Building the skills that make leadership work

Successfully transitioning to a leadership role requires both a new perspective and a new set of skills. Starting in orientation week in January, MEL and MHLP students begin learning – and practising – the skills that will enable them to be effective and empathetic leaders.

One of the first sessions they attend is a professional workshop led by Tracey Charette, a well-respected coach and facilitator who has dedicated her career to helping professionals strengthen their communication and leadership capacity. Her January workshop focuses on one of the most challenging aspects of leadership: navigating interpersonal conflict.

“I’ve spent my whole career developing people’s strengths in communication and leadership,” she says. “This first workshop provides students with a framework to understand workplace relationships and to learn some tools and strategies to have more success in those spaces.”

Learning to lead through relationships

As Charette emphasizes, leadership does not happen alone: it can only happen in relationship with others.

“Our relationships with others are what makes life so meaningful and wonderful,” she says. “And those relationships are also what make life challenging! We don’t get enough opportunities to talk about interpersonal relationships within the context of a workplace.”

Or within a master’s program, for that matter. MEL and MHLP students work on numerous group projects with peers from different professions, cultures and life experiences. Conflict is inevitable. By facilitating this workshop at the start of the year, Charette gives students the vocabulary, awareness and skills to foster accountability and begin intentionally developing their communication and leadership practices.

Leadership starts with you

A central theme of the workshop is that before you can lead a team, you must be able to lead yourself. That begins with understanding your own reactions, triggers and communication patterns – especially under pressure.

Through small-group discussions and real-world examples, Charette gets students thinking about the cues that signal they are becoming reactive or defensive, and to consider what helps them return to a more regulated and grounded mindset.

Normalizing conflict as part of leadership

A major focus of the workshop is reframing conflict. Rather than something to be avoided, conflict is a normal, inevitable part of working with others. Charette reminds students that they have all been in situations where they have needed to provide tough feedback, struggle to manage their tone or facial expressions, or wished they could redo an interaction.

By normalizing these experiences, she helps students see that conflict is not a failing but a leadership reality. And it’s much easier to navigate conflict when you understand your own patterns. As she emphasizes, when leadership starts with leading your self, you are able to recognize when you are reactive, stressed or overwhelmed and develop strategies to move to a more constructive mindset.

A shift in perspective

Charette also highlights one of the most significant mindset shifts that comes with leadership: it’s not about being the best but about making everyone else better.

“What made you successful as an individual contributor is different from what will make you successful as a people leader,” she says. “Learning to lead through conflict, manage difference and support your team toward a shared goal is part of the leadership shift MEL and MHLP students begin practising from the first weeks of the program.”

Creating confidence and connection

By offering this workshop at the start of the year, students have a shared framework and vocabulary for working together over the next 12 months. “We wanted to increase students’ comfort, confidence and competence around interpersonal challenge so that they are more grounded, more accountable and more prepared to navigate difference,” says Charette.

Bailey Kew, Manager of the MEL MHLP Programs, notes that students come away from Charette’s workshop with tactical tools and deeper psychological insights. This includes greater awareness of their own leadership style and how it affects team dynamics and greater confidence in navigating difficult conversations with “radical candour and empathy.”