Reflections from a first time Operator

  • What role does Luck play?

    I had a wonderful professor in University, Denis Shackle, who facilitated a classroom survey on our belief in luck, destiny, and fate. You had to respond to questions like “I am able to influence the outcomes in my life” and “Fate plays a large role in whether I will be successful or not”. The higher your score, the more likely you were to attribute events and outcomes to fate, chance, luck, etc. Dr. Shackle used the survey to convey a message and a warning: Your mindset plays a major role in your ability to influence the outcomes in your life. And a low score is great, but a score of 1 might indicate an unconstrained ego.

    The average class score was ~20 and I scored ~5. I have always been a strong believer in an individual’s ability to significantly influence their life, almost to an extreme degree. I generally subscribe to his philosophy and line of thinking; if you have the mindset that your life will be dictated by luck and out-of-your-control chance, you’re less likely to take ownership for your actions. Conversely, if you believe in your ability to act and influence your life, you’re more likely to feel empowered to do so.

    Luck is defined as: success or failure apparently brought by chance rather than through one’s own actions. Yet, you hear people attribute outcomes to luck all the time. “I was lucky enough to get into the PhD program!”. Never mind the years of schooling, intense study efforts, and preparation required. “I’m so lucky I have a good boss. She finally gave me the promotion I’ve been hoping for!”. Forget the many projects you delivered with exceptionally high-quality, the times you went above and beyond for your clients, and the tremendous impact you had on the company.

    So does that mean the outcomes in people’s lives can entirely be explained by their actions alone? Not quite. There are tragic examples of bad luck, such as being diagnosed with a certain illness or cancer. And importantly, there is one hugely influential aspect of your life that I believe fits squarely in the definition of luck: your genetic makeup and the family you’re born into. You don’t get to pick your parents and your upbringing is entirely out of your control. And, you still have the power to influence your life regardless of how lucky (or not) you are on the family front.

  • Showing up for your team

    At some point in your professional career, your team will go through a challenging period. It’s natural for there to be ups and downs at work, as there are in life. Through some of my own mistakes and trial and error I’ve come to believe there are certain principles that resonate with teams when addressing challenges, regardless of the cause.

    1. Address the issue head on. Never shy away from a problem. If you see it, your team sees it. If you proactively address it, it will be better received than if your team has to raise it with you. Never put on an overly positive air or insinuate the situation is better than it is. Pretending it’s all good, if you don’t feel that way, is sure to be poorly received. People pick up on inauthenticity and it reduces trust in you and raises questions about your judgement.
    2. Be as transparent as possible. The more information you can share about the situation the better. Calibrate what you share based on the maturity of the team, and in some cases, limit information to respect people’s privacy. For example, if I’m speaking about financial performance with a more junior team, I will likely use higher level references and go into less detail than I might with a senior executive team. But generally, the more you can share the better. It contributes to the team’s professional development and breeds trust.
    3. Share how you’re feeling and discuss the plan. It’s ok to be vulnerable, even if you’re feeling stressed or anxious. Vulnerability based trust is powerful. And if you’re feeling that way, the team has probably already picked up on it. But make sure to pair those feelings with a clear sense of direction and ideally an action plan. Hearing your leader say “I’m really, really stressed about the timeline for our new plant opening and I’m worried we might be delayed” is scary if that’s the end of the message. Hearing, “I’m really, really stressed about the timeline for our new plant opening and I’m worried we might be delayed. I’ve put in an order with two alternative suppliers for the key part we need and have reached out to our facilities in Mexico as an alternative backup. I should have more information next week on where we are” is better.

    Every leader will be put in the position of managing through a challenging time with their team. How you do so and communicate will leave a lasting impression. More so than how you navigate the good times.

  • Come Home Early

    For many years and trips, Julia and I maximized every minute of vacation. If we traveled by plane, we’d seek the last returning flight Sunday evening. We’d return from a trip, exhausted. Maybe unpack, maybe not. Go to bed and get right back to work the next morning. It always made for a rough re-introduction to the rhythm of work life. But we always got the most out of the trip – one more morning in the sun, one last good meal, or one more opportunity to explore our destination.

    Then a few years ago, I started to convince Julia to take an earlier Sunday return flight. Come home in the afternoon. Or at least the early evening. We’d have a bit of time to at least unpack, have dinner at home, and plan for the week ahead. Still a rushed turnaround but a softer transition.

    More recently, we started to take it one step further: return from vacation on the Saturday. Sacrifice one day of vacation travel for the benefit of an entire day at home to re-orient before returning to work. You get a full day at home and two good sleeps in your own bed. You have a whole day to fully unpack, do laundry, grocery shop, and complete whatever chores you have. You can review email, Teams/Slack, or whatever other work you need to, at a calm and leisurely pace. It makes the Monday morning return an easy one. We did this recently on return from vacation in Hawaii and while I feel less ‘fun’ admitting it, I love doing this. Coming home early is worth the sacrifice. I woke up Monday morning fired up and ready to be back.

  • One Year Anniversary

    This post marks the one year anniversary of publishing Dave’s Take. I am thankful to have started. While I have some gripes with the weekly cadence, described below, the experience has exceeded expectations.

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  • Growing up

    When you’re a child, adults seem to have this air of authority about them. In addition to their large stature, they have many years of lived experience. They establish formative rules – bedtime at 9 pm, no dessert until you’ve eaten your broccoli. You ascribe a certain degree of credibility to them because they are adults. And you generally assume they have their life put together because they are old.

    Then at some point, as you mature and become an adult yourself, the shroud of authority starts to lift. You realize there are a whole bunch of completely clueless adults out there who are just doing their best to get by. This is one of the more fascinating transitions in life. You discover that age is in fact not correlated with maturity after a certain point, and you stop ascribing this higher sense of moral authority to old(er) people.  

    A close friend of mine, James, recently shared with me, “adults are just doing their best with the tools they have available to them. And sometimes those tools are inadequate for life’s work”. I really liked that. It’s a nice way of accepting that even gramps can be a reprobate.

  • No one likes a shit sandwich

    One of my first jobs was a Snowboard instructor. When I was 16, I spent my winter weekends teaching at Blue Mountain through a ski and snowboard club called Ravens, which transported kids to Collingwood from Toronto. During my first year, I taught beginners – mostly kids aged 8 to 12 who had never been on a snowboard before. Anyone who has learned to Snowboard knows the first few days really suck. You spend a lot of time on your bum, hands, and knees. It’s a lot of getting up and falling down while you get comfortable balancing on your edges.

    Instructing beginners involves demonstrating the basic elements of how to turn and providing a lot of feedback. You’re constantly pointing out what to do differently and trying various tips to see what lands with the learners. “Bend your knees!” “Keep your back straight!”

    Becoming a level 1 instructor is fairly easy. I had to demonstrate a basic-to-intermediate riding competency, and then learned varying techniques, tips, and training tricks as part of an instructor’s course. During the course, I received my first introduction to the shit sandwich feedback method. The shit sandwich feedback method goes like this: start by giving a compliment or saying something encouraging (top bun), then give some critical feedback (shit meat), before ending with some nice words (bottom bun). “Hey Sarah, you’re doing great out there! Next time, make sure your knees are wider than your ankles over the board. You’ve got this!”.

    Fast forward a few years. My first job after University was an Investment Banking Analyst and in my second year I was tasked with leading the summer intern training program. Before the interns arrived, I participated in a brief instructor’s session where I was surprised to be re-introduced to… you guessed it… the shit sandwich feedback method! Exact same concept, very different application.  “Hey Max, love that you’re digging through the company’s annual report! Next time, don’t forget to check if they have any Restricted Stock Units outstanding when you’re calculating the fully diluted share count. Great initiative though – you’ll get it next time!”

    If you’ve ever had a manager use the shit sandwich feedback method on you, you’ll know it gets old, fast. The pattern becomes obvious and as a result, you ignore the inauthentic initial compliment (top bun), the real feedback becomes diluted (shit meat), and the positive finisher doesn’t feel genuine (bottom bun). If you’re a manager, cut the buns and deliver the shit straight up. People generally want to improve and if you’re going to give someone valuable feedback, go bun free. There are plenty of other opportunities to share praise, encouraging comments, and positive feedback. At a minimum, remove one of the buns. Your team members will thank you for it.

  • An Ambitious(?) Candidate

    A friend recently described a hiring situation where he was evaluating an extremely ambitious candidate. Let’s call the candidate Mark. Mark exuded high energy, had a positive attitude, and was curious to learn about his potential career trajectory at the company. Mark met with several senior leaders and the reviews were mixed. Who doesn’t love an ambitious candidate? But was Mark TOO ambitious? He seemed obsessed with what it would take to secure a promotion, and he hadn’t even received the job! Is self-improvement and professional growth his motivation or is it only receiving the next title? Will he be an eager, high-performer or will he be focused on the wrong goals for the wrong reasons?

    My perspective is nuanced. I strongly believe ambition is a positive employee trait and often correlates with strong work ethic, a desire to learn, and a commitment to producing quality work. But when that ambition causes an obsession with securing a promotion, raise, or some type of transactional reward, it often results in an employee who is high-maintenance and misaligned with the team’s objectives. Employees who are ambitious for all the right reasons will also want and need transactional rewards like promotions and raises over time too and that’s healthy; it just won’t be the sole motivation.

    So how do you determine if an employee or candidate’s ambition level is beneficial or not? It’s difficult. Generally, what has worked well for me is understanding the motivation. If Mark believes a promotion is a key proxy and milestone in his own growth and development, that’s positive. If Mark is seeking a promotion for external validation, that’s cause for concern or at least further discovery.

    One of my favourite interview questions is “what does personal success look like to you, one year from today? Describe to me some of the ‘truths’ you need, to feel you’ve had a successful first year.” Once they respond, I ask a follow-up “respond to the same question but now the time period is three years”. Responses are usually telling as it relates to motivations. I’m concerned when the candidate says, “success is being a Manager in one year and a Director in three”. I’m more positively inclined when a candidate says, “success is learning and mastering my role, building strong relationships with my peers and colleagues, and delivering quality work to clients”.

  • Situational Leadership and task competency

    I recently completed a course called Situational Leadership Essentials. Situational leadership refers to a framework by which a leader can assess someone’s competency at performing a specific task and attempt to tailor their leadership approach to match that individual’s task competency. Let’s say someone on your team is extremely competent at a given task, has completed it many times before, and has exhibited a high degree of mastery, then the leadership style you take is going to be a lot more hands-off. You should be encouraging, observing, and supporting, but not getting too deep in the weeds.

    There is one critical nuance, which I keep reflecting upon. And while it seems fairly obvious in hindsight, it really struck me during the course. That is, you need to flex your leadership style based on the specific task, not the specific individual. You can work with someone who is extremely competent, has deep expertise in their role, is an all-around high performer… AND, if that person is performing a task for the very first time, you still need to adopt a much more directive leadership style.

    On self reflection, I believe I’ve often defaulted to taking a more hands-off approach with individuals who are high-performing and have deep expertise in their role, providing a lot of autonomy, without necessarily differentiating my style based on the specific task or objective they might be working on. While this approach has generally worked well, there are certainly opportunities where a more hands-on approach for a new task likely would have resulted in a better experience for the individual, and ultimately a more efficient path to the desired outcome.  

  • Paper & Pen

    Since I started working, I’ve always taken notes in a hardcopy notebook. Real paper! It’s generally inefficient. My writing is hard to read. Once a notebook is full, I throw it in the recycling and so the content is gone forever. I’m usually jotting down short form notes or simple reminders, so interpreting what I wrote even a few months ago can be challenging or impossible. A notebook is one more thing to carry when I travel.

    And despite all of this, I love it. I have tried digital notetaking at various times, most recently on the Microsoft Surface, and I find the experience is a poor substitute. The pleasure of physically writing is real.

    While most of my note taking revolves around to-do lists, the single most powerful thing about physically writing is distilling my thoughts. Often, that feeling of “I have a million things I need to get done” will translate into only a few important to-do’s once it’s down in writing, making it much more approachable. If I’m trying to think my way through a complicated topic, writing all the thoughts going through my mind down on paper will have a hugely calming and clarifying effect.

    A few years ago, I started keeping a notebook on my nightstand. If there are times I can’t sleep and it feels like there’s too much on my mind while in bed, jotting down a few quick notes is an easy way to download those thoughts and leave them on the page. It’s been a great aid and tool for me.

  • Self awareness is only half the battle

    Recently, I completed a refresher course on DiSC. DiSC is a popular behavioral self-assessment tool used to understand and measure individual behavioral types. I was first exposed to DiSC through a University course on organizational behavior and found it to be eye opening at the time. After completing a short survey, the software was able to generate a report with many reasonably accurate descriptors of my personality and tendencies. While the insights are far from perfect, it was and is a fascinating way to enhance one’s self awareness. Interestingly, the report I recently received is nearly identical to the first one I received almost 15 years ago; a testament to the idea that your personality and innate tendencies do not materially change over time.

    I believe a major component of professional development centers around a heightened degree of self awareness. Emotional Intelligence is defined as the ability to manage both your own emotions and understand the emotions of people around you… and unlike your personality, is an influenceable skill that can be learned, practiced, and improved upon over time. By better knowing yourself and how you react to various social situations, you’re better able to consciously manage your actions and emotions.

    There are all kinds of tools and courses designed to help enhance your self awareness, including popular ones like the aforementioned DiSC, as well as others such as Predictive Analytics or Myers-Briggs. While each tool has its own pros and cons, the fundamental theme is consistent: by better understanding yourself and your leadership style or innate personality traits, you are more likely to be an effective professional.

    Too often, I have seen folks undertake the self-learning process without translating it into behavior change. Better knowing yourself and how you work is great but if you don’t actually modify any behavior with your new-found knowledge, you won’t reap the rewards. And translating self awareness into action is the more challenging part of the professional development journey because it requires actual behavior changes in addition to knowledge alone. Like any learned skill, behavior change take practice and repetition to master.

    While it’s worth celebrating the act of undergoing these forms of training, it’s more important to focus on the actionable changes that heightened self-awareness unlocks.

  • Type 2 Professional Fun

    Two weekends ago, Julia and I went to Skoki Lodge. Skoki Lodge is a backcountry cabin just over 11 km North of Lake Louise, situated in the Skoki Valley. It’s a log cabin originally built by a group of Banff Residents in the 1930’s to cater to ski-tourists. Today, it’s relatively untouched from the original structure and for only ~$700(!) a night you get a truly rustic experience, including no running water or electricity. Fortunately, your stay includes high quality meals and you have amazing access to various trails around several nearby mountains.

    Part of the Skoki adventure is getting to the cabin. You ‘pick your own adventure’ and can hike, XC ski, or alpine ski tour/split board in. Having never been before, not knowing any 1st degree connections who had been, not finding great information online, and receiving poor instructions from the 60-year old ski bum who checked us in at the base of the village, we were woefully unprepared. We brought classic XC skis and no skins (i.e., grips for the bottom of your skis that allow you to climb uphill without constantly slipping backwards), not realizing that much of the journey is a steady uphill climb. From the trailhead, you climb ~500m and must get over Deception pass (~2,500m elevation), which feels like scaling a mountain. Everything you need you carry in on your back so we each had a ~25lb pack on.

    The combination of the wrong equipment, severely underestimating how hard the journey would be, and -25°C weather, all combined to make it one of the more challenging physical activities I’ve ever completed. It took us 5.5 hours. I burned nearly 3,000 calories. When we were maybe ~2/3 of the way in, looking uphill at Deception pass and realizing due to the lack of skins we would be walking up the entire way, I was reminded of the concept “Type 2 Fun”, a former colleague, Matt, had explained to me several years earlier. Type 2 fun describes an activity that can be uncomfortable or extremely challenging throughout, but which you find enjoyable in retrospect.

    Now that a few weeks have passed, I can confidently say the trip squarely fits in the Type 2 Fun category. I’m incredibly grateful we did it, even though a lot of it sucked in the moment. This got me thinking about whether the concept of Type 2 Fun can be applied in a professional context. And I was reminded of my experience at Onex working on the SIG investment.

    SIG Combibloc is a multi-billion dollar aseptic packaging company headquartered in Switzerland. With a small team, I worked on evaluating the investment for nearly a year, of which six months was particularly grueling. For the six months leading up to the acquisition, I literally did nothing but work. I worked 7 days a week, usually for as long as I physically could. With very rare exceptions, I’d arrive at work Monday to Friday at 9 am and leave the office between 2 and 3 am. On Saturday and Sunday, I’d arrive at ~10:30 am and leave at ~3 to 4 am. I spent 5 weeks straight living out of a hotel in London. I travelled to various manufacturing facilities in Germany, Switzerland, and made a 24-hour trip to China. I gained 15 pounds and the week after we signed the deal, I became severely ill. The experience had a lot of suck in the day-to-day… but in retrospect, it was one of the most rewarding professional experiences I’ve ever had. I’m incredibly grateful for it and remember it fondly, and a decade later am still proud of the work we did.

    I’ve also had many experiences of working under similarly hard conditions, which I have absolutely hated, look back with zero feelings of gratitude or joy, and know with certainty that many of those unhappy and long, hard work periods were key drivers to making a career change. So what made the SIG experience different? What are the characteristics that can make an experience, which might be really challenging or difficult in the moment, later fit in the Type 2 Professional Fun bucket? For me, it was a sense of deep accomplishment after the fact (i.e., you worked hard, but you knew the hard work was meaningful and had purpose); enjoying the company of those you’re on the journey with; and having a sense of self-improvement or betterment because of the associated learning from the experience. I believe if those characteristics are present when working through a really challenging period, you’re likely to look back upon it fondly even if it wasn’t enjoyable at the time.

    Importantly, the ability to recognize in the moment the potential future benefits of your current suffering, can make it much more tolerable. That was certainly the case for how I felt ~2/3 of our way into the journey to Skoki.

  • Positive vs. Negative motivation

    People can be driven and motivated by a wide variety of reasons, some of which tend to be positive, and some of which tend to be negative. Both can be extremely powerful forces.

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  • Is it for you? Or them?

    Running is one of my favourite forms of exercise. It’s a great physical and mental outlet. We live near the Bow River in Calgary and I’m fortunate to have excellent access to amazing running routes. I can practically run indefinitely East or West along the Bow. When I’m in Toronto, I typically stay with my parents and also have great access to running routes in the Cedarvale ravine and along the Kay Gardner Beltline. Both these routes are typically quite busy with other runners, people walking, and some cyclists.

    There’s a generally followed, unspoken rule of running etiquette, which is that when you pass by another runner, you give them a short nod and/or a smile and a small wave.* It’s a nicety, for sure. I am definitely a regular ‘waver’ along the trail. So, what do you do when you give someone a polite small and wave… and they completely ignore you. Direct eye contact was made for sure. But they just keep on going. As insane as this sounds, this used to piss me off. My self talk would be something along the lines of… “what is fucking wrong with this person? They can’t wave back?”.

    One day, after getting no response to a smile and wave, I was reminded of an important principle: you can’t control someone else’s actions. You can only control your own. Am I waving at someone because I need a wave back? Or because it feels like a nice thing to do when I’m out for a run? Is the wave for me? Or is it for them? Once I remembered the wave is for me, I stopped caring about whether I got a return wave or not.

    This is a micro-example of an important theme. A lot of time and mental energy can be exhausted worrying about someone else’s response or actions, which you can’t control. Sometimes it helps to ask yourself: are you doing it for you? Or are you doing it for them? So long as you feel good about your own actions, you can feel less emotionally invested in the response (or lack thereof).

    Here are a few other common, perhaps more relatable, examples: You send out a well thought out note on a topic you care about. No one responds. You make a post online. No on ‘likes’ it. You give someone advice or feedback. They ignore it. You request a meeting with someone. They decline. In each case, you can choose to be upset with the response (or lack of), or you can be satisfied with your own actions.

    *Amusingly, in Calgary, this occurs probably 75% of the time based on my non-scientific anecdotal observations. In Toronto, that number is probably closer to 50% or maybe a bit below.

  • Sending Signals

    A blessing and curse of holding a leadership position is the ability to both intentionally (blessing) and unintentionally (curse) send a strong signal or message via small actions. The more senior your role or perceived responsibility, the more significant this impact is likely to be, and it’s particularly pronounced for members of the senior leadership or executive leadership team.  

    As a leader, your words carry substantial weight. Once you’re aware of this, you can absolutely use it as a tool. It can help you enforce messaging and desired behaviors. Small actions like what topics you ask questions about and what agenda items you consistently discuss can help re-enforce your messaging on priorities. Your actions can be used to signal organizational priorities.

    To use an example (intentional). Let’s say a critical priority for your organization this year is Sales and you really want to enforce that. Simple acts like making it a perpetual agenda topic at team meetings, referencing it at big company events, talking about it in 1-2-1s with your team, with your colleagues, and with anyone you interact with in the organization, will re-enforce its importance.

    To use an example (unintentional). You meet with a client and they ask you when a particularly bespoke product feature is going to be available in the software. For the next six months, you routinely check in with your product team on the status of this feature. Without really meaning to, you elevate its importance and find it’s been pulled forward in the priority list, even though you probably wouldn’t have made that choice if it was laid out in front of you.

    Once you’re aware of signal sending, you’ll realize that sometimes you need to take action even when you don’t really feel like it or want to. Maybe you’ve told the team that this year, it’s critical to be present at the major conferences in your industry. But you also had a newborn 6 months ago, and you haven’t taken much vacation lately, and these conferences are spread all across the country. Regardless, you show up and attend because your actions speak louder than words. Your actions send the signal and re-enforce the message: these conferences are important.

    Sometimes you can use hyperbolic or exaggerated versions of actions to really send a strong signal. There is a famous story of a customer returning tires to Home Depot’s customer service desk… at a time when Home Depot didn’t even sell tires. The Chief Merchandising Officer at the time accepted the tires and gave the customer a refund in full. Then he chained those tires above the customer service desk to exaggerate the point “the customer is always right here”. The cost to Home Depot was small, but the value in sending that type of a signal, which became cultural lore, was extremely high.

    *I heard the Home Depot story several years ago and it may not be literally accurate but the spirit of it is intact.

  • Welcome to 2024!

    The last week of December is one of my favourite times of the year. For me, it’s often spent with family and close friends, enjoying big meals, and lots of time to relax. Work usually crawls to a standstill. There’s something special about everything feeling a little bit slower; less traffic, less email, less of the typical daily routine. There’s a symbolic feeling with it being the last week of the year, like the closing of a chapter. It often serves as a good time for reflection and looking ahead to 2024. As one chapter closes another one begins. Regardless if 2023 was your best year yet or if it was a tough year, there’s an opportunity to look forward and start anew.

    I’ve never been a huge fan of New Years Resolutions, which generally feel a bit rigid to me. I am, however, a big fan of jotting down some reflections from the past year, and some priorities or things I’d like to focus on next year, the next three years, and the next ten years. I never spend too much time on this or overthink it too much; I’ll typically sit down for ~30 minutes and jot down the key themes that come to mind. I’ll also flip through my calendar, which helps serve as a reminder for the bigger milestones and events from the past year. I’ve been doing this since 2019 and it’s fun to look back and re-read what’s been written as time goes on. It’s amazing how much of my behavior and actions have loosely followed the themes of what I’ve written.

    I also love the first week of January. It’s a bit like that first week following Labour-day weekend. Everyone is back in action, the pace of work and life picks up. People get back into their routine. There’s a bit of a buzz going around. There’s a bit of overwhelm and chaos.

    However you spent the end of 2023, I hope you found at least a few moments of joy. Cheers to 2024… hopefully the best year yet.

  • Promotions (2/2)

    So how do you decide when to promote someone? A debate you’ll often hear is how much of the promotion-role level (i.e., the next level) skill and competency should a candidate be demonstrating in their current role before they receive a promotion (i.e., should they essentially already be DOING the next role to earn the promotion?).

    The reality is nuanced because skills and competencies follow a more continuous path, whereas promotions represent step-function changes. (see image below).

    My belief is you want someone to demonstrate mastery of ~80%+ of the required skills and competency in their existing role, and to have begun to demonstrate basic evidence of the skills and competencies required to succeed in the next role level. Another way to think about it is I like to have an 80%+ confidence level that if someone is being promoted, they will succeed in their new role. The more junior the role level, the more comfort I might have in someone being a bit more of a ‘stretch’ candidate (i.e., for a junior promotion with a relatively limited impact to the overall organization, I might accept a bit more ‘stretch’ in that promotion). Some ‘stretch’ is natural as there should be some portion of additional responsibility that you’re asking someone to perform, which will put them outside their comfort zone.

    Another reason I like this visual is it’s a reminder that expectations for someone day 1 after their promotion should be different than for someone who’s been in that role for several months or years; it’s unreasonable to expect someone to demonstrate full mastery of their new role immediately post-promotion as they will need to continue climbing the skills and competencies curve even once they’ve received the new title.

    I’ll add that promotion decisions tend to be fairly nuanced, and I find this to be a helpful framework but not a hard and fast rule. Depending on the role, scope of responsibility, expectations, performance history of the candidate, etc. etc., it may make sense to flex your judgement.

    Merry Christmas!

  • Promotions (1/2)

    Promotion decisions often receive far too little consideration given how critical they are to the culture of an organization. I strongly believe promotions are the single biggest culturally re-enforcing action you can take. Much more so than anything you say, the action of promoting someone tells the organization, “this person exemplifies the behaviors that we as an organization respect and celebrate.” Promotions send a message to the organization that says: this person is a role model of our culture (even if it’s not the culture you want!). The more senior the promotion, the truer this is; promoting someone to VP sends a much stronger cultural message than promoting someone to Team Lead, and accordingly, the consequences are higher (i.e., if you make a mistake promoting someone as a first-time manager, it will be far less culturally damaging than mistakenly promoting someone to VP).

    Despite their importance, promotions regularly happen for the wrong reasons. Here is a list of bad reasons to promote someone, which can be all too tempting:

    • Retention. There’s someone on the team who’s great. But you don’t think they are bought in. You’ve heard they are looking for roles elsewhere. To try and retain them, you give them a promotion. By itself, a promotion alone is unlikely to solve a lack of engagement, nor should it be the driving factor for why you promote someone.
    • Compensation. You promote someone to push them into a higher salary band so that you can pay them more. Mission accomplished in getting them additional pay; however, if they aren’t a good fit for the new role they’ve been promoted into, that is all the organization will see and experience.
    • Tenure. They’ve been doing the job for a long time, and they want demonstrated career growth. So you promote them. If they aren’t capable and deserving of that promotion, it will be obvious to the organization.
    • Because you promised it to them. This is probably the most damaging of all. If you commit a promotion to someone based on a timeline, to satisfy that individual’s desire, you are putting yourself in a very difficult situation. Promotions need to be earned, not given. When given, the team will know.
    • Because you have no one else. I have a lot of empathy for this one. Sometimes you have a missing role you desperately need filled, which can make it tempting to prematurely promote someone into a position. Unfortunately, this can have the unintended consequence of setting them up for failure.

    Promotions should exclusively be awarded to individuals who are high or top performers in their current role, are eager to progress their career and take on an additional or new scope of responsibilities, and are a role model for your company’s core values. When done well, promotions can be hugely rewarding to your team and positively enhance overall culture.

    A major watch out for more junior leaders is making poor promotion decisions. It can be really hard to deny a promotion to someone who isn’t deserving of one but believes strongly they are. That’s why, for the sake of the broader culture, it’s important at an organizational level to ensure these are treated as critical decisions.

    *This doesn’t quite account for firms that operate on an “up or out” promotion framework (e.g., certain investment/consulting/banking firms) but the principles generally still apply.

  • Are you managing your team? Or are you managing your team?

    If you’re a people leader, responsible for managing a group of employees (i.e., you’re the boss), what do you do when you start having to really manage someone? When you regularly check in on the progress of their work, despite having previously agreed on a mutual timeline and objective, to avoid an uncommunicated delay or miss. When you need to double, and triple check their work for obvious errors. When you need to prescribe exactly what they need to do, for them to complete their work. When you’re investing considerable mental energy worrying about them dropping the ball. When you have a team of 5 and you spend 80% of your time focused on and supporting one individual.  

    Once you get to the point where managing someone really means managing someone, as I’ve described above, you have a problem. The time and mental energy you spend managing them, is time you should be allocating to higher priority and more important tasks. As a manager, you must get leverage out of your team, to create capacity for you to focus on what matters most, which the team can’t be expected to because they are absorbed in the day-to-day.

    If you’re in the unenviable position of managing someone, ask yourself a few questions: (a) have I unintentionally enabled or encouraged this type of behavior? (b) have I been clear enough with my expectations? And (c) have I provided enough training or support, such that they should know how to complete their work with limited intervention?

    If you know, deep down, that the answer to all these questions is “yes”, then there really is only one conclusion: you either need to transfer this person to a different role where they can be more successful, or you need to fire them. It’s a harsh conclusion, but rarely have I seen someone come back from having to be managed in that way. Great employees require clear expectations, empowerment, and support. They do not need to be managed.  

  • A 10/10 Dining Experience

    I love food. It’s something I’m incredibly passionate about and absorbs a lot of my mind share. I wake up and think about what’s for breakfast… after I have breakfast, I’m thinking about what’s for lunch. After lunch, you guessed it, I’ve got dinner on my mind. It’s not a burden; it’s a joy. Every meal is a treat in its own way.

    Years ago, whenever I was asked for restaurant recommendations, I found myself drawing a blank in the moment, or defaulting to the most recent places I’d eaten. So I started to track restaurants in a sheet and rate my first experience there as a way to quickly build a reference guide and better serve others with recommendations. You can access my Calgary list Here. I only recently started one for Toronto so it’s a little lacklustre, but I’ve included it here as well. The ratings are totally subjective and lack a formal framework; however, you’ll clearly notice one thing: there isn’t a single 10/10 rating. That’s not to say I haven’t enjoyed some amazing meals. But even my best dining experiences have had opportunity for improvement. That’s not a Calgary or Toronto specific phenomenon; I can’t remember finishing a meal, including at three Michelin star restaurants, and thinking “that was 10/10”… until two weekends ago.

    Two weekends ago I went to Prince Edward County with family and on Saturday night, we ate at Darlings. It was a 10/10 experience. This got me thinking, what conditions are necessary to have a 10/10 dining experience? On reflection, I believe it’s excellence across a combination of these factors: (a) atmosphere, (b) food, (c) company, and (d) service. I’ve added some commentary below on what stood out in this regard.

    1. Atmosphere. Atmosphere is a combination of ambience and setting. What vibe does the restaurant give off? Is it good-noisy or bad-noisy? Is the dishware a nice compliment or an awkward setting? At Darlings, the setting was unique and ‘cool’ – it’s situated in what feels like an old house, in a residential neighborhood. The lighting is dim and the music was great; it was loud, but good-loud. There were only four tables and bar seating, which created an intimate and “special” atmosphere. The atmosphere was complimentary to and matched the menu, which was served family style.
    2. Food. Food is a combination of taste, quality, and consistency. What stood out about Darlings, is that I loved every single dish. Even at very high-end restaurants, I find there’s nearly always at least one or two dishes which are “pretty good”, but not great. To try more than 5 dishes and love every single one is a rare treat, and for a restaurant, a tall feat.
    3. Company. It’s impossible to have a 10/10 dining experience if you don’t really enjoy the company you’re with. Fortunately, this one is (almost) always in your (the diner’s) control!
    4. Service. Fantastic service dramatically enhances the overall dining experience. A server who is assertive, knowledgeable, attentive but not overbearing, and has a positive attitude will elevate your meal. A little hipster sass is ok, to a point. We had all this and more at Darlings, including a strong Manager who pitched in when needed. Post-COVID, there’s clearly been a general degradation in Service levels, which only highlights how important it is to the overall dining experience.

    Two considerations I’ve excluded are price/value and consistency of experience among diners. I believe assessing a dining experience should be largely independent of the price to allow for broad comparability, albeit with some calibration (e.g., I’m assessing Sunday morning Dim Sum differently than a Michelin star restaurant, even though both can be excellent or poor dining experiences). And while ideally the entire group feels similarly about a dining experience, it’s ultimately a personal perspective.

    I also haven’t addressed the quality of the drinks menu. While certainly a component of the overall meal, I personally haven’t found the quality of the drinks menu to be as influential to the dining experience as the other factors listed above (i.e., if I’m having a shit dining experience, a great cocktail probably won’t change that; if I’m having an incredible experience, a limited wine list is unlikely to change that). It also allows for better comparability across meal types (i.e., breakfast/brunch, lunch, and dinner).

    I welcome any feedback or input on this framework. Also, I’m always on the hunt for great dining experiences and welcome any Toronto or Calgary recommendations.

    *I felt compelled to write about Darlings… back to regular content next week.

  • Lean Into the Emotion

    There are many times in your professional and personal life when you’re going to be put in a situation that makes you uncomfortable. Maybe even severely uncomfortable. Our natural tendency is to try to mask that discomfort and present an air of confidence. We don’t want to appear weak or vulnerable. And of course, the more significant the discomfort, the less likely we are to successfully accomplish presenting confidently.

    Common situations can create the opportunity for real discomfort: a) interviewing for a job you really want, b) giving a presentation in front of a big group, c) having a challenging performance conversation with a direct report, d) terminating someone’s employment, e) declining a job offer, etc. etc.

    A highly valuable tip I received several years ago, is to lean into the emotion. Instead of putting on the air of confidence, take the opposite approach: start off by acknowledging the discomfort. “I’m really nervous to be presenting in front of everyone today.”. “I’m feeling a bit anxious about this conversation, even though I know we need to have it”.

    People are excellent at picking up when you’re feeling uncomfortable, regardless of whether you acknowledge it or not. If you authentically lean into the emotion and address it head on, you’re more likely to garner empathy and understanding from your audience, whether a group of people or an individual. We tend to root for the underdog, or someone struggling. It’s human nature. By leaning into the emotion, you’re bringing the audience onto your side. Lean into the emotion to start and you’re more likely to set yourself up for success. It will have the added bonus of quieting whatever emotion you’re feeling.  

    This only works if you describe an emotion you are genuinely experiencing. Don’t say “I’m feeling nervous”, if you’re not, or you’ll likely produce the opposite effect.

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