Best Boss Ever

In Episode 31 of the Best Boss Ever podcast, Christine interviews Jeff Barrett, Founder of Blue Mountain Wild School.  Jeff speaks about his experiences guiding expeditions in Antarctica and The Arctic, being a landscape architect, leading wilderness adventures and his deep love for wild spaces and places that influenced him to start the Blue Mountain Wild School where children are taught to be their own pilot and learn natural consequences.  They talk about personal accountability, teaching leadership by leading yourself, the lessons from failure, the core values of leadership and how these values can be taught early by learning grit, problem solving, adaptability, perseverance and resilience through nature.

In Episode 30 of the Best Boss Ever podcast, Christine interviews Stephanie Wolfe, Strategic Business Leader, Financial Literacy Advocate and Strategic Advisor, Women's Segment at BMO Private Wealth.  Stephanie mentions 4 best bosses - the confidence builder, the heart centred leader, the visionary and the tweaker who all shaped who she became in her career and as a leader.  They talk about being willing to share your thoughts, ambitions and challenges which helps best bosses support you, being challenged to do things in a non-traditional way and how talent and output are the return on investment of having the best boss ever.

In Episode 29 of the Best Boss Ever podcast, Christine interviews Omnia Helbah, Senior Manager of Talent and Organizational Development at the Ontario Ministry of the Attorney General.  Omnia speaks about several bosses that spoke encouragement and belief into her career by having unwavering trust in her and by giving her opportunities to take risks like presenting to a leadership team for the first time at the age of 23.  These leaders saw her potential, supported her, removed roadblocks and gave her executive access to skyrocket her confidence and career.  They talk about representation of marginalized communities, navigating a career with a big family and how the best bosses recognize we are all human.

In Episode 27 of the Best Boss Ever podcast, Christine interviews Laura Todd, Sr. Manager, Logistics & Customer Operations at Baxter International. Her best boss story begins when and after Fiona interviewed her. Laura was offered the job within three to four hours, which created a terrific first impression of confidence and decisiveness. Laura went on to really appreciate and value the diversity of talent of Fiona's team. The Best Bosses Ever possess many of these and other skills. Also, Laura shares the ONE tip Fiona excels at to attract and retain excellent, interworking talent at Baxter. 

In Episode 26 of the Best Boss Ever podcast, Christine interviews Chris Gruits, Executive and Artistic Director at Penn Live Arts.  He speaks about two bosses who ignited passion and purpose through context, curiosity, and collaboration.  Additionally, he shares how these bosses effectively and consistently communicated their mission to define the future clearly.  In turn, their teams were motivated and empowered to be successful.  They also discuss the value of leaders who cultivate talent and leverage their professional network to support and develop their people.  

Episode 25: Part two of the best stories from year one of the Best Boss Ever podcast.  While Christine expected to hear about amazing traits in leaders, her guests opened up and shared their stories of vulnerability and authentic leaders that believed in their people, challenged them, found their passion and brought out the best in them.  Here's the second recap of the best stories and qualities that make a Best Boss Ever.

Episode 24: Part one of the best stories from the first year of the Best Boss Ever podcast.  Christine started this passion project in 2021 to find common themes in great leadership.  What she got from her guests was amazing stories of trust, caring, empowerment, support, and engagement.  Here's the first of two recaps of the best stories and traits that make a Best Boss Ever.

Episode 23:  A bonus episode where Christine is interviewed by Jenelu Payne for the Parentpreneurs Guide to Generational Wealth Summit 2021 where they discuss best practices for parentpreneurs to build good work habits especially working at home during a pandemic and best wealth practices to make more clear and conscious decisions for your business.  Christine shares her personal work-life-wisdom and discusses stress management, burnout and teaching kids how to fish to build their own wealthy legacy.

Episode 22: Christine interviews Kim Fletcher, VP Philanthropy and Partnerships at World Vision as she speaks about a best boss that was a servant leader, led from the ground up and set time in her calendar for coaching and supporting her team.  She shares stories of this leader who forever impacted her for the better, used a drip, drip approach to infuse ongoing learning and gave Kim great advice like lead yourself first since you can't always control the outcomes in your life.  Christine and Kim discuss key leadership essence, scalable and repeatable learning and how best bosses build high performing teams that cross the line together.