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TEAM WORK EXCELLENCE
TEAM WORK EXCELLENCE
Episode Summary: In this inspiring episode, Karen Dommett, Manager of Games and Competition at Special Olympics Canada, joins the podcast to share her journey from rural Saskatchewan to her impactful role in inclusive sports. Karen shares with Tim and listeners how her love for boxing not only shaped her sense of community and resilience but also empowered her to compete and win the Western Canadian championships. She highlights the transformative power of sports in fostering belonging, building confidence, and creating opportunities for connection.
Episode Notes
In this inspiring episode, Karen Dommett, Manager of Games and Competition at Special Olympics Canada, joins the podcast to share her journey from rural Saskatchewan to her impactful role in inclusive sports. Karen shares with Tim and listeners how her love for boxing not only shaped her sense of community and resilience but also empowered her to compete and win the Western Canadian championships. She highlights the transformative power of sports in fostering belonging, building confidence, and creating opportunities for connection. Karen delves into her work at Special Olympics Canada, emphasizing the social impact of major sporting events and the importance of creating environments of psychological safety and inclusivity. She shares her leadership philosophy, which is grounded in guiding principles, human connection, and fostering a culture where everyone feels they truly belong. Karen also discusses how Special Olympics is changing perceptions of people with disabilities and calls for community involvement ahead of the 2026 Special Olympics Canada Summer Games in Medicine Hat, Alberta. Tune in to hear Karen’s unique insights on the long-term cultural benefits of inclusive sports, the challenges of leadership, and how we can all make a difference by fostering authenticity and inclusion in our own communities. About Karen Dommett From the rural landscapes of Saskatchewan to the national stage of Special Olympics Canada, Karen Dommett has built a career grounded in resilience, passion, and the transformative power of sport. As the Manager of Games and Competition for Special Olympics Canada, Karen brings a wealth of experience in fostering inclusion and creating life-changing opportunities through sport. Karen's journey began as a determined young athlete convincing her farming parents to let her take up boxing—a path that not only taught her grit but also revealed her ability to adapt and excel. Her tenacity led her to a Western Canadian Championship title, where she mastered the art of turning challenges into advantages. With a degree in kinesiology and a love for the collective energy of major sporting events, Karen found her calling in sports administration. From contributing to the World Juniors in Saskatoon to leading national-level competitions, Karen has dedicated her career to creating moments that inspire athletes, build communities, and develop future leader Resources discussed in this episode: Contact Tim Sweet | Team Work Excellence: Contact Karen Dommett | Special Olympics: Transcript Karen 00:01 I think everything I've ever learned or felt like the outcome always landed back to in an inclusion moment or social impact or any deep achievement, it's always rooted back to people first and true connection. And whenever there has been that upfront investment in that time, and building that psychological safety, building that connection, and always peeling back that like just people are people are people, man, the efficiency, the return on investment, on human connection, it makes those hard, difficult situations so much easier. Tim 00:40 I'd like to ask you some questions. Do you consider yourself the kind of person that gets things done? Are you able to take a vision and transform that into action? Are you able to align others towards that vision and get them moving to create something truly remarkable? If any of these describe you, then you, my friend, are a leader, and this show is all about and all for you. I'm Tim Sweet, and I'd like to welcome you to Episode 49 of the Sweet on Leadership podcast. Tim 1:12 Welcome to Sweet on leadership. Thanks again for joining me today. I am thrilled to welcome a truly inspiring leader in the world of inclusive sports. Karen Dommett. Karen, thanks for being here. I really appreciate it. Karen 1:23 Yeah. Thanks so much for having me. Tim 1:25 From your roots in rural Saskatchewan in your early days as a boxer, which, that's one of the connections that you and I have, because boxing is something that has been a very special part of my life. To your current role of Manager of Games and Competition at Special Olympics Canada. You know, I look at your journey, and it's one of resilience, it's one of passion. It's one of driving social change. And I can't wait till we can dive into it, because I think people are going to get a lot out of it. Karen 1:51 Well, thanks so much. Tim 1:52 Can you tell me and tell us a little bit about your history, and where do you find yourself now, and what would we see you doing day in and day out. Karen 02:02 Yeah, so I guess sport has always played a part in my life. I was always a kid who was begging her farming parents to put her into sports, and somehow convinced them boxing was a sport they should say yes to. And yeah, sport has just always been where I found connection. It's always felt home to me where I have felt sense of community. I wasn't necessarily ever really clear what I wanted to do when I when I grew up. So I went in kinesiology, knowing that was kind of the foundational work for sport, and went into my degree not knowing where I would land, whether it was like a phys ed teacher or physiotherapist or what would happen. And partway through my bachelor's degree, I got introduced to the administrative side of sport, major sporting events, and we had some really cool stuff come through Saskatoon that I got to be a part of, like the World Juniors were there while I was in university, and got to work on some cool student-led projects, and, yeah, I just really saw that, like collective effervescence that happens in a major sporting event, and just how the ripple effects have on community and how you're creating that best moment in someone's life, and how that sticks with them and creates a pathway and motivation for them to give back and do more in community, and how, how you are part of developing other leaders through creating those opportunities. So yeah, then that's really where my career has taken me. It’s kind of just been chasing major sporting events. Tim 03:41 And furnishing others with those best moments, as you say, right when you think back, if I take you back into the boxing ring, many of us have that transitional, transformational moment in sports when you understand what just happened. You may have to think back on it, but you were a different person a moment ago, right? Do you remember an instant when you were boxing where you reflected back on about or some training and you felt like a different person? Karen 04:13 I mean, we were a really rural Boxing Club of just like a bunch of farm kids that this was probably the only access to opportunity that we had. So we never took ourselves too seriously. We'd go to big tournaments and cards. And you know, you're up against these, like, inner city kids from Edmonton that are, like, 16 years old, covered in tattoos, and like, we're knocking off, like the horse poop off our boots to get in, and you always feel a little bit out of place. And then, you know, maybe viewing yourself as lesser than or not quite fitting in, in those big tournaments. Tim 04:48 Did rocky ride a horse? Karen 04:52 I had, I had had, like, a really tough couple seasons where I was, I was really underweight, so I would always have to try to bulk up. And you know, they're just not that many female boxers at, certainly at that time. And so in order to get a sanctioned fight, I'd often be fighting girls a weight class or two above me. So that didn't come with a lot of wins. And then I had a season where things kind of just really turned around. Found the way to to use my shorter stature and shorter reach to my advantage, and got really good at like, ducking and slipping and working around someone's reach advantage and how to really work the body, and won the Western Canadian Championships. And, yeah, just had that moment of like, Oh, wow. Like, success is something that is actually attainable. To me. It's weird to think that you know, you train and compete in something, and you've just accepted, like you're just actually there for fun and, like, the social part of it, and this is cool, but then, yeah, you actually find your loophole and what works for you and the tools that you have, and how that drove to success that was, yeah, like, a really different moment of like, oh, I don't actually have to accept that the bar is down here. I can use what I have and find a different pathway. Tim 06:09 I love that it's kind of like you've decoded something for yourself, and you've found how you fit. And that it doesn't have to be everybody else's journey. It doesn't have to be everybody else's style, you figured out your own. And to me, that creates such a different level of possibility for oneself, such a different level of confidence for oneself. And then when you fast forward to what you're doing now, and you describe that effervescence that you create, that bubbling, that buoying up of the entire field, it's giving you know that's seeing a bunch of people on mass have this opportunity to decode themselves and suddenly have this feeling of belonging and this feeling of potential. Does that describe that effervescence as part of it? Karen 06:58 Yeah, you experience energies and moments that really just like, stick with you and change you when you're part of that collective effervescence, right? Tim 07:08 Yeah. And those moments, it's so cool, because, would you agree? In my life, I found that those moments, the ones that really matter, it's like a ratcheting up. It's once you've ratched it up, it's very hard to lose that. You know it, it's something that lasts. It's something that sticks with you. It's not like it's fleeting, like it was it. You know that moment of clarity, that realization that you can design yourself to fit a certain competition and to excel that sticks with us. It's not like we lose that and it's so that's to me. It's yeah, anyway, that's what it is to me. Is it is very ratcheting. So it sticks with a person. Karen 07:53 I think it's that like, what is that quote that Brene Brown has, where the opposite of loneliness is not fitting in, but it's belonging. And like, I think it's that, it's that, that moment where you've stopped trying to fit in and find a way to fit in, but you actually have that true sense of belonging. That's that unlocking of that like, as you put it like that, ratcheting that, you know, you're not trying and and it's not grabbing on. That's what fitting in is, right, that you keep trying it on for size, and it's not working. It's that when you really found your, your authentic way to do it, sticks. Tim 08:35 I like using the word arrive. I always feel like those people, they arrive at a you know, I remember that feeling when I was, when I was in my first, I would say, major international professional role. There was a moment where I was like, I knew I belonged. I knew I had something to offer. I knew that I could, I could not compete, but I could operate at the same level as everybody around me, regardless of what their specialty was, or how senior they were. And that knowledge that I belonged in that room at that table, was really empowering. Cool. Okay, well, so tell us a little bit more about, you know, the role and what it involves, and what does it take to actually create this effervescence. What is the nuts and bolts of it look like? What are the what are the challenges lend? Karen 09:33 Yeah, so hosting a multi sport games, I think you know what people are most familiar with would be an Olympic Games. It is a massive logistical, strategic plan that you're starting from, something, from nothing. So we always use the analogy you're building the plane as you fly it, and you're trying to fasten all the pieces, and you really hope everyone's on board. How. Uh, when, and everything's tightened where it's supposed to be when you go to land the plane, and that's the event day. So it is a lot of logistical things, of, you know, beds, adding beds in and meal plans and bus schedules and all those things. But what I think the real opportunity is with major sporting events is the social impacts that it has. So there's so many things that always seem like the nice to haves on the shelf when we talk about legacy that's left behind a major sporting event, and what is most I think, often viewed as facility enhancements. When we talk about an Olympic Games and talk about, you know, the infrastructure that comes as the legacy with a major game standing. We're both based out of Calgary that, you know, we know that our city was built on the legacy of an Olympic Games. What I do in my work with Special Olympics is that we focus less on that physical infrastructure and more on social impacts. So it's not only hosting a really high quality athletic competition in really great venues and logistically really well ran games, but also, how are we changing perceptions of persons with intellectual disabilities. So Special Olympics is designed solely for individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities to compete in sport, because otherwise, without Special Olympics, that access and opportunity for sport and physical activity would not exist for many people with an intellectual disability. So how do we not only create that access and opportunity and quality sport experience for that athlete, but how do we also get the rest of the community involved and change those perceptions of disability? Disability is often something that is feared or is uncomfortable or awkward, and it's not something that people necessarily feel welcomed to partake in, or there's fear of doing the wrong thing, or just fear and ignorance In general, if it's not something that is part of your nuclear circle of your family, right? It's maybe not something that you you think about getting involved with or thinking that it necessarily matters so hosting these huge, huge events that use, take up an entire city and use hundreds of different contractors and partners and sponsors. Every single one of those partnership deals leads to a conversation about disability inclusion. Tim 12:51 Cool. So if I was to think about that more generally, the easy conversation is, what's the short term economic benefit that it brings to the community? What are the rinks that it might create, or, what are the, you know, what? What's the infrastructure that it might leave behind? And if we were to, if we're parallel this to a business, it's like, what's the operational improvements? What are the, what are the nuts and bolts profit margin that that it's bringing in? But the more lasting effect is, how does it shift the culture? How does it shift the way in which we treat one another? How does it leave people feeling, people humans, beyond just having access to more gear or more depreciating assets? You know? I mean, there's, it's, it's like, what are the assets that don't depreciate? What are the assets that that appreciate, I guess, in a sense, and those can be cultural assets that we leave behind. And it reminds me of our guest that is in the episode that we just had right before you, Harold Horsefall. I mean, he is very much coming up against uncomfortable topics around Truth and Reconciliation and how do we how do we discuss those things, and how do we bring up Indigenous issues? And they're in the middle of building a welcoming space, a shared space on an old trade grounds, or, you know, where people would meet at the confluence of the bow in the Elbow River, and it's literally called The Confluence. And we had this great talk about how, even though there was a sign in North America that everybody understood, even if they didn't speak the same languages, that's where we're going to meet this welcoming space, right? And creating that space. That's a big challenge. And so you know, as the person that's the GM for 2024 Special Olympics, you're now Team Manager going into the 2025 Winter Games, right? You have all of these moving parts, and it's a very, very, it sounds like a very complex and a very. Tough role on top of everything else. So I think it's a great time for us to bring in Harold's question for the guests, because I think it applies. And so Harold's question was. Harold 15:12 What do you get from your career, and how does your work fill your bucket? What am I doing for this? How does this work for me? Yes, I get to pay the bills, but what does it do for me, personally, like as a person, how does it advance my own journey, my own destination? Karen 15:26 I think what I get out of my career, in the work that I do, is perspective. I am so fortunate to get to work in a space that has the opportunity to include so much inclusion and answer so much social issues that I am constantly learning and being afforded perspective that I didn't necessarily inherit. And I think what fuels me so much, and what that gets to me personally, is the ripple effects that that gets to have in my personal life, that my work gives me so many gifts, that it gets to change and influence the conversations that happen around my dinner table, that happens in the Community Groups I'm involved in that it never just stays in a project. Tim 16:26 Could you share an anecdote? Could you share a story of one of those perspective moments, those things that, like lit you up and you were like, Whoa, life is not going to be the same after this. Karen 16:43 I mean, there's like, our kids are our greatest teachers, and so anyways, when you hear an original thought from a five year old, that's a pretty cool moment. So I think for me, you know, we, try to normalize disability so much in the work that I do, and as a result, you know, my husband and kids have got to come along the ride to a lot of really cool initiatives and events. And the hope is that that perspective and normalization of disabilities ingrained in them too. And this sad story, but when my oldest was in kindergarten, in grade three, now, they had their first ever substitute teacher, and there's a little boy in his class that has a lot of sensory processes, processing difficulties, and just very early in that stage of starting to have some of those tools for emotional regulation and sensory regulation in the classroom. And he came home so heartbroken and said at dinner that night that the teacher was really hard on this little boy because she didn't think he was listening. And my son said he's not trying to be bad. He wasn't trying to not follow the rules. That's just how his body works, that he just can't always sit down in his chair all the time, that she just didn't understand that, that different people have different needs, and that's how his body just works. And… Tim 18:19 It was misconstrued as a respect issue, or it was misconstrued as not paying attention or not not doing their work. Karen 18:26 Yeah, and I was just like, so grateful in that moment that like that everything I think I tried to lead with of, wherever possible, we try to take an individualized approach, and we try to meet people where they're at to the best of our ability, and to see that that's like ingrained in a five year old was pretty cool. Tim 18:52 Was it an experience that he had had, or was it a conversation that he had had? If you were to take a guess at some of the pivotal moments, some of those ratcheting moments that he would have had to be able to, you know, stand up for his classmate with with such conviction. What do you think he was exposed to? Karen 19:14 So, in a previous role, I was the Executive Director of a project called Calgary Adapted Hub, powered by Jump Start, where we would create different adaptive sporting opportunities and experiences for children and youth with disabilities. So with that, there'd be a lot of like, try it, days of sledge hockey or wheelchair basketball and things like that. So yeah, he would get pulled along to a lot of these events. And, you know, I think he knew more about wheelchair basketball before he ever knew about generic basketball. And just being in those environments where disability was really normalized led to a lot of those conversations on the way home, and those conversations of you might see something today that you might have questions about, and that is good and okay to have questions about that. And I think this is what I think the power of sport and adaptive and disability inclusive sport has is that I don't think anyone ever meant to not be inclusive to a person with a disability. But when we think about, you know, when we were kids, and you see someone on a street corner using a mobility device or an aid, or behaving in a way that is different from what you've ever seen before, you would have looked up to your big person that you were with and pointed and said, what is that? Why are they doing that? Why are they using that? And what was that met with? It was met with your grown up, then being embarrassed and saying that's inappropriate. Don't look, don't stare, don't point, don't shush, shush, shush. So then what's encoded in your body is like, Oh no, I did something wrong. Whatever that thing is, it's bad and scary, and don't look and acknowledge like we shut off. Tim 21:02 Yeah, no kidding. It get, it gets transmuted onto the person with the disability being wrong instead of, you know, not to say it's not right to ask questions or something. But that whole experience as a young, young child being told like, don't, don't talk, don't, you know, it makes it that forbidden thing you can't talk about, that you can't you know, well, then why? Now I've got, is it scary? Like, what am I? What am I up against? Karen 21:29 Yeah, and I think, unfortunately, some of that has stayed with us as we become the big people. And we don't necessarily always stop and give that moment of, Oh, wow. That's a really good question. I wonder, like, what do you think? Why do you think that? And if there's a moment where it's appropriate, maybe we go ask. And maybe it's not always appropriate, but you find those sliding door moments. Tim 22:01 Well, and it's funny, there's a couple ideas that I rail against constantly. And one is that at adulthood, when you reach adulthood, that suddenly you've got it all sort of figured out, or suddenly these lessons stop that whole “shush, shush, shush, we don't talk about that.” Now, it may not be related to a person you know, walking down the street that is using a cane, and we don't understand why, or whatever. But there's other things in professional environments that people shush each other about, and they don't talk about things. They're these no fly zones. And so they become scary, or they become unknown, and they stay unknown, or they become surrounded by myth adults, reinforce these types of, these types of fears in each other along this very same way, like we don't, you know, that's that's verboten. We don't talk about that. And then the other thing is, I think back to, I was a chef at one point in my life, right? And so I remember when we first had our first child, she's 19 now, and I was learning about, you know, what foods to introduce, and I ran across this developmental article, and it said, when you first introduce a new food to a child, their brain is going to freak out, right? And it's going to not know what broccoli tastes like, you know it's going to panic and so their face is going to squidge up, right? But this isn't that they don't like it. This is that this is a brand new sensation. This is a brand new feeling. The brain is just figuring it out. And often, parents will try a child on broccoli or whatever mash peas or whatever they're giving them, and the child will screw up their face, and then the parent will say, oh, you don't like that. Now, the parent says that with a question mark, you know, Oh, you don't like, Oh, you don't like that—question mark. But the child's brain depending on, you know, if it's just reading the inflection or whatever is is hearing, Oh, you don't like that period. And that goes into programming, and that becomes the, oh, they don't like broccoli. Oh, you don't like broccoli, and it's and we program children unwittingly to believe they like or don't like something. They're scared or not scared about something, and this rather than giving them the chance to be uncomfortable or be, you know, unsure of what something is, and work through that, you know, and then fun, you know, funny enough later in life, if you give it a chance, and you can get past, you know, whatever the myth was around liver or brussel sprouts or whatever it's like. I don't actually mind these things like these are you. You know, the taste was never the problem. It was the idea. Karen 25:04 The story I was telling myself. Tim 25:06 The story I was telling myself, and the programming that went on. And I think that that's when you say, you know, shush, shush. We don't talk about that. That's rude. That's like programming on a social level, Karen 25:15 yeah? And I think you know, to your point, how that exists in team cultures, too, at work, right that? Yeah, I'm a huge believer in the power of what our sporting events can have to the external community, but I think it starts within our team first. And yeah, so I do a few things when I lead a project in how we change our team culture first, because I can't be the only person championing this. It has to be felt throughout. So we always start a project with defining our guiding principles. What are our top three decision pillars that we make every single decision against typically, first and foremost will always be the athlete experience. Creating the best experience in this person's life. But we do it collectively as our leadership group, and then we pulse check those as people come on the team, and then we do rules of engagement, of how do we operate with one another within our team? And that has to match up with what the social impacts are that we trying to make. Because if we're not doing it inside the house, it's not going to happen outside the house. And then some more, like granular things that we do. So in a sporting event, there's always your staff team, but then there's a much, much, much larger volunteer base, and how you create that culture amongst your volunteers is incredibly challenging. So anyone that's listening to this, that maybe works in nonprofit knows the value and importance of your volunteers and how hard that management dynamic can be, like it's such a different ball game when someone is voluntarily doing something, and you know, you don't, you don't often fire a volunteer. If you do, it's really bad. So how you developed that culture is so important. So one thing that we did on these past games, instead of, you know, in oil and gas you typically will open a meeting with a safety moment. We started every single staff and volunteer team meeting with an inclusion moment, and sets the tone for every meeting. So often we'll do like, a two word check in, that I'm a big believer in you temperature check and pulse check where everybody is at when they're stepping space into the room, so that we can have a productive conversation. And then we go into the inclusion moment. And an inclusion moment sometimes is like a funny YouTube video that maybe addresses a topic, or maybe it's a definition of a word that's important to the work that we're doing, or it's more of a conversation, you know, around, you know, as part of these games, we have a mandate to address Truth and Reconciliation Calls to Action 87-91 in any major sporting event, that is your duty. So how does that show up in all of our day to day work, in the language that we're using, not just at what's going to happen at this big opening ceremony, and the blessing that we're going to have and which elder is going to do what, and what that protocol looks like. But how does that reflect in our day to day language that we're using? So what does the term stakeholder really mean, and what are those roots of that word, and how, what language are we going to use instead? And what's the why behind that. We use key contributor. Yeah, so it's, it's those moments of trying to create some more awareness and acknowledgement in those things that maybe were like encoded in us, like that big person shushing you on the corner. It's taking that moment to stop, pause and like completely we're all learning and doing it together. We all can strip off our armor collectively, together as a team, and have that safe and open space of have a conversation about it, and unlearn or challenge our perceptions. Tim 29:18 Not having to be right, right now so that we can, we can be humble and take on some new information. And, yeah, it's funny, you talked about pillars. And I mean, pillars are something that you see all the time with organizational dynamics, and it's like, these are the pillars, and this is how we stand up, and this is how we behave. I think it's important to say, if these are our pillars, this is what we value. Those pillars, right, that are really important to us, those things that are that are key to who we are. They should also tell us where questions are allowed and where questions are safe. And if the question is offered in the spirit of standing up one of these, then there is no shushing. There is no. There's no need to feel, you know, embarrassed. You can go ahead and ask your question, and it'll be received with the spirit that it's offered, right? And so it's okay to not know in service of that pillar, not just to go and do something, but actually risk something, to be to be unsafe for a moment, and then that's how we're going to rebuild this trust. That's great. I really like that, that idea of not just safety moments, but inclusion moments. I mean, inclusion is safety, right? When we get down to it, you know? Karen 30:34 It is psychological safety Tim 30:35 And so that's something that that, once we understand that, you know, it's not hard to justify taking time to do that. It's really important. If we were, to think about what the average leader could take from this, this conversation in terms of a practice that they could bring into their team, or a mindset that they could take into their claims include inclusive moments would be one of them. What else would you like each leader listening here to challenge themselves, to think about? Karen 31:05 I think everything I've ever learned or felt like the outcome always landed back to in an inclusion moment or a social impact or any big achievement. It's always rooted back to people first and true connection. And whenever there has been that upfront investment in that time and building that psychological safety, building that connection, and always peeling back that like just people are people are people, man, the efficiency, the return on investment, on human connection. It makes those hard, difficult situations so much easier. I always kind of lean back to that saying people are hard to hate close up. Tim 31:53 Yeah, no kidding. That is a great that belongs a t-shirt. I'm putting that on a t-shirt. How that really resonates with me. You know, often professionally, I found that I could design great processes, I could reduce costs, I could identify risks, I could do all those things professionally that I was designed to do, but if we couldn't get people on side, everything was for not like you could. You could do all that work. You could have all the nuts and bolts, all the complexity that you could mitigate through and in your world. You can have all the right number of porta potties or whatever it is, right? Yeah, but if people aren't on board, if they're not along for the ride, there are so many unknown ways that things can get messed up, and all the planning in the world won't compensate for people when they're hurt, when they're scared, when they're angry, when they're you know, whatever that is, no amount of planning can can help us compensate for that. And the inverse is true, right? As you say, when everybody is safe and open and talking really difficult, complex things can suddenly become a heck of a lot easier to accomplish. Karen 33:09 Yeah, I say maybe, like two things in response to that, that then everyone's off the same song sheet, right? Everyone's marching in that same direction that so many things will get solved without even coming up to the senior leadership level. Problems get managed really well at an operational level, that don't always have to come up the chain, because you've got that shared belief and vision. So, yeah, that's where your return on investment also really comes in. And then your point of, like, the processes and systems. There's this quote from, I think it's Michael Babcock, who used to coach the Leafs, that says, you know, I can have all the different technologies and drills and high performance skating programs, but you wouldn't believe how fast I can get a player to skate when I know the name of this dog, there you go. And it just goes to like that power of human connection, right? Tim 33:57 And start where they're at and start with the person. I'd be remiss if I didn't share that when we were having a conversation last week, I was asking a little bit about the appropriate language to use. And I think that that's something just very tactical, besides the great lesson that you dropped here about, you know, hold people first start there. You helped me understand that, legitimately, I wasn't sure, right? You know, it's we used to say that the person was disabled, or we have differently abled, and all these kind of things. And I did some reading about it afterwards and helped myself understand what you had said to me. We now say person with disability, or a person with a disability, or whatever. It doesn't define them. They are a person first and then, like me, I'm a person who's follicularly challenged. I have no hair on the top of my head, but it doesn't define me, right? Well, maybe it does a little bit, but the the point is, you know, people first. In our language, people first in our approach, very hard to hate a person up close. I think that's excellent. I can't wait to use that. I'm gonna pull that out. That's fantastic. Okay, so we heard from Harold Horsefall, and we heard his question. Before we say goodbye here, I want you to have a chance after giving us so much value to lob your question at the next person to visit us, so what would your question be, Karen? Karen 35:31 I hope I articulate this in a way that makes sense. So when you find yourself at a crossroads of conflicting good that conflicts with good, how do you find that moment of clarity or that direction in those conflicting moments? Tim 35:46 Right when you're faced with a choice of where you're going to go and what you're going to do, and both options seem like the right thing to do, but they don't work at the same time? Karen 35:55 Yeah, yeah. I think it's that you know, you're never going to be amazing at all things. But how do you feel like you're not sucking at everything. Tim 36:06 Alright, so how do people find clarity in that moment to proceed? All right, I will carry that question forward. Karen 36:16 Okay well thanks so much Tim. Tim 36:17 No problem. All right, couple of things to clean up here. What are you most excited about what you've got on the go right now that you want people that are listening to know about and possibly get involved in? Karen 36:27 Being that this is Alberta based Special Olympics Canada Summer Games are coming back to Alberta in August of 2026 they will be hosted in the beautiful city of Medicine Hat, which is not far from us. Tim 36:42 That's my wife's hometown. Karen 36:44 So if you want a glimpse of what it looks like to be involved in something so much bigger than yourself, whether it's as a volunteer or a sponsor or get involved as a partner in some way that you can help with this massive logistical event, do check out the Special Olympics Canada, Summer Games 2026 in Medicine Hat. Tim 37:05 All hell for a basement. As I say about Medicine Hat. Karen 37:12 Yeah, that's a Hell's Basement Brewery, right? Tim 37:15 Yeah, that's right. They've put lots of gas under there, all right. So we'll make sure to include links to the 2026 involvement sites, or anything that you can give us there if people want to get in touch with you. Karen, where can they where can they reach out? Karen 37:30 Probably LinkedIn is my best form of connection, so just Karen Dommett on LinkedIn. You can find me through Special Olympics Canada as well, but we're a Sport for Life in Cochrane is where spend a lot of my volunteer time, or with Team Alberta as well, when generic sport with the Canada Games movement. Tim 37:48 Great. And I should mention that we were introduced by way of Erin Ashbacher. So special. Thanks to Erin, because this has been absolutely fantastic. And thanks so much Karen for taking the time to speak to me today. Karen 38:01 Oh, thanks so much, Tim. And thanks to Erin. Tim 38:05 Yeah, have a great day, and we will be following your track forward, and anything we can do here too to help you spread the word, we will do so thank you so much, Karen. Karen 38:14 Okay, Thanks, Tim. Tim 38:19 Thank you so much for listening to Sweet on Leadership. If you found today's podcast valuable, consider visiting our website and signing up for the companion newsletter. You can find the link in the show notes. If, like us, you think it's important to bring new ideas and skills into the practice of leadership, please give us a positive rating and review on Apple podcasts. This helps us spread the word to other committed leaders, and you can spread the word too by sharing this with your friends, teams and colleagues. Thanks again for listening, and be sure to tune in in two weeks time for another episode of Sweet on Leadership. In the meantime, I'm your host. Tim Sweet, encouraging you to keep on leading. Comments are closed.
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