From Our Executive Director

McMan Calgary & Area is committed to growing our people and being an employer of choice within the social service sector. We know that skilled, motivated and passionate staff are the most critical piece of fulfilling our mission to help the indivudals and families thrive in their communities.

Our collective ability to adapt to shifts in our world and our long-term organizational health relies on building strong and innovative leaders in every position at McMan. Leadership is so much more than a title, it is mindset that is demonstrated in our daily interactions with one-another, our clients, partnering agencies, and communities.

At McMan, we believe everyone has leadership potential and can build their leadership skills. We also want to ensure that there are clear pathways to advancement within the organization, should they desire, or to work towards career goals that may lead to other adventures. With these goals in mind, we launched our Leadership Development Program.

The Leadership Development Program includes the following:

Clear Leadership Competencies.  We conducted employee focus groups to identify the best predictors of leadership success at McMan. We call these predictive behaviours our Leadership Competencies. Focus on demonstrating, and developing, these behaviours help us all become better leaders and provides consistency in our definition what it means to be a good leader. We use these Leadership Competencies as our primary criteria for advancement to leadership positions.

Career Development Discussions Separated from Performance Reviews. Reviewing performance and discussing career aspirations are distinctly different discussions. Therefore, we removed career goal and discussions from performance reviews. Instead, staff who would like help to advance their career, or develop their leadership competencies, may  participate in the Leadership Development Program.

Access to Career Coaches. Staff who would like help navigating their career and leadership development are given the opportunity to select a trained career coach. These coaches will help you explore your career and leaderships goals and create a plan to achieve them.

A Leadership Development Committee. We have establish a Leadership Development Committee that is responsible for, 1. identifying and recommending staff to fill critical positions based on established promotion criteria, and then 2. recommending additional development activities to facilitate staff growth in preparation for a new position or as they take one on.

We believe that these core components of our Leadership Development Program will help McMan grow our invaluable people better, enable us to actualize our vision, and prepare us for whatever changes the future may hold.

Sincerely,
Soraya Saliba
Executive Director