Managers share their secrets for staying motivated

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How do managers manage when the going gets tough? Gordon Peters says, "Call a friend."

Amos Key Jr. belongs to a men's singing group and hosts a blues radio show, which helps him "to be inspired by the passion that you're doing something good."

Deborah Richardson said her desire "to make sure that her children are grounded in who they are" keeps her going.

Peters, Key and Richardson all spoke on March 5 at the Symposium on Indigenous Cultural Management. At the event, co-presented by Native Women in the Arts and the Centre for Indigenous Sovereignty, the three presenters used their personal experiences and struggles as examples to discuss management, both personal management and managing others.

Peters now president and CEO of the Centre for Indigenous Sovereignty, focused on what he calls "huge task we have taken on as Indigenous peoples."

"Everything starts inside of us, who we are, our identity as Indigenous peoples," he said. For an individual, Peters feels the huge task is "learning how to behave as a collective" when "individual culture is the primary concern of Western North American society."

"We pit regions against regions, by adopting western models and structures" Peters said. "It's one of the areas of management that we look at right now-what do we change and how do we change?"

Key is the First Nations language director at Woodland Cultural Centre. He sees himself as "more of an activist and administrator behind the scenes."

Key came to Canada from New York State in the 1950s. When he was young he said, he had no sense of who he was. Growing up he spent a lot of time with the Elders of the community. "Being steeped in that tradition really helped shape me," he said.

With band councils occupied withthings like housing, roads, and water, Key said he looked for something he could contribute in languages, performing and radio arts. He helped start a radio station on Six Nations.

Richardson says it was seeing the conditions that people were living in on reserve that motivated her to "use her education and to advocate" She is now Indian and Northern Affairs Canada's associate regional director for Southern Ontario. Richardson feels it's important to "maintain your identity even though management style of organizations may differ." With management experience in private, not-for-profit, government, she knows that "objectives may be the same but how you achieve the results differ," and she believes "good morale, proper training, delivering good services, and ensuring clients are satisfied" lead to success.

"People want to better themselves," she said. What is needed for this to happen is career and personal development for staff, breaking down barriers, respecting the diversity of the workforce, and achieving a balance between work and life.

"Healing needs to be taken seriously," she said.