Reflections
Insights, research, and community voices shaping the future of leadership practice. Explore the archive and discover the scholarship of relational leadership.
Latest Insights
Scholarship, strategy, and community voices shaping the future of relational leadership.
Dr. Jill BirchJune 16, 1957 — September 24, 2026Author · Scholar · Leader · MotherHi everyone, Clay here, Jill's son.As many of you have heard through the network, my mom passed away on Thursday, September 24th, after a courageous battle with cancer. She was 69 years old and she lived every one of...
Published October 12, 2026
The leaders who thrive in the age of AI will be the ones who know how to detect friction, read it, and decide what to do with it.Friction is suddenly everywhere. A deal falls apart and we blame unexpected friction. A relationship cools and we call it friction. Even the geopolitical map gets...
Published September 11, 2026
How leaders can protect the calm, perspective and healthier routines summer gives them, before the September Squeeze takes it all back.A few weeks ago, I was driving home from the cottage feeling, frankly, rather pleased with myself.The convertible top was down, Kurt Vile was playing, the sun was...
Published September 11, 2026
Picture the loneliest job in the universe. Ryland Grace wakes up on a spaceship with no memory, his crewmates dead, light-years from Earth, and the fate of the sun itself resting on his shoulders. In Andy Weir’s Project Hail Mary, Grace is about as close to a “team of one” as fiction has ever...
Published August 13, 2026
It was a perfectly ordinary Tuesday, the kind where I had three assignments going and I was bouncing between Claude and ChatGPT like a caffeinated air traffic controller who has had one too many. Both were fast. Both were good. Neither has ever once asked me how my weekend was, which I am choosing...
Published August 7, 2026
Years ago I sat in an Executive Team meeting and watched two colleagues, I'll call them Sandy and Henry, have an excruciating exchange for ten straight minutes. Let me paint the picture.Sandy: You need to give me your objectives so I can put them into the scorecard for the board.Henry: I need you...
Published July 23, 2026
Last week I wrote about the lasting impression Oprah made on 25,000 SHRM attendees, reminding us that we are all custodians of culture. The day before, Simon Sinek took the stage and in his own way, made the same argument. The conversation opened with artificial intelligence. It ended, as he put...
Published July 13, 2026
Last week I had the rare good fortune to see Oprah Winfrey speak at the SHRM Annual Conference. I expected to be entertained. I didn't expect to walk out with three leadership principles I haven't stopped thinking about since.The first came from a story about the early days of her show. Her...
Published June 25, 2026
A senior leader I worked with once had to let someone go. Not a stranger, not a poor performer who had been managed out over several months. Someone they had worked alongside for more than ten years. A colleague who had been there through the building years, the hard years, the years when loyalty...
Published June 18, 2026
For most of my early career I was performing leadership rather than practicing it, and I had no idea.I was adaptable, responsive, and genuinely proud of my ability to read what a room needed and adjust accordingly. It took five years of PhD research in Brisbane and one quiet question from my thesis...
Published June 6, 2026
I must confess something, because it’s the only honest way to start this conversation.For a good stretch of my career, I was the problem I am about to describe. I was the leader who walked into a room full of people already stretched thin and added one more thing, convinced I was helping my...
Published May 30, 2026
The week following the Victoria Day weekend often feels strangely emotional. The house is a bit quieter. People at work have their head down. What smart leaders realize they have just walked into a window of opportunity. The one that decides the second half of the year. The that makes or breaks Q3...
Published May 23, 2026
I will be honest with you, because that is the only way this conversation is worth having.When AI tools started showing up everywhere in my work and in the rooms I facilitate, my first instinct was not curiosity. It was something closer to the feeling I had during my PhD residencies in Brisbane,...
Published May 19, 2026
A mentor of mine once told a room full of leaders something I have never forgotten. She said we are all born with eighty-eight keys on a piano, and most of us spend our entire lives playing the key of C. Safe, familiar, reliable and after a while, quietly deadening!I think about that image a lot...
Published May 19, 2026
I was facilitating a leadership session at the Schulich School of Business recently when I asked the group a question I have asked dozens of times over the years. Where do you show up with genuine compassion in your leadership, and where do your blind spots still live? The answers that came back...
Published May 3, 2026
When Nelson Mandela arrived at Pollsmoor Prison, he looked up at the roof and saw possibility where most people would have seen nothing at all. The conditions were harsh and the circumstances were about as far from inspiring as a human being can face. And yet he asked permission to start a garden,...
Published April 23, 2026
In December 2021, Dr. Kati Karikó rolled up her sleeve to receive a COVID vaccine that she had spent forty years helping to make possible. Standing in that hospital, watching doctors and nurses follow her lead, she wept. What most people missed in that moment was how many times the world had told...
Published April 17, 2026
A few years ago, I was sitting with my executive team staring down a decision that mattered. We were on the cusp of radically changing our business model. You could feel the pressure in the room. Some thought we should just stick with what we knew. Yes, they admitted, things were choppy right now,...
Published April 15, 2026
I was working with a senior leadership team not long ago, capable people, clear on strategy, genuinely committed to the work, when something in the room gave me pause. We were working through an exercise I often like to do in these situations; what I call “The Elephant in the Room”. It’s a simple...
Published April 3, 2026
Awhile back I was working with an Executive Team who shared that one of their biggest strengths was how much they empowered their direct reports. Now, as part of the assignment working with this Executive Team, we agreed that I would undertake a series of “skip meetings”. A skip meeting, for those...
Published March 26, 2026
What does it mean to lead in a way that people remember, not for what was decided, but for how they felt in the moment?A few years ago, I was facilitating a client off site where a team was practicing coaching skills. People were paired up and I was moving around the room, listening in and offering...
Published March 20, 2026
I was in a meeting recently supporting a selection committee who were given the privilege of choosing their next CEO. In our orientation we talked about bias and the need to be self-aware of blind spots. As we went around the table sharing perspectives, a member we’ll call Alex said, “Jill, you...
Published March 14, 2026
In this year’s Naylor Association Benchmarking Report, fifty-two per cent of organizations cited information overload as a top tier challenge.A few weeks ago, I saw this play out in real time while facilitating a strategy session with a group of senior leaders who were trying to make sense of a...
Published March 5, 2026
I met with an old colleague last week and we began trading war stories about seasons that nearly overtook us. I admitted I had been fired, restructured, whatever polite term you prefer, more than once. Each time it rattled not just me, but our family. She shared that she had lost a parent six...
Published February 26, 2026
Most project leaders think executives want more detail. They don’t. They want signal.When senior leaders review a project, they are not just scanning timelines, budgets and milestones. They are assessing judgement. They are watching how you frame risk. They are noticing whether you escalate early...
Published February 25, 2026
A few years ago, I was leading an enterprise-wide digital transformation project. On paper, it was textbook. The executive team was aligned. Resources were committed. Procurement had run a disciplined vendor process. Communications had mapped a comprehensive rollout plan. A transition team had been...
Published February 25, 2026
When I ran my first 10K, I thought the goal was speed. I trained for months. Early mornings. Structured runs. Exercising when I would have preferred sleep. Recovery became intentional. My calendar shifted. I adopted practices I had never treated as sacred before. The discipline surprised me more...
Published February 23, 2026
Delivery got you noticed. Leadership gets you trusted.Registration is now open for IGNITE 2026.I often meet project leaders at the same moment in their career. The project is delivered. The numbers look good. The stakeholders are satisfied. And yet what keeps them up at night is not the timeline....
Published February 23, 2026
It happened again. As I was facilitating a leadership session, a courageous leader, Emile, gave voice to what everyone else was thinking. “I’m so frustrated. I just can’t motivate my team the way I used to. I’ve tried being the empathetic guy, the data guy, the cheerleader guy. Nothing seems to be...
Published February 23, 2026
In the film Groundhog Day, Bill Murray's character wakes up to the same day over and over again. The day never changes. The people around him don't change. He doesn't change. Does that sometimes feel like your typical day? As we know, what eventually shifts the story line is a change in how Bill...
Published February 23, 2026
This weekend, I found myself drawn to the snow globes I’ve collected from cities around the world. A small shake, a sparkly snowfall, and the scene softens into view. As I watched the snowfall settle across our street, it struck me that this was a gift rather than a burden. In between shovelling,...
Published February 23, 2026
How leadership presence becomes the stabilizing force when the system won't settleIn recent months, many leaders have shared something with me that sounds almost like a confession. It surfaces in conversations, sometimes at the end of a long day or during a reflective moment between meetings. They...
Published February 23, 2026
There comes a point in leadership where experience stops being an advantage and starts becoming a constraint.Not because leaders know less, but because the conditions they are leading in no longer resemble the ones that shaped their success. Like it or not, there’ll come a time in your leadership...
Published February 23, 2026
Every so often, a leader will say something to me almost in passing. It’s not framed as a complaint, and it’s rarely posed as a formal question. It sounds more like an observation they haven’t fully sat with yet. “Some parts of my work feel heavier than they used to.” Or “I’m getting things done,...
Published February 23, 2026
The start of a new year often brings with it a familiar pressure for leaders. I see it every January. We feel compelled to reset, to re-energize, and to lay out ambitious plans for what lies ahead. New strategies are drafted, priorities are announced, and resolutions are made with the quiet hope...
Published February 23, 2026
What was the date when you realized we were in an emergency? That this wasn’t a dress rehearsal. Or fake news.Mine was the week of March 9. The isolation orders hadn’t been given yet. I was downtown and went into the Toronto Eaton Centre to grab a coffee. It was empty. Aside from me, a security...
Published February 23, 2026
We’ve heard a lot recently about flattening the curve. Last week when as I was catching up with Jayson Phelps, an executive search expert, I started to think about raising the curve when it comes to trust. We were talking about one of the most cantankerous issues looming over employers and...
Published February 23, 2026
In an interview March 26 David Frum, author and political commentator, provided compelling insights into the decision-making processes gripping the White House. He spoke about how much of what was happening was framed around the President’s previous experience of fighting off multiple bankruptcies....
Published February 23, 2026
What a difference a few months makes. Were you like me on New Year’s Day? Excited about the prospect of a new decade, eager to dive into work, optimistic this decade would be different…well, we got one of our three wishes. It’s different alright. Leading through COVID-19 will be unlike anything...
Published February 23, 2026
Every team needs a “Michael”.I was at a conference recently where people didn’t know each other very well. You know how that goes. There’s this silent awkwardness that happens when strangers are thrown together. People want to get to know others around them. Maybe even like them! Who knows?...
Published February 23, 2026
Chipping Away at Leadership: Pound the rockYesterday, I looked at the present leadership of the Raptor's, charting Nick Nurses' experience in coaching1000 games before he even began as head coach. Like a Dickensian novel, it's always insightful to trace leadership's past to better understand the...
Published February 23, 2026
Like many Torontonians, I’ve been following the Raptors for a long time. From buying my son’s first Damon Stoudamire jersey to cheering on Vince Carter and Chris Bosh in the nose bleed section, I’ve been with them through thick and thin. I felt like I was watching a family marriage dissolve when...
Published February 23, 2026
King. Parks. Baker: Three Civil Rights Leaders, Three PracticesThe first name we all know, we venerate. The second name is also familiar. Rosa Parks symbolized defiance. The third name, however, is not as well-known. Ella Baker played an integral, but behind-the-scenes-roles in the Civil Rights...
Published February 23, 2026
Happy New Year! As you create your leadership strategy for 2018, it's time to dig deeper. Look beyond the mirror of the motivational quote and gaze outward - to the panorama of fresh thinking that comes with disrupting yourself as a leader. Here's some advice from an article published in the...
Published February 23, 2026
I’ve tipped my hand here. I love books – lots of books, especially great leadership books that contain leadership exercises. Hanging around in Amsterdam’s Rijksmuseum Library (pictured below) is my twisted idea of a good time. Those layers and levels of books are fondly known as stacks.The...
Published February 23, 2026
Leadership is not a binary, an either/or netherworld in which leaders make black or white choices. For today’s disruptive leaders, nothing is plain or simple. And yet…the way leaders are portrayed and the way some leaders portray themselves, it makes me wonder.In 2012, National Geographic launched...
Published February 23, 2026
I was in a meeting a while back with a group of respected Chief Human Resource Officers (CHROs). Jeffrey Pfeffer, distinguished Stanford Professor of Organizational Behaviour, had just finished explaining why he thought that today’s leadership development is “BS”. The audience cracked up when he...
Published February 23, 2026
Leadership behaviour always tells untold stories. There was a timely interview in January with Van Jones and the Rev. Charles Williams about why Detroit didn’t vote for Hilary Clinton. Jones and Charles discussed the massive funds the Clinton campaign had raised to unearth all of kinds of stats and...
Published February 23, 2026
Maybe it was that the handcuffs were camouflaged in perfectly matching material that seemed to be an outgrowth of his tailored top coat. Maybe it was this very deft attempt to hide the obvious: “I’m busted – but at least I have some modicum of dignity”. I’m not sure what haunted me more about the...
Published February 23, 2026