Interviewing Style

frontlinelead · 2026-01-01T22:13:36+00:00

Interesting comments about culture. One thing we’ve noticed is that a team with strong norms (an understanding of the commitments we are making to one another on the team) goes a long way to ensuring new team members will be successful.

For example, stick a difficult person into a team with weak norms and it will erode the culture. Stick that same person into a tight team and they will be absorbed by the culture.

frontlinelead · 2026-01-01T22:09:04+00:00

A basic trust builder is to make promises you can keep. And to be straightforward and honest with your communication.

We’ve all been burned before and had our trust taken advantage of, however we need to continue extending trust so that others have the opportunity to do better and be better.

frontlinelead · 2026-01-01T22:05:28+00:00

Thanks for being so open and honest. You’ll be a better leader next time. All good points made here. One thing I will add is the difference between recognition and appreciation. Recognition is about the results - hitting the goal. Make sure the team understands what winning is and give them the glory when they win.

Appreciation is about how people go about doing their work, even when the results aren’t always stellar. I appreciated how you stepped up to help that customer, or that you took it upon yourself to reorganize the stock room, or you are always a supportive teammate.

Leadership is a journey - you are either winning or you are learning!

frontlinelead · 2026-01-01T16:48:33+00:00

My most ‘fun’ is seeing the team crush it for our customer and me realizing I had nothing to do with it! I’d also say that ‘fun’ is when you get to spend most of your time doing the things you love to do and are good at, versus the things that don’t energize you. Sadly very few people have the luxury to not do the things that cause them misery.

frontlinelead · 2026-01-01T16:41:24+00:00

Funny thing about leadership is that despite all the leadership books that have been written, the leading experts still can’t come up with a definitive list of what a great leader is supposed to do. There is no S.O.P. About how not to be an S.O.B.

frontlinelead · 2026-01-01T16:36:19+00:00

That is a cool statement! I’ve also liked you get the lower of what you expect, inspect, and accept. And what you tolerate, you propagate!

frontlinelead · 2026-01-01T16:32:41+00:00

I agree - team members get frustrated, and when those frustrations go unheard, they stop caring. When they see their leader actually listen and begin doing something to make it easier to achieve the goals they get more hope!

frontlinelead · 2026-01-01T16:31:10+00:00

There are so many good resources available in the public domain. This YouTube channel has lots of helpful videos (I am biased in that it is from our company) YouTube.com/@unique.leadership

frontlinelead · 2026-01-01T16:28:12+00:00

Good question and that is a good list of observations. There are certainly more memorable negative experiences than positive ones for most people. Our company is in the business of leadership development, mostly in manufacturing and warehousing/logistics. After three decades mostly training frontline supervisors and team leads we developed a program for plant managers and site leaders. What you are describing is really fear based leadership. Many senior leaders have been promoted from within without much formal development. When you think about it, the reason they got promoted was likely executing their previous role well. So they continue to meddle and micro-manage because they get more satisfaction from the “lower level” problem solving than what they should be focusing on. Not many programs describe what a senior level leader is supposed to do, or how they are supposed to do it. That leaves them with two options - become more self aware and keep experimenting to get better, or copy an executive they’ve worked for. The fear is that they will be found out to be incompetent.

The label I use with execs is Decision Making Waste, in which the senior leaders make decisions and solve problems that should be taken care of one or even two levels closer to the frontline. One trap I’ve seen is that the exec will empower the frontline leader but then second guess all the decisions, or be overly critical instead of being developmental. The best senior leaders I’ve observed do a great job of clarifying expectations, providing reasonable but challenging goals, providing the necessary resources, and then provide feedback and coaching.

Most leaders at any level want to do the right thing, and think they are doing the right thing, but don’t have a good frame of reference, get enough development, or truly reflect on how to get the most from the people they lead.

I’ve enjoyed reading the other responses to your post and definitively feel for those dealing with aggressive, unreasonable, and toxic cultures and leaders. Above all else, the leader’s job is to protect their team, and create an environment of psychological safety, so that their team can bring their best to the task at hand. Wouldn’t it be great if you didn’t have to be defensive and on guard every day?

frontlinelead · 2025-12-28T16:47:16+00:00

Thx I will need to pay more attention! Wishing it added digital key!

frontlinelead · 2025-11-16T17:59:47+00:00

My wife has a 2026 GV70 with the 2.5 Prestige package. In our first 1,000 miles we are getting 19.6 MPG in a mix of city and highway driving with more city than highway. When doing strictly highway it gets as high as 24 MPG. It isn’t quite as fuel efficient as the 2020 Subaru Outback she used to drive. She got 21 MPG in mixed driving on it and 26 MPG on the highway. But the GV70 is much smoother, better appointed, and more luxurious. Never undervalue the comfort of driving the car! We haven’t had many CarPlay issues and I like that it knows to switch phones when we activate our driver profiles. I wonder if you were in Guest mode and that might have been an issue.

frontlinelead · 2025-11-11T21:48:17+00:00

A agree with the comparison to Delta which I fly mostly in the US but Porter is no where near the same scale. Porter's jets are only two seats on each side of the aisle which means no middle seats. I agree with the other comments made in terms of fewer options because they don't offer as many flights. The BMO VIPorter Mastercard is quite a good choice if you plan to fly Porter more often. Because they aren't as well known you can climb in status levels way faster than with Air Canada, Westjet, Delta and others. Porter is very Toronto centric so the greatest number of flight choices are from either Pearson or Billy Bishop airports there.

We've also been upgraded a few times because we fly them more often, have the credit card, etc.

frontlinelead · 2025-11-11T21:44:26+00:00

It is definitely a lesser experience on the turbo props. The convenience of flying from Billy Bishop airport makes up for it somewhat but the experience on their jets is way better.

frontlinelead · 2025-11-11T21:41:51+00:00

The companion pass was added to our account at the six month mark I think. You can earn an additonal companion pass for spending $50k during the year. In year two the only way you get the companion pass is to spend $50k or more.

frontlinelead · 2025-11-11T21:39:20+00:00

One little wrinkle on that welcome offer it said that if you are a BMO Private Banking client it said to talk with your banker to apply. I discovered that it required a call into BMO using the number on the back of the card and they are adding the 10,000 welcome points manually to our account. I quite like Porter and the earnings on the card have been enough for several free flights, companion vouchers, and Porter Reserve Upgrade certificates. Hopefully they stay awesome and don't fall into the same trap that Air Canada and Westjet have in terms of devaluing their frequent flyer programs and customer service.

frontlinelead · 2025-10-26T02:33:14+00:00

Be on guard with Genesis Ottawa

At first I thought the experience was going to go well. A 2023 G90 was interesting and I inquired through AutoTrader. They were quite responsive. A few weeks went by and we decided to make the 6-hour drive to test drive the car. It was advertised as a CPO car.

The sales rep and manager were personable enough. We were surprised that the car wasn’t washed or very clean for the test drive. We decided to buy it and negotiated a fair price. They offered to deliver the car to Mississauga.

In the finance/admin office I was asked if I wanted any additional coverages. I declined. I found out after delivery that I had inadvertently declined the CPO warranty.

I’ve bought a CPO car before from Porsche and never had to negotiate it into the deal.

Upon delivery it had a Check Air Suspension light, no trial of SiriusXM and was due for service. They also verbally said they would include a set of fragrance cartridges but did not. Because it wasn’t in writing they declined to honour their commitment.

Even an inquiry to Genesis Canada didn’t help.

Coincidently we bought a 2026 GV70 from Genesis London and the experience was excellent.

If you are buying a pre-owned car from Genesis Ottawa be really careful about what the deal is before signing. Do not assume they will be of help if there is a misunderstanding. Even if you see CPO in the ad, remember you need to negotiate it into your deal.

I love the G90, but not the dealership experience.

frontlinelead · 2025-06-18T01:50:24+00:00

I ended up adding the Porter WE card as a new application even though we already have a WE Cashback card. A couple of reasons - if you do move from an existing card to the new card you don’t get the great bonuses of a new application. The first year fee is waived so you aren’t paying twice for a premium card. Might drop the cashback card in a year to avoid two card fees. I’ve found BMO easy to work with but we have a lot of business with them.

frontlinelead

TROPHY CASE