Written by: Diane Wheatley – Managing Partner, Edmonton
Several months ago, our firm was retained to find the next CEO for Junior Achievement Northern Alberta (known to most people as JA). After a thorough search across the province, a remarkable woman named Cheryll Watson was named the successful incumbent.
Upon getting to know Cheryll, I was constantly struck by how honest and sincere our interactions were. As someone who has led HR for many years, and who works for an executive recruitment firm, I think I’m pretty good at determining when people are telling me the story they think I should hear versus the actual story that includes all the hard parts. What struck me most about Cheryll was how open she was about the challenges she had faced and how hard they were to overcome.
Being deeply rooted in our local community, Humanis Edmonton had chosen Junior Achievement as one of our charities to support when we founded the firm in 2023. Given that Cheryll was now the new CEO, she asked me during our meeting where we would like to allocate the funds we were donating. I told her to use them however she thought would be best for the organization, but she wasn’t going to let me off the hook that easily.
Donating the money was the easy part. Thinking about how we wanted the funds used and what our firm thought was important to our community took a lot more thought. During this same conversation, Cheryll asked me about my challenges at work, and I shared with her that I was much more comfortable running a firm’s operations than being out in the community making business connections. Cheryll quickly replied she would help me with that.
Several events, breakfasts, and lunches later, Cheryll told me she had an idea she wanted me to consider. Cheryll wanted JA to start a program called SHE Leads. The concept behind SHE Leads was to find 50 women leaders who would donate their time to mentor a female student interested in business. The time commitment would be one afternoon per week for 18 weeks, and in my head, I quickly came up with excuses for why that wouldn’t work.
I loved the idea, was honored to be asked to participate, and would have loved to have a formal woman mentor as I was growing up in the business world, but the time commitment was daunting. The program wouldn’t start until January 2025; Cheryll wanted to give the mentors time to organize their calendars. It didn’t take me long to realize how ridiculous I was being. We donated money and wanted the funds to go to a program or initiative that was needed in the community, but I feared donating my time because it would take away from my work; but in reality, this was going to be some of the most important work I will do.
Not only is this program the right thing to do to support the growth, career advancement, and confidence of up-and-coming female leaders, but it will also provide learning and growth opportunities for myself and the other mentors. The leaders in this program will benefit from new views, perspectives, and fresh insights from the younger generation and apply those in ways to make our workplaces better—and more suited to help the next generation thrive. Cheryll’s idea was brilliant, and now it was time to turn it into a reality.
So here we are, with seven months to go until the launch of SHE Leads, with all the behind-the-scenes logistics in full swing to make this program a reality. People come into your life for all sorts of reasons—both personally and professionally. Cheryll pushed me to step out of my comfort zone, and I could not be more grateful to her for that. We are very excited about this program and what the future holds for everyone involved.
If you are an experienced leader looking to be a mentor, have a young woman in your life that would be interested, or are one yourself, contact me at diane@humanisadvisory.com to learn more. Trust me, there are fewer excuses not to get involved than you might think.
