We recently had the pleasure of sitting down with Daniel Doerksen for a practical and thought-provoking conversation about management, leadership, and the critical role managers play in creating healthy workplaces.

Daniel is the co-author of You Can Manage: A Practical Guide to Becoming the Manager Everyone Wants and a leadership consultant with a deep passion for helping organizations become places where people can thrive. In this episode, we explore why work so often falls short of its potential - and what managers can do to close the gap.

Together, we dig into;

👉 Why so many people feel disengaged at work (and why that matters for individuals, teams, and organizations)

👉 The surprising influence managers have on employee wellbeing, engagement, and performance

👉 Why most managers are promoted without training, and the challenges that creates

👉 The five essential practices of effective management: Start with You, Invest in People, Build the Team, Advance the Work, and Strengthen the Organization

👉 How managers can move beyond individual leadership and unlock the power of teams

👉 Why clarity, alignment, and accountability are foundational to healthy team culture

👉 Practical approaches to improving decision-making and reducing organizational bottlenecks

👉 How silos form, and what leaders can do to build stronger cross-functional relationships

👉 The difference between managing performance and enabling performance

👉 Why self-care isn't optional for leaders, and how your wellbeing directly impacts the people around you

This conversation is an honest exploration of what it takes to be an effective manager in today's workplaces. Daniel brings together research, real-world experience, and practical tools that managers can immediately apply to build stronger teams, healthier organizations, and more meaningful work experiences.

If you're a manager, aspiring leader, or someone responsible for helping teams perform at their best, this episode offers actionable insights, fresh perspectives, and a compelling reminder that great management is a skill that can be learned.

Learn more about The Co. → a leadership development community for impact-conscious and power-curious leaders.

We recently had the pleasure of sitting down with Monica Pauls for a deeply practical conversation about designing and facilitating high-impact meetings.

Monica is the Chair of the Department of Child Studies and Social Work and an Associate Professor at Mount Royal University. In this episode, she joins us (along with Nic Etheridge Calder) in real-time to workshop an upcoming full-day team meeting, exploring the very real challenges leaders face when trying to create meetings that are engaging, productive, and genuinely meaningful.

Together, we dig into; 👉 Why so many team meetings feel overloaded, unfocused, or performative 👉 How unclear purpose creates confusion, disengagement, and “meetings after the meeting.” 👉 The hidden role power dynamics play in participation, decision-making, and silence 👉 How leaders can design meetings that create both efficiency and authentic engagement 👉 The importance of balancing process, pace, and presence in group facilitation 👉 Practical strategies for increasing participation without forcing consensus 👉 Why designing for human connection is just as important as designing for outcomes 👉 How small, intentional shifts can dramatically improve team meetings over time

This conversation is an honest behind-the-scenes look at the complexity of leading collaborative spaces - especially in environments where relationships are strong, but underlying tensions or disengagement may still exist beneath the surface.

If you lead teams, facilitate meetings, or are trying to create spaces where people feel genuinely included, heard, and invested, this episode offers practical tools, thoughtful reflection, and a powerful reminder that great meetings rarely happen by accident. Learn more about The Co. → a leadership development opportunity for impact-conscious and power-curious leaders.

If you're listening from Calgary, Alberta (before June 18th, 2026) - join us for an afternoon workshop exploring Power, Equity, Bias and AI.

In this episode of The Leaderful Podcast, we sit down with Christian Ortiz, an Afro-Indigenous decolonial social scientist, technologist, and founder of Justice AI GPT, the first decolonial AI framework designed to confront systemic bias at its roots. Drawing on decades of experience in digital transformation, systems thinking, and decolonial research, Christian explores how bias operates not just at an individual level, but as part of the invisible operating systems that shape our workplaces, relationships, leadership, and society.

This conversation dives into the intersections of power, language, bias, leadership, and AI - and what becomes possible when leaders begin questioning the systems they’ve inherited rather than simply adapting to them.

Together, Jeff and Christian unpack how implicit conditioning shapes the way we lead, communicate, and make decisions, and why meaningful organizational change requires more than surface-level diversity initiatives or individual bias training.

In this episode, we explore: • Why bias is a systemic issue, not simply an individual problem • The difference between “implicit bias” and “implicit conditioning” • How language functions as power (and how it shapes organizational culture and policy) • Why AI tools can either reinforce systemic harm or help uncover it • How Justice AI GPT helps leaders identify hidden bias in communication, policies, and decision-making • The relationship between power, responsibility, and leadership • Why duality, nuance, and deep listening are essential leadership skills • How leaders can create more human-centred organizations without relying on shame or blame • The role of curiosity, self-awareness, and powerful questions in creating meaningful change

If you’re a leader navigating complexity, culture, equity, or organizational change - and you’re curious about how power and bias shape the systems around you - this episode offers a thoughtful, challenging, and deeply human conversation about what it means to lead with greater awareness and responsibility.

Learn more about The Co. → a leadership development opportunity for impact-conscious and power-curious leaders.