The Minerva Foundation hosted its first Changing the Face of Leadership Conference on Friday, May 3 at Vancouver’s Fairmont Waterfront Hotel, where more than 225 men and women from across BC and beyond, gathered to discuss important issues and challenges facing today’s leaders.
Transformational Failure, jokingly referred to as “Vancouver’s Biggest Losers” by our panelists, discussed professional adversity, and how it inevitably transforms a leader’s journey—hopefully for the better.
Five Takeaways from the Transformational Failure: Turning Adversity in Success Panel
- Failure can be a competitive advantage, but for failure to become an asset you have to be vulnerable—something that is not generally sanctioned in many workplaces. Why vulnerability? To grapple with the implications of failure – and actually learn from it – you have to be able to share your failure with others.
- Don’t get trapped in the narrative of others! Take the time to reflect on and define what success and failure mean to you. Measure yourself against your own expectations rather than labels created by others.
- Ditch the term “failure”! Let’s reframe “failure” as adversity—which allows more space for learning and growth.
- Take the time to put a diverse support system in place, and don’t just include your fans (which Joanne fittingly referred to as, “people willing to drink your bathwater”). It’s important that you are challenged by your support system.
- Favourite quote: “Failure is what success looks like because it’s really the beginning of success. How do you know what success is you don’t experience failure.” – Joanna Piros
Moderated by Joanna Piros, broadcast journalist and executive producer with 11th Hour Productions, the 60-minute discussion featured panelists, Patricia Graham, VP Digital at Pacific Newspaper Group; Tracy Theemes, Financial Advisor with Sophia Financial Group; Yuri Fulmer, Chairman and CEO of FDC Capital Partners and Neil Chrystal, President and CEO of Polygon Homes.
Want more highlights from the Minerva Foundation’s Changing the Face of Leadership Conference? See these earlier posts recapping the conference.
Preliminary Findings from the Minerva Foundation’s Face of Leadership Study
Five Takeaways from the Taking Your Values to Work Panel
