We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Marjorie Aunos. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Marjorie below.

Marjorie, appreciate you joining us today. We’d love to hear about the best boss, mentor, or leader you’ve ever worked with.

In 2012, I had a car accident that rendered me paraplegic. It was a big adaptation obviously, especially as a single parent of a 16 months old boy. The rehabilitation process took over 2 years as I had to re-learn all skills, from breathing on my own to feeding myself, cooking, getting dressed, taking care of Thomas, driving and so forth.

I returned to work, in a slightly different role, two years after the accident. I was asked to stepped into the role of the director of professional services, which was a promotion for me. I wasn’t sure if I could return to work, let alone in a position that carried more responsabilities, but my boss knew. She had been my mentor for a decade and she knew that given the proper supports, I could thrive in this role.

She informed Human Resources that whatever I needed to do my job, they had to provide. I got the office that could host the larger desk I needed due to my wheelchair, the toilet was adapted, a parking spot was reserved close to the door for me. It also meant that some of the tasks associated to my new position needed to be re-negotiated with my staff. We sat down with my team of managers and looked at our strengths, capacities, interests and “limitations’. With that we determined which tasks I could do that would require less travelling (for example). My staff who was more social, took those and I took some of his administrative tasks in return. As we re-negotiated our roles, we looked at teamwork and communication and how we could support everyone of us in our jobs. Being flexible and creative led us to work in a more efficient way, where everyone was able to contribute to the team.

Having a boss that can see beyond limitations and focus on everyone’s strengths made the difference in my career and my life, as it did in the lives of everyone who worked under her.

Marjorie, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

Since my twenties, I have advocated for parents with disabilities. As a psychologist and manager in a rehabilitation center, I conducted research studies and built and delivered a clinical program. Fifteen years into my career, I was in a car accident and became a person with a Spinal Cord Injury. Being a mom, it also made me like all the clients I had worked with. I too was now a parent with a disability.

I returned to work very quickly after my accident and about five years after, I crashed as I couldn’t keep up the fast-pace anymore (and thought I needed to). This forced me to readjust and look for other ways to fulfill my purpose.

Being a Psychologist AND living with a Spinal Cord Injury has taught me a lot about Resilience, Mental Health, Strengths, Accessibility and the benefits of favoring a diverse workforce. I also know about how not being accessible makes organisations miss out on potential employees with great talents and untapped customer-base which makes up to 25% of the population.

My role now is to speak to organisations about Accessibility in buildings and about how to hire, retain and manage staff with disabilities (and the benefits of doing it well). I also speak to High school and College students about Mental Health and Resilience and how we can Naviguate Uncertainty by Embracing Change. I conduct workshops so that staff and students can learn about their character strengths and how to access resources to make them more resilient when facing challenges. I continue to advocate for the rights of families headed by parents with disabilities as I have learned that my disability gave my son some great skills. We have learned to find solutions and focus on what matters to us the most.

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

For a disability advocate of 25 years, it is ironic that the lesson I had to unlearn relates to what being capable or able means. I had always seen my clients, parents with disabilities, as quite capable, yet always upheld very high my standards for myself.

This made me struggle as a woman and mother with paraplegia, as doubts about my capacity to be a good enough mother seeped into my life. If I couldn’t run after thomas or teach him how to skate and play hockey, did that make me a ‘bad’ mother? If I couldn’t upkeep all the activities I wanted him to do, did affect my capacity to parent? All those doubts really led me down a really dark rabbit hole to mental ill-health.

Positive Psychology and learning about the science behind Character Strengths is actually what led me to change my perspective. I realised how being mom to Thomas had a positive impact on Thomas. He learned to be creative as he saw me find solutions to barriers and lack of accessibility every day. He learned the value of interdependence and teamwork as I worked with my parents to raise him. He also learned that when facing challenges and adversity, it is best to have a balance of bravery and prudence.

Learning these lessons as a family led me to become a better advocate for other parents with disabilities, a better researcher and psychologist and I am grateful for the opportunity to learn.

Have you ever had to pivot?

A few years after I returned to work as a paraplegic single mother, the organisation in which I worked in changed drastically. Amongst a multitude of changes, three stand out: my boss of fifteen years was moved to a different position, most of my staff were moved to other departments, and the workload increased. This led me to struggle as I no longer had the support to be efficient as a manager and professional. I lost the ability to advocate for accommodations as people in HR no longer knew my and what I could contribute. I was no longer perceived as an asset, but rather I felt I was now perceived as a burden, a staff who required too many ‘special accommodations’. It led me to try to hide my disability, bringing work home to try to keep up. I burnt out.

I realised it would be hard for me to work in an organisation that didn’t know me or rather, that did not want to know me, and who didn’t recognise what I could contribute. I also needed to review my work-life balance strategies. Being paraplegic did not prevent me from contributing, but how I would do it needed to be reviewed.

For instance, I could use my own voice as a parent with a disability to amplify the voices of all parents with disabilities. I could showcase how my lived experience had taught me new lessons on hiring and managing staff from diverse background, skillset and professions; how it had taught me about accessibility; how it had led me to learning more about personal strengths and resilience, or in other words, how we can access and develop the resources we all need. I learned to value all aspects of what makes me, like my experience teaching University students and training staff with my lived experience and work experience, to develop and deliver workshops and offer keynotes to organisations and high schools and colleges.

Recognising and accepting my strengths led to me pivoting into a speaker and an author – sharing lessons learned and my perspective to hopeful have leaders and young people see people with disabilities as valuable contributors of Society.

Contact Info:

• Website: marjorieaunos.com
• Instagram: @marjorieaunos
• Facebook: @marjorieaunos
• Linkedin: marjorie-aunos-a19a34159
• Twitter: @marjorieaunos
• Youtube: @marjorieaunos