Leader as a Coach

Learning Outcomes:

• Develop an understanding of coaching principles and their application.
• Differentiate between coaching and other forms of engagement (e.g mentoring).
• Explore how coaching can be an effective tool for employee engagement, development and retention.
• Acquire practical skills and tools to apply coaching principles in real-world leadership and team management scenarios.

With nearly two decades of experience in leadership development and shaping People & Culture agendas for companies across Canada and the USA, Polina Kouzmina's career focus has been on scaling organizations for growth, developing talent and guiding organizations and their people through change.  Currently, as Founder at Thriveworks, Polina leverages her extensive background to drive a thriving leadership coaching and strategic HR consultancy practice. Her mission is to inspire positive change and growth for individuals, teams, and the organizations they are a part of.

Polina Kouzmina - HR Strategist & Leadership and Team Coach

Join us for Leader as a Coach, an interactive workshop where we'll dive into the power of coaching as a leadership tool. Discover how to cultivate trust, improve communication, and motivate your team using active listening and powerful questioning. Coaching Skills are now some of the most sought-after abilities as leaders who coach effectively are able to better inspire innovation, foster connections, develop confidence and empower their teams. This session will invite you to think differently and enhance self-awareness.

Succession Planning: A Blueprint for High Performing Organizations

Succession planning is a critical aspect of organizational development, ensuring continuity, stability, and growth. As Jim Collins, the author of "Good to Great," aptly puts it, the cornerstone of high-performing organizations lies in "getting the right people on the bus, the wrong people off the bus... and the right people in the right seats." This encapsulates the essence of succession planning: strategically identifying, developing, and aligning talent to propel the organization forward.

Many leaders rely on someone’s experience, current performance, and their own intuition rather than taking a deeper dive into what makes people successful at different levels. Many aren’t aware of a scientific model that provides insight into what it takes to be successful in different roles. In our session, we'll delve into the components that contribute to high performance within a position. We'll introduce a validated model to define and assess high performance in roles objectively. Participants will gain insights into evaluating an individual's potential to take on greater responsibilities over time, mitigating risks associated with placing individuals in key positions.

Our goal is to provide actionable insights that you can apply directly to your organizations. Presentation slides summarizing key points and models will be provided for attendees, ensuring lasting impact beyond the session.

We hope to equip you with the tools and insights needed to build resilient and thriving teams, poised for continued success in the ever-evolving landscape of the construction industry.

Fraser Engel - Vice President, Talent Management Solutions, Vancouver Office

Fraser’s 30 years of business experience encompasses roles in sales and executive management, eight years with an international risk management firm and the last twenty-two years managing his own consulting practice.

His unique academic background encompasses a B.A. (Economics) from the University of Victoria, a Certified Professional Coach designation from The Coaches Institute, extensive training in Behavioral Assessment & Psychometrics and Organizational Relationship and Systems Coaching through The Centre for Right Relationship and Team Coaching International.

Fraser serves a wide range of clients in many sectors including:

• - Engineering / legal / accounting
• - Financial / health / educational
• - Business to Business / retail / energy / mining / construction
• - Entrepreneurial – high tech / communications / real estate / advertising

Fraser offers his clients a combination of abilities, including his insight into personality, systems theory and human performance.   He has helped hundreds of individuals and organizations improve their business results and effectiveness through his consultancy, facilitation and coaching with a specific focus on succession / strategic planning, hiring / selection, career transition, performance management and executive and team coaching.

Mike Moreau - President at Concord Consulting

Mike Moreau is the President of Concord Consulting, based out of Edmonton, Alberta. Their consultancy focuses on strategic/operational planning, human resources development, and organizational effectiveness. For over 30 years the business has helped entrepreneurs expand their organizations by incorporating specific tools, processes, and leadership training to facilitate growth.

Mike has also acquired unique insight into how personality impacts performance. He uses this insight to help organizations improve hiring, build more effective teams, and in turn make more productive organizations. In the ongoing challenge of how to best align and manage people, Mike’s insight has provided clarity to leaders on the people decisions they make.

Mike has been invited to speak at numerous CEO forum groups, academic, medical, engineering, and HR associations and academic institutions. He has worked with clients in numerous industries, from manufacturing to construction, finance, professional firms, hospitality, NFP and more. He has had the opportunity to engage and train thousands of leaders and managers throughout North America and in Australia.

In addition to the above, Mike is involved with the Canadian Association of Medical Teams Abroad (CAMTA) and the U of A Venture Mentoring Service. He is also actively involved in the community as a hockey coach and enjoys a variety of sports and outdoor activities in his spare time with his wife and three boys.

Managing Difficult Conversations with Resilience

Learning objectives:

• - Explore what makes conversations so difficult (neuroscience)
• - How to communicate in difficult conversations to increase the likelihood that you will be heard
• - Learn strategies for preparing and leading difficult conversations

Intro:

Icebreaker Wordle (MentiMeter ) – What 3 words come to mind for you when you think about having to initiate a difficult conversation?

Key topics:

• - What makes conversations difficult & what variables are at play?
• - What are the risks of NOT having a difficult conversation?
• - How you deliver/ communicate the message is key: (Experience cube Exercise)
• - Triggers & neuroscience (fight/flight)
• - The importance of managing yourself
• - Active Listening
• - Model to prepare for a difficult conversation
• - Break out to practice model to lead a difficult conversation
• - Reminder: What NOT to do

Conclusion: What’s 1 takeaway?

Q&A

Emilie McIver MA, PCC - Senior Consultant

As a Senior Consultant with Gallagher, Emilie brings over 15 years’ experience in human resources, specializing in the areas of talent acquisition, career development, performance management and leadership coaching. Emilie offers strategic human resources expertise and thrives in coaching clients and helping them build awareness regarding opportunities to best overcome challenges. Her authentic communication and curiosity enable her to ask stimulating questions that present new alternatives aligning to career development and maximizing personal success.

Emilie is also dedicated to her personal coaching and HR consulting practice where she specializes in leadership development coaching, consulting with various organizations and designing tailored HR programs as well as facilitating a variety of workshops that support employee and leadership learning. 

Emilie holds a Bachelor of Commerce from the John Molson School of Business in Montréal, a postgraduate diploma in Organizational Development with Université Laval and a master’s degree in leadership (MA) with Royal Roads University. Emilie McIver is also a credentialed coach (PCC) with the International Coaching Federation (ICF) and is the former President of the ICF Board for the Vancouver Chapter.

Based in Vancouver but originally from Montreal, Emilie is fluently bilingual and delivers coaching and workshop facilitation in both French and English.

Tim Dougan - Client Relationships Lead, Horn Sales & Leadership Development

Tim passionately leads the Client Relationships team at HORN Sales and Leadership Development, a division of Gallagher Benefit Services. Tim is a deeply experienced sales Leader, consultant, and learning professional, equipped with many years of business experience with a wide range of companies and industries. He understands business direction and how to improve performance of leaders, teams, and individuals. He genuinely enjoys helping clients determine areas of performance improvement and is creative in identifying solutions that drive lasting behaviour change and achievement of business goals.

Tim’s learning and development expertise is informed by over 25 years of direct experience in the learning field. Prior to HORN, he held several leadership roles at CIBC, consulting positions with IBM serving the Financial Services Sector, as well as facilitation, design, consulting, and front-line roles with TD Canada Trust.