Essay: How to Showcase Your Skills for a Leadership Role: Competency Response Exercise

Which of these areas do you have the strongest experience? Which would be areas of development for you?

I would consider my experience and expertise to be that of a subject matter expert (SME) in respects to program funding from a government lens, in addition to the evaluation of programming. I have had extensive 1 on 1 work with government officials and contract specialists around funding. This has afforded me the opportunity to have a higher appreciation for the intricacies of accuracy, highly accountable fiduciary responsibilities, high impact writing, and the impact and influence needed when articulating in a live setting. When I shift the lens and consider being accountable for program funding and evaluation, once again I would consider myself a SME. Currently I oversee the program funding for a variety of programs and services at Vecova and have led a programming initiative for the past 18 months to advocate for government funding for youth programming with the focus of work development skills and competitive employment placements for those with disabilities. When considering evaluation, I am well versed in the creation and adaptation of logic models, and have used them in collaboration with staff to redesign our outcomes in our employment and youth programs. Doing so, aligned outcomes with strategic priorities and goals, created a strong quality assurance component, but more importantly, a knowledge mobilization of continuous improvement.

Exceptionally strong with the principles, methodology, design, and implementation of strategy. A considerable part of my career has focused on strategic planning and business planning. This includes leading staff from all levels of an organization on SWOT and TOWS analysis, interpreting environmental scans, and assisting in the research required for in-depth business plans and strategy plans. A core element of business planning is having the financial acumen required to complete budgeting and forecasting. This has been a mainstay of increased fiduciary responsibilities I have acquired over the past 14 years, and would consider my skill in this area to be at an expert level..  I have found that the most successful strategic plans I have been involved in have had some core similarities. 1. Engagement – This includes all levels of staff, and should not be just created top down. As a personal value that I hold with high esteem, is the ability to connect and include all levels of an organization. The best ideas come from those that do the work, additionally “buy-in” is enhanced exponentially. 2. Communication- How we articulate and paint the inspiration and call to action is important. People want to be led, and they want to know where they are going. Explaining how you will involve your staff is key. 3.Understand Current Culture – culture is complex to understand, and when a senior leader is engrained in the community of it, provides a hardship to observing the behaviours that demonstrate congruency, consistency and commitment to a common set of beliefs. Typically, these behaviours should be aligned on the visions, mission and values. Senior leaders typically overlook this, and take change management for granted, I have witnessed strategic plans never being understood or bought into, because the culture was ignored and it appeared to a be a “top-down” effort. These are three areas that I make a concentrated and intentional effort to understand and undertake with strategic planning for a business or a unit.

Business planning however, would encompass the core elements I have mentioned, but focus on a different timeline. Here we focus typically on a year and is used to obtain funding, start-ups and the execution of operations. I have utilized business plans in all three capacities – most recently developing a business plan for a youth program with the government of Alberta to secure funding for a pilot program on youth transitions and work experience. This has been a work in progress over the past 18 months, and highlights my ability to nurture and exercise strong relationship building with multi-faceted stakeholders, execute negotiation across levels of government and create high impact presentations

I entered the NPO sector with no previous knowledge of working with persons with disabilities, housing models to support the disability populations; from supported roommates, to ultra-complex behaviour support housing models. This was all new to me. However, the transferable skill that has afforded me success in the NPO sector has been my ability to form strong relationships, leave my ego at the door when it comes to learning, and afford the attention, time and commitment that is required to become a subject matter expert in the field I am supporting. Over the past three years, I have taken every opportunity to collaborate on boards, policy discussion, executive meetings, volunteer work and research writing and review. Specifically, in my field, Policy Dialogue: Employment for persons with developmental disabilities. This dialogue included industry experts, scholars and government officials. I strongly advocated for youth programming that included teaching the skills needed for employment at an early age, in addition to working with parents on how to transition their child from a “right” to “qualifying” for service. A result of this policy discussion led to recommendations back to the Alberta Government, and the creation of a Board focused on understanding Youth transitions and the gaps in Alberta. I was asked to sit on this board, and have done so for the past 18 months. This has allowed a continuation of stakeholder / relationship development, and the advocation for the program we most recently proposed back through to the GOA.  Internally, I have a hand on responsibility for policy development, review and yearly update to said policy/s. This includes creating new and updating policies as required. Collaboration, legislation and research are key to successful policies. Including clear rationale and relation to core mission and values. I would consider my ability in this area as extremely competent.

Senior leaders from my perspective should be well versed in the intricacies and delicacies that are involved and even expected when dealing with media. Understanding how to stay factual and prepared in the moment, utilize data accordingly, intimately know your operations, the stakeholder and public perception at all times, know your boundaries, expect to be recorded and keep it simple. Over the years I have had numerous opportunities to speak on behalf of our organization, and have included a few snapshots on my LinkedIn profile. This exposure on live TV and radio has allowed me to make some key contacts, and be a go to person for questions in my field of expertise. With that said, I don’t have formal training being a spokesperson, and would consider my expertise as competent with a desire to become an expert.

Communications, is also part of the day to day responsibilities all senior leaders play a role in. My preference when evaluating and creating a communication strategy is to always assess the stakeholder perception, and ensure I have a strong understanding of:

1: the purpose of the communication, what do I/organization hope to achieve through it. 2. A pest analysis – always aware of the political climate 3. Define the target audience 4. What is the outcome desired 5. What channel to utilize 5. Measurement of the communication. For internal messaging and working with staff and external partner I would consider myself an expert. In the creation of an organization strategy I have been part of strategy and brainstorming sessions – however not been the lead on the actual creation of a communication strategy for an organization. This area would require more focus for development.

This to me is about achieving the triple bottom line, or corporate social responsibility and understanding the needs of all key stakeholders in the process. There are a variety of steps I feel to be pertinent for the success of stakeholder relations and they include. 1. Being active and intentional with relationship building from the start.2. involve appropriate stakeholders in every opportunity 3. Schedule meetings to keep the relationships alive and thriving 4. Hold true to the intergirty of commitments. 5. Leave the ego at the door 6. Be prompt and factual when addressing situations. Over the years, this has been a capstone to my ability to navigate the complexity of the dynamics of relationships, and to move initiatives/ projects forward with common understanding and buy in.  The NPO world has afforded me the opportunity to exercise this ability with a diverse contingent of external and internal stakeholders. Recently I have led the RFP process of our multi-million dollar contract we have held with the YYC. Recently a change in CEO at the airport has meant, negotiating this contract from a perceived position of weakness and limited understanding of who we are, the employees we employ and the overall social impact it has in the community of Calgary. It can be argued the airport could operate this contract internally at a lesser cost. Understanding this risk, I undertook a number of formal meetings and information sessions with senior leaders at the YYC to advocate the importance of social enterprises and synergy our operations undertook together. I leaned on two VP’s I developed strong relationships with, and ensured they had the data and statistics to present the Vecova Cart Retrieval service affluently. This allowed for key stakeholders at the airport to also advocate that although the cost of this contract may be higher than what they could achieve, the social cost would be greater and divert from their own CSR strategy. The outcomes have included mention of our services in their AGM, continued mentions at their internal stakeholder AGM by their new CEO, and achieving a seat at the final table for negotiation on September 12th. This negotiation will include the pricing and staffing submitted, and of which I will be accountable for completing. Without the prior engagement activities and forward thinking of perceived risk, this contract could have resulted in job loss and profit from flowing back into our organization. I would consider myself an expert at stakeholder relationships. Internally and externally.

A collective vision for the benefit of a community is achieved through community engagement. My role over the past three years has had a focus on community engagement, and has the same offerings of that of stakeholder relations, however comes with a slightly different focus. For myself, I have focused on ensuring our community engagement activities from a social enterprise and employment perspective encompass the flowing principles;

Be transparent and respectful

Be clear and open about the purpose and process of engagement; provide stakeholders with information through ongoing communication and timely feedback on how their input will be used, and respecting and acknowledging their knowledge and expertise throughout the process.

Be inclusive and accessible

Be inclusive in engagement by including a representative sample of the community where information, activities and approaches are accessible (e.g., socially, physically, cognitively) considering the diversity of the participants. Support should be provided where needed, to overcome barriers to participation

Be intentional and resourceful

Be intentional in community engagement by providing time to design a plan that considers appropriate resources and timelines to ensure the engagement initiatives are executed appropriately and have the desired impact.

Be effective and sustainable

Be effective in community engagement methods by gathering ongoing feedback and implementing an evaluation process to ensure continued alignment with the purpose, to follow best practices, and to ensure that outcomes are delivered.

Be collaborative and share purpose

Be collaborative with individuals, communities, organized groups, organizations, businesses, or governments who have a shared purpose and promote a culture of participation that supports ongoing community engagement and achievement of the common goal.

We as an organization have focused on informing, consulting, involving and sharing relationships. This has been particularly important with my board work with the Calgary Employment First Network, and our yearly activities for Disability Employment Awareness Month. This is a considerably larger event that runs during the month of October, volunteer based, and up until the past two years, ran on a shoe string budget. That meant it was the tenacity and ability of the leadership team of this board to engage community partners to participate, host and advocate these events. We have seen year over year growth of the participants outside the NPO sector, in addition to more vocal advocates within the government backing for funding and proclamations. This work has led to a city-wide proclamation each October since 2015 by the mayor’s office. A direct result of our community engagement strategy, in addition to a formal provincial proclamation for the first time ever, proclaiming October as “Disability Employment Awareness Month” a distinct aspect of any community engagement activity or stakeholder relationship is the evaluation of outcomes and continuous improvement. In my experience logic models that clearly define the “why” to explain clearly the goal of any initiative is important. This leads to goals and outcomes that make sense, align to strategic priorities, allow us to assess and evaluate and make improvements where needed. I am subject matter expert at facilitating and leading these activities.

I incorporate qualitative and quantitative methods when conducting data collection. The past three years has led to three main initiatives where quantitative methods were extremely important methods to utilize, I will explain the most challenging one… 1st. Culture change. When I took over our employment services division, we had a culture problem in addition to a programming issue. We, from my perspective lacked an engaged workforce that demonstrated the values of our mission statement. I undertook a full 6 months data collection, that of observation, one to one meeting, focus groups and surveys from all levels of staff in our department. This confirmed in fact we had some serious issues from frontline staff all the way to manager. It allowed me to gain trust, credibility and understanding of who we were, what we wanted, and got people on board in the process of developing strategic plans to focus and fix our identified issues. This stemmed from a long history of no KPI or accountability metrics, no formalized approach to critical conversations, and no consensus on leadership theology, I.e., Transformational leadership. After establishing and confirming the qualitative, it thus begun the work of developing the quantitative aspect – we had two focuses: 1 – employment engagement 2: quality programming – we entered into logic model facilitation’s and involved all staff in the development of both concepts. We established baseline outcomes for our employment preparation program, success metrics and long-term impacts. Additionally, the creation of manuals and a CI program to evaluate best and promising practices each year VS the material that was created. From an employee engagement perspective – we have incorporated feedback sessions on supervision meetings, progress on identified employee goals, employee participation in team meetings, employee recognition, with a set number of folks recognized every month – this project is still evolving, and because of the baseline established and logic model to guide- sets us up to continuously involve our employees and enhance the process.

I have found a mix of the two to be extremely useful in turning data into knowledge and risk adverse decision making. When doing research on the gaps in Alberta programming for youth with Cognitive disabilities, specifically why the participation rate in the labour force has not change in over 20 years, my education, experience in finance and in the NPO sector has afforded me a keen eye on exploratory research analysis with a focus on the two key data analysis methods identified above. My strength certainly lies in the application of logical techniques to describe and recap data rather than performing quantitative advanced statistics. This leads to high impact writing, especially when considering funding opportunities, and the compete factor that federal funding is accustomed to.

Expert at the above, with a decided focus to become stronger on advanced stats (the creation – not interpretation)

Please describe a complex organization you have worked with where there were multiple stakeholders.  Who were the stakeholders? What was your approach to develop, build and maintain critical relationships to ensure success and achieve organization goals?  Please provide an example.

Having worked for CIBC for 11 years and contrasting that versus Vecova, it has been a unique perspective to gain on the complexities, similarities, operating and balance sheet challenges both lenses have afforded me.

Vecova is a medium sized non for profit. Vecova provides a wide range of services and supports in the Calgary region (including the Bow Valley Corridor) for persons with disabilities and the community. We provide services and supports through an Integrated Services Model that brings together our services, research and enterprise to meet the changing needs of our consumers so they may reach their fullest potential and benefit from the highest possible quality of life. These supports are provided to Calgarian’s of all ages and abilities with varying levels of support – from some support to extensive support. We employ:

a system of supports to meet the level of support required by the individual and within the most appropriate environment for the individual

a supports approach that recognizes that individual needs change over time and that supports must change as well a citizen-centred approach to service planning to ensure our consumers work towards their personal outcomes.

With over 700 employees, Vecova has evolved over the past 5 years to better meet the needs of our consumers and community. As a non for profit that also operates social enterprises, it has the unique blend of being a government funded operation blended with a high degree of business acumen. The complexity of this organization is high, and takes a certain level of finessing to ensure the multiple stakeholders we interact with, that their needs are understood and met continuously.

As such our stakeholders are at the heart of decision making, for myself I would have a high involvement with the following primary stakeholders;

 Persons with and without disabilities

 Government officials

 Business owners, Executives and operators

 Staff at all levels of the organization (including C-suite and Board)

 Vendors and suppliers

 Media relations

I take the following approach when preparing and interacting with all stakeholders, 1. Being active and intentional with relationship building from the start.2. involve appropriate stakeholders in every opportunity 3. Schedule meetings to keep the relationships alive and thriving 4. Hold true to the intergirty of commitments. 5. Leave the ego at the door 6. Be prompt and factual when addressing situations.

A most recent example I would like to share is in respects to the RFP process I have been negotiating with the Calgary Airport Authority.

Since 1995, Vecova has fulfilled the baggage cart retrieval services contract at Calgary International Airport.  As a social enterprise of Vecova, the Baggage Cart Retrieval Services provides not only a diversified revenue source to Vecova, but equally as important, an opportunity to demonstrate the fulfillment of Vecova’s mission of building the capacity of persons with disabilities and enriching communities through leadership, innovation and collaboration.

For the past 10 years we have held the contract without it going to RFP. When I came on board 3 years ago I had two mandates in understanding this contract. 1st – a full and comprehensive review of the financial modelling and ensuring that it met the obligations of our organization. It did not pass. 2nd – establish high performing relationships with the decision makers at the YYC. Through my analysis and research a number of outliers were found, that was not congruent with a model of financial sustainability. Additionally, as an organization we knew that the contract would go to RFP in the 2018 fiscal year. As such, a re-conditioning of relationship behaviour had to be undertaken to:

1. Appropriate the funding, positional pay, and overhead costs

2. Appropriate a % of profit back to Vecova

3. Move away from subsidizing shortfalls

4. Re-establish the link on their CSR strategy and our mission as a social enterprise.

5. Not catch stakeholders off guard and sour a mutually beneficial relationship

I established strong relationships with two Vice-presidents and the director of supply chain. This included numerous meetings to establish credibility, understand them as business people and from a personal lens. I used these meetings to advocate for the future status and needs of our organization from a sustainability perspective, the social impact this contract has on the lives of those it employs. This allowed from 2015 to 2018 an increase to wage on all employees by close to 8.9%, in addition to an increase of 33% in funding to cover our overhead costs. This leg work and stakeholder stewarding allowed for facts and data to be accepted at face value.  

This work with the identified stakeholders also made transition easy when they YYC introduced a new CEO. As with any executive change, bottom line is typically the first thing to get assessed. This relationship change was no different. All vendors were put on notice that until an analysis was done, rates of pay outside of legislative requirements would not be processed. Nerve-wracking for any vendor let alone an NPO.

Due to the strong relationships that were built, our team in partnership with our internal advocates at the YYC we were able to provide qualitative and quantitative data to bring the new CEO up to speed and appreciate the social impact the relationship was achieving together.

I believe the stewarding of these key and critical relationships led to Vecova participating in the final stages of the RFP process and our RFP being accepted without being asked to reduce any amount we proposed. To me, this showcased the following;

1. Strong and meaningful high impact relationship founded in trust had been established

2. A belief in the operational excellence we as an organization bring to the table

3. Fiduciary accountability and responsibility including expertise

4. A desire to make social change together

This is one of many examples I can provide, where the outcome has the same essence. I would consider myself a subject matter expert on stakeholder analysis and relationships.   

What is your experience reporting directly to a Board? Describe your exposure as it relates to making presentations to a Board or working on Board committees?

I do not have experience reporting directly to a board.

I do however have extensive experience working on a number of boards, and the first thing to keep in mind is the diverse expertise everyone brings to the table. Board committee work can be challenging and complex, however an extremely rewarding experience. I have found my experience working on the RCSD youth transition board extremely beneficial. This has allowed me to expand my social network in the field to; School boards, AHS, Mental health, the justice system, and aboriginal youth programming gaps.  

I have also sat on the Calgary Employment First Network – this board is composed of senior leaders amongst the NPO sector focused on employment advocation, strategic planning and best practices, including policy work for persons with disabilities. Once again, an enriching experience. Both instances are about understanding the mission, and advancing the network towards that mission.

In both instances, staying concise, following an agenda, having a strong term of reference and being accountable to the above has led to board networks that are more cohesive in nature.

My experience working directly with a board falls short of the noted experience above, however I have prepared numerous presentations and am counted on during events to entertain/build board knowledge on programs and initiatives and of course build strong relationships.

To the point, relevant information for decision making, and financial responsibility needs to be showcased. I have grown accustomed to executive briefs to prepare my executive for board presentations.

Please describe your most relevant experience managing and leading a team. How many and what positions/roles reported directly to you?  Indirectly? What metrics or KPI’s do you use to evaluate your teams’ success?

Currently I lead a work force of: 2 directors, 1 senior manager, 10 managers, 23 team leaders and over 300 employees.  Directly to me is 7 senior positions that oversee our operations and the employees mentioned.

Each area/manager have different KPI for success, the easiest way to break this down is to separate business VS government funded service

Business KPI:

First the methodology has been mixed since I came on board, however work has been done to correct this to include the following concepts:

1. Specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and timely

The implementation of SMART goals has been critical to the success of our business operations and government funded initiatives. We have done considerable work on training and establishing KPI that fall within this.

In the businesses we have established the following KPI as a baseline

1. Profitable revenue growth

2. Employee retention/ external customer retention

3. Customers served/ Product moved per HR

4. Customer feedback

5. Customer growth

6. COGS

7. Customer acquisition cost

In government funding we have established the following KPI as a baseline

1. Employee retention

2. Employee feedback

3. # of consumers moved to next phase in E-prep

4. # of consumers who are competitively employed

5. Diversity of industry

6. Wage scale by industry

7. New employees acquired

8. Diversity of industry

What is your understanding and/or experience with the principles of a “population approach” to address social issues of homelessness.

When taking a housing first perspective, it’s about providing the supports necessary after housing is provided. A basic need for all is a place we feel secure, loved, accepted. Without a home, we become isolated, our health suffers, mental and addiction problems can be aggravated or exasperated and lastly you feel alienated from the norms of society. To me population approach to housing is about providing this as a basic necessity to combat the social problem of all else mentioned.

What future trends or challenges do you see that will have an impact on the Calgary Homeless Foundation?

In the Calgary region over the next several decades these demographic and economic trends will have an impact on the city and its ability to develop and implement a healthy housing system. These include:

These demographic and economic trends will shape the housing need in the Calgary region because:

There are also a number of risks to be aware of as well;

Calgary has one of the highest home ownership rates in the country and one of the lowest proportions of rental stock in Alberta.

Why does this role interest you?  There are many not for profit organizations requiring top talent and leadership; what is it about CHF that appeals to you? How does this fit with your career goals and aspirations?

Career planning and being intentional with that next step has always been a staple of my value system as a professional. I entered the NPO sector to help, be a part of social impact, and diversify my attributes not just as professional but as a person. The past three years has opened my eyes to the challenges and complexities surrounding the NPO sector, those challenges included;

With that said, it has also given me a deep and compassionate perspective on the following;

As such, yes, there are many Non-Profits in Calgary or Alberta that can offer an enriching experience. The one I work for right now, has been a game changer for me, and I would be hard pressed to want to leave. However, when I came across this posting, the mission of the Calgary Homeless Foundation spoke to my higher purpose, the stakeholders you serve spoke to my commitment to social change, and the people you help spoke to my heart. I would be remised at this point of my career, which I find to be an apex of excitement and wonder, if I did not reach out, and see if I can be a change maker on your team.

I truly appreciate the consideration.