Page 9 - CCCA Magazine Summer 2015

{ DiverSity }

Others she consulted were less en- Annette describes herself as having been offce setting to an open concept, where
couraging about her ambition given the a rebel all her life. At this stage in her career, all the employees, including Annette, sit
ages of her children and how the likely she has learned that it is okay not to be the around one big table. She was surprised
increased demands of the new job could expert and to make mistakes. She now uses to fnd the set up conducive for learning
negatively impact her husband’s work. her past experience more freely and effec- the business and being an active member
Her response? A gutsy, “I didn’t become a tively in the CEO role. Naturally a conf- of the team. She has been able to manage
lawyer to make my husband’s life easier!” dent person, her successful prior runs as the demands of the GC role with her fam-
Her resolve to pursue NRStor strength- CEO in large operations have only served ily and community responsibilities—even
ened, she queried whether a man would to strengthen that confdence. She is 58 and if it means leaving the offce in the middle
have received the same push back. loves getting older. She wants to continue of the day at times. She credits this to An-
to put out new ideas and work with an en- nette’s strong leadership and continues to
maintain Career momentum ergetic team to make them into reality. learn a great deal from her example.
Both Annette and Jennifer identifed be- Jennifer left the security of a govern-
ing open to change and taking risks as ment position to work in a startup. This learn from mentors
a way to keep growing, both personally was a new direction for her and the change Both Annette and Jennifer have beneft-
“ Don’t get pigeonholed into one area such as lawyers sometimes lack the courage to
was energizing. She went from a structured ted from strong mentors throughout their
and professionally.
careers. Jennifer pointed out that young
ask for mentoring from those ahead of
them. “Asking is a challenge,” she says,
”
fnance… make sure you are involved across all
though noting that most people are will-
ing to help even though they are busy. She
aspects of a business.
stressed the importance of creating infor-
mal mentorship relations to supplement
any formal mentoring programs you are
involved in.
On the other side of the coin, Annette
describes mentoring as a key part of lead-
ership. In her view, a great leader is some-
one “who educates half the time and leads
half the time.” The leaders of the future
will be measured by their success in get-
ting more from the talent they lead. She
certainly lives that paradigm now.
Annette and Jennifer are blazing new
paths for success based on talent, imagi-
nation and hard work. For both of them,
it has been a risk worth taking. ❚

Kirby Chown is the former Ontario Regional Manag-
ing Partner for McCarthy Tétrault. Carrie Mandel
is a lawyer and consultant at Spencer Stuart, and
part of the North American Legal, Compliance &
Regulatory Practice, which she leads in Canada.
Jennifer Manning, GC, and Annette Verschuren, Founder, NRStor.

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