Nominate individuals and teams for UCalgary's U Make a Difference awards

When Áine Keogh read the U Make a Difference nomination that her three direct reports submitted in her behalf, she was humbled.

As Associate Director of Operational Sustainability and Reporting, Keogh sees recognition as a crucial part of her role, but while she herself finds it easy to give due credit to her team, Keogh says she was surprised to receive recognition from them.

“You typically look up to your leader for that kind of feedback as it’s not a formal part of anyone else’s role,” says Keogh. “That’s why it was so meaningful that the people who work so closely with me had these wonderful things to say. It really formalized the trust and respect we have for each other — it made me feel very grateful.”       

According to Meagan Wibberley, advisor of operational sustainability and one of Keogh’s nominators, deciding to put her manager up for a U Make a Difference award was the easy part — it was putting together a winning nomination that took a little time.

With professional experience writing multiple award applications for UCalgary, plus a successful U Make a Difference nomination under their belts, Wibberley and her colleagues offer a few valuable tips for folks casting nominations for the 2018 awards.  

Use the submission criteria  

Don’t start from scratch — build your submission from the specific criteria provided on the U Make a Difference webpage.

There are three areas of excellence to choose from:

• innovation and curiosity
• collaboration and communication
• a positive work environment and community

Read through examples for each option and think about how you’ll illustrate the person’s strengths through the given criteria.

“In sustainability, collaboration is key — you can’t make meaningful progress without it,” says Wibberley. “Áine doesn’t just collaborate effectively within her team, she collaborates effectively across campus. That’s why we focused our nomination on the criteria for collaboration and communication.”

Put your heads together and ask around

Keogh’s nomination was authored by her three direct reports who each brought their unique impressions to the submission.

“Not only do we work with Áine to perform very different roles, but we’re also in different stages of our careers, so we each see different aspects of Áine as a mentor as well,” says Wibberley. “Pooling our ideas definitely made the nomination stronger.”

And they didn’t stop at three opinions — Keogh’s nomination included testimonials from seven different people who have collaborated with Keogh on various projects and initiatives.

“We asked for testimonials from people who have worked closely with Áine, so they’d feel comfortable providing input deep enough to illustrate her many dimensions.”

Start early — nominations close March 15

Keogh’s nominators started working on their submission about a month before the nomination deadline. That left them enough time to collect testimonials and ensure their nomination was well organized and error free.

This year’s nomination period is open from Feb. 13 to March 15. Winners will be notified in April and celebrated at a daytime ceremony on May 8.

“It’s a beautiful ceremony,” says Keogh. “For a weekday afternoon, it felt very prestigious.”

More on U Make a Difference

The U Make a Difference award program recognizes individuals and teams who exemplify excellence and the ability to reach above and beyond the expected to make a difference in our university community. Their performance, commitment and service help make the university a great place to learn and work.   

Recognition is one of the 13 factors illustrated in the National Standard. The University of Calgary is a recipient of the Excellence Canada Mental Health at Work Silver Level Certification in this area. Visit WellBeing and WorkLife to learn more about the implementation of the National Standard at the University of Calgary and to learn about existing programs and resources that support each of the 13 Factors.