Hello Reader, I have delivered variations of the same training many times over the course of my career. To students entering the workforce for the first time. To early and mid-career professionals trying to distinguish themselves. To entrepreneurs building their client base from scratch. To executives leading entire organizations. And across all of them - regardless of industry, seniority, or background - the same skill keeps surfacing as the most consistently overlooked one in the room. It's...
9 days ago • 5 min read
Hello Reader, There's something I come back to again and again in this work: so much of how we treat people lives in the details. In the things we never think to question. In the assumptions we make without realizing we're making them. That thought landed differently recently, because of a conversation I had with a founder of a successful Canadian business that I haven't been able to stop thinking about. A Checkbox Is Not a Relationship This founder and CEO provides a valuable, specialized...
16 days ago • 5 min read
Hello Reader,I had a conversation recently that's been sitting with me all week. I was speaking with a sales leader at a large engineering firm - someone who oversees big teams and is very familiar with what it takes to perform at a high level. We got talking about the work I do, and I did what I usually do when I'm speaking with someone in leadership: I made the business case. ROI, culture, team performance. The things that matter to an organization's bottom line. He listened. And then he...
23 days ago • 2 min read
Hello Reader,Something has shifted in how a generation communicates - and it's showing up loudly in the workplace. The Phone Is Ringing. Nobody's Answering One of Britain's largest accounting firms, Forvis Mazars, recently announced a firm-wide investment in "relationship skills" training for its Gen Z staff. The curriculum includes everything from simulated client meetings to lessons on, as their CEO put it plainly, "picking up the phone." A high school in Lancashire built a six-month...
about 1 month ago • 3 min read
Hello Reader,"Something was off." I heard that phrase constantly when I was in recruitment. A hiring manager would call after meeting a stellar candidate and say: "They were great on paper, but something felt off. They didn't really make eye contact." It took me years to see the pattern: the candidates getting that feedback were disproportionately newcomers to Canada. People from East Asia. South Asia. The Middle East. East Africa. The "something was off" wasn't about the candidate. It was a...
about 1 month ago • 3 min read
Hello Reader,We need to talk about ghosting. You've likely been there at one point in your career or another. You've sent that carefully crafted proposal, made that thoughtful introduction, or followed up after what felt like a promising conversation... only to hear nothing. Crickets. Radio silence. It stings. It feels personal. And if I'm being completely honest? I've felt it too. Just recently, I met an HR leader at a conference. When she heard what I do, her face lit up. She thrust her...
about 1 month ago • 4 min read
Hello Reader,Seven seconds. That's all it takes for someone to form a first impression of you. Seven seconds to decide if you're competent, trustworthy, worth their time. Seven seconds that can open doors - or quietly close them before you even realize they were there. This isn't just my observation after years in recruitment - it's backed by decades of psychological research. What neuroscientists call the "primacy effect" means that those initial moments create a cognitive anchor that's...
about 2 months ago • 3 min read
Hello Reader,We talk about self-improvement constantly. But what if all that focus on ourselves is actually making us lonelier?I was scrolling through LinkedIn this weekend (as we all do) and a post from Pete Bombaci made me pause. Pete is the founder of GenWell, an organization here in Canada whose mission to enhance social health is so closely aligned with my own work that I always pay attention when something from them comes up. And this one was worth paying attention to. Pete wasn't...
about 2 months ago • 4 min read
Hello Reader,Let me tell you about one of my industry friends. She's a classic introvert. Sound designer. Freelancer whose paycheque literally depended on networking. Her first few industry events were a complete disaster. She'd stand at the back like a wallflower, feeling "icky" about the whole thing. Why? Because she was approaching every conversation thinking "What can I get out of this person?" The pressure was suffocating. Then she had a breakthrough: What if I flipped the script?...
2 months ago • 3 min read