Who is Krysty? by Krysty Wideen

For the foreseeable future, my blog posts are going to centre around a certain topic: Leadership, a Gen Y perspective. I hope you’ll follow along with me as I continue to explore the concept of leadership through this lens and what that means for the modern workplace. Like many people, the combination of so many generations in the workplace fascinates me and I enjoy exploring both the challenges and advantages of such an environment.

 However, before I get started, I thought it only fair that if I am going to be basing my blog posts on the Gen Y perspective, or more specifically, my perspective, that you get a little background as to who I am! At The Refinery, we were recently visited by Dr. Chene Swart, a Narrative Psychologist from South Africa. We discussed the power and impact your story can have on your world view and I thought it only fair that I be open about what that means for me.

My Story: Lots of Love and Lots of Learning

I was born in 1985 and raised in Vancouver, BC. Yes, I am smack dab in the middle of Gen Y. I am a Vancouverite through and through – love the ocean and the mountains (why should you have to choose?), a wuss when it comes to extreme weather, and I do not like wearing a suit.

Some key values stick out for me as being ingrained pretty early on by my parents and early influences. The first is the importance of sticking by, enjoying, and appreciating your family. The second is that life is a journey of learning, and that whatever I ended up doing in adulthood, I should be learning. And finally, work hard for what you want, but don’t let that get in the way of having fun and enjoying life. I would say that these values have stayed with me as I’ve grown up (even though I didn’t realize it for a long time) and are consistent with how I feel about life today.

In addition to my family, travel has had a big influence on my perspective. I’ve done the student backpacker across Europe, taken a few courses in Europe about EU politics, and lived in Paris as child. I’ve travelled in Latin America as a tourist visiting Machu Picchu, as a volunteer building houses, and as a house guest learning Spanish and about cultural differences. Time and time again I am intrigued and enlightened by the people I meet wherever I go.

Significant local and world events in my lifetime include the following: the first Nintendo system was released, the Columbine school shootings took place, the New York skyline changed on September 11, Friends and Seinfeld started and ended, DVDs took over Video Cassettes, NAFTA was signed, the Kyoto Accord was signed, the World Wide Web (or Internet as we know it today) was created, the Olympics came to my home town of Vancouver, and the Canucks lost to the Rangers in the Stanley Cup final. An abridged version, no doubt!

In general, I grew up with the Internet as a given and I like to consider myself to be relatively tech-savvy, at least as a user. While I’m pretty sceptical about politicians and politics in general, I can’t help but feel optimistic about the future. And I basically live my life enjoying the company of my family and friends and always looking for new learning experiences.

Besides being open about my frame of reference for writing this blog, naming and describing your story can be a great exercise in self awareness. We sometimes ask our participants in leadership development programs to do something called, “The Leadership Journey”. We ask them to highlight key moments, events, people in their lives who have impacted their leadership style. Without recognizing what our story is, how can we have a part in writing it in the future?

So what’s your story?

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