Transforming today’s change into competitive advantage

5 bold moves to thrive in an uncertain world

By Sandra Oliver, Impact Founder, and Peter Zukow, Managing Partner, IQ PARTNERS

There’s a lot of change and uncertainty right now. How are leaders reacting? We asked them – and here’s what they said: “More of what we’ve been doing.” Sticking to our strategy. Continuing to do good work. Keeping our teams strong and working together. And ensuring our people feel calm and not overwhelmed by the frenetic quality and rate of change.

Many are also doubling down on communicating the organization’s purpose. So our people have a strong sense of direction and connection to doing good in a broader sense. To add value to the organization and the greater community, as well as supporting Canada and other Canadian companies.

Because although change often brings challenges, it also brings opportunities. We need to be open to them and recognize that things like removing inter-provincial trade barriers or rebuilding domestic trade can be positive.

And we need to take advantage of the positive sides of change to help our people, our businesses and our country.

How to succeed among all the change

Capitalizing on the opportunities will take a lot of work. Here are a few things we can do to get started.

1. Keep being good – or better – at what we do

We need to stay focused and continue to be good or even better than before. We can’t be rash or react to everything. We have our strategies and good teams. We need to keep everyone moving forward. But we may need to work even harder and be even better.

2. Build future leaders

There’s a focus by leaders today on increasing the leadership, interpersonal and basic stakeholder management skills among their people. Being able to manage different constituencies including staff, teams, boards, customers, communities, regulators, and government, is important now more than ever. And we need to cultivate these qualities among our future leaders so they can continue to contribute to the success of our organizations for years to come.

3. Give before we get

Develop and invest in people who want to invest in themselves for their own future and that of the organization and the broader world. We can think of this as people who have an “owner” vs a “worker” mentality. People who aren’t contributing to the organization solely for the paycheck, but who want to make a difference across a broader group. We need to invest in people who are prepared to put themselves out there and take things on without expectation of personal, short-term ROI. It’s the kind of longer-term thinking that can make a huge difference in this environment.

4. Succession proof our organizations

A “grey wave” is sweeping across organizations in Canada, so many leaders have pushed off retirement for a while. Over the next few years, we’re going to see a number of very senior and experienced leaders in the mid-level and C-suite retiring. We have to be prepared with a pool of talented potential internal and external candidates to succeed them. It’s going to play a huge role in ensuring our organizations remain strong and competitive going forward, no matter what changes come next.

5. Leverage and develop internal talent

Over the last 20 years or so, organizations have leaned out, increasing the gaps between levels within organizations, making it more challenging for people to progress easily – especially the newest entries into the workforce – Gens Z and A. Developing people is the key to turning this around – and it doesn’t require significant investments. Much of the development can come from getting people to work on multifunctional teams. Contribute to special projects or committees where they can learn from more senior leaders. Socialize together and mentor each other. And we need to ensure senior leaders have the time to make these important contributions to talent development.

Adapting to change is critical for all of us

At Impact and IQ PARTNERS, we’ve changed our own strategies, too. We’re collaborating on a Total Talent Strategy to understand where you are, where your talent gaps are and how we can work with you to find the best solutions.

It may be bringing in training and development. Or coaching at the executive level. Or recruiting new talent from the market. All of it underpinned by decades of experience with internal and external talent solutions.

We’re dedicated to adapting to change. To building a new approach to talent in Canada with scale and capability. Something Canadian that we believe can make a real difference to companies across the country and around the world. Something we can all be proud of.

IMPACT can help

If you’d like to explore how your organization can adapt to the talent opportunities that change brings, contact us.

Turning Leadership Potential Into Performance Online Event

Catch Peter, Sandra, and Shelley Brown, from AugmentHR, at a free webinar – “Turning Leadership Potential Into Performance (Through Executive Coaching & Leadership Training)” – on April 1, 2025, 1 to 2pm EST.

Register now for this event to secure your spot.

As part of our shared vision to support our clients with a truly comprehensive Total Talent Strategy, both Impact Coaches and IQ PARTNERS are now proud partners in The Humanis Group of Companies, which also includes Humanis Talent Advisory (Edmonton, Calgary, and Montreal), The Headhunters, Covalency Coaching, Mullen Leadership Group, and Venor.