What I’m Learning from Using Gender-Neutral Pronouns for My Bike
Last year I joined several of my Vancity colleagues in a gender identity workshop delivered by Adrienne Smith, a transgender human rights activist and drug policy lawyer. Adrienne shared simple tips for fostering inclusive communities, especially for folks who identify…
Three Things I’m Doing to Lead a Remote Team
So there’s this global pandemic happening. While the far-reaching economic and social impacts of COVID-19 are still unknown, the return to normal will take a long time and, when it’s over, we probably won’t live and work the way we…
Five Places to Find Wisdom and Ideation in Your Community
Communities are full of knowledge and creativity. When we take out our earbuds, look up from our phones and deeply listen to our neighbours, baristas and Lyft drivers we can gather information and insights that just might enhance our work…
7 Ways to Make Meetings More Awesome
The purpose of meetings is for people to come together to create shared value – this could mean discussing ideas for organizational changes, improving communications or creating family rules. I have a hunch that, a few times in your career,…
Three Ways the 5AM Club is Making Me a Better Parent
Waking up early has long been a tenet of leadership guru Robin Sharma. In his recent book, The 5AM Club, he outlines tactics for making mornings active, focused and super productive – “own your morning, elevate your life” is a…
Five Questions to Ask Yourself About Minimalism
Minimalism means elevating the things that matter most in our lives and removing what distracts us from our true purpose. Yesterday was Christmas and many of us are probably reflecting on over indulgences and, perhaps, trying to find some quiet…
Why You Should Embrace Boredom
Many of us are addicted to distraction. We click between multiple screens with multiple apps with multiple tabs while our mobile device streams a podcast in the background. Every few minutes we will pick up our phone to text a…
Three Ways to Relate to Fundamentally Different People
Last month our book club tackled Jonathan Haidt’s The Righteous Mind: Why Good People are Divided by Politics and Religion. The book gave us an illuminating look at moral and evolutionary psychology, exploring the moral pillars that underpin the morality…
Five Ways to Support a Partner in Professional Trouble
It happens from time to time. Your partner comes home from work defeated. A project went off the rails, they failed to hit their annual target, or were fired after making a big mistake that cost their organization big bucks….
Five Simple Recovery Tactics for Your Wellness Plan
It’s mental health week. If you’re like me, you definitely need more hours in the day, probably use the word “busy” to answer the “how’s it going?” small-talk-question, and there’s a strong possibility that you feel overwhelmed. All leaders need…