Think Big: Reshaping the Leadership Profile — Changing How Canadians Lead

Today’s Reality

Canada is dependent, divided, and nursing a shrinking economy. The government recognizes the challenge, but their plans alone may not be sufficient to get us through this. 

Canada’s dependency on the USA continues to create economic challenges as it works to untangle itself from integrated supply chains and long-standing trading partnerships: “Canada must focus on building sovereign capabilities.” Canada’s divisiveness adds further complexity, with approximately 30% of Albertans and Quebecers supporting separation or some form of autonomy. To compound matters, Canada’s economy shrank more than expected halfway through 2025 as U.S. tariffs continued to disrupt. According to Statistics Canada, the government has increased spending to “soften the blow.”

These challenges are not abstract. They affect communities, livelihoods, and the sense of shared confidence Canadians have in their future. To strengthen its independence, foster greater cross-provincial collaboration, and create new value in the economy, Canadian organizations may need to diversify their client base, move up the value chain from simply exporting raw material, and act with greater urgency. This may not be achievable with the current leadership profile; but with renewed purpose and collective effort, change is within reach. 

“Steady as You Go” or “Thinking Bigger” 

If Canada wants to meet the moment, it may be time to consider reshaping the leadership profile to help get us there. Leadership in Canada has historically been defined by solidity, professionalism, inclusiveness, authenticity, and an array of behavioural attributes befitting a country with a “steady as you go” approach to the economy and leadership. That said, a nation may find it difficult to alter the course of a weakened economy, national dependency, and provincial division by maintaining a purely “steady as you go” approach. Canada may need to evolve its leadership profile, from “steady as you go” toward “thinking big, being bold, and making difficult decisions.” 

Changing Leadership Development to Reshape the Profile 

Canada’s leadership needs to become bolder, braver, and more decisive. The responsibility does not rest solely with those at the top of organizations. There are approximately 4.1 million managers, directors, entrepreneurs, and executives across Canada who have the opportunity to reshape their leadership approach to be bolder, braver, and more decisive at a time when Canada may need it most. 

Traditionally, leadership development in Canada has focused on cultivating leaders who can empathize, coach, and build team cohesion. Many of these qualities, such as emotional intelligence, team building, coaching, and inclusive leadership, remain vital, especially when mobilizing a workforce. That said, the emerging Canadian leadership profile suggests that other capabilities may need to come to the forefront: setting a new vision, exploring, investigating, investing, pivoting, and making courageous decisions. 

Reshaping the profile is not about overhauling the anatomy of today’s effective leader. It is about recognizing which mindsets and skills could help redirect a leader’s energy toward being more creative, enterprising, and decisive in this period of stagnation and automatism. 

Training the Competencies that Matter 

As organizations reflect on their own leadership development strategies, there may be value in collectively reconsidering the set of competencies most closely aligned with “boldness” as we are defining it. Defining “boldness” is not straightforward. What matters is that organizations work toward a shared understanding of the foundational competencies that can help move them from stagnation toward progress. For some, this may involve strengthening financial fluency and risk management. For others, it may focus on innovation, strategy, and adaptability. 

The role of interpersonal skills in leadership development, the ones we continue to teach and that organizations value in their leaders, remains vital. However, these skills may now need to be applied and, in many ways, tested against the new expectations of boldness, urgency, and change that this moment calls for. At the heart of it, bold leadership is still about people, about the courage to listen, to connect, and to act with purpose. Perhaps it’s time for Canadians, and for organizations across sectors, to begin exploring what being bold could look like for them.