Jennie & Lauren tackle a much-forgotten aspect for Leaders who are working with change in their organization. Their conversation emphasizes that effective change leadership is less about managing processes and more about leading people through the human and emotional experience of ongoing change. Leaders act as the “oxygen for change” by helping people make sense of why change is happening, translating strategy into personal meaning, and addressing the emotional impacts; fear, grief, resistance, and fatigue, all of which will inevitably arise. Their discussion highlights the importance of trust, the cadence of honest communication, compassion over performative empathy, and creating space for sensemaking and closure. Leaders are encouraged to work with resistance as valuable data, recognize that people move through change at different speeds, and balance execution with emotional capacity. Ultimately, sustained adaptability depends on leaders who model selfcare, set boundaries, reinforce identity and belonging, and consistently “see, hear, and value” their people while guiding them toward a shared future.

Follow SAIT Corporate Training on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/showcase/saitcorporatetraining/?viewAsMember=true

Connect directly with Jennie and Craig on LinkedIn:

• Jennie: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jenniengilbert/
• Craig: https://www.linkedin.com/in/craighess/

Have burning questions about leadership that you'd like us to address? Email them to leadership.questions@sait.ca and let your voice be heard.

If feedback was truly working, we wouldn’t be avoiding it, bracing for defensiveness or waiting until things had already gone wrong to speak up. Despite our best intentions, feedback still triggers anxiety, silence or tension, often delivered through blunt honesty, passive hints or overly careful conversations that miss the point.

In this episode Jennie and guest host Lauren Bishop explore the questions that many teams and leaders quietly struggle with:

•What if feedback focused on what went right as well as the improvements to make?
•Why some people really don’t want to hear your feedback?
•How can Leaders and contributors prepare for the difficult conversations?
•How can we provide feedback that ‘manages up’?
•How do we make feedback part of daily work, instead of formal conversation that are over thought and delayed?
•How leaders can benefit from asking for more feedback than they give?

Together they invite and offer how to challenge outdated practices, raise standards and keep the humanity that is so important to your team, and how to create feedback environments that people don’t fear but use.

Follow SAIT Corporate Training on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/showcase/saitcorporatetraining/?viewAsMember=true

Connect directly with Jennie and Craig on LinkedIn:

• Jennie: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jenniengilbert/
• Craig: https://www.linkedin.com/in/craighess/

Have burning questions about leadership that you'd like us to address? Email them to leadership.questions@sait.ca and let your voice be heard.

Inclusion isn’t an initiative; it’s a leadership skill.

If you’re not leading inclusively, you’re leaving trust, performance, and innovation on the table. In today’s workplaces, teams are more diverse than ever, across culture, generation, identity, and role. But diversity without connection creates friction, not progress. It’s the quality of your connection across difference that determines whether your team collaborates, or fractures.

This discussion is about the kind of leadership that works where it matters most – the people. Jennie and Craig explore how inclusive leaders build bridges, not just between ideas, between people.

You’ll learn how to notice who’s on the margins, how to lead with a sense of belonging, and how to create spaces where everyone can contribute fully.

Connection is the leadership advantage.

Follow SAIT Corporate Training on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/showcase/saitcorporatetraining/?viewAsMember=true

Connect directly with Jennie and Craig on LinkedIn:

• Jennie: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jenniengilbert/
• Craig: https://www.linkedin.com/in/craighess/

Have burning questions about leadership that you'd like us to address? Email them to leadership.questions@sait.ca and let your voice be heard.