Latest News
- Category: Latest News
The last 15 months have been turbulent to say the least. We have gone through many changes in the way we live, work and relate. Whether we’ve liked it or not, we’ve had to call on and build up our personal resilience. And by now, we’ve heard it all: from advice to eat better, do yoga, and take bubble baths, we know how to build our individual resilience so that we can “adapt to stress, […] harness resources to maintain well-being, and find personal growth as a healthy adaptation to crisis” (Southwick, Frederick, et al).
While building our own set of personal practices that help us bounce back from adversity is an essential part of being able to live and lead well, how do leaders make sure their teams are resilient, too? Individual and team resilience are not the same – according to Alliger et al., team resilience is about bouncing back from challenges that can jeopardize a team’s cohesiveness and performance. The focus isn’t just on individual recovery, but on the team maintaining positive dynamics and the ability to learn together.
As restrictions ease and many organizations begin a return to working together in-person, leaders will need to guide their teams through yet another period of change and adaptation. In the months ahead, leaders will be focused on creating an environment that supports the sense of belonging and motivation that their teams need, to not only recover from Pandemic fatigue, but to contribute to the transformation of this new workplace.
Shaping and strengthening resilient leaders and teams is part of what we do at Telfer Executive Programs. In a recent article from the Harvard Business Review, the authors share that a major component of developing resilience as a leader is building networks and connecting with peers facing similar challenges (Cross et al, 2021). Our programs help you build those networks and create opportunities for growth, which are defining characteristics of high performing teams.
How are you planning on supporting your team through this next phase? As you prepare for the upcoming period of change, we encourage you to consider creating an environment where your team can learn together. Part of our roles at Telfer Executive Programs is designing custom programs that meet the specific needs of your team. Custom programs allow participants to share a common learning experience which can facilitate the change management process and help promote feelings of inclusion, engagement, and motivation in your team so you can begin this next phase with confidence.
If you have any questions or are looking for more information on custom programming, connect with us at:
About the authors
Margaux Carson is the Manager of Program Development & Delivery at Telfer Executive Programs and oversees the design, development, and delivery of all program offerings. She brings her background in education and international experience in leadership development consulting to the role. Margaux is passionate about designing and delivering high-impact programming that supports leaders to grow and create cultures of trust, connection, and development in their teams so they can succeed.
Christina Tector is an Executive Coach and Leadership Development Facilitator. She draws on over 20 years of experience working in the federal public service as a leadership facilitator, personal development coach, change leadership mentor, organizational change advisor, and mindfulness teacher. She is passionate about facilitating, supporting and guiding leaders to discover their own personal development edges, fulfill their potential and elevate the teams of people they lead. Christina cares deeply about creating a climate of trust, compassion and authenticity for healthy humans to thrive in healthy systems.
References:
Alliger et al. (2015). Team Resilience : How Teams Flourish Under Pressure https://iranarze.ir/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/E3365.pdf
Cross et al. (2021).The Secret to Building Resilience https://hbr.org/2021/01/the-secret-to-building-resilience
Southwick, Frederick & Martini, Brenda & Charney, Dennis & Southwick, Steven. (2017). Leadership and Resilience. 10.1007/978-3-319-31036-7_18.
- Category: Latest News
The Telfer School of Management has just unveiled its Vision for a Better Canada. Director of Executive Programs, Glen Orsak, answers questions on how Telfer’s Executive Programs contribute to achieving this bold vision.
What are Telfer’s Executive Programs are all about?
Our focus is pretty much exclusively around leadership development. Lots of executive education shops have a much broader range of things that they do: how to be a better this or a better that. We have chosen to focus on Leadership. Leadership is about making things change, whereas management skills make things operate effectively. We work with leaders to transform their leadership capabilities. We also work with organizations who want to grow their leadership capacity. There’s always that dual focus. We’re serving an organizational need — a strategic imperative — and we’re serving the needs of the individual leader for their career or professional development.
How do these programs help contribute to a “Better Canada”?
You know, it’s funny. At one point our team penned a neat and tidy statement of purpose that declares that we are about: Transforming leaders. Shaping communities. Changing the World. It hasn’t gotten a lot of public attention, yet, but it still anchors a lot of our conversations. We’re all about transforming leaders. By doing that, we help shape organizations and communities. And by shaping and transforming organizations and communities, it is leading to a better world. Transforming Leaders for a Better Canada sharpens that focus for our programs, our community of practice and our customers and clients.
I know it sounds like a lofty goal — and it is. It made us stop and go, “Really? There’s only 17 of us!” But we realized that of course that’s what we’re doing. We are working with people every day who are going to become very accomplished and influential leaders, people who are setting out to have an impact in their own corner of the world based, in part, on the experiences they’ve had with us. So why would we shoot any lower than that?
Having a growing number of better companies in Canada, or better government institutions, or better healthcare organizations will certainly make Canada a better place.
Who are your Executive Programs for?
Lots of our clients are in the public sector, working for the public good — literally to make Canada a better place. Lots of our clients are in healthcare and they are, again, literally making Canada a healthier place. These people are absolutely committed to a better Canada. That’s what brings me back every day.
One of the things we tend to do really well is we create customized learning programs within certain communities and sectors. In the federal government there are communities of like-minded people. So, we created a leadership program for the policy community. We have a leadership program for the security and intelligence community. We have one for lawyers and people in the justice department. We have a leadership program for people in national defence and related sectors centred around huge complex projects — think military procurement. We try to find ways to build leadership programs that are contextualized, customized and relevant in those communities such that you’re not just gaining generic leadership skills but learning the practice of leadership in your own unique context.
How do your programs help leaders have a broader impact?
Some people have gone through our programs and five years later are sending their own leadership teams through our programs, too. They’ve described the huge impact it has had on the culture of their organization. The entire leadership conversation can change. Sometimes my team will know the entire executive team at such and such a health care institution or government department because almost every one of them has been through one of our programs. Obviously, that’s having a high impact on these organizations and communities.
I would also argue that our business has a very strong social mission. When you’re working in the healthcare or public sector, you’re working with people engaged in social, economic and community development. We’re trying to help leaders create culture shifts and to introduce progressive changes that will transform their workplaces. We have to bring these kinds of discussions into the room because our clients expect it.
What affect do you think your programs have on participants’ careers?
Can we attribute their success entirely to our programs? Of course not. It’s not a one-to-one correlation, but it doesn’t need to be. I wouldn’t take credit for your success, but I would certainly take credit for having nudged you in the right direction. And a nudge is good enough for me. I think that’s a valid intention to have, I think it’s the truth about what we do and it’s not too much hubris. We don’t set ourselves up as these heroic gurus of leadership. Rather, we position ourselves a co-pilgrims on a leadership journey — on the pilgrimage to make Canada a better place.
Has anything changed since the pandemic began?
Prior to March 13, 2020, we didn’t have much online programming. Since the first pandemic lockdown, every single minute of programming from then until now has been delivered in a virtual environment. The conversion to online was rapid and amazingly successful. You could say that the pandemic response in the executive learning space has opened all of our minds to virtual learning — and I think we will never go back to the old way. We can’t unsee the possibilities. Oh, we’ll definitely go back to the in-person learning experience, there’s no doubt about that, but there are a ton of things that we’ll no longer do in-person, because it no longer makes sense.
It’s given us all the push we’ve needed to innovate and improve how we deliver our programming — and that’s giving us access to a broader set of potential clients. We’ve already had people join our programs from across the country that probably wouldn’t have otherwise. Now, all of a sudden, we can enrich our engagement with communities outside of Ottawa and possibly have an even greater impact on shaping a Better Canada.
You can learn more about Telfer Executive Programs at telfer.uOttawa.ca/executiveprograms.
- Category: Latest News
Today’s article is written by team member Stephanie Thompson. Stephanie is a program officer at Telfer Executive Programs. She manages logistics and administration for a wide portfolio of programs, ensuring high-touch client service and maintaining a standard of excellence in program delivery. Among her portfolio of programs, she is responsible for the Boundless Leadership: A Breakthrough Program for Women.
International Women's Day has a long history and, like other holidays related to social movements, it has shifted in part from its original political meaning. When I was obtaining my Gender Studies degree at Queen’s University, International Women's Day was a day of protest to recognize the injustice that women – particularly poor, working-class, racialized, immigrant, trans, and Indigenous women – still face. As I flash-forward to the present day, my background as a social scientist helps me advocate for social justice in my work at Telfer Executive Programs and to maintain a balanced opinion and perspective.
As a Program Officer at Telfer Executive Programs, I was given the opportunity to take on Boundless Leadership: A Breakthrough Program for Women, a program we designed specifically to address the needs of current and emerging women leaders. It has been a great experience being involved in a program where I am surrounded by such accomplished women I can learn from and who motivate me to grow my leadership skills.
In my role, I have been supporting the program’s delivery, which allows me to sit in on program sessions. A few weeks ago, in one of the sessions, one of our guest speakers used a phrase that has been bouncing around in my mind ever since: the “tyranny of the day-to-day”.
It seems to have resonated with the program’s participants as well as it continues to reverberate through this cohort. I think it’s because it cuts to a deep truth we’re all feeling right now. We’re all working longer hours, attending more meetings, writing more emails, cooking more meals, spending more time and mental energy keeping ourselves and our families safe from the virus… there’s simply no time to pause and reflect. There’s also no time to consider the hardships we and others are facing, if we’re moving in the right direction, or if we’re shaping the world in the way we’d like it to be for the next generation.
I hope this year, on International Women’s Day, we can take a moment away from the tyranny of the day-to-day to reflect. Reflect on the progress we’ve made, and the work still to be done. I am a part of the Support Staff union at the University of Ottawa, which is made up of over 75% women, and I see the invaluable work we do to support a massive institution like the University. As a Program Officer at Telfer Executive Programs, I have been fortunate to engage with many women in positions of leadership, learn about their career journeys, and even watch them progress to hold more senior roles. I have the opportunity to see women like Dr. Virginia Roth graduate from the Telfer Executive MBA and become the first female Chief of Staff of The Ottawa Hospital. I see so much to celebrate, to pause and reflect on, before taking a deep breath and tackling the work still to come.
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- Category: Appointments and Honours
Dean François Julien and Vice-Dean of Programs & Executive Director of the Telfer Centre for Executive Leadership (CEL) Julie Beauchamp are pleased to announce the appointment of Guy Laflamme and Jean Desgagné as Executives-in-Residence at the Centre.
The Centre for Executive Leadership is part of the Telfer School of Management, and is focused on delivering innovative executive development programming for our clients. The Centre’s clients include public, private and not-for-profit sector organizations in the Ottawa region, across the country, and internationally.
Guy Laflamme
Guy Laflamme is an international keynote speaker with 25 years of experience in high-visibility marketing and production roles for a variety of organizations including the Department of Canadian Heritage, the National Capital Commission, and Casino du Lac-Leamy, among others. He completed his MBA from the Telfer School of Management in 1989, and taught at the Telfer School as a Part-Time Professor for 15 years. He has received the Trudeau Medal in 2005, the highest honour given by the Telfer School of Management to its alumni.
In 2018, Laflamme was a recipient of the Alumnus of the Year Award, which recognizes the outstanding achievement of a University of Ottawa alumni member within the last year. This year, we asked Laflamme to take the role of Honorary Chair for the 50th anniversary of the Telfer School of Management. Laflamme led the Ottawa 2017 project, celebrating 150 years of Canada. The $40 million dollar program of major events and festivities brought in $300 million dollars for the city of Ottawa. That success earned him a nomination to the Order of Ottawa and a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Tourism Industry Association of Ontario. Radio-Canada and LeDroit named him “Personality of the Year” for his vision, boundless imagination, determination and enthusiasm.
Jean Desgagné
Jean Desgagné who has recently been appointed as CEO of Stablecorp Canada and as a Board member of CAA Insurance and Echelon Insurance, was formerly the president and CEO at TMX Global Solutions, Insights and Analytics Strategies. As a Chartered Professional Accountant and a proud graduate of Telfer School of Management (BCom ‘86), he currently serves as a member of the President's Advisory Council for the University of Ottawa, and Chairs the Dean's Advisory Board (Toronto) at Telfer.
As the first donor of its capital fund, Desgagné also contributed to the creation of the Telfer Financial Research and Learning Lab. He also acts as a mentor for the Telfer Capital Markets program, serving as a judge of multiple finance competitions over the years, as well as a notorious speaker at countless events.
Desgagné and his wife started the Desgagné-Soden Family Scholarship Fund for female commerce students, in 2009. “While I applaud all the work that goes on to get women in senior roles,” he says, “I’m acutely aware that we need to get the pipeline going at the beginning.” “It’s a win- win for the students, for the school, and for me,” he says. “I can look back and say I did something good here.”
He also received the Trudeau Medal from his alma mater in 2009, as well as the Queen's Jubilee Medal in 2002 in recognition of his service to the community.
- Category: Telfer Announcements
For the 5th year in a row, Telfer is proud to sponsor the APEX Award of Excellence in Leadership that was presented at the APEX Leadership Symposium, held May 29-30, 2018 in Ottawa. The Leadership Award recognizes an executive in the Public Service that has demonstrated outstanding leadership and that presents a role model for leadership. This year’s recipient is Mr. Michel Doiron, Assistant Deputy Minister at Veterans Affairs Canada; Mr. Doiron received the award in front of over 800 attendees at the symposium. The award was presented by Mr. Michael Wernick, the Clerk of the Privy Council, Mr. Michel Vermette, CEO of APEX, and Glen Orsak, Director of Telfer Executive Programs.
“We are proud to work with public service executives and welcome over 200 participants from the public service into our leadership programs every year.” says Glen Orsak. “Telfer is mission-focused on providing learning and development that transforms the leadership capacity across the Federal Public Service and we are proud to sponsor an award that recognizes leadership excellence in the FPS”.
About Telfer Executive Programs
Telfer Executive Programs is the premiere provider of executive & leadership development programs across the National Capital Region, with a reach across Canada and internationally. More info: Telfer Executive Programs.
About APEX
Established in 1984, APEX is governed by a board of directors made up of fifteen executives representing the National Capital Region and every other region of Canada. The wide range of APEX activities and initiatives is designed to provide executives with opportunities to develop a strong community of practice, promote their physical and mental well-being, and support excellence in leadership.
To learn more on APEX and the Awards of Excellence visit their website here »
- Category: Latest News
We are proud to announce that the Telfer School of Management’s Executive Programs have been ranked within the Winners’ Circle of the 2018 Leadership Excellence and Development (LEAD) Awards. This global recognition was unveiled by HR.com at the 36th Annual LEAD Awards in Salt Lake City in February.
Telfer Executive Programs was ranked fifth in their category for “Custom Content Programming with Emphasis on Leadership / Organizational Development" in recognition of their Justice Canada Executive Leadership Program which engaged leaders of the organization in the transformation process that is underway in the department.
The curriculum for this custom program was designed to meet the specific context of the Canadian Federal Government, to meet the unique organizational requirements of the Department of Justice and to address the individual needs of each participant. Dr. Ingrid Richter, Executive in Residence at Telfer Executive Programs, was the lead designer and facilitator for the program which also profiled an inter-disciplinary team of Telfer faculty and associates as well as executives from the Department of Justice.
“We are particularly pleased that this award is very aligned with our mission and core focus: delivering custom programs that focus on leadership and organization development” said Glen Orsak, Executive Programs Director at the Telfer Centre for Executive Leadership.
The distinguished recipients of the Leadership Excellence and Development (LEAD) Awards for 2018 were named for outstanding achievements in leadership development and programs in the areas of Education, Corporate, and Individuals. These prestigious leadership awards salute the world's top leadership practitioners and programs and highlight their roles in developing their most important asset - their people.
For the past 35 years, the LEAD Awards have identified and recognized the top leadership programs and organizations and their strategies and solutions in their yearly ranking. This year's award winners were published in the February edition of the Leadership Excellence Essentials e-publication.
About Telfer Executive Programs
Telfer Executive Programs is the premiere provider of executive & leadership development programs across the National Capital Region, with a reach across Canada and internationally. More info: Telfer Executive Programs.
About LEAD
The Leadership Excellence & Development (LEAD) event is an annual 2-day inspirational leadership conference dedicated to helping organizations create an innovative, high potential, and passionate workforce. Participants learn how to take the world’s best corporate leadership practices and concepts and put them into practice, applying them to their organizations. The Awards Gala evening celebrates award winning leadership and development programs.
About HR.com
HR.com strives to help create inspired workforces by making HR professionals smarter. Over 1,100,000 HR professionals turn to HR.com as the trusted resource for education, career development, and compliance.
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Student Voices
The following article was written by a member of our student community. The views and opinions expressed in this blog are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of Telfer School of Management. For more information or to flag inappropriate content, please