Our Annual SYL Leadership Retreat took place June 13 – 15, 2023 at Jackfish Lodge in Cochin Lake SK.
Our theme this year was From Impossible to Possible: Transformational Leadership.
We had five amazing speakers who brought interactive and high energy workshops to our attendees, plus nightly entertainment featuring our Awards Gala on June 14th!
Applications have now closed for our retreat.
Check out our incredible lineup of speakers!
Speaker Introduction – Christine Marie
We are so excited to welcome Christine Marie to our Leadership Retreat in June! Christine is an Indigenous Mom of two, she launched Awāsis Boutique in Feb 2018 as an online shop. Awāsis means child in Cree. It is the first Indigenous inspired baby and kids apparel line in Western Canada.
Christine has become a strong leader in our business community by successfully growing and sustaining an Indigenous owned, woman run business, by giving back to our communities, paving the way for economic reconciliation. To date over $90,000 has been donated in the spirit of reconciliation.
Christine has been recognized through multiple organizations for her business acumen, including a CBC Top 40 under 40 finalist!
Christine will lead us through a workshop on how transformational leadership and reconciliation go hand and hand, what reconciliation looks like in the workspace and three simple actions to take towards reconciliation.
Speaker Introduction – Peter Mayne
Peter Mayne is the Vice President, Strategy at Conexus Credit Union in Regina. He works closely with the Executive Leadership Team and Board at Conexus to ensure the credit union continues to transform and remain relevant to its members in a rapidly evolving industry.
Prior to joining Conexus, Peter spent several years at Farm Credit Canada, where was focused on building the FCC culture, and leading initiatives to improve leadership effectiveness and employee engagement. He also has many years of experience in organizational communications and journalism.
The main focus of Peter’s session will be a deep dive to explore why difficult conversations arise at work, why they are so hard to solve, and how more productive, skillful conversations must begin with a focus on managing “self as leader”. He’ll also explore why it is so important to proactively step into difficult issues (instead of avoiding them), how leaders need to “show up” in these interactions, and introduce a simple model for framing/starting a conversation. Peter’s key message is: “If you want to change your relationship with someone, start by changing yourself.”
Speaker Introduction – Kelly Beattie
Kelly is a heart-centered leader who is driven by a passion to help others grow and develop. As an Empowerment Coach & Consultant at Beyond Connections Consulting, Kelly shares a wealth of experience and knowledge to empower teams to step into their greatness.
For over two decades, Kelly has built a legacy of leadership and now she works with organizations to build effective, accountable teams in a safe and growth-conducive environment.
With certifications in Diversity & Inclusion and Change & Human Resource Management, Kelly exudes a contagious spirit for continuous improvement and engagement. Kelly remains committed to engaging, empowering and helping teams evolve by embracing human talent in all organizations and creating a connected workforce.
Kelly will guide us through a highly interactive session that offers insight and ways to tap into the heart of organizations – people. It will provide attendees with an engaging display into diversity, the power of intentional action and communication styles.
We will tap in and learn:
~ Tools for transformation and connection
~ The value of bringing whole self to work
~ Building open lines of communication
Speaker Introduction – Llewellyn Poidevin
Llewellyn has worked in the Credit Union system since 2005, in a wide variety of management roles in Finance, Risk, Strategy, and Business Consulting with SaskCentral and Concentra.
Since 2013 his work has centered on working with Boards and Executive teams across Canada. In 2022 he established LP and Company Inc., a management consulting firm. He holds an MBA (Strategy) from Heriot-Watt University.
Llewellyn’s Purpose: He is passionate about helping leaders re-imagine and improve their strategic development and execution. Much of his work centers on facilitating sessions to help leaders talk through issues and make strategic decisions based on imperfect, uncertain, and/or rapidly evolving information.
Llewellyn will be walking our attendees through the concept of Agile Leadership within strategic planning. He will speak about why the capacity to be agile, adaptable and flexible is so critical to leadership.
Speaker Introduction – Joel Graham
Joel Graham is currently the Financial Wellness Manager at Conexus Credit Union. He is a former CCUA National Young Leader award and scholarship winner, excelling in culture creation, motivation and relationship development.
Joel has had a diverse career path with experience in management consulting, personal finance and entrepreneurship educator at the secondary and post-secondary level, operating one of Saskatchewan’s largest music festivals, and founding Canada’s largest high school business case competition.
Joel works with the senior leadership team at Conexus, building our core differentiator of member financial wellbeing meaningfully into operations, digital platforms and community outreach. He also has a proven record of success in innovation, process mapping, human centered design, agile product development and member experience journey mapping.
Joel serves as the Executive Director of the Breakfast Club of Regina, mentors Cultivator Fintech startups and is the head coach of the Campbell Tartans boys basketball program.
Joel’s workshop will focus on “The Stuff No One Tells You About Leadership”
Leadership is a skill like many others. To be great you need to intentionally work at it. However, it’s hard to sit down and “work at your leadership”. Joel will share with us how to break down key leadership skills and ‘do the work’ to get to the executive level.
