Breaking the Façade: Creating Space for Authenticity In The Workplace

May 27, 2021

Communication, Culture, Diversity, Talent Management, Wellness

In navigating her gender transition, Kiersten Mohr learned the most valuable lesson of her professional and personal life. Being vulnerable, open and genuine about her challenges burst open a door to conversation with so many other individuals who shared their authentic struggles with her, also hidden behind their own well-constructed facades. She was astonished to learn how many others, like herself, had also kept so much of themselves hidden. This shared experience has led her to recognize a fundamental bond between humans: that at our core, we all share a need for self-actualization. Unfortunately, because of systemic barriers and preconceived ideas about the “recipe for success”, many of us are not bringing our whole selves to our careers every day. As a leader, her experience showed Kiersten the importance of authentic leadership and how creating a space for vulnerability and authenticity at work can dramatically shift workplace culture and generate creativity, innovation, opportunity and a renewed happiness in a team.

As we collectively navigate through the most unprecedented global crisis in modern history, organizations have an opportunity to redefine workplace inclusion to ensure that every individual can feel acceptance, inclusion and opportunity. This session will help to empower professionals with the perspective, motivation and insights they need to begin removing systemic barriers in their organizations, illuminating a path that encourages an inclusive and authentic career for everyone.

Speaker

Kiersten Mohr, B.Sc., B.A. (she/her)
In 2017, after fifteen years as a technical geologist and leadership professional in the Oil and Gas Industry, Kiersten Mohr embarked on the most significant challenge of her life: gender transition.

Gender transition was life-changing in more ways than one. Her authentic and vulnerable approach to transition allowed her to foster a deeper and more personal connection with her coworkers, and that allowed Kiersten to see how authenticity in the workplace can help to build synergy in the office. As she continued her corporate career, Kiersten also found new motivation to engage in a more meaningful life through volunteering, educating herself with a Bachelor of Psychology, and building a vast network of professionals in the LGBTQ2S+ community.

Kiersten began to truly appreciate the challenges that transgender and gender diverse individuals face in the realm of careers and employment. Ultimately, her experience ignited a personal passion to ‘de-mystify’ gender diversity in corporate spaces and make the transition process more grounded for those taking a similar path. This drive led Kiersten to step out of her role in the Oil and Gas Industry, continue with a Masters in Counselling Psychology and establish Terra Firma Transition Consulting. Terra Firma is passionately driven to remove the enormous employment barriers facing the transgender and gender diverse population.

In her community, Kiersten is proudly the President of the Airdrie Pride Society, a member of the Women’s Advisory Cabinet for Ducks Unlimited Canada and the current Publications Director for the Canadian Society of Petroleum Geologists. Most recently, Kiersten was honoured to be recognized by her community as Airdrie’s 2020 Amazing Women in Advocacy and nominated by the Mayor of Airdrie for a 2020 Star of Alberta Award.