District of Squamish Wins National Municipal Award for Professional Development

The District of Squamish has received national recognition for its Hardwired for Leadership training program from the Canadian Association of Municipal Administrators (CAMA).  The City was presented with the 2017 CAMA Professional Development Award, in the Under 20,000 population category, during CAMA’s national conference in Gatineau, QC. 

“CAMA is pleased to recognize the professional development excellence demonstrated by the District of Squamish with its training program,” said Marie-Hélène Lajoie, president of the Canadian Association of Municipal Administrators and City Manager for Gatineau, QC.  “The program is designed to create employees with the critical capabilities and skills needed to succeed at all levels of the organization.”

Hardwired for Leadership is an internal training program for municipal employees that focuses on:

• Effective Communication Skills
• Coaching and Effective Feedback
• Difficult Conversations & Conflict Resolution
• Effective Recognition
• Leading High Performance Teams
• Project Management Success
• Change Management
• Leading a Culture of Service Excellence
• Personality Profile awareness, using the DISC model – Dominance, Influence, Steadiness, and Conscientiousness – with the goal of all employees completing their profile to further support an effective and collaborative workplace.

The program, developed with the guidance and expertise of Impact People Practices’ Christine McLeod, dates back to 2015, and looks at three aspects: developing leaders at all levels of the organization; developing leaders locally; and, developing a succession mindset.  Employees at every level of the organization are invited to join the program.

“We are seeing that the Hardwired for Leadership program is foundational in its ability to build employee engagement, motivation and loyalty,” says District of Squamish Mayor Patricia Heintzman. “Lasting results come from a committed team. When we create a culture of leadership, we create better decision making and morale throughout the entire organization. We are thrilled that our program is the recipient of this award, and thank CAMA for the recognition.”

“CAMA received a total of 59 award submissions for this year’s awards program – the most in our history as an association,” said Jean-Marc Nadeau, Chair of CAMA’s Awards Committee, as well as the CAMA Representative for Manitoba, Saskatchewan & Nunavut and City Manager for the City of Portage la Prairie, MB.  “It is exciting to see the ingenuity being exhibited by our members.”

CAMA’s Professional Development Award recognizes a community that has developed a unique and innovative program for their staff and can be replicated in other communities.  Since Canada has a unique mixture of small and large communities, awards are granted according to population – for municipalities under 20,000, for those between 20,001 and 100,000 and for those over 100,000. 

About CAMA:

The Canadian Association of Municipal Administrators (CAMA) is a national, non-profit association open to all Chief Administrative Officers / City Managers and any person employed in a senior management position that reports directly to a CAO.  With a membership of approximately 575 senior municipal employees, from all parts of Canada, CAMA collectively represents more than 70% of the nation’s population. www.camacam.ca

May 31, 2017