Tag Archive for: leadership

From Shadows To Sunrise: How Feeling Irrelevant Signals Imminent Change

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Sometimes, the most meaningful insights occur when we admit our deepest uncertainties.

This past week, I talked with a friend, Gord Sarkissian, about some of my feelings of irrelevance at this stage in life and career. It wasn’t easy to voice my self-doubts as I emerge into this next chapter of my life.

Gord listened without judgment, reminding me that these questions are part of being human. By sharing my vulnerability and in reflection, I realized that self-doubt and uncertainty have always, for me, preceded a period of important change.

Transformation is on the horizon. Relevance isn’t a fixed point, but something we redefine as our lives unfold. Sharing irrelevance in a supportive community makes it relevant.

I had the good fortune to present a virtual session to The Association of Professional Engineers and Geoscientists of Alberta (APEGA) on Psychological Safety In The Workplace.

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A significant part of the discussion was about the vitally important topic of creating safe spaces for marginalized groups such as women, indigenous peoples and people of colour.

We must recognize the blindness that comes with privilege.

Let’s stay self-aware of ways we make it unsafe for people and keep the conversations going. Let’s be open to feedback about how our actions impact others and continually learn and be open to change.

Intentional Culture, Exceptional Results – Integrating Authenticity with Accountability

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One habit of good leadership is to be out in your culture, shining a light on success, celebrating wins, and catching people doing things right. There are likely some amazing things going on around you that you may be missing if you aren’t intentional. It’s natural for human beings to fixate on what’s not in our lives instead of focusing on what’s in our lives. Lately I’ve been putting this habit into practice in my own community. What I’ve discovered is that our little town is full of small giants (a term coined by Bo Burlingham), companies that deliberately choose to focus on excellence, purpose, and community impact rather than pursuing relentless growth or becoming as large as possible.

One of the small giants in Cochrane, Alberta is the Spray Lake Centre. Erin Wagner and her incredible team of leaders have created a vibrant, thriving, customer-focused environment that is at the heart and hub of our community for fitness, sports and recreation, as well as family and community connection. The SLS Centre also regularly hosts the Cochrane farmers’ market, both indoors and outdoors, and many other community events every year. When you visit Cochrane, stop by and get a shot of energy from this amazing place.

There are also many other small giants in Cochrane such as Found Books, Route 22 – Artist Collective Gallery, Yamnuska Wolfdog Sanctuary, Pink Wand Cleaning Services, Flores and Pine Restaurant, Alberta Metal Works, Align Developments, and the Cochrane Public Library. All of these organizations are part of Innovate Cochrane, a community-driven non-profit dedicated to empowering entrepreneurs and business leaders to build authentic, accountable organizations.

Everyone talks about the importance of culture, but when the pressure to deliver results mounts, culture takes a back seat. Like taking care of your health in times of high demands, it’s easy to declare, “we don’t have time for culture.”

But culture is always present, regardless of whether you are intentional about it. It is not a flavor of the month management fad. It’s the fabric of your entire organization.

Organizational culture is complex and multi-layered. To create and sustain a great culture requires leaders at every level to look beyond visible behaviors and statements from culture surveys to understand and influence the deeper beliefs that truly shape how organizations function.

My framework for organizational culture focuses on integrating the two fundamental elements of a great culture: authenticity and accountability in three areas: organizational, interpersonal, and personal.

The Importance of Authenticity

Authenticity means living in alignment with your true values, living and working in a place where you don’t have to leave who you are at the door, where you can express yourself genuinely, fostering meaningful connections and trust. Authentic cultures encourage open communication, vulnerability, and psychological safety to support people to tell the truth in a respectful way.

Leaders who lead authentically strengthen the overall sense of belonging and engagement in an organization.

The Importance of Accountability

Accountability means that we remember that culture isn’t what we say. Culture is how we hold ourselves accountable for how we act. You can’t build a reputation on what you’re going to do. Accountability starts with ownership. Accountability means that individuals and leaders take ownership for their decisions and their actions. We institutionally deny the fact that each of us – through our perceptions and our choices – is creating the culture that we so enjoy complaining about. Deciding that you have created the culture you are living and working in – and therefore you are the one to step into healing it – is the ultimate act of accountability.

Accountability means taking responsibility to work with clear expectations and agreements and being a person who can be counted on. It means having the tough conversations, providing regular mutual feedback, helping each other grow, and delivering on the promises you make. It means holding each other to the same high standards and asking for the support needed to deliver on agreements made.

How Authenticity and Accountability Work Together

Authenticity and accountability are mutually reinforcing. Authenticity creates the psychological safety necessary for people to be honest, while accountability ensures that this honesty translates into clearly defined and necessary results.

Authenticity supports people to operate from a place of truth, caring, and integrity, while accountability ensures that this integrity is backed by responsible action. Together they foster trust, engagement, and sustainable success in any culture.

If you see someone across the room that you’ve never met, could you build trust with them in ten minutes?

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In ten minutes you couldn’t build enough trust to hire them, marry them, or invest your money with them, but you CAN move the trust needle.

Here’s how:

  1. Reach out. Waiting and hope are not good trust building strategies. Introduce yourself. Put yourself out there.
  2. Extend trust. People either distrust you until proven otherwise or trust until you proven otherwise. You’ll have a much better chance of building trust when you come from the latter approach.
  3. Be curious. Instead of trying to impress and be interesting, put your focus on being interested. Ask questions. Seeking to understand through listening to find common ground is one of the best ways to make deposits in the trust account.
  4. Demonstrate Caring. You can’t fake this one. If you don’t care, people will sense it, and if people know you care they are more likely to reciprocate trust. Demonstrate caring by remembering names and showing concern about what’s going on in their life. But when you care you don’t have to worry about demonstrating it. It will naturally come through.

We know about good leadership. What do we know about good followship?

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A leader is only as good as the people around them. Maybe we need to spend as much time building good followers as we spend building good leaders.

Good followship encompasses:

  1. Humility. It’s not about obedience and compliance. It’s about having a strong voice, being clear and direct, while being humble, teachable, and open to learn.
  2. Service. Choose service over self-interest. Look for ways to encourage others and contribute. Good followers are dedicated to the greater good.
  3. Accountability. Know that how you show up matters. See all blame as a waste of time. Good followship means being able to be counted on.
  4. Engagement. Rather than waiting to be told what to do, good followship means showing initiative and being engaged in their work while supporting others in theirs.
  5. Gratitude. Counter entitlement with appreciation. Avoid bitterness or divisiveness, and maintain a spirit of thankfulness, even in challenging circumstances.

Innovate Cochrane Community Innovation Ecosystem (CIE) Program Graduation Celebration

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At the Innovate Cochrane Community Innovation Ecosystem (CIE) Program Graduation Celebration this past week, I was pleased to present: Inspiring Innovation through the Power of Connection.

Innovate Cochrane is an amazing community-driven non-profit dedicated to empowering entrepreneurs and business leaders in Cochrane, Alberta. They offer events and programs that foster growth, innovation, and collaboration, focusing on building stable, community-oriented businesses and organizations.

It was a pleasure to be part of this fantastic event.

https://www.linkedin.com/company/innovate-cochrane-ab/