On October 20th The Game participants met their future mentors for the first time. Between talking to students and helping students further their ideas about the problems they have chosen to tackle, I spoke to the Mentors about “What leadership means to them?”. These are some of their responses:
Keita Demming (Executive Director, The Agency)
Leadership can come from anywhere, leaders are people who are very thoughtful about their application to dealing with other people.
Geraldine Cahill (Manager: Programs and Partnerships, Social Innovation Generation)
The best leaders in my perspective see opportunities for those that are around them and opportunities to affect positively the world that they are in. They are consistently looking for pathways to improve lives.
Jen Hiscock (Science and Technology Advisor, Natural Resources Canada)
While I was on maternity leave, I had a lot of time to think about what I wanted to be and what I wanted to do. I spoke to a career coach, structured my thinking, and realized that I wanted to be a leader! So to me leadership means to try my ideas to build something bigger and take ownership of something. Leadership is the most intentional way of learning.
Ashley Good (Founder and CEO, Fail Forward)
Leadership is the internalization of responsibility.
Christopher Penrose (Managing Director, DAIS)
Leadership is two things to me:
- Being an example
- Being vulnerable – Leadership is not about showing a pristine image. If a person shows no faults, then it is difficult to learn from them.
Lars Boggild (Manager, Purpose Capital)
Doing the right thing even when it’s unpopular.
For updates on this year’s cohort of The Game, follow ILead on Facebook and Twitter using #TheGameUofT.
-Namya Syal