In this mini seasons episode, we had the opportunity to interview the lovely Mary Michailides - Author, Coach/Mentor, Leadership Development Consultant Mary has a life-long love for learning and leading. She was an educator with 39 years of extensive experience as a principal, assistant superintendent , manager with Alberta Education, and presently a leadership development facilitator in her own company. In 2017, Mary redirected her career and established Maria M Consulting. www.mariamconsulting.ca As a leadership development consultant, she supports school jurisdictions and businesses in transformative leadership practices, which assists leaders in elevating their leadership capacity to build capacity in others. Mary’s commitment to collaboration and support of shared leadership has been instrumental in empowering staff to enhance their skills in impacting organizational change. Both nationally and internationally, Mary inspires and motivates all levels of leaders to develop collective capacity in delivering high quality teaching, learning and leading practices. Mary’s commitment to the statement; Live Well...Lead Well is embedded in her work of coaching and mentoring to maximize the potential of her clients. Mary was a founding member and Chair of the Zebra Child Protection Centre, https://www.zebracentre.ca/ the first of its kind in Canada. She is proud of the work that has been accomplished in support of the most vulnerable population in Edmonton and surrounding areas. With her loving husband of 36 years and their 3 daughters, Mary is often engaged in "live well" activities including; cross country/downhill biking, traveling, skiing, and playing soccer. In our chat with Mary… We focus on leadership and specifically her motto of ‘leading from where you stand’. Lead from where you stand is a powerful and brilliant approach to leadership as a whole. It is the ingredient in the mix that ensures that you are staying true to your values and beliefs. Mary believes that everyone can be a leader, everyone has the opportunity to lead and make an impact from where they stand. Leadership is actually a set of behaviours and outcomes that is available to anyone. “Leadership is not a position, it is not a title, it is not about accomplishments. Leadership is a presence, a commitment in a capacity to encourage, support and guide other people through the strength of who they are.” We touch base on some of the skills you can practice today to lead from where you stand. Mary beautifully explains that mentorship makes a difference. Having one person to talk to, learn from, open up to and go through your mistakes with. That is how you grow as a person and therefore as a leader. Some of the other skills we talk about are transparency, communication and effective listening. We expand on relationships in the work environment. Some of the most common questions being “Can you be true friends with your employees, employers or so-workers ?” How do you set boundaries? Mary goes into depth on how she personally handled a situation like this in her life and how she played the game of balancing out work and friendships. Mary beautifully expands on the importance of having powerful conversations with ourselves and taking the time to reflect on the things we do and say. We focus on the “getting yelled at, at work” situation, where it stems from and suggested ways to deal with it. The key question to ask yourself is “I wonder what happened to make them that way? To make that person have the need to yell at you.. Success to Mary is: “Not helping myself, but also helping others lead a better, happier life through the lens of who they are.” Mary’s message to women is: “Kindness will change the trajectory of this world.” Website: www.mariamconsulting.ca
