Yesterday, we hosted our Leaders Breakfast Panel: Leadership for the Future in Winnipeg. It was a inspiring way to kick off the day with a full crowd in attendance. Our speakers – Mariette Mulaire, Marc Albert, Michelle Manary and Stephen Race – all participated in a thoughtful discussion about leadership with some very valuable insights.

Here are some snippets of key takeaways from each panelist:

Mariette Mulaire

President & CEO of World Trade Center Winnipeg

  • Leadership starts with knowing who you are and knowing what you want. Do whatever it is you have to do to accept and discover who you really are. I find meditation really works.
  • When you don’t feel good about yourself, when you don’t feel respected – you don’t produce.
  • We know when we’re not truthful or authentic. I know when I’ve failed, and most of the time I’ve failed because I let my ego get in the way.
  • Leadership means not only removing the barriers from in front of your team, but also realizing you may be one of the barriers.
  • As a leader, it’s important to pause for a moment before taking action.
  • As Winnipegers and Manitobans, we have to be proud of where we come from. We have to believe that we have something worth sharing with the global business community.

Marc Albert

Regional Director of Freedom 55 and former Olympic athlete

  • Understand why people do what they do. Everyone has the how and the what. But the WHY is where the action happens. Without the why you can’t get to the what or the how. It transformed how we communicated as a team and we became the top performing region in Freedom 55.
  • Know your people, create the avenue for them to grow through, build an environment where it’s ok to make mistake.There’s isn’t a package you can buy out there that will make you leader; you grow into it. You don’t just say you want to be a leader. Through our lives we have different circumstances, different careers and different people we can learn from that make us grow as a leader.
  • Poor leaders are continually fearful of someone looking to take their job. Great leaders are training their replacements. The first mandate of all my Directors is to find and train their replacements.As part of an Olympic volleyball team you become very good at very specific things. I look at my ten directors as my volleyball team. You need to play to each of their strengths. Empower people with their best attributes.
  • The hardest thing I’ve had to do and continue to struggle with is learning how to take the high road for your team.

Michelle Manary

President & Owner of Reframe HR

  • As leaders you need to embrace the courage to fail. You have to have the courage to show failure and to show others how to fail. Get past your egos and become more vulnerable. Your pride gets burned, A LOT.
  • The #1 conversation I have with leaders is about courage – the courage to be vulnerable, the courage to fail, but most importantly, the courage to take action. It’s that courage to have that tough first conversation, and know what the conversation after that is going to look like, and the one after that.
  • I also coach a lot on being curious. The environment around is changing all the time with technology and social media. You have to stay curious and you have to encourage curiosity in your teams.
  • 94% of people problems stem from systems, if you don’t fix the system you’re going to have the same problem. You have to clear the paths so people can do their best.

Stephen Race

Noted Occupational Psychologist specializing in multi-generational teams

  • Traditionally a leader could say one thing publicly and be completely different behind closed doors. But now, with social media and the access we have to information, having that disconnect between what you say and what you do doesn’t fly anymore.
  • As a leader, you need to have authenticity and build trust. People have to believe that the personality you’re presenting is real.It’s important to recognize how you see the world and that others see it differently. Surround yourself with other ways of reframing the problem.
  • A great exercise I like to do with clients is to get them to take inventory of the things that energize them, and what drains them. As a leader you don’t need to have the answer to everything and do everything perfectly. Delegate the activities that drain you; chances are there is someone who enjoys it and will do a much better job of it.
  • Knowing yourself is important and ongoing, but that aside, it’s also important to know the strengths and limitations of your team. And are you pushing people forward or holding them back? The best leaders are the ones that elevate others.

Thank you to everyone who joined us yesterday and contributed to a fantastic event!