LeaderLab

Michael Katchen has acheived personal leadership and company growth at the same time. Wealth Simple started as a simple investment tool on an excel sheet and now holds over $6 billion in assets. The company has a winning culture which plays a big part in its success.

Key Takeaways:

• Wealthsimple has disrupted the financial services industry, but it was an accident. Its creation came from a much more natural place. Michael wanted to make investing easier for his generation.
• People and teams love big visions. Michael strives to get the best out of his employees by giving everyone a purpose and take on more accountability in their roles.
• The scale of the business has grown dramatically and Michael is still trying to find his footsteps. He is a first time CEO managing 300 people. As a pretty green leader, he is constantly reinventing himself to meet the demands of each stage of the business.
• As you scale drastically, you will have to give up some control or else the whole ecosystem just won't work.
• What kind of talent does Michael look for? He looks for a 'Maker Owner'. Someone who has a desire to build new things and an owner that is willing to step up and face the problems or roadblocks in the way.
• Good company culture has played a huge part in the success of Wealthsimple, but so many founders get culture wrong. Regular drinks outside of work or a ping pong table doesn't make 'culture'.
• As a leader, it's okay to admit when you don't know something. Show vulnerability, have humility, and have good mentors on your side.
• Figure out what kind of leader you want to be. There are a lot of leadership styles, so take on one that feels natural to you.
• Stay until the end for some rapid fire questions with Michael!

Mentioned in This Episode:

Wealthsimple.com

Give Away Your Legos — Article

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Scott Rutherford is an Associate Professor and the Executive Director of the Weider Foundation Leadership Development Lab at the Rotman School of Management. Prior to this, Scott was the Practice Expert on Leadership Mindsets and Capabilities at McKinsey & Company. Today's discussion dives into the differences between happiness and joy, and why it's important to focus and pursue joy instead of happiness. With so many leaders in very rewarding and prestigious positions, why is it that they're so unhappy? Scott weighs in!

Key Takeaways:

• Scott shares the difference between chasing happiness and chasing joy. Happiness is temporary, but joy is a much deeper feeling. It is a mood.
• We want independence, autonomy, and freedom. We are granted those things by working fulfilling jobs, but as we climb up the ladder to continue to strive for these core desires, we end up moving further and further away from it as all of our free time gets consumed in the work.
• How can you keep a pulse on your joy? It comes to deliberate thinking on what brings you meaning in life and being present with where you are.
• Millennials want to do meaningful work and companies are noticing this. They see that in order to make their staff happy, they have to bring more to the table than just a paycheck.
• Leaders can encourage their staff to experience joy by asking them meaningful questions about why they like the work that they do. Joy is a very personal thing, so each person is going to answer uniquely. Take that in and encourage them to keep pursuing their joy.

Mentioned in This Episode:

Rotman.utoronto.ca

All Joy and No Fun: The Paradox of Modern Parenthood by Jennifer Senior

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David Burnie is the Founder of The Burnie Group, a management consulting firm that focuses on helping clients design innovative strategies and continuously pursue operations excellence. On today's episode, David discusses how no industry is safe from disruptive innovation and gives tips on how you can be proactive.

Key Takeaways:

• Some may fear it but automation is going to help society. As more people retire we will have less workers to support them. It will allow people to focus on higher value jobs and eliminate some of the monotony.
• We are experiencing the fourth industrial revolution. As technology increases exponentially, we will begin to see artificial intelligence, robotic process, and the internet of things explode.
• With every industrial revolution, people have been scared about their jobs, but these revolutions have significantly improved quality of life. Today we are at the highest level of unemployment we have ever seen.
• Every industry, even ones that haven't been affected in years, will be disrupted with innovation, and that's a good thing! We will be working more efficiently overall.
• Examples of innovations include:
  • Internet of things will be elevated by 5G and will allow data to be transported very quickly. (eg. will be able to track bananas and optimized shipping conditions based on product demand)
  • Block chain will allow multiple parties to share information (eg. better sharing of electricity between homes)
• It's important to get ahead of the curve, before your competition does. Here are some things you can do:
  • Get educated - read and go to conferences
  • Bring in experts - don't try to do everything yourself
  • Innovation training - train your leaders and the front line on new technologies
  • Embrace innovation - have a contest for employees to bring in new ideas
  • Performance management & targets - allow people to fail and create incentives to try new things
  • Innovation funds - work with entrepreneurs and offer to pilot new technologies
  • Change how you recruit - look for flexibility and adaptability
• Stay until the end for some rapid-fire questions with David!

Mentioned in This Episode:

Burniegroup.com

Burnie Group Twitter

Burnie Group LinkedIn

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Joe Thacker is the Founder of Fusion Analytics, a Canadian company that helps retailers use their data to make smarter decisions. Fusion Analytics has been named one of Canada's fastest growing companies five years in a row. Joe shares how to get a grip on your data and be able to understand it. Does everyone really need a data scientist? It all depends on what kind of problem you're trying to solve! Before you dive into the data, it's important to first ask the right questions about what you'd like to achieve with it.

Key Takeaways:

● Data is exponentially growing, but it is important to not focus on what is available rather what you need. Start by asking what business problem you are trying to solve.

● Instincts are to go too deep too fast which makes you swim in a soup of data. Get alignment at the board and executive level first.

● Give your data scientist (could be internal or external) the problems you need to solve vs. the tools they need.

● Data scientist need so be able answer business questions using plain language (in a way you understand). This is a good screen for the right person for your team.

● Need to move from being a data scientist to an artist where you can take different points of data and turn it into a story

● Automation is changing the way we work and will continue to make more processes dynamic

● Embrace it knowing we are moving to automation and see how you can get involved or be on the forefront of innovation

● Stay until the end for some rapid fire questions with Joe!

Mentioned in This Episode:

Fusionanalytics.com

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Janeen Speer is the VP of Talent at Shopify. She brings years of leadership experience to the table and has worked in management roles at Starbucks, Lululemon, and WestJet. It is in Shopify's culture to build a human-centric organization that focuses on their biggest asset — the people. Janeen shares how Shopify leaders reinforce this vision everyday to their team and how current leaders can take some of these human-centric principles and apply it into their own businesses today.

Listen in as Janeen shares practical ways that Shopify is building its human centric organization including:

- Innovating how it recruits people through a "life story" exercise- Providing free coaching at every level

- Giving people back time through Meetingless Wednesdays

- Hosting "Ask Me Anythings" where team members "vote up" critical questions on their minds; and leaders answer. Real time.

- Investing in understanding people's personal objectives and considering them as they make work assignment

- Valuing two distinct paths

– a technical and leadership path

– so people can best use their strengths and follow their passions

Stay tuned to the end where Janeen shares her thoughts on how to start your own quest to create a human-centric organization and answers some fun, rapid-fire questions

Key Takeaways:

• What is Shopify's vision?
• Janeen shares some practical ways Shopify puts their people first.
• Free coaching is available to anyone at any level at Shopify.
• What happens on Meetingless Wednesdays and how has that improved mental well being?
• Shopify also has leader AMAs (Ask Me Anything), where people in the organization can ask their leaders some of their most burning questions.
• Shopify has a deep commitment to understanding people's personal objectives as well.
• What kind of leadership qualities does Shopify look for?
• How does Shopify support leaders in their journeys?
• Janeen offers advice on how you can embark on your own journey to create a human-centric organization.
• Stay until the end for some rapid-fire questions with Janeen!

Mentioned in This Episode:

Shopify.com

Janeen on LinkedIn

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