Inspiring People, Inspiring Stories
Sunday, February 23rd, 2014
Meeting Chris Hadfield at the XL Leadership Summit was truly an honour for the space geek and photographer I am.
Photo by Kim Stallknecht
On February 13th I had the great fortune to represent CAPIC Vancouver as Chapter President and attend the XL Leadership Summit held at Hotel Vancouver.
This inspiring event, presented by the Twenty Ten Group featured a series of fantastic leaders and speakers talking about many topics related to Leadership. Speaking to a packed house, the first up, has had the opportunity to lead literally out of this world and spoke about “The Sky Is Not The Limit”. Col. Chris Hadfield  (@Cmdr_Hadfield) is without doubt, the most famous astronaut since Armstrong walked on the moon.
His talk was humble, funny, fascinating, captivating and inspiring. The entire audience soaked up every word from describing the “Man Diapers” that he put on before his first flight into space to his fluent Russian story about the Ammonia leak that took place just days before he was to return home from the ISS.
Col Hadfield offered many insights into his approach to leadership in a place where there is no room whatsoever for mistakes (the ISS). “Prepare for the unknown: visualize failure”, repeat and do it again so you are ready for anything. “Value everyone on your team” was another way he succeeds. Each member of his crew gets “listening” time where he asks for ideas and gives responsibility to the team so they remain engaged.
His humbleness included describing himself as a failure, as he had not attained the goal he set as a 9 year old watching  Neil Armstrong walk on the Moon. That goal was that one day would walk on the Moon as well… I think we can all agree Col Hadfield is no failure!
By the end of his talk I was completely inspired and, along with the entire audience, easily could have listened to much more. I had not so secretely hoped I would be able to meet him and perhaps, have him sign a book featuring his photography, that my daughter, Lindsay had given me for Christmas.
Fortunatley after his talk, I ran into photographer, Kim Stallknecht, who was on her way to photograph other attendees with the speaker. A big thanks to Kim for the opportunity to not only get the book signed but have a chance to meet briefly and have my photo taken with Col Hadfield!
There was so much more inspiration through the rest of the day, but for me the highlight came at the start of the day.
Many thanks to the team that put the day together, it went well beyond my expectations!
@XL_Summit  @Cmdr_Hadfield