Leadership Exchange

I was incredibly satisfied with my experience at the Leadership Exchange. It truly exceeded my expectations. I did not expect an online Zoom session to be so engaging, transformational and empowering. I feel so much more confident and inspired to go out into my community and the world and contribute my unique skills and abilities. Leadership happens in the everyday and that is something this retreat helped me to realize.

Leadership Exchange 2021 Participant

One highlight from the 2024 Leadership Exchange program was the varied perspectives of effective leaders who work towards implementing equity and justice practices in society. I was able to consider leadership as a practice of creating community, where feelings of belonging are fostered, allowing community members to align with their innate drives and motivations as social organisms. I learnt that different conceptions and assumptions of leadership create different concepts of power and hierarchy, affecting levels of privilege, favouritism and oppression, or on the other hand, providing justice and equity.

By implementing leadership practices that favour equity, people within that organization or community are then encouraged to feel secure enough to abandon their comfort zones and to enter stretch zones where these people may explore new aspects of self-development. This then allows for significant progress as these people may comfortably pursue personal and collective goals, since these goals begin to align, thanks to the belonging experienced as a result of the leadership styles practiced by the leader.

Another aspect of the Exchange that stood out for me was the possibility of constructing social identities, fostering mutual understanding and empathy because of leadership styles and practices that favour equity and justice. I truly enjoyed the 2024 Leadership Exchange, and I appreciated having the chance to learn from recognized leaders from different fields. This variety itself reflected the notion of equity, as I believe that making room for differences in perspective reflects the idea that different voices from different backgrounds also deserve a chance to be placed in the spotlight. The workshop structure was an amazing example of community-building with strong principles on equity.

Yalda Zarrin (PhD Candidate in Education Psychology at OISE), Participant in Leadership Exchange 2024