LeaderImpact Podcast
LeaderImpact Podcast
Ep. 70 - Olga Lima - Passion, Resilience and Leadership
What if the obstacles you face today could become your pathway to success? Join us as we chat with Olga Lima, an inspiring engineer and business leader whose extraordinary journey from Colombia to Canada is a testament to resilience. Overcoming language hurdles, cultural shocks, and even bullying, Olga's story is fueled by determination and faith and highlights the grit required to thrive as an immigrant in a new country.
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Welcome to the Leader Impact Podcast. We are a community of leaders with a network in over 350 cities around the world dedicated to optimizing our personal, professional, and spiritual lives to have impact. This show is where we have a chance to listen and engage with leaders who are living this out. We love talking with leaders, so if you have any questions, comments or suggestions to make this show even better, please let us know. Best way to stay connected in Canada is through our newsletter at leaderimpactca or on social media at Leader Impact. If you're listening from outside of Canada, check out our website at leaderimpactcom.
Lisa Peters:I'm your host, Lisa Peters, and our guest today is Olga Lima. Olga is an engineer and business leader with 25 plus years working on multiple financial institutions in Canada and Latin America, with expertise on mergers and acquisitions, integrations, transformational leadership strategy, operation, and technology. In 2002, she moved from Colombia to Canada to pursue an MBA at Wilfrid Laurier University. Olga is passionate about leadership development, mentoring and coaching, and working with professionals and new immigrants in Canada to train and equip them to strengthen their professional skills to enter and or advance their careers in the Canadian labor market with a personal mission to make a difference being a bridge between different ethnicities and cultures. She is the founder of OL&I Consulting Opportunity Leadership and Integrations. Global OL&Iamp;amp;amp;amp;ap;ap;Iampamp is a consulting company that provides advisory and training services on leadership development and integration planning and execution to clients across Canada and internationally. Olga lives in Toronto, Ontario in Canada, and to escape the world of business, Olga enjoys exercising worship dancing, reading, biking, and doing community work. Welcome to the show, Olga.
Olga Lima:Thank you so much, Lisa. Honored and privileged to be here talking to you.
Lisa Peters:It is nice to have you. Now it says you. It didn't say where you were from in Colombia. Where are you from?
Olga Lima:I actually was born in a city called Valledupar, close to the famous Cartagena, so you should go someday and see it's beautiful.
Lisa Peters:Well, I went to Medellin in 2017 and absolutely loved it, so I will follow up with you on more on Bogota.
Olga Lima:For sure I will take your word on that.
Lisa Peters:All right, so it is very nice to have you. I have heard lots about you. We have never met, so I'm excited to just jump in and hear more about you. So we want to hear a little bit more about your professional story and how you got to where you are today. But, more importantly, we want to hear those snapshots, those pivotal turning points along that journey.
Olga Lima:Sure, Lisa, I will say all started 22 years ago when I moved from Colombia to Canada, as you say, to pursue my master in business administration. Here I went to Laurier University in Waterloo. At the time my proficiency in English was very limited, so that was a challenge in itself. I used to cry every day. I was in my early 20s. I was the first time being away from my country, my culture, my family, so I used to cry every day because I think I was overwhelmed by the new environment, the cultural differences, the language barrier. But right there was when I discovered my biggest asset, resilience. There were many times, Lisa, that I wanted just to quit and go back to Colombia, but I remember telling myself hey, remember that you are a strong woman of faith. You are also an engineer, so you know how to follow process, build mental capacity and deliver outcomes. But, above all, you don't quit. You are not a quitter. So realign your thinking and your mindset and keep going, and that's what I did. The good news is that I will say besides I mean despite the bullying I experienced, because I'm going to be vulnerable here and honest I experienced bullying during my university times because my Spanish accent. I heard a lot of jokes about Colombia and to give you a little bit of context, we were 100 students in Waterloo at the time and there were only five international students. I was the only one from Latin America and I will say some of the students were not that familiar we're talking about I mean 20 years ago with Latin culture. So there were a lot of stereotypes. But the good news, as I said, I was able to graduate with honors and I met some new Canadian friends along the way. So I will say challenge number one was overcome and check.
Olga Lima:Another pivotal moment was finding my first job in Canada without previous Canadian experience. Go figure, I will say this is a challenge that many immigrants experience, especially newcomers. And guess what, Lisa, resilience was needed again. I remember at the time many people telling you different things. You know, some stories are successful, other stories are really disappointing. But I remember telling myself hey, you will have your own journey. So I started my job search. I didn't have any professional contacts or networking here, so I applied to multiple jobs by internet and at the same time I was working on a survival job delivering and giving away marketing material and flyers in Midtown,T oronto, because that's what we do to help myself financially. That's what we immigrants do.
Olga Lima:At the same time I was reading a book from John Maxwell called Wisdom and Leadership Lessons from Women in the Bible. Fantastic book. Probably one of the first books that John Maxwell wrote and when I was reading the book, one of the stories in the book is the story of Ruth, and that story reminded me how Ruth was able to face difficult situations and navigate unknown territories with humbleness and faith. So every time that I will feel discouraged I will go back to the book. I will read again and again until I will have the hope to keep going. The good news, Lisa, is because there is always good news that after two months of graduating from my MBA, I was hired in a junior position by one of the largest banks in Canada to work in mergers and acquisitions integration at a global scale. I had experience, as you mentioned, in sales and service operation, technology, strategy and mergers and acquisitions integration before I moved to Canada, so I guess that helped.
Olga Lima:But anyways, the journey gave me the experience to travel to multiple countries, everywhere to work with fantastic leaders like senior people, from CEOs and top management to junior people and in between, also involved a lot of work, hard work, a lot of traveling, a lot of personal sacrifices, but I enjoyed it. I learned a lot and so how also the whole process of waking and cultivating my passion for leadership. That's what I love. Leadership, it's all about leadership, and I will also mention that, I will say, as a result of working with excellence, integrity and passion, in a matter of only four years I moved from a junior position to be promoted as vice president and the head of the mergers and acquisition department in the company. A huge accomplishment. And I mention in this just to encourage, you know, the people listening, maybe immigrants, that anything is possible. Just do your best and trust the process. So I will say, Lisa, that is a successful story. And again, maybe challenge number two was overcome and check.
Olga Lima:And finally, over a year ago, I transitioned out of a senior corporate job to opening my own consulting practice, as you mentioned, OLandI consulting opportunity, leadership and integrations focus on, again, leadership development, training and coaching and providing consulting services for M&A integrations.
Olga Lima:You know, Lisa, that we must learn to pivot successfully and it's not easy. It's a transition and you know better than anybody that transitions are tough. But it's interesting because also what I decided. This time I will focus on the subject I'm passionate about, because passion energizes your talents. The journey has been interesting and it has opened my curiosity and helped me to discover new talents, like my love for teaching and training, which I'm doing now, also teaching at the university level. And again it goes back to resilience. Resilience to reinvent yourself and add value to others. And I will also say that the example and encouragement from senior leaders and mentors, who I really admire, have made the transition easier. In fact, I would like to take this opportunity to honor a few of them. One top executive from England, another one from Canada and another one from Colombia, who all invested and believed in me and somehow shaped the professional I am today. So thanks God for mentors.
Lisa Peters:Yeah, so number one love how you say resilience. Just say it again. I love the R. You know you talked earlier about bullying when you came to Canada and you were in the universities, and so I'm going to move ahead then, years later. You're coaching and you're coaching new immigrants to Canada and others. Are you still finding that that is in the universities or in the workplace for these new immigrants?
Olga Lima:I would say in some cases, yes, but I think it's a matter of perspective, Lisa. I will say it because, again, you need to understand that people, sometimes they don't know, you know, and sometimes part of it could be perception or it could be reality. I'm talking about even my own experience. Sometimes you have that in your mind, that you have the idea that all people are reacting like this or that. But I will say that is still the case and you have to work with the other person you know, like maybe helping them to understand a little bit about my culture, for example.
Olga Lima:I don't get offended anymore when people make jokes about Colombia. You know I take it as an opportunity. Oh, let me tell you a little bit more about my country. Maybe the thing that you know is only the thing that you get from the movies, but there is a lot more. You know, we produce fantastic coffee, we have beautiful flowers, we work hard, we have a lot of fantastic things. So it's just a matter of perspective, but I will say it's still the case. But instead of using a weakness, I will use an opportunity on my favor. That's the advice that I give to people when I'm doing coaching.
Lisa Peters:Oh, I love it. Your passion, your courage, your resilience is so important to your pivots, so thank you for sharing all of that. Our next question talks about your principles of success. So I'm just wondering if you can share your best principle of success and maybe a story that illustrates that.
Olga Lima:Sure, I will say, Lisa, my best principle of success is combining passion, accountability and faith. I consider myself a proud Colombian-Canadian, so I always say that I have the passion of Hispanic people especially Colombians you know us and the discipline and accountability of a Canadian, so that's a really good combination. I want to give you an example, I say in the journey, for almost 20 years, I had the privilege and responsibility to lead over around 33 mergers and acquisitions integrations globally. In these projects are complex and you have to manage a lot of situations because you are working with all the areas of the organization. When you are merging and integrating two companies in some cases it could be three companies and you are integrating everything technology, operation, policies, processes, cultures which is even more difficult. In the cases that I was managing, we were integrating also with the head office in Canada. So there is a lot of complexity behind and to be successful in this role, you need to be able to wear different hats, some cases during the same day. So in some cases I was wearing the hat of a psychologist, listening to people's frustration, anxiety, uncertainty about job security, managing egos and personal agendas. You will be surprised, Lisa, this process you get the best and worst of people, especially senior leaders. Anyways, other time I needed to wear the hat of the engineer, leading and influencing the team and the different groups to again define an objective and a target, follow an execution process and deliver an outcome. So in all of this, people get frustrated, people get extremely exhausted, they motivated from time to time. So resilience is needed again, because then you need to again navigate with people all the process. That could take even up to three years, depending on strategy and scope. So how I was able to be successful?
Olga Lima:I'm passionate, Lisa, about everything that I do, to the point that it contagious and people get impregnated by it. I really truly believe that when leaders communicate and project passion in their vision, this creates an atmosphere where people have expectation and hope that mobilizes them to make things happen and get the job done. So that's how you combine accountability and passion. I would say also, passion gives you the motivation to invest in people's development, help them discover their potential. I've even helped them to imagine success. That is so important. And also, passion and accountability will give you the resilience to keep going when the situation is difficult, to own your mistakes and learn from it.
Olga Lima:I heard once something that I really liked. I think it's powerful that the key of persistence is passion, the key of passion is purpose and the key of purpose is perspective. I will say it again, because it's powerful the key of persistence is passion, the key of passion is purpose and the key of purpose is perspective. And finally, I will say, Lisa, that accountability and passion will create a path for success, but you also need faith. Faith in yourself, faith in others and, most importantly, faith in God, to give you wisdom and strength and resilience to go through the ups and down until you achieve the targets.
Lisa Peters:So you know, you talk combining the passion, the accountability, resilience, through all of this, the faith. What happens when you don't? Because I'm sure you've come into a project, you've come into a person, place or thing. There's no passion, you're not feeling it and maybe you can't make the change because of money. I don't know, like there's something that's saying you can't make the change right now. Or have you ever had that? You sound like just an amazing, like I'm going to make changes.
Olga Lima:Yeah, no, no, actually it takes time and, believe me, there were moments that you say zero passion. So where do I go from here? So I will say, for me is I force myself to be reminded of the thing that made me passionate about it. So again, when I was feeling the motivated, I will go on and say, okay, remember, what is it that move you inside? You know that fuel inside of you that move you to action. And that's what I will do. In some cases will be maybe going for a hobby. You know worship dancing, I love worship dancing, so that will get me excited again. And sometimes we're just maybe making a phone call to a mentor. Hey, I'm feeling like this can you help me a little bit? And you know who are the kind of mentor that could, you know, excite your passion again. So I would say again ask for help when you need it.
Lisa Peters:I love that and I think we need to surround ourselves with people like that. We have to find those people that we can call okay. I have to ask you I don't know if I've ever heard the term worship dancing. I'm thinking I'm at church and we're like are you, are you dancing in church?
Olga Lima:It's like dancing for God. I mean fantastic, you know, because actually you connect your mind, your soul, your body, your spirit. I mean remember that I'm a Colombian- Canadian, so music is part of my life.
Lisa Peters:Oh, I love it. Well, we're going to move on and talk about our failures and mistakes, because I think we all know we learn more from our failures and mistakes than our successes. So I'm wondering if you would share a great failing that maybe happened, or a mistake, and what you learned from it.
Olga Lima:Sure, I would say failures and mistakes. So many, Lisa. I think it's all about perspective. I'm going to talk about personal experience. As I say, I used to travel a lot, you know like internationally, to many countries, and I used to travel for a long period of time. So I will carry heavy suitcases because, for a Colombian Canadian, the outfit you wear is extremely important.
Olga Lima:No, I'm just joking, but maybe not, maybe not, but anyways, as a result of the whole all traveling and suitcases, combined with other situations, nine years ago I injured one disc in my back. It was a really difficult situation, a situation that took me a long and painful process that will test my resilience again. The situation got to the point that I couldn't walk without external help. The process involves going to see top doctors in New York, Houston, C leveland Clinic, Mayo Clinic, Spain, Colombia, Canada and the situation was so complicated that I was forced to transition from I remember the life that I used to have this happened nine years ago. Like from an active lifestyle to be in long-term disability for one year and a half. The prognosis from the doctor was not that promising about the ability of me walking without external help and I'm here Lisa probably the most difficult season of my life. And then the doctors recommended I will go for surgery as kind of the only option to get better and that's what I did.
Olga Lima:And the expectation from the doctors were that the post surgery rehabilitation process should take about three months and it ended up taking more than a year. The process actually involved eight hours daily of physical rehabilitation and I remember Lisa with tears in my eyes and sometimes my mind fogging, because that could happen sometimes when you go to extreme pain that I will push myself until I was able to get not only better or normal, but stronger physically and mentally. So that's what I call resilience, but I say probably the most difficult season of my life, Lisa. But I will mention it that I used to have a type A personality, Lisa, and because of the nature of my work, I used to see life as an M&A integration project.
Olga Lima:You define an objective and a target, you shape a strategy, you follow a process and you deliver an outcome. So for me, oh, three months, it should be easy. When I got to the three months, I was not even close to get better. I was so disappointed in myself and somehow I considered it a failure on my part. I will ask questions to myself like how come I'm not able to deliver the target here, and that's when I learned that life is not always black and white, and at the time a close friend gave me a fantastic book. I love books. It's called The Obstacle is the Way from Ryan Reynolds, and the book is about the art of turning adversity into advantage.
Lisa Peters:I think that's Ryan Holiday. You said Ryan Reynolds. Oh yeah, sorry.
Olga Lima:Oh yeah. Sorry. Ryan Holiday, and a fantastic book that talks about again that we are all going to face obstacles and challenges in life and time
Olga Lima:after time, again, you will discover that the most important part is how we see and react to the challenges and the ability depending on how we react will define how successful we will be overcoming the challenges. So I think it goes back to the whole thing about resilience and tenacity to see crisis as an opportunity and to have the faith to give us the strength to keep going when every part of our body wants to give up. And again for me, that resilience you are gonna need it in life. I will say also that the support of family and friends was fundamental in that season and, in conclusion, I say that I don't think anything happen in life by accident, Lisa, so I see now that blessing in disguise, because it helped me to put life in perspective and also to be priority to what is most important and experience the power of self-discipline and self-determination and the power of love from family and friends.
Olga Lima:Another benefit was because during that season, to be able to cope with the pain and to have mental strength I needed for the physical rehabilitation, I started researching the connection between the brain and the spine to understand a little bit better how the nervous system works and then I fell in love with the brain, Lisa, there is so much potential for the brain. A lot of things that we don't know about the brain. And because I was already in love with leadership, the last year I've been studying neuroleadership. That is the combination of neuroscience with leadership practices and it focuses on how understanding the brain can increase your leadership effectiveness, decision making and organizational outcomes. So it's fascinating, fascinating. And also, during my long term disability, I studied and became a leadership development trainer from John Maxwell, which is my passion now. So you see how everything is connected. 20 years ago I was thinking about John Maxwell and now I'm part of the John Maxwell team. So it's fantastic.
Lisa Peters:Listening to you, I can see the path. The incident happens with your back and everything that happened. But when you are in it, when you're in the pain and you're, you can't see outside of this little world. And so to share your story, to give hope to people, go there's opportunities, they're around us.
Olga Lima:Yeah, totally, and sometimes you have to go through the process. I mean that doesn't mean I didn't cry like crazy.
Lisa Peters:And I think you can do that too.
Olga Lima:Yes, I mean I say the most difficult season of my life. It was a nightmare, to be honest. When I was living it it was a nightmare. Now I can talk because I feel strong and healthy. I'm stronger now. It was a journey and a path..
Lisa Peters:Would have never introduced you to the power of the brain, the spine the brain, the brain into your leadership. Brilliant story, Brilliant success. So I know I believe you're part of Leader Impact in Ontario is that right? You know that we want to grow personally, professionally and spiritually for increasing impact. So I'm wondering if you would be willing to share an example with our listeners on how the spiritual makes a practical difference in your life as a leader.
Olga Lima:Yeah, sure, Lisa, I will say that, for me, I see myself as an integral person. So the professional, professional, personal and spiritual is all embedded in one and the combination of the three working in harmony, I will say, is the foundation of who I am. And it's challenging sometimes, you know, working with the three in harmony, but I think it's worth trying. I want to give you an example. I say, because of the integration work I did in so many countries for so many years, I used to have a large group of people reporting to me, people from different walks of life. So they will work for me for a long period of time. So I will see them, you know, like I will hire them when they were single. I will see them flourish as single people. Then they will get married. Then some of them will have kids, or they will unfortunately get divorced, or they remarry, or they go through health crisis, you name it.
Olga Lima:So I think that gave me the opportunity to work close to people and during that time, I will remember telling people reporting to me hey, in a specific situation. Hey, now as your manager, ok, talk to me about the issues, the potential solution, and we did it. Then, as your friend, let's talk about your problems at home. And then, finally, as your spiritual counselor, let's pray together. You gave me the opportunity to do so, which we did, and again, the spiritual foundation was the one that gave me that ability to never see my role as an integration leader just as a job, but as an opportunity to influence people, to serve people, to bring positive influence and to make a difference, creating a culture of empathy, empowerment and honor.
Olga Lima:Of course, I'm not going to deny, Lisa, that that requires putting a lot of my personal time, because that's what I did for most of the time, but I enjoyed it and also allowed me to see my profession as a bigger purpose, you know, with a bigger purpose than just delivering an outcome, and I always made jokes that gave me the reputation of the prayer lady of the company.
Olga Lima:So I guess some seeds were planted and I'm happy to see that people remember me now for more than my love for dancing, which I love. I love dancing, but you know. So again I will say it takes effort but you can do it. And another example of how the spiritual makes a practical difference, I will say, maybe having the resilience to forgive when people very close to you at work disappoint you, that your human nature wants to react, but then you go to your knees and you seek divine perspective until you get the grace to forgive. You give grace to them, they will give grace to you and you continue your journey. It's a process and it takes time, but the only way forward. And again, the power of forgiveness in action at the marketplace.
Lisa Peters:So yeah, uh, you know you talk about just um forgiving someone. Sometimes, I think, does it have to be reciprocal Because you know you need to forgive yourself. They may never forgive you and that's on them, you know. I also wanted to just ask you about. You talked about spiritual at work and they call you the prayer lady. Did you ever have ?
Olga Lima:Oh times, many times, Lisa I had to acknowledge that at the beginning I was, you know, because it's still my background in his party and you know how we are. We are super close to people and sometimes we get a little too personal. So but I learned to you know what I mean react in the proper way, that I wouldn't do it personal. You know, I try. I see people say, hey, that's not for me. Fantastic, you know what some people used to tell me hey, you are a great person, but that's your thing, not my thing. So I will try not to take it personal. I'll say, oh, maybe I know someday you're going to need me. You will remember me and the prayer lady. So that's what I did. Yeah, of course there were many times that people say that's not for me, especially, you know, in the Canadian environment that reality.
Lisa Peters:Yeah, we just keep dripping. So Leader Impact is dedicated to leaders having a lasting impact. So, as you continue to move through this and pivot and transition through this amazing journey of your life, I'm wondering if you've considered what you want your faith legacy to be when you leave this world.
Olga Lima:Wow, faith legacy I will say as a Christian woman I would like to be remembered as somebody who showed others the importance of investing time and energy, helping other people to flourish in their God-given identity, to help them discover their potential and help them to fulfill their purpose. I would also like to be remembered like a voice that reminded people that the Creator is inside of us, giving us the strength, resilience and tenacity to navigate successfully challenges in life, and the faith to believe that the journey will get better, because it does get better. And finally, I will say, somebody who has a good sense of humor, because we are gonna need to laugh a lot. That makes the process easier and better.
Lisa Peters:I love it. I think when we're done, I'm gonna know you as the prayer lady. You've had an impact on me. So our last question for you and I have loved this time I have been writing notes like this is so great. Olga, what brings you the greatest joy?
Olga Lima:I would say spending time with my 10 year old niece. She has a great imagination, a truly storyteller. That made me laugh like nobody else, and I say my love for worship dancing. When I'm doing worship dancing I'm free, I'm connecting my body, my soul, my spirit, so I really love it. And finally, spending time with family and friends. I mean, I love it and music. We are all about music. So family, friends and music.
Lisa Peters:That's awesome. Yep, I'm with you. I got to get into this worship dancing, though I'm going to have to?
Olga Lima:Yeah, you have to. You will love it, believe me.
Lisa Peters:We'll see what my church says. All right Well. Olga, I want to thank you for spending the last just over half hour with us. It has been an absolute pleasure. I've been waiting for this. I've heard a little bit about you and then I'm thinking you were on when I was speaking in Medellin, is that?
Olga Lima:right, yes, I was.
Lisa Peters:So thank you for that. But if anyone wants to connect with you, find out more about your consulting company, just chat with you, just engage with you. Where do they find you?
Olga Lima:Yeah, I think the best way to find me is LinkedIn. You can easily find me there, like Olga Lima there.
Lisa Peters:Olga Lima on LinkedIn.
Lisa Peters:Yes, awesome, well, thank you again, Olga,
Olga Lima:You're welcome. A pleasure and honor talking to you, Lisa.
Lisa Peters:All right. Well, if you're part of Leader Impact, you can always discuss or share this podcast with your group. And if you are not yet part of Leader Impact and would like to find out more and grow your leadership, find our podcast page on our website at leaderimpact. ca and check out our free leadership assessment. You'll also find on our webpage chapter one of Braden Douglas' book Becoming a Leader of Impact. You can also check out groups available in Canada at leaderimpact. ca or, if you're listening from anywhere else in the world, check out leaderimpact. com or get in touch with us by email info@ leaderimpact. ca and we will connect you. And if you like this podcast, please leave us a comment, give us a rating or review. This will help other global leaders find our podcast. Thank you for engaging with us and remember impact starts with you.
