Building Resilience in Korean Canadian Leaders at Non-Profit Organizations in Toronto

Abstract

This Research Portfolio was written to complete my Doctor of Ministry (DMin) program at Tyndale University in Toronto, Ontario. It describes how I changed from an agnostic to a Christian and from a worldly leader to a servant leader. To do so, it combines three documents written during my DMin: my Leadership Narrative, my Philosophy of Christian Leadership, and my Project Report. Each of these tells part of the story of my growth. During my studies, my skills as a marketplace missionary, coaching mentor, business consultant, and leadership instructor developed a great deal, which gave me the confidence and courage I needed to introduce a new paradigm of Christian development to my Korean Canadian community. To achieve this purpose, I studied resilience and began my research project, which sought to answer the question, “Can I design a process that will help Korean leaders develop their resilience?” The Project Report describes how I tried to do so. Six executive leaders at three Korean non-profit organizations in Toronto participated in the project. Case Study Research was my primary methodology, which allowed me to discover each individual participant’s experiences as they went through the resilience training. Both qualitative and quantitative analysis were used to determine the findings, outcomes, and interpretations of this project. It had positive outcomes, with participants’ experience suggesting that resilience can be improved by being nurtured by a trusted person through one-on-one coaching conversations educated in the right environment and being nurtured by a trusted person through one-on-one coaching conversations.