Some leadership stays with us forever. Father’s Day is a meaningful day for me. I’m incredibly grateful to be the father of two wonderful 10-year-old girls. Being their dad is one of the greatest joys and most important responsibilities of my life. But Father’s Day is also a day of reflection. I lost my own father almost 30 years ago. And a year ago, our family lost my father-in-law, Tony Fry. Tony wasn’t simply my father-in-law. He was a deeply important part of our lives –

Your reaction teaches people what to say next time. I worked with a leader who couldn’t understand why his team rarely brought problems to him until they had become urgent. He genuinely believed his door was open. And technically, it was. But when someone did raise a concern, his first response was often frustration: “Why didn’t we catch this earlier?”“How did this happen?”“Who dropped the ball?” They weren’t unreasonable questions. But in that moment, before anyone felt hear

Life has a way of putting everything back into perspective. A few days ago, I learned that someone I’d had the privilege of working with has passed away. News like that stops you in your tracks. We spend so much of our time focused on the next meeting, the next deadline, the next challenge, the next result. Those things matter. The work matters. Responsibilities matter. But moments like this remind us that life is fragile, time isn’t guaranteed, and the things that matter mos

Something extraordinary happens when people come together. A few weeks ago, my wife, Jay, and I went to Massey Hall to see Choir! Choir! Choir! with Sarah McLachlan. I knew it would be special. I wasn’t prepared for how moving it would be. There we were, surrounded by thousands of people, singing together. Different voices. Different backgrounds. Different reasons for being in that room. But for a few unforgettable minutes, no one voice mattered more than another. Together, t

Trust means hearing the hard stuff. A topic I hear a lot about these days is trust in teams. Most leaders want honesty. They want their people to raise concerns, challenge assumptions, and let them know when something’s going wrong. But trust isn’t really tested when the news is good. It’s tested when the deadline is slipping, the client’s unhappy, the equipment is down, or a decision has created an unexpected problem. That’s when leaders need to pay close attention to their

Celebrating the woman who grounds and inspires me. Today is my wife Jay’s birthday. A few weeks ago, on Mother’s Day, I wrote about the kind of leadership that doesn’t always get recognized: the quiet, consistent, behind-the-scenes leadership that holds people together. Jay is that kind of leader. But to be clear, she also has a well-earned title that reflects the work and talent she brings to the world. In her professional life, Jay helps support an organization committed to