As our business continues to grow, we are very excited to welcome Monique Kavelaars to the team as Director, Assessments & Team Coaching. Monique is the embodiment of Third Factor’s belief in the value of cross-pollinating the best thinking across sport and business. An Olympic fencer, she competed at the World Championships, Pan Am Games, and Olympic Games in 2004 – and brings over 15 years of experience supporting high-performing teams first in elite sport and now in corporate environments. She holds a Bachelors degree in Psychology from York University, is certified in numerous assessment tools, and has helped leaders and teams across North America, Europe, and Asia strengthen leadership, boost team cohesion, and create the conditions for meaningful collaboration. Alongside her work, Monique continues to contribute to the Canadian Olympic community, most recently serving as an Athlete Mentor at the Tokyo 2020 Games, and currently serves as Vice President of the Canadian Fencing Federation. As Third Factor’s Director of Assessments & Team Coaching, Monique will draw on her expertise with assessment tools and years of team coaching to maximize the impact of the assessment tools we use in our programs, ensuring that individuals and teams leave with actionable insight about themselves and their colleagues. Beyond her skills, her belief in the value of both strong coffee and humour will make sure we are never short of energy! Welcome to the team, Monique! At Third Factor, we are sad to learn that Team Canada will not be competing at the Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games this summer. At the same time, we are also incredibly proud of the Canadian Olympic and Paralympic Committees for taking the lead and making the right decision for the health and safety of Canada’s athletes, coaches, staff, volunteers and fans. The chaos, challenges and health risks posed by COVID-19 make the decision to withdraw from the Games a necessary one. Athletes are unable to train. Coaches and support teams cannot properly plan. Travel is unavailable and unsafe for family members and other attendees. And the sponsors that support athletes and teams are now unable to proceed with their marketing efforts without risking the appearance of being insensitive and out-of-touch given the current reality.
“We stand ready to support our athletes, coaches and leadership organizations through the coming months and in Team Canada’s inevitable return to Olympic competition.”
By withdrawing Team Canada from the Tokyo Games, the COC and CPC have made an important statement that this crisis is bigger than the Olympic and Paralympic Games and that our collective health and safety should be our only priority over the coming months. They have also given a clear answer to the athletes who have been tortured by uncertainty and were wondering whether they would have a chance to compete and, if so, whether they would have to risk their health in order to do so. We join the COC and CPC in calling on the International Olympic and Paralympic Committees to postpone the Tokyo Games by one year so that all members of the international community may focus on their physical, mental and financial health, caring for loved ones, and doing their part to stop the spread of COVID-19. For the last three decades, our organization has been proud to support the Olympic community in Canada. We stand ready to support our athletes, coaches and leadership organizations through the coming months and in Team Canada’s inevitable return to Olympic competition. Signed, Dane Jensen, Peter Jensen, Sandra Stark, Peggy Baumgartner, Garry Watanabe & Cyndie Flett on behalf of the entire team at Third Factor.

Editor’s note: Since publishing, we have learned that the IOC has officially postponed the start of the Tokyo Games.

Event postponed

In support of measures to prevent the spread of COVID-19 (coronavirus), this event is postponed.

Resilience – the ability to grow through pressure, recover and respond in the face of setbacks, and perform under pressure – is a skill learned in the troughs, not the peaks.

As a result of COVID-19, employees and managers are facing changes in pretty much every aspect of their work – what they need to do, how it needs to get done, where they need to do it from – and also facing the spectre of potentially significant impacts to compensation and results. There hasn’t been a time since 2008 in which resilience is more necessary or more top-of-mind.

With that in mind, we have decided to postpone this breakfast and instead offer a 90 minute, interactive, virtual, instructor-led session for senior leaders, HR professionals and L&D specialists.

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Great leaders coach their people by teaching, giving feedback, mentoring, and asking questions. And, when necessary, they confront problem behaviours. When done right, challenging conversations can lead to positive behaviour change and strengthen the relationship between the leader and team member. How you begin the conversation is the best predictor of the outcome. In this practical and motivating keynote address, Third Factor Associate Trainer and Olympian, Karyn Garossino, will introduce a map for challenging conversations and guide you through the process of effectively initiating a difficult discussion. By gaining a better understanding of the internal conversation that precedes the external one, you will leave the keynote with a better understanding of the positive aspects of challenging conversations and a new confidence in your ability to speak up when change is not negotiable and resistance may be high.

Participants will learn:

You should attend if:

Set against the backdrop of one of Toronto’s newest and most exciting innovation spaces, OCAD U CO, participants will enjoy great peer networking and a delicious breakfast.
What can you expect at this event? Take a look at this recap from our last executive breakfast.

About the presenter:

Olympian Karyn Garossino, BA, M. Ed., brings a combination of insight and grit from 40+ years of being coached and coaching others. Her experience at the highest levels of elite sport, Master’s Degree in psychology and adult education, and experience working with thousands of leaders in business and government bring huge depth to her understanding what it takes to thrive under pressure—and to lead others to do the same.
 
 

About the venue:

Just minutes from Union Station on Toronto’s waterfront, OCAD U CO is a state-of-the-art 14,000 square foot studio designed specifically for collaborative innovation work. The space features is home to 20 resident design-led startups, a suite of formal and informal meeting spaces, and is the setting for our program, How To Lead Innovation, which we run in partnership with OCAD U CO and the Smith School of Business at Queen’s University.
 

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EVENT POSTPONED

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Performance Coaching Inc., a leadership development firm that helps clients in business, academia and elite sport build resilience, collaboration and coaching skill, is changing its name to Third Factor, effective immediately. Third Factor CEO Dane Jensen says: “As a pioneer in bringing coaching skills to the business world, the name Performance Coaching has served us extremely well since our founding in 1991. And while we continue to lead in the area of coaching our mandate is broader now. Resilience is a huge focus, as is collaboration. The new name is reflective of that broader mandate and how we see our role in helping others grow and develop.” The name Third Factor is derived from the psychologist Kazimierz Dabrowski, who believed that beyond nature and nurture there was a ‘third factor’ –the role a person plays in their own growth and development. Third Factor Founder and author of Ignite The Third Factor, Peter Jensen, says: “As a leader, the third factor is what you are targeting when trying to get someone else to achieve their full potential. This has been the core principle of the work we’ve done as a company over the past 30 years, and Third Factor is a perfect name to represent the past and future of this organization.” Third Factor Partner Melissa Quinn says: “It is important to us to have a name and visual identity that reflects how we provide skills for the future of work. The Third Factor brand not only speaks to the ideology behind what we teach; it also speaks to our role as innovators who inspire people to make transformational changes in the way they work and lead others.” For more information, visit thirdfactor.com, and follow Third Factor on LinkedIn and Twitter.