Presidents Blog: April

In case you were ever wondering about how everything at SCWIST gets done, we actually meet on the first Wednesday of every month at 6:15 pm and often run until about 10 pm! One might think it’s challenging to sit in another office for another 4 hours after a long day at work, but let me tell you, I have much more energy at the end of the night when we’re locking up the doors at 10:30 pm than when I first arrive at our cozy downtown office at 6 pm! My board colleagues and mentors agree with me…there’s something about SCWIST that is so energizing!

Each month, I have the pleasure of sitting amongst a group of dedicated and intelligent women and see us use our individual strengths to collaborate and continue to build a strong team. The synergy in that room is unbelievable and I wish you could see what’s happening.

Last year, my friend and colleague, Stefanie, gave me a book to read called “Strength Finder 2.0”, which can help you to find your unique strengths. I personally admire the paradigm shift toward building on our strengths rather than focusing on our weaknesses.

Building on our unique and natural strengths to achieve the best result possible also requires awareness of our behavioural blind spots and our impact on others and learning techniques to deal with them.

According to Strength Finder 2.0, my top 5 strengths are: Strategic, Maximizer, Command, Ideation, and Activator and I look forward to using them and building them every day in everything I do.

The book was also a good reminder that nobody is perfect, something we often forget. To be successful in whatever goals we might have – career or personal – we need teams of people to complement each other’s strengths in order to deliver positive results!

I am proud of how we run our meetings and every single member of the team contributes their:

• Dedication,
• Integrity,
• Collaborative attitude,
• Knowledge and skills,
• Solid communication,
• Honesty,
• Objectivity.

While SCWIST has a strong board of directors, what we have been able to accomplish wouldn’t be possible with only our board members. We are grateful for the dedication of our Status of Women steering committee, our hard working volunteers, our past presidents who mentor us, and our office team members, Jodie and Jeannine.

So, now I challenge you! What are your top 5 strengths and how will you use them?