Friday is date night for my husband and me. Typically we order takeout, play a round or two of cards, and then watch a movie. The sign of a good movie is when I go to bed and can’t stop thinking about it, which was the case for me this past weekend. My husband and I watched The 33 (2015), … Read More

When it comes to leading others, there is a barrage of tips, theories, practices, and models from which you can gain inspiration and guidance. These consider every angle of leadership, from motivating employees to generating shareholder value. However, one perspective on leadership that is less sought out is the practice of mindfulness. Many leaders may not think of mindfulness as … Read More

Over the past few years, I have come to appreciate the value of connected and healthy teams in the workplace. This became especially clear to me when we successfully planned and ran our first major conference. Conferences require vision, data management, marketing, speaker coordination, coaching, customer service, and so much more. It takes a whole team of talented people who … Read More

In the new reality of working remotely due to COVID-19, many leaders are scrambling to adjust. Unfortunately, it can be difficult to connect with and lead others on your team in a virtual environment. Given that face-to-face leadership is extremely complex, even for seasoned and skilled leaders, leading an effective, efficient, high-performing team in a virtual environment is still a … Read More

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused a tsunami of changes to sweep across our world. The working world as we know it has been forced to change by government policy, and it will continue to change long after those policies have been revoked. We are living at a singular moment in history where we must make a choice between three options … Read More

When the winds of change blow, some people build walls and others build windmills. This is one of my favorite proverbs and it’s especially relevant now as we adapt to change during COVID-19. Now more than ever, people are holding virtual meetings on platforms such as Microsoft Teams, Adobe Connect, and Zoom. In fact, Zoom alone is now handling as … Read More

I recently met with the Board of Directors of a provincial non-profit organization to talk about good governance. During the session, we discussed the role of a healthy board in anticipating and proactively planning for a crisis or major disruption. In our discussion, the COVID-19 crisis was just emerging as a real and present danger and was identified as a … Read More

I have been communicating a lot over the last two weeks – with our leadership team, with our staff, and with our clients. The disruption COVID-19 has made to our business, and the speed of decisions we as an organization have made as a result is unprecedented. As a training organization, we are in the business of bringing people together … Read More

Recently, a frustrated business owner asked me how he could motivate his staff. He said he tried everything, but when he described his attempts at employee motivation, they were all extrinsic. He had tried carefully monitoring job completion and task time, ranking employees, and threatening his workers if they didn’t live up to his expectations. He even fired two employees … Read More

What does it mean to lead through uncertainty? Amid global concerns regarding the coronavirus, leaders everywhere are impacting their communities and workplaces with their responses. Some responses are not helping while others are. We all take cues about how to behave, and even how to feel about things from the people around us, especially from those whose influence shapes our … Read More