EFFECTIVE LEADERSHIP IN THE POST-PANDEMIC ERA

GLEN KORSTROM

The test in leadership is to inspire a team and steer employees to successfully complete corporate goals. To do that, leaders need to show empathy and understand employees’ needs and wants.

They also cannot take for granted that the successful leadership skills and traits of yesteryear will serve them well in the future.

The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted workplace operations and changed what employees expect.

Rampant inflation hiked employees’ compensation expectations. Evolving social trends have combined to change how workers view employers, and how much they want to work for employers seen as inclusive and diverse.

Failing to take all this into consideration could be a recipe for disaster, MacKay CEO Forums CEO Nancy MacKay tells BIV Magazine.

Leaders need to be able to motivate and get the most out of employees, she adds.

To do that, they need to look at individual employees’ situations, and accept new phenomena such as hybrid-work schedules.

MacKay’s Vancouver-based organization has more than 100 CEO cohorts comprised of up to 14 top executives each. Those cohorts are based across Canada and, increasingly, around the world.

“Leaders need to really inspire themselves, and make sure that they’re showing up, mastering their time, and their egos, and their relationships, and their health and their passion,” she says.

“They really need to be focusing on their own inspiration. That’s the beginning of being able to inspire others. Most leaders skip that step or don’t know that step. That’s why we have so many so-called horrible bosses out there.

They just don’t have the leadership toolkit that’s so relevant today.”

The MacKay CEO Forum cohorts are tailored to be for executives in similarly sized companies, with some being for executives in companies with around $5 million in annual revenue, while others feature executives in companies with around $5 billion in annual revenue.

Members in the groups are vetted so that they are in businesses that do not compete with one another. The result can be frank discussion about challenges so that other executives in the group can chime in with their thoughts, potentially from experiencing something similar, without fear that they are helping a competitor. Fees vary, but can be $10,300 annually, MacKay says.

Other opportunities to connect with CEO peers can be had by joining networking organizations such as the Entrepreneurs’ Organization Vancouver or the Young Presidents Organization.

Some executives have called involvement in those organizations as being akin to having an ad-hoc personal board of directors.

MacKay, however, advises all CEOs – even those at small ventures – to make a point of creating a board of directors and inviting relevant people to sit on those advisory boards.

“To me, advisory boards are very time-effective if you get the right boards in place,” she says.

“I’m a huge believer in [business] coaches to hold us accountable and to make sure that we’re being the best version of ourselves, and learning and growing.”

FORMAL TRAINING CAN HELP BUILD SKILLS, NETWORKS

Leadership training comes in many forms and can include formal education, such as a master of business administration (MBA.)

MacKay says the problem with many MBA programs is that they are very time-intensive and can burn out CEOs who work more than 40 hours each week to keep their companies focused.

Indeed, post-secondary institutions, such as the British Columbia Institute of Technology (BCIT), the University of British Columbia (UBC) and Simon Fraser University, all offer bite-sized continuing education business courses, some of which can eventually be part of a credential or certificate.

One common thread throughout those institutions’ offerings is that more content is focused on themes such as environmental, social and governmental (ESG) adherence, respect for diversity and inclusion, and Indigenous reconciliation.

“Employees are now looking at organizations and their values, their commitments to society – whether that is around climate change or diversity and inclusion,” BCIT interim president Paul McCullough tells BIV Magazine.

“You’ve got a demographic that is much more acutely aware of the things that are important to them.”

BCIT does not have an MBA program, but it has continuing education courses and business-related courses taught by instructors who work in relevant business sectors.

“You can spend a lot of money putting technology into a business, but without the skills to operate that technology, and to use that technology effectively, the value of introducing the technology is moot,” he says.

SFU’s associate dean of graduate programs, Andrew Gemino, says that all of his Beedie School of Business MBA programs require students to take a course to make them aware of Indigenous issues, as well as a course focused on ESG.

Much like at UBC, SFU’s MBA program has core courses. Students at both universities are then able to select elective courses to specialize their MBA. Recent demand has made financial technology – or fintech – one new area of study that students can include in their MBA programs, Gemino says.

He stresses, however, that much of the value in doing an MBA comes from other students in the program. Those people may not only offer immediate insight, but they may become lifelong friends, Gemino says.

“The cohort matters a lot – it is about the people you’re with,” he says.

“Our executive MBAs (EMBAs) probably have more than 40 people, and each of the students have an average of about 20 years’ worth of experiences. That is about 800 years’ worth of experience in that room.”

EMBAs usually require entrants to have at least 12 years’ worth of workplace experience, while regular MBAs require between five and seven years.

Justin Bull, a climate specialist and lecturer in UBC’s Sauder School of Business MBA program, says that technology-related courses within MBAs are becoming increasingly popular.

“There’s one core MBA, and whether someone’s specializing in finance or climate, there are probably somewhere in the neighbourhood of 60 per cent of the courses that are the same,” he says.

“Then we have some specialized courses with adjunct professors who are generally industry practitioners and who come in and teach a course on healthtech, or fintech or on commercializing AI (artificial intelligence).”

Bull says that more flexibility in MBA courses comes as the concept of what it means to be a successful leader changes.

“One of the things that has really changed in the last 10 years is that we’ve evolved how we think about leadership,” he says.

“Science is revealing that there are a lot of different kinds of leadership styles, and the most important leadership style is the one that’s authentic to you.”

People notice when leaders are not accessible or appear to be holding their thoughts back when in faceto-face meetings, he says.

“Increasingly, the people who are comfortable in their own skin, and who can bring their authentic selves to the workplace, are ones people connect with,” Bull says.

“They have to have the emotional intelligence to recognize the challenges of day-to-day life. When someone’s kid is sick, it’s different now. When someone’s under the weather, or needs a break for mental health, it’s different,” he adds. “There’s a sort of awareness now that, in an era of churn and a lot of employment opportunities, and a lot of remote work: If you’re not creating a place where people want to show up, whether virtually or in person, you’re going to turn them out, and you’re going turn them out quickly.” í

Education And Entrepreneurship Can Empower Downtown Eastside Residents

For the area to thrive, we must support aspiring business owners

CHRISTINA WONG

“Give someone a fish, they eat for a day. Teach someone to fish, you feed them for a lifetime.” While the origin of this famous quote is up for debate, there’s no question that education is an essential tool for human empowerment.

In Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside, however, many questions emerge from this place of certainty. Hunger, after all, joins homelessness, addiction, mental illness and crime on a long list of interconnected and systemic challenges in the community.

What kind of education best helps the Downtown Eastside to heal and thrive? What tools do residents need to overcome the various obstacles they face? How do they acquire these tools? How can we ensure that these tools are being used appropriately and effectively?

I started asking myself these questions soon after launching the Street Store, a free and dignified shopping experience for local residents at the intersection of Columbia and Hastings streets since 2014. The more I chatted with members of the community, the more I realized that facilitating employment and entrepreneurship skills is the best way forward.

My confidence in this approach was cemented after meeting a four-year-old boy named Justin. He came running into the Street Store, full of energy and excitement, in hopes of finding a toy for Christmas. He spotted a guitar in my hands, and immediately began strumming its strings. Later on, the boy’s parents shared their grief and frustration over the lack of stable income that prevented them from providing their son with the opportunities for personal enrichment that many Canadians take for granted.

Like Justin’s parents, a quarter of Downtown Eastside residents are striving to become entrepreneurs as an avenue for earning income and caring for themselves and others. Entrepreneurship is widespread partly because 87 per cent of residents face at least one health condition, according to the City of Vancouver’s 2020 Homeless Metro Count, and 80 per cent face mental and/or physical disabilities. Chronic health challenges like these, as well as a history of trauma, can make it difficult to work regular business hours, so entrepreneurship becomes a popular alternative for people to work on their own schedules while making the most of their skills and passions. By empowering people who face work and social barriers to become confident enough to help others, we create a ripple effect of change and a sustainable circular economy.

Barbara Gastelum provides a wonderful example of this. Like anyone who has built a business from the nugget of an idea, the expressive arts registered therapeutic counsellor knows that being an entrepreneur takes more than hard work and dedication. In addition to countless hours spent thinking through business details such as marketing, pricing, overhead, customer service and so on, the support of others as sounding boards is immensely valuable.

Gastelum founded SensesLab in 2018 as a self-exploration platform to help clients find new ways to connect with themselves and their loved ones. More recently, her Employ to Empower mentor, professional life coach Lara Debie, has played a vital role in helping Gastelum navigate each step of her business systematically, and to understand where she needs help.

It’s important to note that entrepreneurial success isn’t necessarily measured by traditional profit models. When entrepreneurs thrive in the Downtown Eastside, they are not only building their businesses, but also their self-esteem and confidence. When they see themselves as individuals of value, they are empowered to support themselves and the people around them.

Most importantly, entrepreneurism cultivates a sense of belonging and community. When a crisis hits, most Canadians have friends and family to fall back on. In the Downtown Eastside, however, many people lack this social support system. Through entrepreneurship, residents tap into a community of resources and support systems that they can depend upon during tough times. By cultivating community and belonging in this way, there is enormous potential for systemic change.

Give someone a job, and who knows what will come of it. Support someone’s skills and passions, and you empower that person, and their community, for a lifetime. í

Christina Wong is executive director and co-founder of Employ to Empower.