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Siobhan Calderbank

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WOI Alumni

WOI Alumni

CORPORATE

SIOBHAN CALDERBANK

Senior Director, Talent Management, LCBO | 2019 Woman of Inspiration™ Diversity and Inclusiveness Award | Toronto, Ontario | Canada

What advice would you give to an emerging business leader?

Make sure that you have a mentor, a coach and a sponsor. A mentor will provide you with guidance as you move up in your career. A coach will offer suggestions to adjust your leadership approach and build critical skills. A sponsor, however, will advocate for you in the boardroom and highlight your achievements to ensure you get noticed. All three play a pivotal role in your career development and advancement.

Knowing what you now know, what would you have changed

about your career path? I would have found a mentor earlier. A mentor can help you avoid big mistakes and guide you along the way. Learn from others that can help you advance your career/ business faster.

Share with us a big lesson you learned about advancing in your

career. I learned you cannot do everything even if you want to. Learn to delegate and surround yourself with others who are experts. Listen to them and allow them to make things easier for you. This gives you more time to focus on what is important while giving others an opportunity to learn.

What do you admire most about female leaders? I admire a female leader’s ability to multitask and be adaptable. Women often take on so much professionally at work and still give their families priority. They are effective communicators with their teams, demonstrate empathy to others and still remain determined to get things done. That’s powerful!

What leadership traits are you

most proud of? Having the courage to be authentic and showing vulnerability are leadership traits that I particularly value. As a leader, it is important to show empathy, compassion and respect to others, especially during uncertain times when people are looking to leaders for direction and understanding.

What do you hope to achieve in

the next five years? I would like to personally mentor 100 women professionally to achieve new levels in their career and business.

Capturing my journey through much of the last decade, I am pleased to say my career has grown. So has my confidence. I met, and later married, my new husband, Chris, who has become one of my greatest supporters. And, furthermore, he has continued to fuel my passion for learning. His influence has made a difference in shaping my approach to leadership.

In my journey, I will continue to champion for women—ALL women and be proud to serve as the UWN National Ambassador for Black Women.

What was the defining moment that launched you in the direction

of your career path? When I was pregnant with my daughter and I felt like my world was falling apart, the “ah-ha moment” was knowing I had a choice. I could be a victim or I could be resilient. I chose the latter. I continued with my education. I began writing, mentoring and speaking. While helping others to be better, I developed my footprint in a leadership role and advanced in my career.

Starting a business can come with sacrifice. What was the biggest sacrifice you made

starting yours? The biggest sacrifice I made when I started my career path was finding the time and getting sleep. I spent a lot of time studying, taking on additional assignments and volunteering my time to help others. This resulted in less time to sleep but I am thankful for the rewards professionally and personally helping others succeed.

How do you define success?

Success to me is being able to look in the mirror and be proud of who I am, what I do and how I do it. Success is knowing that the people I impact are motivated. Success is not about how much money I have but rather that I am inspired by the person that is looking back at me.

Success is not so much a destination as it is a journey. What has helped you achieve

success? Support from family and friends is the single biggest thing to help me achieve my success. Without the help of my mom and husband, I would not have been able to accomplish as much as I have. My kids, my family and my friends have also been supporters and champions of everything I do.

Of what are you most proud with respect to arriving at this point in your journey? I am most proud of completing my Master of Arts degree in Leadership while being a single mom with a newborn baby. I am grateful that I was able to leverage my learning to enhance my leadership skills, develop other leaders and advance my career with promotions into my dream job today.

Recognizing the achievements of women is critical. Why?

Recognizing the achievements of women helps to elevate their confidence by acknowledging their accomplishments and providing them with a platform to inspire other women to succeed. This is needed now more than ever when women have been subjected to marginalization, biases, and gender inequality.

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