Mark Gasparotto

Vistage Speaker, Keynote Speaker, President – The Gasparotto Group, and TEC Canada Speaker

MARK GASPAROTTO MSM, CD, MA, P. Eng Mark is the President of The Gasparotto Group, a boutique consultancy that provides clients with pragmatic leadership solutions. Mark leverages his strategic and tactical leadership approach to help private and public-sector organizations increase their members’ leadership and resilience, strengthen their teams, enhance their organizational culture, and elevate their successes. An accomplished speaker, Mark combines rich personal experience with applicable theories and current trends to deliver practical, achievable outcomes, whatever the leadership challenge. During his highly decorated two decades of military service, Mark served in key leadership roles in international hotspots such as Bosnia, Afghanistan, and Haiti. From commanding small tactical units, to overseeing large, multinational peacekeeping operations, his emphasis on results, teamwork, and effective communications elevated him to the upper-ranks of the Canadian Armed Forces. Passionate about self-reflection and personal development, Mark’s brand of cerebral enthusiasm and entrepreneurial approach has proven contagious and effective inside and outside his military profession. Concurrent to his military career, Mark earned a Masters of Defence Studies, a Masters of Arts in Leadership and is a published co-author of Clearing the Way: Combat Engineers in Kandahar—now an award-winning documentary film. He enjoys pushing his personal limits in military ironman competitions and wilderness expeditions. That, and parenting two teenage daughters—his greatest leadership challenge. He was twice decorated in uniform: once with the Meritorious Service Medal for his actions under fire during Operation Medusa in 2006, and more recently by the Brazilian Army for his senior leadership role in the United Nations multinational peacekeeping force in Haiti. Mark lives in Ottawa with his wife Shannon and daughters Abigail and Emily.

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Mark’s Topics

The direct linkage between individual and collective leadership capacities and business outcomes is well documented. However if leadership were easy then anyone could do it, therefore everyone would be successful. While the principles, when broken down, are simple, leadership is not easy. It is not easy because leadership at it’s heart is getting work done through others. It is about making relevant decisions and human connection. And because humans are complex, dynamic, and variable, it is inherently messy. And because it is not easy, organizations and society have special men and women who are willing to learn, work hard, and earn the trust to be a leader.

To lead others effectively starts with leading yourself. And most people’s leadership is stuck at the level of their “inner game”. Mastery of one’s inner game (i.e. leadership-of-self) requires a willingness to be vulnerable, to explore who you are, how you think and feel, and how you act. Leaders who are willing to take that introspective journey will be the ones to unlock their potential and push past their self-imposed limits to truly lead within teams, organizations and beyond. As Andre Gide wrote, people “cannot discover new oceans [without] the courage to lose sight of the shore.” It takes courage to be vulnerable, to shine a bright light inward, and to change.

Colonel (Retired) Mark Gasparotto is a highly decorated 20-year veteran of the Canadian Armed Forces as a combat engineer officer. He has four operational tours and has commanded small teams to large multi-national forces. Gasparotto has a Masters of Defence Studies and a Masters of Leadership. Combining his extensive operational experience with a rich educational background, Gasparotto offers TEC members an insightful review of leadership principles with practical solutions that start with the leader’s inner game of identity, consciousness, and action orientation.

Connecting to his own entrepreneurial story as combat leader and now as a leadership development consultant, Gasparotto takes TEC members on a journey to explore their own definition of leadership, views on different leadership approaches, and the state of their inner game. Using a series of inter-connected leadership models, TEC members will visualize where they are on the “Lead-o-Meter” and what aspects of their leadership-of-self should be further developed to cross the pivotal defensive-creative leadership threshold. To achieve this aim, Gasparotto takes TEC members on a deeper dive of the inner game components of identity (beliefs, values, traits), consciousness (emotions, sense-making, learning), and action orientation (decision-making, accountability, and resilience).

Using a variety of interactive techniques (i.e. real-time audience polling, surveys, group work, discussion forums, reflective questioning) this multi-faceted presentation / workshop demonstrates how consciously developing one’s inner game will increase a leader’s overall personal effectiveness, contribute to strengthened teams, and drive increased business performance outcomes.

Definition: Accountability is about owning your actions, decisions, and results. Owning the situation, owning the problem (even though you did not cause it), owning the solution (and have the agency to carry it out), and owning the outcome good and bad.

Presentation. Approx â…“ story, â…” frameworks.

Story. Clearing the Way: Leading from the Front takes participants on a whirlwind ride of what it is like to lead in combat and how Accountability is a foundational leadership competency.

Frameworks.
â—Ź Definition of accountability.
â—Ź Characteristics and behaviours of an accountable leader.
â—‹ Wood & Winston Three Scales of Accountability (Responsibility, Openness, Answerability). This provides the foundation for the afternoon, chair led workshop activity.
â—Ź Adult Learning Cycle.
â—Ź The 5-Question After Action Review Process.
â—Ź SMART Goals.

Accompanying Workshop Materials:
â—Ź Wood and Winston 3 Scales of Accountability
â—Ź Gasparotto Group After Action Review Guidebook.
â—Ź Case Study: Sir Ernest Shackleton and The Endurance. (2nd month activity)

Workshop activities (Chair led)
â—Ź Accountability
â—‹ Review the 5 steps to immediately enhance accountability:
â–  Avoid making excuses.
â–  Walk the talk.
â–  Embrace failures.
â–  Goal setting.
â–  Solicit help from others.
â—‹ Identify (individually) the various elements from the 3 Scales of Accountability that are strengths and areas for development.
○ Discuss (in triads) and exchange insights. Choose 2-3 specific accountability behaviours to work on―make them SMART goals.
â—‹ Record and write down (individually) these SMART goals.
â—‹ Participants share these intentions for development (group).
â—Ź After Action Review
â—‹ Review 5-Questions After Action Review
â—‹ Identify (individually) how to incorporate this process with your team.
â—‹ Discuss (in triads) and exchange insights.
â—‹ Record and write down (individually) the intended approach.
â—‹ Optional: Participants to share the approach (group).
â—Ź Program Wrap up. (as this is Module 12)
â—‹ Action item for the Chair.
Member Action Item
â—Ź Print out the Wood and Winston 3 Scales of Accountability.
â—Ź For the following month put a check mark every time you demonstrate one of those behaviours and put a X every time you do not.
â—Ź Review at the end of the month and assess your accountability as a leader. Use the After Action Review process to compare your plan with your results, what to sustain and what to improve, and adjust from there.
● For some inspiration, read / watch the case study on Earnest Shakelton’s ill-fated voyage on the Endurance. Through the lens of accountable behaviours, discuss with the group.

Wood and Winston – 3 Scales of Accountability. Attached as a separate document.

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