Montrealer Samantha Kris – If you haven’t heard of Samantha Kris yet, allow us to do the honour of introducing her. This heart-centred Montreal native has become an international success and best selling author. As the founder of the Bossing Up movement, Kris is on a mission to empower people worldwide to realize the next level of their potential. On Saturday, August 17th she’ll be furthering that mission as she takes the stage at the Fearless Women’s Summit, speaking on the important topic of shattering the glass ceiling.
We caught up with Samantha and asked a few questions to get her opinion on the matter.
Montreal Times: You earned 5 promotions in 5 years, what do you attribute your success to?
Samantha Kris: So many things helped make those promotions possible; Great leadership, hard work, continuous personal development and the confidence to create and seize opportunities, but above all was the ability to effectively communicate. The truth is, the glass ceiling is not made of glass. It’s made of long-standing traditions, biases and beliefs… and not just by the men at the top. What we’ve learned has created the glass ceiling, which means unlearning could break it. Unlearning is about recognizing and stopping a stifling mindset. In order to change our collective perspective we must prioritize communication to better understand each other, have difficult conversations and create a new normal.
MT: What role have men played in shattering the glass ceiling for you?
SK: Throughout my career men have had critical roles as my allies. I’ve learned a great deal from my male colleagues and superiors and I have returned the favor by adding significant value to their projects and teams and clearly measuring the impact of my contribution. Being someone they can depend upon to achieve their goals helped me to recruit their support in achieving goals of my own. Understanding what motivates people and leading a conversation based on what drives them fosters a relationship of trust and in my experience, there are far fewer barriers when dealing with someone you trust.
MT: Do you take barriers into consideration when setting goals?
SK: You’re probably familiar with the concept of the postmortem. It gives teams the opportunity to examine the challenges and successes of a project, with the intention of finding more efficient ways to execute in the future. When it comes to goal setting, I really like to use the premortem approach. A premortem encourages you to think about what has a high likelihood of going wrong before you embark on a project. When you think about what challenges may arise, both intrinsically and extrinsically, you can plan ahead and stay the course if and when you’re thrown a few curve balls.
Interested in hearing more from Samantha? Head to www.samanthakris.com to watch her TEDx talk, check out her upcoming events and grab a signed copy of Bossing Up. Montreal Times readers benefit from a 30% discount with promo code BOSS30.
Other articles:
https://mtltimes.ca/Montreal/social-life/community/tedxlaval-set-goals-success-coach-samantha-kris/
