UHN's Emerging Leaders Program is designed to help employees examine new ways of enhancing their on-the-job performance and prepare for future leadership opportunities that may come their way.
A 10-month voluntary program for individuals who are not yet in supervisory or managerial roles, it offers an opportunity for high-performing individuals to explore and strengthen leadership skills.
Through various workshops, learning labs and a stretch project to help them apply their skills, the program is designed to take people out of their comfort zone. Participants learn about leadership styles, develop critical thinking and influencing skills, learn how to manage their career, and how to network.
Among the graduates, who celebrated the completion of the program last month at an event with Dr. Kevin Smith, UHN's President and CEO, and Emma Pavlov, Executive Vice President Human Resources/Organizational Development and Michener Operations, were Shawna Fraser and Julian Cardozo. Each of them shared with
UHN News what the 10-month experience taught them.
Shawna Fraser – Safety Specialist, Caring Safely Education
"The Emerging Leaders Program helped me better understand the type of leader I am, and the type of leader I strive to become.
Upon reflection, when I started at UHN in 2013, I didn't understand the role I played in safety as a non-clinician. The Caring Safely initiative helped change my perspective in that patient and worker safety is everyone's business. I was inspired to do more and became a passionate leader with the help and mentoring of the Emerging Leaders Program.
This program helped me think differently about building on my strengths – and weaknesses. Workshops such as DiSC provided me tips on how to work together with individuals of different personalities, a valuable skill to have in a complex workplace. At the senior leadership panel, Catherine Wang, Brenda Perkins-Meingast, and Meena Merali reinforced the importance of 'staying true to yourself.' This lesson will act as my guiding compass moving forward in my leadership journey. The most memorable part of the program was meeting all of the incredibly smart and passionate people; the future of UHN is bright!
I'm excited to continue on my leadership path leading larger initiatives at UHN and within Caring Safely as we move towards the next phase in our safety journey."
Julian Cardozo – Coordinator of Media & Technology, Department of Cancer Education, Princess Margaret Cancer Centre
"Often in an organization as large as UHN, it is easy to forget the amount of people who help to keep things running. The Emerging Leaders Program reminded me how multi-faceted UHN is and how vital it is to support those who want to work toward a better tomorrow.
I was lucky enough to connect with these talented and driven individuals in my cohort who have a vast knowledge in the various fields they work in. I was continually inspired by the passion they had to drive their projects forward and in turn became motivated to ensure my own contributions had meaning.
I am thankful the program empowered me to grow beyond my day-to-day work and helped bridge connections with UHN leaders in my field.
The Emerging Leaders program also provided some great communication and thinking tools which helped me learn how to understand others but more importantly learn about myself.
One of the biggest lessons I learned from the program is when it comes to being a leader, in order to understand others, you must know yourself. When you do, you will know how to provide, share, communicate, co-operate, listen, inspire and lead others toward your goal."
Congratulations to the 2017-18 UHN Emerging Leaders program graduates:
Alison Battistuzzi, Liesa Baumann, Julian Cardozo, Janet Chow, Lih-Ling Chung, Vanessa Clements, Lloyd Coutinho, Simonne Cumberbatch, Alaina Cyr, Shannon Douglas, Alapana Dullabh, Lara Feasby, Shawna Fraser, Anna Gozdzik, Judith Grant, Jackielyn Guanzon, Tamara Hambleton, Amanda Hrushowy, Henry Kong, Ramya Kumareswaran, Geoff Law, Grace Lee, Karlee Lin, Lindsay Maynard, Allyson Mayo, Alina Mednikov, Cesar Mendez, Julietta Mikaelyan, Ramesh Mirmooji, Sitra Mohammed, Cherry Nataba, Rita Nwaulu, Darcia Paul, Trish Peat, Sandra Porter, Andrea Rabiewsky, John Robertson, Eleana Rodriguez, Perry Ross, Andrea Ruby, Rita Samaha, Lauren Silver, Timothy Sukhu, Charles Tang, Alvina Tse, Erika Uguccioni, Adrian Ungureanu, Lisa Vanlint, Josh Williams, Jiahui Xu, Gregory Zilinskas.
