The leadership skillset that builds collaborative traction
If you asked most leaders whether they listen well and give feedback effectively, the majority would say yes. The people around them might tell a different story.
That gap, between intention and actual impact, is where most interpersonal friction at work originates.
It shows up as feedback that never gets given, or that lands badly when it does. It shows up in the stories people construct when no one tells them clearly what’s working or what isn’t — stories that fill the silence, get retold, and harden into assumptions that are very hard to shift. It shows up on teams where small tensions accumulate because the conversations that would clear the air keep getting postponed.
In remote and hybrid workplaces, this gets harder still: the informal aside, the quick check-in after a meeting, the tone you could read in someone’s face — those friction-reducers aren’t as available as they used to be.
The good news is that these are learnable skills, not personality traits you either have or don’t – and they get reliably sharper with attention and practice.
That’s the premise behind my upcoming course with SFU Continuing Studies: Feedback and Listening for Effective Leadership. Two interactive virtual mornings, June 25 and 26.
On the listening side, we’ll practice what it takes to listen well under pressure, across difference and – especially – when you disagree.
On the feedback side, we’ll work with a simple but powerful model for giving useful, skillful feedback — both the kind that redirects and the kind that tells people what’s working and why. We’ll also hone skills for receiving feedback in ways that that help others feel seen while helping us grow, without deflecting or getting defensive.
The sessions are small, discussion-based, and built for practice with other leaders like you. You’ll leave with concrete tools and some hard-won perspective from peers working through the same challenges.
After twenty years of working with leaders across sectors, I’ve noticed that the transition into management tends to catch people off guard — not because of the complexity of the role, but because of how personal it turns out to be.
The shift from individual contributor to team leader is as much an identity shift as a skills shift. Your job is no longer to be the best at the work. It’s to create conditions where others can do their best work. That means trusting people before you’re fully certain they’re ready, and measuring your success by their outcomes rather than your own output.
Most of us need a little help making that transition well. That’s what my upcoming course with SFU Continuing Studies is designed to do.
Managing Others and Delegating Effectively runs over two virtual mornings, May 21 and 22. We’ll work through the mindset shifts, practical frameworks, and real strategies that help new and emerging leaders move from doing to leading.
“If you were to step into the full power of your life’s purpose – what might be possible? What might be possible for the people you follow? For the people you lead? For the people you serve and collaborate with?”
If you feel called to wrestle with some of those questions, then this might be the right time for you to apply to the Art of Leadership at Hollyhock, running from August 21-26, 2026.
I remember wrestling with those questions myself when I experienced the Art of Leadership for the first time back in 2000. Veteran trainer Robert Gass had just started leading this signature program at Hollyhock on Cortes Island, while at the same time co-founding the Rockwood Leadership Institute to deliver it across the United States. I was a single mother then, co-parenting my 3-year-old son, and struggling to keep up with the rapidly growing national social enterprise I’d co-founded just two years earlier.
I barely had time to sleep in those days – much less to reflect on these kinds of questions. But carving out the space to step out of the fire-hose-pace of my life for those 5 days, amid cool green forests on the edge of the Pacific Ocean, changed my life forever.
Since then, nearly 10,000 people from around the world, including premiers, mayors, nonprofit executives, public servants, and mission-driven entrepreneurs, have taken the Art of Leadership. My colleague Michael Bell and I, both Rockwood trainers, have supported hundreds of them. And 2026 marks the fifth year we’ll be co-facilitating the Art of Leadership at Hollyhock, after Robert passed the baton for this specific training to us in 2022.
In a time of growing polarization and unprecedented levels of social and environmental disruption, we believe this kind of equity-embedded, collaborative leadership training is more essential than ever.
Over the course of 5.5 days, in one of the most beautiful places on earth, participants dive into inner and outer capacities needed to lead with greater clarity, courage, and collective impact.
“I’m a BIPOC woman working to address the climate crisis within a large institution. The Art of Leadership provided me the connection, self-reflection and tools to address burnout in myself and my team, and foundational strategies to continue the collective hard work we need to do.” — Participant, 2023
This year’s program runs August 21–26, 2026. Our multiracial leadership team and participant cohort represents a wide range of backgrounds and experiences. Leaders join us from government, nonprofit, business, philanthropy, and social change sectors, creating a rich learning environment where different viewpoints strengthen our collective wisdom.
“The Art of Leadership program helped me build a strong foundation as an elected official. Suzanne and Michael supported me in exploring my vision, understanding my why, and identifying the inner triggers that can become barriers along the way. I wholeheartedly recommend this program to anyone who is seeking to lead with intention and integrity.” — Jenny Tan, Councillor, City of Maple Ridge, 2024
The training blends rich group dialogue, individual reflection, and immediately applicable tools for connecting to purpose, honing interpersonal skills, strengthening resourcefulness in moments of stress, and clarifying strategies for sustaining your energy for a lifetime.
Participants also receive a confidential 360-degree feedback process from peers, supervisors, and direct reports. This is an essential part of the program, and serves as a powerful mirror to guide your leadership growth.
“Sometimes you have to slow down to speed up. The Art of Leadership gave me the space I needed to pause – to recharge, to reflect, to evolve. It was a great privilege and honour to learn alongside other passionate and dedicated change makers and leaders. I would not hesitate to encourage and recommend that you invest in yourself as a leader through this programme.” — Participant, 2025
Rooted in decades of practice, The Art of Leadership offers a rare space to reflect, reconnect, and return to your work with more clarity, confidence, and ease. If you’re looking for a reset — time to reflect, learn, and recharge alongside fellow change-makers —consider applying to join us.
Early bird: Book now and get 10% off accommodation prices. Offer valid until May 22, 2026.
Feel free to share with someone you think would benefit — it tends to fill early. Some scholarships are available, with priority for BIPOC leaders —please inquire when you apply.
As a management consultant and executive coach, I’m thrilled about Annahid Dashtgard’s upcoming book “Fire and Silence: A Roadmap for BIPOC Leaders” (February 2026). If you haven’t read her other books, Annahid’s writing is incredible – glittering, tender, fierce, clear-eyed. Fire and Silence channels her gifts and wisdom in a practical guide for racialized leaders navigating complex organizational dynamics, offering strategies to shift how power is used and shared. Annahid brings decades of experience from social activism to executive coaching and running an international consultancy. She has trained, coached and facilitated hundreds of leaders worldwide, providing tools and strategies that honour resilience, strength, vulnerability and results.
While this book is aimed at racialized leaders, I believe it will be essential reading for anyone working to create more equitable organizations. And for BIPOC leaders seeking validation and actionable strategies, it will be a game-changer.
I’ve ordered 10 copies to give to friends and clients. Join me! Let’s amplify diverse voices in leadership literature and by pre-ordering to help make this a bestseller!
Available wherever books are sold (bulk discounts: sales@Dundurn.com). Virtual launch: Feb 24, noon-1pm PT. RSVP here for the link.
What if the leadership breakthrough you need isn’t so much about learning more tools —but about leading and sharing power from your place of purpose and clarity?
You’re skilled, committed, making real impact—but something’s shifting. Maybe you’re questioning patterns that no longer serve you or your community, feeling called to lead differently in these polarized times, or sensing a transition ahead. Here’s what I know: you’re not alone. And this restlessness you feel is your own wise self, calling you in.
Many of us are asking: How do I lead in these volatile times with both strategic skill and deep humanity? How do I stay resilient while doing transformational work? How do I navigate power and build trust across difference?
The Art of Leadership (August 22-27, 2025 at Hollyhock, on Cortes Island, BC) creates space to explore these questions alongside a thoughtfully curated community of change-makers from diverse sectors—Indigenous and local government leaders, health care, social justice, climate action, and mission-driven businesses.
This isn’t just about adding tools to your toolkit—though you’ll definitely get some powerful ones. It’s about strengthening who you are as a leader from the inside out. Over 5.5 days in a stunning oceanside setting with nourishing food and spacious time to think, you’ll deepen six core practices:
Purpose: Reconnecting to what truly fuels and guides you
Vision: Creating compelling futures that inspire and align others
Partnership: Building authentic relationships and having courageous conversations across difference
Resourcefulness: Managing triggers and staying centered under pressure
Personal Ecology: Sustaining your energy and preventing burnout
Performance: Understanding your real impact through confidential 360-degree feedback
This power-informed, equity-centered approach recognizes that effective leadership requires both inner clarity and outer skills. You’ll practice with peers who understand the complexity of creating change—from government leaders navigating bureaucracy to activists working within institutions to entrepreneurs building new models.
“I never knew I was holding so much back out of fear. This training unlocked power and vision within me I didn’t know existed.” —2023 participant
“I’m a BIPOC woman working to address the climate crisis within a large institution. The Art of Leadership provided me the connection, self-reflection and tools to address burnout in myself and my team, and foundational strategies to continue the hard work we need to do.” —2023 participant
“This was the most human training I have ever completed—and I loved every second, even the hard bits.” —2024 participant
These aren’t just nice words—they’re what happens when leaders get the space to remember who they are and why they’re here.
If you’re ready to step into this next chapter of your leadership—not because you’re broken, but because you’re called to more—we’d love to have you join us.
In a recent post, I wrote about reclaiming 1:1 meetings as spaces for growth, trust, and alignment—not just polite check-ins or project updates.
At its heart, managing is largely about coaching. And those regular 1:1s offer a powerful opportunity to practice.
In her recent article, “4 Styles of Coaching—and When to Use Them” (Harvard Business Review, March 18, 2025), executive coach Ruchira Chaudhary shares a beautiful quadrant that managers and employees can use to quickly orient themselves to the most effective coaching approach.
She describes four coaching styles, based on how much push (directive guidance) and pull (open-ended support) a leader brings to the conversation:
Telling (high push, low pull): clear instruction and expertise-sharing
Hands-off (low push, low pull): stepping back and offering autonomy
Collaborating (high push, high pull): blending inquiry with guidance
It’s a powerful reminder: there’s no single “right” way to coach. Skilled leaders shift their stance depending on context, urgency, and the needs and strengths of their team member.
If you’re looking to deepen the impact of your check-ins, Chaudhary’s push-pull lens can be a useful self-check:
Am I showing up the way this person most needs right now? Am I helping them play to their strengths? Am I getting in the way – or too hands-off? What might I dial up—or down—in this moment?
Often, the most effective coaching move isn’t offering advice or solving the problem. It’s creating the conditions for someone to stretch, reflect, and access their own resourcefulness and wisdom.
Chaudhary’s full article is well worth a read—you can find it in Harvard Business Review (March 2025).
I’m honoured to return this summer co-leading The Art of Leadership — a 5.5-day immersive retreat at Hollyhock, on the beautiful coast of British Columbia, with my long-time colleague Michael Bell. In a time of rising pressure, polarization, and complexity, leadership that is grounded, collaborative, and purpose-driven is more essential than ever.
The Art of Leadership has supported leaders from around the world since the early 2000s. From premiers and mayors to nonprofit executives, public servants, and mission-driven entrepreneurs, participants develop the inner and outer capacities needed to lead with greater clarity, courage, and impact. Originally developed and led by our mentor and friend Robert Gass, this transformative training has been held at Hollyhock and beyond for over two decades, with just a brief pause during the pandemic.
This year’s program runs August 17–22, 2025. Our multiracial leadership team and participant cohort represents a wide range of backgrounds and experiences. Leaders join us from government, nonprofit, business, philanthropy, and social change sectors, creating a rich learning environment where different perspectives strengthen our collective wisdom.
“I’m a BIPOC woman working to address the climate crisis within a large institution. The Art of Leadership provided me the connection, self-reflection and tools to address burnout in myself and my team, and foundational strategies to continue the collective hard work we need to do to address the complex multi-layered problems we face.”
The training blends rich group dialogue, individual reflection, and immediately applicable tools.
Modules include:
Purpose: Reconnecting to what fuels and guides you
Vision: Articulating a compelling vision that aligns and inspires
Partnership: Feedback, courageous conversations, and collaborative problem-solving across differences
Personal ecology: Long-term energy management and burnout prevention
Resilience: Emotional self-regulation in high-stakes leadership
Participants also receive a confidential 360-degree feedback process from peers, supervisors, and direct reports — a powerful mirror to guide leadership growth.
“The Art of Leadership challenged me to rethink my approach to leadership and provided the tools and insights I needed to grow personally, in order to grow professionally. The course inspired me to lead with greater intention, empathy, and vision, and it empowered me to make meaningful changes in my work and life.” — Participant, 2024
Rooted in decades of practice, The Art of Leadership offers a rare space to reflect, reconnect, and return to your work with more clarity, confidence, and ease.
“Finally, a leadership course that acknowledges, recognizes and even celebrates feelings. This was the most human training I have ever completed – and I loved every second, even the hard bits.” — Participant, 2024
If you’re looking for a reset — time to reflect, learn, and recharge alongside fellow change-makers — we’d love to have you join us.
Learn more or apply here August 17–22, 2025 | Cortes Island, BC Hosted by Suzanne Hawkes and Michael Bell
Feel free to share with someone you think would benefit — it tends to fill early. Some scholarships are available.
Here’s some timely advice on working across difference. Sometimes the hardest cuts to bear are from the very people we view as being ‘on the same side’; non-profit blogger Vu Le offers some powerful medicine for prevention and healing. Source: 7 agreements for productive conversations during difficult times
Deep Diversity: Overcoming Us vs. Them is hands-down the most useful, accessible book I’ve read on strategies for achieving deep, enduring racial equity at the personal, organizational and community level. Shakil Choudhury writes with the friendly ease and accessibility of Malcolm Gladwell, mixing compelling stories with cutting edge research, ranging from neuroscience to political theory.
It is simply not possible to be an effective leader without not only emotional intelligence, but what Julie Diamond refers to as “Power Intelligence“. Choudhury sets out a clear map for getting there, and welcomes us all to take the journey. He sets out a four-part framework (emotions; implicit bias; tribes; and power) for understanding and overcoming the devastating effects of racism and marginalization, bolstered by abundant research and his own decades of work as an international leadership trainer, teacher and consultant.
Once we have the awareness of how both unconscious bias and racism play out within ourselves and in the world (yes, racism exists, and it is everywhere; yes, all human brains are hard-wired to both see and respond to difference in ways that are unconscious and instantaneous; and yes, our emotions – not our heads – drive our actual behavior), coupled with the intention to change, Choudhury offers a set of 7 inner skills for shifting our own habits of thinking and becoming potentially powerful change-makers:
Self-awareness – become aware of our own blind spots, unconscious bias, emotions, body language and body signals
Mindfulness – through practice, developing our ability to witness and interrupt unhelpful habits of thinking and replace them with new habits
Self-regulation – develop the inner power and skillfulness to master our own emotional responses, to return from a state of being reactive and brittle (or ‘triggered’) to one of emotional resilience
Empathy – tapping into the human power of empathy to build bridges of understanding, kindness to enlarge the ‘circle of we’
Self-education – actively seeking out stories, data and facts directly, blasting out of well-worn assumptions or reliance on ‘conventional wisdom’ from the dominant culture
Relationship – actively enlarging that circle, personally and professionally
Conflict skills – developing our skills, comfort and ease with conflict – an inevitable by-product of working across difference – so that we can lean in rather than contract or withdraw
Master these skills – and be a brilliant, compassionate and effective leader in any field – a leader that can help unleash the massive collective power and wisdom of diverse teams, organizations and communities.
‘Deep Diversity” is available at most bookstores, through the publisher, or via Amazon.
Many visioning processes begin with a guided visualization, where participants close their eyes and listen as they are guided by a facilitator through a series of images and questions. The key is to imagine we have arrived at a specified, fabulous point in the future – where all of our dreams have been realized. It is exactly the way we want it. It is about what we are for – not what we are against. And for most of us, our experience of being in this desired future reality is vivid and visceral. (Note: a few of us experience “visualizations” slightly differently – some of us don’t see pictures in our minds at all. Instead, we see words, or experience a set of sensations.) The experience of imagining that we have arrived at a point in the future – that we are there, right now – can unleash a whole new set of innovative, creative ideas. Click here for a list of 14 questions or elements to weave into your visualization script.
Suzanne Hawkes 