The Great Canadian Leadership Podcast

Managing High Emotions, High Stakes Conversations

Episode #18 is enlightening!

This episode is part of our significant four podcasts series on navigating difficult conversations (see below for more on this series).

If you think about a difficult conversation you just had or are about to have, the emotions and the stakes are probably high. Then add to that those differences of opinion.

• How do you separate personal from business?
• How important is empathy?
• When is the right time to transition to facts or hard truths?
• What does the other person really want?

We are talking with Shayna Beeksma, who deals with the trifecta of emotionally charged conversations: Estate Law! 

1. Emotions are deep and triggered
2. There are all kinds of unaddressed family issues
3. Money or emotional possessions are at stake

In this episode, you will learn how Shayna prepares and manages family members at this emotional moment - and remember, this is the first time Shayna is meeting them!

Shayna Beeksma is an estates, real estate and business law lawyer who owns Beeksma Law. Shayna’s career journey in law has taken her from one of the largest law firms in Canada to one of the smallest law firms in the country, before starting her own firm in 2018. With her estate litigation clients dealing with highly emotional circumstances, Shayna carefully and expertly remains focused on her role as their lawyer while remaining compassionate, empathetic, and kind to her clients.

We also discover that Shayna is the ‘emotional detective’, as she explores what lies behind the words, the clues, and the cues as they relate to the client’s motivation, to get to the root cause.

 

• We’d like to thank you, our Great Canadian Leadership Podcast listeners. As part of this significant series of navigating difficult conversations, we are offering you a special package to develop your confidence and communication skills with difficult conversations. Please click here for more information on this package: www.greatcanadiantraining.ca/promo 

How to Give Feedback Confidently

Episode #17 is empowering! "How to give feedback confidently"

This episode is part of our significant four podcasts series on navigating difficult conversations (see below for more on this series).

For many of us, giving feedback weighs on us and we anticipate a difficult conversation. In fact, a survey published in The Harvard Business Review found that 1 out of every 2 managers hates giving feedback!

Our guest, Nancy Shapiro, shares her insights, as a leader and as someone who works in employment law, on why feedback matters (growth, success, self-actualization…) and how we can feel more comfortable and confident when giving it. We discuss the reasons why feedback can so often fail and lead to difficult conversations. Many people feel side-swiped by feedback that is unclear, untimely, and is sugar-coated or abrasive.

We also discuss leadership essentials, such as gaining trust by being kind, polite and respectful. These qualities make it a lot easier to give difficult feedback.

Nancy Shapiro is a partner at Koskie Minsky LLP  and sits on the firm’s Executive Committee. Nancy is ranked one of the top 500 lawyers in Canada by the Lexpert/American Lawyer Guide to the Leading 500 Lawyers in Canada and is ranked in Best Lawyers and by Chambers. She is also recognized in the Canadian Legal Lexpert Directory as a leading practitioner in employment law (both for employer and employee side work). Nancy is also a frequent speaker at industry conferences and an author of many employment-related articles.

• We’d like to thank you, our Great Canadian Leadership Podcast listeners. As part of this significant series on navigating difficult conversations, we are offering you a special package to develop your confidence and communication skills with difficult conversations. Please click here for more information on this package: www.greatcanadiantraining.ca/promo 

Are You Objective or Assuming?

Episode #16 is enlightening! “Are you being objective? Or are you assuming?”  

This episode is part of our significant four podcasts series on navigating difficult conversations. One of the elements of a difficult conversation is that emotions are triggered, and often it's based on assumptions and not objectivity.  

Our guest Nicola Van Dam shares some great insights, anecdotes, and tips, such as the questions you should never ask and the go-to questions you should. This episode builds your awareness as to when you can be objective and why it matters to have meaningful and not difficult conversations. 

Nicola Van Dam is a learning officer in leadership training at Ontario Power Generation (everything that Nicola is sharing in this episode is based on her journey of learning and observations and is in no way affiliated with Ontario Power Generation). 

Nicola’s career journey has taken her to industries such as publishing, healthcare, and nuclear power, allowing her to connect with different leaders and leadership styles. This has led to her belief that authenticity is one of the top traits that enable a leader to be successful. Authentic leaders who show their “human side” are seen as relatable and are more likely to build trust with those around them through opening up about their own successes and lessons learned.   

• We’d like to thank you, our Great Canadian Leadership Podcast listeners. As part of this significant series on navigating difficult conversations, we are offering you a special package to develop your confidence and communication skills with difficult conversations. Please click here for more information on this package: www.greatcanadiantraining.ca/promo 

The Shared Experience Extravaganza

Featuring the 'Greatest Hits' from our guests plus listeners questions.

Episode #15 is ENCOURAGING! It’s a shared experience extravaganza.

We reflect on the 'Greatest Hits' from our guests, and answer your questions on effective communication styles, influencing skills, thought leadership and tough conversations

You can’t have an extravaganza without special guests: Joy Neuhold, Co-Owner of The Great Canadian Leadership Training & Consulting Company and our superb producer Erica Baillie. 

Thank you to our guests, these amazing leaders and experts who brought their insights, shared their failure ta-da moments and inspiring passion for leadership and communication styles. 

• Dr. Robin Yap
• Hannah Tough
• Alexa Nick
• Tamara Lovi
• Nancey Watson
• Kaitlin Sandor-Kerr
• Dhimant Patel
• Jennifer McClure
• Noah Maislin & Marko Lindhe,
• Allison Dell
• Nupur Khandelwal
• Melanie Ziltener
• Joy Neuhold
• Catherine Hayos. 

People Follow Leaders

Episode #14 is INSIGHTFUL.  Your people are looking at you to set the tone and they will follow your lead. 

• Are you aware as a leader that you are in that spotlight? 
• What you say, how you say it, your body language, your actions tell your teams if this is going to be a collaborative, inspiring and safe environment or not. 

 In this episode, our guest Catherine Hayos shares her own leadership experiences. She’ll also share her enlightening story of two different leaders whose teams precisely emulated their tone and style. 

Catherine Hayos is a Senior Leader of Learning and Enablement at Optimus SBR, the largest midsized independent consulting firm in Canada. As a former professional actor, Catherine has been fortunate to be able to translate the actor’s technique to serve her corporate clients for over 20 years as director of learning in a number of boutique training and consulting companies.  She is a trainer and coach on Leadership Presence and has supported organizations and trained their leaders to reach their full potential. Catherine believes deeply in the power of experiential learning and practices giving her clients the opportunity to develop and fine-tune their skills on the road to confidence and mastery.  

 This is a powerful episode on leadership, trust and the communication skills needed to create growth in your organization. 

 

Communicate In Your Style

Episode #13 is motivating! As a leader, communicating in your style means that people will believe and trust you. Does your communication style feel natural? Or are you copying another’s style? 

Our guest Joy Neuhold discusses how she found her style (hint: a garbage can was involved) and how leaders and all of us can find ours.  

Joy Neuhold has been the Co-Owner and Senior Training & Consulting Manager at The Great Canadian Training & Consulting Company since 2002 and at CompuEase since 2013. She started her professional path by working in small to large businesses. Joy was quickly promoted and started doing internal projects and training. She decided to take a two-month leave to backpack through Europe and when she came back, she knew she wanted to start her own business and surround herself with an amazing, hard-working, and passionate team. 

Finding your communication style is key to communicating effectively. This episode helps you have clarity on the mindset, the steps you can take, and the communication skills needed to build trust and collaboration with others.  

Managing Up

Episode 12 is INSIGHTFUL. A popular question we get in training is:

 “How Do You Manage Upwards?”  

How do you give feedback or change a behaviour - when that person is in authority? Whether you're an employee, a leader who reports above or a leader who wants to create a culture where your people can give you feedback, this episode is for you. 

Our guest Melanie Ziltener shares her insightful example of when change was desperately needed within her department and her manager wasn't open to suggestions. How did Melanie figure out how to communicate in a way that made her manager feel involved and reassured about making the changes?  

Melanie Ziltener is the owner of Tripod Business Services, a boutique virtual assistance agency that specializes in content writing and creation. Mel has over 15 years of experience assisting professionals from small companies to government agencies and formed Tripod in 2017 to provide that same high level of service and excellence. Mel believes in being a Tripod to her clients so that the big picture is clear and well-supported.  

Managing up can be intimidating! This episode helps you have clarity on the mindset, the steps you can take and the communication skills needed to build trust and collaboration in your organization. 

How to Lead with Integrity and Inclusion

The first question I had for our guest is:

How do you define integrity and inclusion? They are abstract concepts, so how do we know we are leading with them?

We also talk about how leaders keep the connection with their teams in a remote environment.

In this episode, Nupur shares her insights on the communication skills and intentions needed to make everyone feel included. We discuss the importance of building our awareness of diversity and unconscious biases that we may be holding onto. We talk about not being so quick to have the answers but taking a beat to reflect. Nupur also shares a great set of questions we can be asking that builds human connection in a virtual environment.

Nupur Khandelwal is the Senior Manager Learning and Talent Development at LCBO. Nupur presents to diverse groups at conferences, event seminars and workshops and is seen as a recognized learning leader in organizational development, people management, training and development, as well as diversity and inclusion initiatives to enhance the employee experience. Nupur Khandelwal LinkedIn

Nupur is the co-founder of SheRocks! – a social enterprise committed to empowering women through confidence-building programs.

Congratulations Nupur as the 2021 Women of Inspiration Award Finalist!!!

Quote from this episode: “A culture that supports diversity means you need inclusion, and inclusion doesn’t stick without integrity.”– Nupur Khandelwal

This is one of our top leadership episodes on integrity, leadership, connection and the communication skills needed to create an inclusive culture in your organization.