BCHRMA Conference Summary
By Isabelle St-Jean, RSW ACC
If you wish you could have spared the time to attend the
whole BCHRMA conference last week, read on to eavesdrop on the thought-leaders
who were part of that big conversation. Between Rick Mercer’s captivating
stories, David Rock’s neuro-leadership, Jeremy Gutsche’s talk on innovation, and
many more stellar presentations, the BCHRMA event was a feast for the mind.
Here’s a sampling of the highlights laced with insights of relevance to our
coaching profession:
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Rick
Mercer delivered a fun ride through his adventures across our vast
landscape. Along with his twists of humour, he also moved the audience with
anecdotes about the good causes he served by instigating popular fund-raising campaigns
in several Canadian schools. Mercer
ended by saying he used to be a “glass-half-empty” kind of guy, but now he
celebrates our country’ s diversity and commonality of folks who are hard-working
and truly generous.
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Ms. CEO
was a well moderated panel discussion including 3 CEOs: Nicole Stefenelli,
Krista Thompson, and Karen Flavelle. Right at the start, they acknowledged that
many of us are tired of the fight for gender equality. But, thanks to current
research, the conversation has changed. No longer just about fairness, we now
have facts proving that organizational health and profitability increases when
women are involved as leaders. Among surprising stats, it was said that only
17% of “C” positions are occupied by women although this gender represents 47%
of the total workforce. The audience was
encouraged to support women by coaching them to recognize their own value to
counteract the common tendency toward the Imposter Syndrome. Coaching was praised as an effective way to
break down the barriers and limiting beliefs that still reside in both genders
at the subconscious level. We were
reminded to be Ambassadors of diversity and to promote a truly collaborative
culture as a pillar in organizational success.
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Jeremy
Gutsche’s expertise on trendsetting shone as he promoted a culture of
revolution that fosters innovation, creativity and super charged viral messages
that convey succinctly – in 7 words or less - what the company does best. He pointed out that we should counter the
tendency, in economically challenging times, to be overly conservative rather
than innovative; after all several multi-billion dollar corporations like
Disney and Microsoft were started during economic downturns. Gutsche said that when we get good at
something we can be trapped on top of our small hill. But instead we should venture out and look
for another bigger hill and head for its top.
One of his catchy phrases, quoted back by others, was “culture eats
strategy for breakfast”. Aggressive kind of language, but it affirms many
coaches’ view that the importance and power of an organization’s culture based
on clear compelling vision and core values-in-action cannot be over-stated.
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David
Rock presented contents from his latest book Your Brain at Work in both his keynote and breakout session. He pointed out what has to improve:
self-awareness among leaders, better change initiatives and an understanding of
the brain in the workplace. This will
facilitate good decision making and problem-solving as well as collaboration
and knowing how to retain composure under pressure. Three of his main points were that the
rational is overrated, attention changes the brain and that emotions are
misunderstood. It turns out that
feelings are better managed and their intensity decreases when we acknowledge
them and talk about them. (Off course we know that but now neuroscience is
proving it).
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Tony
Hsieh author of Delivering Happiness:
A Path to Passion, Profit and Purpose delivered the closing plenary keynote
with an amazing elaboration about how his US company Zappos.com built its
lasting success with exceptional customer service, tribal leadership and a
robust company culture.
In addition, I attended several great
breakout sessions that were packed with value and good content. The award ceremony was also very well done
and certainly augmented my positive anticipation for our chapter’s coaching
award ceremony in 2013.