Author: Michelle Causton, FCPA, FCGA, MBA
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Trust Is Earned. Respect Is Borrowed. Know the Difference.
Leadership isn’t about getting people to snap to attention. It’s about being someone they can rely on — especially when it’s inconvenient for you. Respect may come with the title. Trust never does.
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Stop Fixing Your Weaknesses. Start Building the Career You Actually Want.
We’re told to chase promotions, polish our flaws, and compare ourselves to everyone in sight. It’s nonsense. Real success comes from knowing what you’re good at—and having the courage to stop apologizing for it.
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Promoting From Within: Why Technical Excellence Doesn’t Equal Leadership Potential
Organizations love to “promote from within.” It feels fair. It rewards loyalty. And it seems efficient—why look outside when you have excellent people inside? There’s only one problem: being an outstanding performer in a technical role does not automatically mean someone is ready to lead people. Yet many organizations act as if management is simply…
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The Problem Isn’t the Politics — It’s the Performance
We blame the media for the noise, but the real issue is the performance we demand.
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If AI Broke Your Assignment, The Problem Wasn’t AI
What are you teaching?Why is it important?How will you know if you’ve succeeded?How will your learners know? Four simple questions. Every educator should be able to answer them without blinking. Yet somehow, right now, they land like a pop quiz nobody studied for. They matter because the ground has shifted, and a lot of traditional…
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Fear, Faith, and the AI Box We Can’t See Into
Inspired by Tim Higgins’ October 18, 2025 WSJ article👉 The Fight Over Whose AI Monster Is Scariest – WSJ I’ll be the first to admit: I am not an AI expert.I use it. I’m curious about how it will evolve.But I couldn’t look into the box and explain how it works—and that doesn’t worry me…
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The Role of a Constructive Critic in Governance
I had the pleasure, some years ago, of attending a social gathering at Queen’s Park in Toronto. At some point I was introduced to someone and in a whispered aside was told – he is the (portfolio) critic. I shook his hand and said, “that’s the job I want.” He didn’t think it was funny…
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Fun And Games
Maybe it’s the weather. But, this morning, when I should have been mindlessly drinking my coffee and doing a puzzle – I found myself thinking. I’m a gamer. I have always liked games. And puzzles. I like card games, crossword puzzles and to a lesser extent, jigsaw puzzles. I like sudoku, Wordle, logic games and…
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Silencing The Contrary Voice
I am very concerned about our collective inability to hear a contrary voice. I have long advocated for people to speak up; to make their voice heard. And now, apparently, a voice raised is an invitation to shut it down; to shout it out. A Students’ Union recently decided to dis-invite controversial speaker Frances Widdowson…
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Enough Already!
I’ve been crafting ten-minute instructional and training videos on a variety of topics. I’ve been doing that for a few years now and every time – I run face to face with the question: how much information is enough? I love the challenge of eliminating extraneous information, the challenge of the minimal time frame. Constraint.…
BZMind 