Business Category

Sometimes the stakes when making mistakes are large and can result in losing money, customers or valuable employees. The humility in admitting the error develops both personal and what I call “corporate empathy”. Outside of the not for profit sector, corporate empathy is not yet a variable that is part of a company’s ethos. When it does start to become in vogue, hopefully it will be understood to be congruous with profitability.Read More

Regardless of whether we choose to inflict, avoid or engage in conflict, it is inevitable that it will happen at work. Being able to resolve conflict is part of true leadership. Here are seven steps to resolving work conflict.Read More

Fresh off Climate Reality Leadership trading with the former Vice President of the United States Al Gore, I take my role as a climate leader very seriously. When I was doing my MBA at Schulich School of Business in Toronto, there was no environmental science and business school integration. I had to convince my professors that the electives that I wanted to take were relevant to my future as an MBA. I needed to demonstrate that courses in the School of Environmental Sciences should count as credit towards my mastersRead More

Image credit: Mikael Vejdemo Johanssen I was recently coaching an Information Technologist who was trying to solve a complex issue as it related to his business. While the problem he faced is well beyond my skill level, I was able to help him get to a level where the process for the solving the problem arose within him through a surrendered state. When a problem arises at work, we often tense up. If we are aware of the feelings we will notice that we are even irritated by the problem. That thisRead More

Image credit: Tec Estromberg Likely all of us have, at some time or another, felt “snowed under” at work. Tasked with so many projects that the thought of seeing the “light of day” and achieving the desired results or even succeeding at completing these tasks seems insurmountable. Usually the first thought is P.A.N.I.C. “Oh my goodness, this is impossible or I simply am not going to be able to get through this. I will fail.” From my own experiences, and working with many other people and projects I have comeRead More

Image credit: Smart Train Seth Godin’s book Tribes: We Need You To Lead Us brings home the idea that more than products, more than efficient labour, more than ideas, the world needs leaders. That leaders create movements and that movements create revolutions. He explains how over the course of the industrial revolution and well into the age of information, the role of today’s manager has changed. But has it changed enough? While we used to focus on exploiting resources to the fullest and squeezing as much productivity out of theRead More

Image credit: Gregory Han Every one of us who owns a business started with a dream to build a thriving and abundant business. Why do some dreams manifest while others do not? Over the years, I have studied hundreds of real business examples, including some of my own, and have found common patterns that delineate lack from abundance. So if you find yourself in lack, and desire to shift, then take note of these five tips to achieve abundance in your own life. The beautiful thing about this list isRead More

Image credit: Gregory Han Almost everyone dreams of starting their own business at some point in their lives. Often, this thought may be spawned by having a difficult boss or a challenging group of coworkers. But if this is the only reason you may wish to start out on your own, then most likely, starting a business will lead to disappointment. A recent study showed that the majority of people who start their own business did so to find freedom. They were tired of working for someone else. It isRead More

I was listening to Canada’s CBC Radio One recently as the host interviewed an Israeli professor of anthropology who had written a book about man’s evolution through the ages. His theory on humans’ quality of life through the ages stood out to me. He suggested that the hunter and gatherer era likely had the highest quality of life for man, as our needs and our stresses were fewer. Our bodies were performing actions that were natural to our physiological makeup. We had a connection to nature, a relationship which hasRead More

Nepotism – transactions and hiring decisions based in favouritism – is very common in business. While nepotism itself is not illegal, it is certainly problematic. As this article will reveal, it is a major complicating factor in the potential seismic bombing of the Arctic seabed. According to the magazine World Finance, 50% of all global transactions now occur between related parties. This has led to tax authorities worldwide tightening the rules governing transfer pricing to ensure that international business is done at fair market value. The arm’s length principle addressesRead More