Most years, I leave the TEC Canada National Member Conference with a few good ideas, a few sharp conversations, and a renewed appreciation for the work I get to do. This year I left with something even more durable.
TEC Canada’s 2026 NMC was held in Calgary on April 23 and 24. The agenda was strong.
Georges St-Pierre opened it, on what it actually takes to operate at a high level over a long period of time.
Dr. Jody Carrington did her work in the middle, on connection and the cost of disconnection.
Peter Mansbridge brought it home at the end, on seeing clearly, not just reacting quickly.
Each one was great. But what stayed with me wasn’t the agenda. It was the room.
What the room actually was
Over 300 senior leaders. All of them successful in their own right. All of them, by being in that room, willing to admit there were things in their businesses, and in themselves, that they didn’t have figured out.
That’s not a small thing. Most rooms aren’t like that.
The leaders I’ve respected most over the years aren’t the ones who pretended to have it figured out. They’re the ones who got honest earlier — with themselves, with their teams, and with the peers who could help them work through what they didn’t know. NMC was full of that kind of leader.
What three of my members took home
I asked three of my members what stayed with them after those two days.
“Attending the TEC Canada National Member Conference was a valuable opportunity for me to exchange ideas, gain fresh perspectives, and deepen my commitment to purposeful leadership. It reinforced the power of peer learning and thoughtful leadership in navigating today’s business challenges.”
-Sahiza Hossenbaccus — President & CFO, SnapCab
That’s the case for being in the room. The day-to-day rarely makes space for the kind of thinking the work actually requires.
“Attending the TEC National Member Conference was an eye-opening experience for me. I had no idea the depth and breadth of the TEC Canada organization and the strong sense of community and support it creates for business leaders. It was incredible to me to see a room full of successful entrepreneurs, all humbling themselves by making the conscious choice to accept that there are challenges in themselves, their organizations or even the world at large that they don’t have the answers for, and instead of hiding from it, they all want to be part of the solution. They sign themselves up for doing the hard work of firstly stepping back, realizing there is a problem that they cannot solve on their own, and then committing to doing something about it.
So often I have heard, well it’s too hard, too difficult, why even bother. And to be in a room with over 300 other people, looking to improve their lives, their business and genuinely develop a deeper connection with other people who they may have never met before was amazing. One powerful question from emcee Chris Nelson was you had to turn to someone you just met, and explain to them the last time you cried in front of people. The sound of 300+ people explaining this to one another was intense, people opening up and being vulnerable with each other all in a commitment to make each other better — it was an extremely powerful moment.
At the end of the day, what struck me most was even though most people feel further apart and as disparate as ever, we’re all still human. Everyone is searching for their community, and their people and there are some universal feelings that everyone experiences no matter who you are.
Particularly impactful for me was Dr. Jody Carrington’s keynote on becoming more disconnected in an increasingly interconnected world. The statistics on loneliness, and the impact that can have on people, especially people that work for you, really changed how I approached the rest of the conference and even my own direct reports when I returned.
I am more committed than ever to becoming a leader people want to follow, and a leader who embraces the challenge of creating a deep connection, quicker — by embracing vulnerability and letting myself be the one that goes first, in order to build that relationship, and develop that deeper connection. All in hopes that a deeper connection between people can be an antidote to the loneliness epidemic we’re all dealing with.”
-John Richards — General Manager, SnapCab
Two things in John’s reflection are worth paying attention to. What he noticed about the room — 300 senior leaders choosing to be honest about what they didn’t have figured out, instead of dressing it up. The leaders I’ve spent the most time around, over a lot of years, are the ones who got honest with what they didn’t know early. The ones who didn’t, paid for it later.
And what he committed to: going first. Being the one who shows it’s safe to be vulnerable, before anyone else does. The leader who goes first sets the standard. And saves the team months of guessing what’s safe to say.
“A big thank you to TEC Canada for an inspiring conference. Hearing from speakers like Georges St-Pierre, Dr. Jody Carrington, and Peter Mansbridge, alongside such a strong community of leaders, made it especially impactful. For us at Motum B2B, it’s a valuable opportunity to step outside the day-to-day, challenge our thinking, and stay closely connected to the realities and priorities of the business leaders we serve.”
A few takeaways that stuck with me: we’re more connected than ever, yet often more disconnected, so being intentional about fostering real connection and meaningful conversation matters. We can’t address what we don’t acknowledge and making space for that is critical. And in a world increasingly shaped by AI, trust is becoming the real differentiator. Those who build it through authentic, thoughtful storytelling will stand out.”
-Steve Lendt — Director, Strategic Marketing & Business Development, MOTUM B2B
As AI takes more of the routine work, what remains rare is the leader who has built genuine trust with their team, their customers, and their market. That’s not a marketing point. It’s a leadership one.
What I keep coming back to
Connection. Vulnerability. Trust.
Three vantage points. One thread.
Most leaders agree with all three. Far fewer change how they operate when they get back to the office. That’s where the real work is — not in the language, but in the practice.
What NMC 2026 surfaced is this. Most of the conversation in business right now is about what’s coming at us. AI. Pace. Growth pressure. Macroeconomic uncertainty. Those are real. But what stuck with the leaders in that room was the other side of the equation. Not what’s coming at us, but what we bring to it.
That doesn’t get solved by a better dashboard or a sharper strategy deck. It gets solved by the slower, harder work of becoming the kind of leader people want to be honest with.
The real value of a room like that
The real value of being in a room like NMC isn’t what’s on the program. It’s that you walk out with peers who know what you’re carrying and will keep you honest about what you’re actually doing with it.
That’s what makes the difference over time. Not the day you spend at the conference. The 364 after.
About the work
That 364-day work is most of what I spend my time on.
I Chair TEC Canada peer advisory groups in the Greater Toronto Area. CEOs, presidents, owners, and senior executives — usually around fifteen of them, from non-competing industries — meeting once a month to work on each other’s hardest decisions. Strict confidentiality. Hundreds of years of accumulated experience in the room. Every member’s success is the only thing on the agenda when their issue is on the table.
Most senior leaders don’t have a room like that. They have advisors and boards and people who answer to them. What they don’t have is fifteen peers sitting in the same chair, with no stake in any decision other than wanting them to make the right one.
Between the meetings, I sit with members one-on-one. Sometimes I’m a mentor. Sometimes a coach. Sometimes a sounding board. Other times a devil’s advocate. The work moves between those four constantly, and the skill is knowing which one a leader needs in the moment they walk in. Most weeks it isn’t the one they ask for.
Mostly, my job is to be the calm in the storm. That sounds soft. It isn’t. Most senior leaders are carrying more than they let on, more than they admit to themselves, and a lot of what’s pulling at them is speculation — fear that hasn’t happened yet and probably won’t. Part of the work is helping someone separate what they actually know from what they’re afraid of. The other part is helping them think more simply about what they do know. Complexity to simple. That’s what I try to do.
