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Leadership Advisory

Our extensive research points to several themes, informed by countless conversations with leaders. As they consider current social, technological, economic, environmental and political forces affecting Alberta, leaders must grapple with multiple, at times competing, issues ranging from global conditions forcing a rethink of purpose to changes brought about through the renewed focus on Equity, Diversity & Inclusion and Environmental, Social and Governance issues.

Pekarsky & Co. is one of the few boutique firms who have commissioned in-depth research in this manner to better understand the current context and leadership needs of Alberta. While most firms have held roundtables, their efforts are more directed at maintaining relationships as opposed to researching needs. This work sets Pekarsky apart from others.
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“We need a strong visionary to align and bring together all of the moving pieces around short and long-term thinking; someone who is going to help us get through this pain.”

- CEO of Calgary-based company as part of research for Entrepreneurial Leadership – How the New West Will be Won, March 2021

Leadership Advisory Services

Executive & High Potential Coaching

Assessments

Equity, Diversity & Inclusion: Where Words Meet Action

“Mission Critical 100” – Executive and New Role On-Boarding

Succession Planning: Launching the Future Face of Leadership

Emerging Talent & High Potential Leadership Development
We can’t emerge successfully from the pandemic on our own.

Executive & High Potential Coaching

What did 2020 teach you about leadership that you wish you’d known before?

While we’re all doing our best to survive the pandemic, we know 2021 and beyond will demand more of us, our teams and our organizations. One of the most important lessons we’ve learned is that we can’t emerge successfully from the pandemic on our own. This is the time to maximize creativity and energy levels, motivate and inspire team members and gaze ahead to the horizon. Our Executive & High Potential Coaching services can do exactly that.

Benefits of Executive Coaching
Whether you’re an individual executive looking to realize personal leadership goals or the leader of an organization looking to invest in your executive team, Pekarsky & Co.’s Executive & High Potential Coaching will help leaders navigate the challenging road ahead.

Pekarsky & Co. is proud to work with a highly tenured team of executive coaches to provide its Executive & High Potential Coaching. Our coaches draw from decades of experience to help you identify the most acute pressure points for change - whether it’s charting a new strategy, creating team alignment and accountability, working with Boards or realizing personal leadership goals, each coach is uniquely matched to meet your specific challenges.

The benefits of engaging in coaching can be life changing for many people, reducing stress, boosting creativity, improving communication and building confidence. According to the International Coaching Federation 2018 Annual Report, organizations with strong coaching cultures boost organizational performance, grow accountability, improve employee engagement and create high performing organizations. Coaching supports in clarifying and aligning goals and objectives to achieve results as well as accelerating productivity and facilitating teamwork.
“We need to build people laterally, not vertically. We need to ensure we develop those who can lead teams through change and lead change. This will be key. They need to be instructive, innovative and confident – they need to be armed to take on the next level.”

- CEO of Calgary-based company as part of research for Entrepreneurial Leadership – How the New West Will be Won, March 2021
Tailored coaching for you

Our approach will support you and your organization in reaching performance management objectives by assessing and identifying individualized areas of coaching need, focusing on targeted competency development and providing focused attention where leaders need it most, in the format that works best for you and your organization. Like our executive search and other leadership development offerings, we are proud to offer coaching programs that are tailored to your unique needs, building a collaborative and co-created response that accelerates performance and delivers results for your organization.

Developing New Leadership Mindsets: Development & Performance Coaching

Our Executive & High Potential Coaching makes a clear distinction between development coaching and performance coaching – two equally important elements of coaching that we believe make up the art and science of leadership. One example of performance coaching could be that an individual is experiencing difficulty reaching a strategic goal, perhaps because of a lack of experience and/or knowledge in a specific area. Development coaching, on the other hand, explores leadership and communication, relatability, team development and peer relations.
quote “We flipped our organization between old and young. Those who had been with us for a long time are now reporting to the 40-year old younger person. They are coaching and mentoring the new younger leaders and helping with knowledge transfer. It was a bit of a trick shot and the magic of it was we did it all together. Our external coach also works with younger talent, providing feedback on 360 assessments and stretch assignments.”

- Senior Vice President of Calgary-based company as part of research for Entrepreneurial Leadership – How the New West Will be Won, March 2021

ASSESSMENTS

Using data to amplify your leadership development and executive search process
A December, 2020 Harvard Business Review research study, “How do you evaluate performance during a pandemic” revealed that leaders are more likely to make snap judgements and exhibit bias during times of ambiguity. The study concluded that data driven insights, sound assessment and feedback processes are needed to define effective criteria before making crucial decisions on employee advancement.
Our goals mirror yours
We seek to develop leaders who are agile, future facing and innovating. Assessment tools help the individual leader and the organization lay the ground work for success. We often find that subject matter and technical experts, who need to become people leaders, experience challenges as they take on greater responsibilities. Assessments help support these individuals to ensure they are aware of blind spots and behaviours that may derail them in the early days of their leadership.

red line  LEVELS OF SUPPORT  red line

Virtual
We provide personalized administration and support to help integrate the assessment process into your executive search, coaching and succession planning initiatives

Partnership
If you find your Human Resource department is working on many strategic initiatives, Pekarsky & Co. provides experts to “top up” support handling the day-to-day administration and execution of assessments for you

Assessment Consultancy
Expert consultants partner with you to provide advice and support to translate your business strategy into talent needs, supporting you on the best course of action; this is particularly helpful when embarking on enterprise-wide talent initiatives

Comprehensive range of over twenty assessments
Assessments are chosen specifically to reflect your organizational competencies and requirements for individuals, teams, and across the enterprise. The results identify patterns and trends in individual and collective behaviours allowing us to provide supportive feedback to grow greater awareness and inspire personal development.

Pekarsky & Co. offers a comprehensive library of over 20 assessment tools to help you with your leadership and executive search needs. We work with expert coaches holding designations to provide professional debriefing and feedback on each of these tools:
  • Appreciative Inquiry
  • Birkman Method Questionnaire
  • Changing the Game
  • Compete to Win
  • Conversational Intelligence
  • Corporate 360-degree feedback
  • Creative Problem Solving
  • DISC
  • Emotional Quotient (EQ-I 2.0)
  • Human Synergistics
  • Investment in Excellence
  • Leadership Circle
  • Leadership Character Insight Assessment
  • Leadership Skills Profile
  • Multi-dimensional Intelligence Assessment
  • Myers Briggs
  • Neuro-linguistic Programming
  • New work habits for a radically changing world
  • Sigma 360 Radius (360 feedback)
  • Standard Deployment Inventory
  • Strategies for change
  • Thomas Personal Profile Analyst (PPA)
  • Trait Emotional Intelligence Questionnaire (TEIQue)

Equity, Diversity & Inclusion: Where Words Meet Action



Where Words Meet Action

We’ve found many organizations today struggling to realize their EDI goals. There’s a variety of reasons for this: some put all of their emphasis on awareness building; others haven’t developed robust processes and practices. Still others haven’t been able to identify sustainable measures and metrics that will demonstrate their progress. But we know how critical EDI is to the future growth and success of healthy organizations: diverse teams drive better business performance. Organizations supporting greater diversity become more innovative, resilient and agile in their ability to respond to change.

Pekarsky supports your EDI initiatives by working with our distinguished team of experienced facilitators, program designers and experts to ensure fair treatment, representing all identities and differences in your workplace. Put meaningful action back into your EDI agenda by helping your organization go far beyond recognizing bias. With our seven-point EDI process framework, we facilitate individual, team and enterprise-wide exercises, providing you with a framework to promote best and “next” practices. Our diverse teams bring experience and strong facilitation along with tools and action plans that create a culture of trust.

How We Help

We meet your organization where it is today. Whether you are starting from scratch, are mid- way in your journey, or looking to refresh existing initiatives, we co-create a framework that meet the needs of your employee community. We accomplish this through blending participant expertise with facilitator support – emphasizing the fluidity of learning, leading, teaching, mentoring and coaching.

The shared learning between participants through lived experiences, stories of guest speakers and story making creates a powerful narrative enhancing cultural strength. These stories are brought to life through individual and team reflection as well as group projects. We make sure that learning never stops with outcomes of the process scaffolding over time to build key insights into future plans.
quote “Think like a business- person: You’re looking for a return on your investment. And that’s what inclusion is – it’s all about return on investment. You’re investing in the future of the business, the division, the country. I’m convinced that, going forward, you will see a differentiation for those organizations that truly understand what inclusion means and then those that stay behind and view it purely as a cost of doing business. Inclusion is an investment. It’s not a cost.”

- Former co-CEO Dexterra Group, Rod Graham, in safetymag.com CEO Roundtable on Diversity, Equality and Inclusion, August, 2020.
Benefits of the Pekarsky/BirchGrove’s EDI process:

  • Holistic process ensures all voices are heard and delivers on your EDI goals
  • An approach to equity, diversity and inclusion that is reflective of our times

Given the extraordinary times we find ourselves in, we have designed a pathway centered on relational leadership, reflecting the forces shaping equity, diversity and inclusivity. This new form of seeing the world grows self-awareness and enhances community building by putting the care and concern for others before ourselves

  • Experienced facilitation of EDI Advisory Committee meeting will harness the power of community and aggregate the learning for all participants to not only cascade key insights throughout the organization but inform the development of future initiatives
  • Diverse value-added learning and development opportunities: shared learning augmented by outside guest speakers, role plays, story making, experiential learning and opportunities for self and EDI Advisory Committee reflection
  • Customized adaptation of your organization’s current initiatives and goals of your EDI strategy, interwoven with the EDI Framework to realize your vision
  • Active listening: we bring deep experience and expertise in facilitation, coaching and mentoring custom tailored to your needs
  • Flexible format depending on pandemic circumstances
  • Strategic counsel on communication strategies to create and sustain momentum
Pekarsky

Executive and New Role On-Boarding



That first 100 days is “make or break.”

That first 100 days is “make or break” for executives and high potentials moving into new roles. To help leaders make a successful transition into their roles, our five-phase comprehensive on-boarding blueprint helps accelerate performance as leaders move quickly up the learning curve to:


Many on-boarding programs emphasize closing expertise and experience gaps, but we go three better:
  1. We help leaders safely and confidently navigate new political structures
  2. We help leaders plan and prepare for key moments ensuring they make lasting, positive impressions
  3. We help leaders identify top strategic challenges and develop proactive responses
Mission Critical 100

Mission Critical 100 ties your strategy to your on-going leadership development provides customizable coaching support in seven critical areas, helping leaders sustain momentum and energy:


You’ll never waste a minute in our on-boarding program because each moment is tied to your short, medium and long-term goals. As you work with your coach, you’ll be problem solving along the way. Pekarsky & Co. works with you to develop bespoke on-boarding strategies to ensure success in the first crucial months of your new role.

red line SUCCESSION PLANNING: red line

Launching the Future Face of Leadership


This year marks the first in which organizations will be welcoming a fifth generation. While the number one priority of organizations remains recruiting, also quickly climbing up the ladder is equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI). It’s no longer good enough to simply fill a role; your people, your stakeholders and your customers are watching and they are demanding you hire not only the very best, but you do so with transparency, equality and fairness.

We know that having documented strategies to increase effectiveness in succession planning is essential, yet leadership teams continue to weaken. According to the 2019 Gartner for HR report, Improving Leadership Bench Strength, this lack of process, planning and preparation is hitting organizations hard, resulting in a 34% decrease in leadership performance on key objectives. As we see it, succession planning and leadership development is your best hedge to drive growth and ensure competitive advantage.

Many organizations have relied largely on pipeline development to fill their leadership teams, but we see a change here too. Organizations now need to develop a portfolio-based approach to succession planning that is:


Pekarsky & Co.’s succession planning and leadership development process safeguards your future by ensuring you have a qualified and prepared pool of talent, ready for the right roles, at just the right time. We help you develop a stronger leadership team by understanding the impact of trends affecting your sector and the complexity of challenges. This process is supported by facilitation, tools, templates, assessments and leadership development. As we work with you, you’ll see increased team collaboration, diminished siloes, better delegation, stronger peer relations and greater appreciation of overall organization needs.
“The data, insights and recommendations informing Pekarsky’s leadership development truly reflect a ‘made in Alberta’ response as well as further establishing Pekarsky as a thought leader and champion of change. As such, this report sets the stage for advancing a distinct point of view in leadership development. The evolving hypothesis of this research is that by embedding relational attributes, we can provide a unique point of view that proactively responds to the entrepreneurial paradigm while changing it.”

- Excerpt from Final Research Report, Entrepreneurial Leadership – How the New West Will be Won, March 2021

Emerging Talent & High Potential
Leadership Development


Building on the entrepreneurial spirit of Alberta’s leaders in a new diversified economy

Entrepreneurialism is at the heart of leadership in Alberta. Indeed, Alberta is a province marked by leaders who have shown incredible grit, hard work and determination. Leaders were able to make decisions quickly, take risks, and reap the rewards of those efforts. However, it is clear that to successful emerge from this pandemic unscathed, relying on the entrepreneurial spirit of leaders in Alberta is not going to be enough. What has worked in the past will not be enough.

The successful leaders of tomorrow need to be preparing today for the paradigm shift and the new diversified economy that we’re witnessing take root, not only in Western Canada, but beyond. In this post-pandemic world, the causes that organizations support, and do not support, matter. Creating teams of individuals with diverse perspectives, and then making sure those team members feels welcomed and included, matters. Unleashing success through the power of people, matters - now more than ever.

To meet the challenges ahead, leaders need to be taking the time to pause, plan and strategically prepare. At the same time, perhaps paradoxically, leaders also need to be shifting mindsets and embracing a culture of learning, where leaders can experiment, fail fast, and fail often. A culture where it’s ok to collaborate with the organization next door and learn from your peers and competitors, as part of a larger, relational ecosystem. The leaders of tomorrow will build on the entrepreneurial spirit and the “small town”, relationship-based culture of Alberta, and at the same time will embrace new ways of thinking, learning and leading.
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Pekarsky & Co

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