Becoming a Leader at Vivacity (Warning: Leadership Skills not Included)

I joined Vivacity Technologies part way through my Master of Business Administration degree. At the time, I was straight out of my undergraduate degree and my only work experience came through undergraduate research and two four-month co-op terms. I came on as a full-time employee immediately following my graduation. It is safe to say that I was very new to the actual day-to-day work required to help support a business, and had absolutely no leadership experience outside of my work in university.

I chose Vivacity as my first career position after graduation because of the level of support provided to me, but also for the amount of experience and responsibility I could take on that I would not receive so early on in my career at a larger organization. And thus began my expedited journey to exploring what it means for me to be a leader.

Very soon after starting at Vivacity, I took over the role of marketing from both a strategic perspective and a day-to-day management role, including our social channels and a complete website redesign. This was the first step. It was both a challenge and a comfort as, while I had studied marketing in my undergrad, I had never actually implemented my ideas. But it was also very isolated as I was the main resource working in this area. It taught me about taking ownership over my work, and how to make effective decisions, but it wasn’t really leadership. It was, however, the first step in my foundation.

Not too long after, I was assigned as the project lead on an IT assessment. This was a much more dynamic and challenging exercise, and was much more outside of my comfort zone. It taught me about embracing the unknown and how to realistically manage projects with deadlines, but it was again missing that human element that takes you from management to leadership. Sure, I was managing the technical contractor brought on to balance out my business knowledge with his deep industry knowledge, but outside of a few collaborative pieces, I once again managed the project on my own as the primary resource. I was building up my skillset and reputation as a competent project manager, but I was still very isolated.

The real shift came around April 2024 when we were preparing to bring on our marketing co-op student, Kobe Shimoyama . As our marketing resource, and as someone that our leadership team saw trying to take on more responsibility, I was offered the opportunity to be the managing role for the co-op. I jumped on the opportunity, and was then very promptly thrown into the deep end to try to stay afloat. After all, they say experience makes the best teacher.

As someone who had never taken on a managing position before, and was now in charge of interviewing, hiring, and mentoring a new team member, all I could do was try to remember my leadership courses in university. I also pulled from all the previous mentors I have had, from George Emery , our CEO, to Dr Premie Naicker (PhD) , my manager, and my managers in previous positions with Thompson Rivers University (Kate Fagervik and Sukh Heer Matonovich ), and United Way BC - Thompson Nicola Cariboo Region ( Katie Neustaeter ). These were the people who had made me feel supported, helped me learn, and continued to put me first as a person before my work, and I wanted to emulate that. But I also had to find my own style within that, the angle I wanted to take to make the people who look up to me feel just as seen.

Soft skills have always been something that has taken conscious effort for me. It is also a challenge to flip from only having to worry about your own work and time, and flipping to making sure someone else has enough (but not too much!) on their plate and has the supports they need as well. There were definitely things I didn’t get right at first, and I am still learning from Kobe every day. But together, we’ve overcome our barriers, learned how to communicate effectively, and have hit the right balance of autonomy and management to make him feel seen and provide the support he needed. 

During that time, I’ve also had other opportunities to try my hand at leading. I’ve helped as an internal lead on a massive project to help orient new team members to our processes, learned a lot about delegating and trust along the way, and had the opportunity to take on another assessment, this time guiding Kobe through the process. As always, I am a work in progress, continually learning from the knowledge and experience of the people around me as well as my own choices and actions. But I’ve come a long way in the 20 months I’ve been with Vivacity, and I only see my trajectory continuing to skyrocket from here.

Through the implementation of our personal development plans, I will have the opportunity to take a more intentional approach to trying to develop my leadership skills and capabilities. From formalized leadership training, to courses on emotional intelligence, project management, active listening, and other core soft skills, to articles like the one you are reading now to share my experiences and the knowledge I gain along the way, I can feel confident in knowing that Vivacity, the team, and my mentors are here to help support me in this journey.

-Authored by Cassandra Roberge , Business and Marketing Analyst at Vivacity Technologies