What comes first in leadership: people or performance?

In this episode of The People Playbook, Jason Taylor sits down with Peter Kenyon, Vice President, Client Services at Entegra Canada, to unpack what it really takes to build strong teams, protect culture, and drive results that last.

Peter brings decades of cross-functional leadership experience across sales, operations, supply chain, and executive leadership roles in both public and private sector organizations. In this conversation, he shares practical lessons on building morale, creating accountability, coaching top performers, handling tough conversations, and leading with humility and integrity.

This episode is packed with real-world leadership wisdom for CEOs, executives, and emerging leaders who want to build high-achieving teams without losing the human side of leadership.

In this episode, you’ll hear about:

• Why morale drives sustainable performance
• The leadership power of listening and asking better questions
• What public vs. private sector leadership teaches about accountability
• How to build trust before tough conversations happen
• Why follow-up is one of the most overlooked leadership skills
• The biggest mistakes leaders make when scaling teams
• What young leaders need to understand early in their careers

If you care about building winning teams, clear cultures, and better leaders, this is a conversation worth hearing.

In this episode of The People Playbook Podcast, host Jason Taylor sits down with Drew Gillett, VP of Retail Marketing at Guild Mortgage. Drew leads a high-performance marketing team supporting thousands of loan officers in the highly regulated mortgage industry, where he focuses on building trust, driving culture, developing leaders at scale, and helping people show up with clarity and confidence.

Drew shares practical leadership insights drawn from years of scaling teams and influencing large organizations. Key topics include:

• Hiring for ownership mentality and emotional intelligence over pure results
• Balancing autonomy with accountability through clear ownership, dates, and communication
• Letting go of the "how" without lowering standards in fast-moving environments
• Diagnosing underperformance: clarity, capability, or care?
• The critical role of steady emotional mindset during high-tension moments
• Giving direct, timely feedback instead of delaying hard conversations
• Helping leaders build authentic personal brands with consistency (not constancy)
• Unlearning bottlenecks as you scale, coaching the next generation, and more

Whether you're leading teams, navigating rapid growth, or developing your own leadership style, Drew's emphasis on people-first decisions, curiosity, and high standards offers actionable plays to build stronger teams and better results.

In this episode of The People’s Playbook, Jason Taylor sits down with Sherry McNeil, CFE, President & CEO of the Canadian Franchise Association (CFA), to explore leadership, franchising, and the art of building resilient organizations. From her early days working at the store level to leading one of Canada’s largest franchise networks, Sherry shares the lessons, stories, and strategies that have shaped her career.

We dive into:

• How early hands-on experience informs leadership today
• The critical qualities for franchise leaders in an evolving market
• The role of culture in successful brand transformations
• Building stronger franchise relationships through collaboration and feedback

Whether you’re a franchisee, franchisor, or aspiring leader, Sherry’s insights offer actionable strategies and inspiration for leading with purpose, connecting with people, and driving growth.

In this episode of The People Playbook, Jason Taylor sits down with Chloe McKenzie, SVP of People and Culture at SaltXC and founder of ChloLeads, a leadership platform supporting ambitious women and women of color.

Chloe shares her journey building the People function from the ground up at SaltXC, creating one of Canada’s top workplaces, and leading with authenticity, identity, and emotional intelligence. She dives into how leaders can cultivate psychologically safe teams, navigate being the “only in the room,” and leverage curiosity and humility to drive high-performing cultures.

Whether you’re a CEO, people leader, or aspiring leader, Chloe’s insights will inspire you to create workplaces where people thrive - and lead with impact.

Key Takeaways:

• Building a culture from the ground up
• Leading as the “only in the room”
• Emotional intelligence and self-awareness in leadership
• Fostering psychological safety and authentic connections
• The difference between being kind and being nice

How do you lead a fertility clinic while keeping patient care, staff culture, and innovation at the forefront? In this episode of The People Playbook, Jason Taylor sits down with Mark Evans, CEO of Markham Fertility Centre, to explore his journey from young MBA to healthcare leader, the emotional challenges of fertility care, and how he’s transforming access to reproductive health across Canada.

Mark shares stories of patients traveling hundreds of kilometers for care, lessons learned from leadership, and how innovation - like AI and smart medical records - can make fertility treatment more efficient, accessible, and patient-centered. If you’re curious about leadership, healthcare, and the future of fertility care, this episode is a must-listen.

In this powerful episode of The People Playbook, Jason Taylor sits down with Ryan Dymond, President & COO of FIKA Company – one of Canada’s fastest-growing cannabis retail organizations with over 237 locations.

Ryan brings 25+ years of hospitality experience into the cannabis space and reveals how he’s flipped the traditional retail script: leading with genuine human connection instead of transactions, treating every guest interaction like a hospitality experience, and building a decentralized, trust-first culture that scales.

You’ll hear raw insights on:

• Why hospitality principles create deeper loyalty than discounts ever could
• How to shift from “manager” to “coach” with young frontline leaders
• The biggest mistakes leaders make during acquisitions (and how empathy prevents cultural disasters)
• Staying grounded and humble when everything is moving at lightning speed
• Why trust deposits/withdrawals and radical authenticity are non-negotiable

If you’re leading (or building) a high-growth team and believe culture eats strategy for breakfast, this conversation is pure gold. Ryan proves that people-first leadership isn’t just nice-to-have – it’s the ultimate competitive advantage.

What does it really take to scale a company from $20M to $300M+ while actually putting people first?

In this powerful episode, scale-up expert and former EVP Brad Furtney pulls back the curtain on the leadership playbook that transformed founder-led software businesses into high-performing, culture-driven powerhouses at Evercommerce.

Brad shares the exact moves he makes on day one when stepping into a growth-stage company, why OKRs became his secret weapon for alignment and accountability, how he built a 5-year leadership development engine that skyrocketed culture scores and profitability, and why most companies talk about “people first” but never actually measure it.

If you’re a leader who believes culture isn’t just a feel-good buzzword - it’s the ultimate growth multiplier - this conversation is pure gold.

Key takeaways:

• The first leadership move that creates instant strategic alignment
• How to turn individual OKRs into real accountability (and what to do when someone doesn’t buy in)
• Why the best performers don’t always make the best leaders (and how to spot the ones who will)
• The unexpected power of investing in first-time managers and “next-gen” talent
• One simple piece of advice Brad wishes he could give his 20-year-old self (and every young leader today)

If you’re ready to stop treating culture as a side project and start building a team that scales with you, hit play now.

In this episode of The People Playbook Podcast, Jason Taylor sits down with Matt Bell, CEO of Shelmerdine Garden Centre and founder of Geller's Design, to discuss what it takes to scale multiple businesses while keeping culture, leadership, and people at the heart of it all.

Matt shares his journey from growing Gellers into Winnipeg’s largest residential landscape company to acquiring Shelmerdine Garden Centre, revealing how thoughtful delegation, profit-sharing, and clear career paths drive engagement and retention. He also opens up about his personal experiences with cancer and how vulnerability and perspective have shaped his leadership style.

If you’re a CEO, leader, or aspiring entrepreneur, this conversation is packed with actionable insights on culture-building, leading with empathy, and staying grounded while scaling your business.