Diane Taylor
principal,
Glow Leadership

Diane Taylor is a leadership coach, human resources consultant, speaker, facilitator, and blogger (glowleadership.com). As principal of Glow Leadership, she offers unique leadership development, organizational design and executive coaching opportunities that help leaders and organizations achieve their best results. Her passion lies in developing exceptional, authentic and engaged leaders who create balance and meaning in all areas of their lives. She blogs about leadership, love and balance.

My approach to HR Leadership has not been influenced by a specific life lesson or single learning experience, but rather by a combination of many experiences, challenges, industries, opportunities and amazing people that I have had an opportunity to work with over my 20+ year career. Leadership, in my opinion is about growth, continuous improvement and a better understanding of self. As I have learned more about myself, my unique strengths and my authentic style, I have grown into a stronger and more well-rounded leader. I have learned that unless there is blood running under the door, you can get through anything; that perfection or trying to emulate others only holds us back from our true greatness and that although we typically look outside ourselves for guidance and direction, all of our answers lie within. When we embrace our authentic leadership gifts people trust and will follow us where we need to go.

Denise Lloyd, CHRP
CEO & founder,
Engaged HR

Denise Lloyd, MA, CHRP actively works with organizational leaders to build engaging workplaces.  Denise has been in the HR field for over 20 years and is known for bringing new ideas and innovation to the way people work together. She is a sought after speaker and is committed to creating workplaces where employees have opportunity to gain meaning from their work and where leaders are proud of the kind of employer they are.

While doing my Masters of Arts in Leadership, one of the things that resonated the most with me throughout my studies was the question “Is this the kind of leader you want to be?”  It made me stop, reflect, consider my actions and make a choice.  Now, when faced with leadership moments throughout my day, I often ask myself this question and make a choice.  And sometimes, I change my mind.  I might choose to take a different position or I might use different words to explain myself.  The point is, sometimes, what I am about to do is not reflective of the kind of leader I want to be.  This is a great way to check my alignment with my leadership values and beliefs and to make quick course corrections or to validate that I am indeed, going in the right direction. It is powerful and effective!

Paulette Brager, CHRP
People Service Team,
First West Credit Union

Paulette Brager, CHRP, has been a member of the People Service Team at First West Credit Union for the past four years. With more than 15 years experience in human resources industry, she is passionate about leading people and developing innovative programs that help her colleagues excel. Paulette has been a member of the BC HRMA Southern Interior Advisory council for the past six years and will serve as chair for the 2014/2015 year.

My approach to HR has been greatly influenced by the advice given to me by one of my mentors many years ago – always think like an owner. Simply put, make business decisions as if it was your name hanging above the door. With this in mind, I focus on how I can best support my colleagues while achieving and exceeding our business goals. My current role with First West allows me to continue to fulfill this ownership mindset as I am empowered to make decisions that benefit our teams as well as our company. One of First West’s priorities is to grow its leaders. By working on and leading many great projects, I am able to be a part of the strategic direction of the company while helping others realize and recognize their potential. When you show people how the work they do really makes a difference you can build a truly engaged workforce.

Krysty Wideen, CHRP
Consultant,
The Refinery Leadership Partners Inc.

Krysty’s strong interest in the challenge of creating, implementing and measuring learning experiences in innovative and impactful ways led her to a career in organizational and leadership development. In her work as a consultant, she strives to bring groups back to the basics, challenge assumptions and explore new, different, and inventive perspectives. Krysty has her Masters of Education in Adult Learning and Global Change from UBC, her Bachelor of Business Administration from SFU, and is a CHRP.

As a leader in HR, I am in service of the business and of people within that business. I think when I first got into HR I was much more focused on the people and thought it was someone else’s job to worry about the business itself. This shift characterizes my approach to HR leadership.

I remember one moment, I was teaching a group of leaders and one of them politely raised his hand and asked, “How will being here help me do my job better?”. It’s a pretty simple question and yet, my first response was panic. I did eventually give him an answer; honestly, I don’t really remember the particular answer nor whether it satisfied him.

What I remember is a promise I made to myself and have strived to uphold since then: “From this day on, I will always have an authentic answer to that question”.

Denise Norman
director, HR
Department of Economic Development, Yukon Government

Denise L. Norman has lived and worked in the Yukon since 1976, first in Dawson City and then in Whitehorse. She has over 25 years of human resource and management experience including facilitation, staffing, classification, coaching, mediation, conflict resolution, labour relations and negotiation. Outside of work she is constantly pursuing new experience and knowledge—from a month long motorcycle adventure in Baja and climbing on Denali, to most recently writing a book about raw foods.

When I was 17 years old, I spent 9 months participating in a Canada World Youth exchange program in locations across Canada and in Honduras, Central America.
It was an intense time for me. I gained the ability to communicate in both French and Spanish, experienced volunteering my time towards community projects and, most important of all, I learned how to live an work as a member of a team, with an eye to observing myself and how I interacted and contributed to that team.

I have to say that it wasn’t always smooth sailing. We struggled with issues of personal weakness, leadership, and even cultural clashes between our anglophone and francophone Canadians, which was a surprise for many of us. What this time taught me was to be an observerof myself as well as the world around me and and to embrace diversity as an asset as well as a challenge.

(PeopleTalk Spring 2014)