the founder and Chair of Women Working in Calgary, a group on LinkedIn. It may be worthwhile to check out this group.

Nancy Taipale – has joined the University of Calgary as the Associate VP, Services

Sharon Torgerson – has changed roles within Suncor and is now the Director of Wood Buffalo Integration People and Planning

Sloane Muldoon – has changed roles within Scotia Bank and is now the VP, Agricultural Banking, Canada

Tara Lemay – has moved into the role of Strategy Communications Advisor at Shell International

Do you know someone who has been promoted or moved into a new role? Or perhaps your own role has changed? Please let me know so I can announce it in the next newsletter.