Tausi Insider

HSBC Canada ranks among the top dozen domestic players in commercial lending and debt capital markets, and the top 20 advisers on mergers and acquisitions, according to data service Refinitiv. Reinhard Krause/Reuters Rival banks are targeting HSBC Bank Canada’s talent and corporate clients as the country’s seventh-largest lender begins an anticipated year-long wait for approval of a takeover by Royal Bank of Canada RY-T. All six major domestic banks got a look at HSBC Canada’s operations during a two-month sales process that ended Tuesday with RBC’s announcement of a $13.5-billion acquisition. Headhunters and executives at rival lenders say the five banks that missed out on the big win are now fighting for a consolation prize, in the form of HSBC Canada employees and client relationships. “We know that there were other financial institutions – not limited to the Big Six banks – who were looking at both the clients as well as the talent at HSBC Canada,” said Adam Dean, founder of recr...

Eileen Dooley is a talent and leadership development specialist, and a leadership coach, based in Calgary. If you’ve been working long enough, you’ve likely encountered a “gatekeeper” leadership persona. The one who doesn’t let anyone in their organization do anything without cumbersome and often painfully slow personal approvals from them. The signs are easy to spot. The leader requires all significant communications with client groups and stakeholders to go through them, or immediately be reported to them with regular status updates or rounds of forwarded e-mails. Individual team members develop a protective attitude of “I’d better ask if this is okay to do” based on past interactions that have landed them in trouble for acting independently. Clients have learned that the group with such leadership is often slow to respond and often seeks to work around the leader in question when floating new assignments. Unfortunately, this is an all-too-common issue for new or insecure leaders, ...

Trevor Lai, a former Meta employee laid off by the company in November, plays with his dog Ekko at his apartment in downtown Seattle on Dec. 22. Lindsey Wasson/Tausi Insider A northern Silicon Valley success story has placed Canada in the midst of the sudden plunge in fortune for the tech sector, and the hundreds of thousands of Canadians whose skill and ambition made them coveted engineers, programmers and leaders. More than 150,000 tech workers have been laid off this year, according to an online tally. The cuts have been wide and deep, slicing across companies, global offices and nationalities – Canadians included. But could their losses be Canada’s gain? It’s a potentially critical question for the entrepreneurs and visionaries who see a moment for this country to find serendipity in grim times. The dramatic change in Silicon Valley’s fortunes has created “opportunity for Canada to reclaim some of its talent,” said Jennifer Holmstrom, a Canadian who leads talent and recruitment ...

Eileen Dooley is a talent and leadership development specialist and a leadership coach based in Calgary Early in my career I worked at a national office, which also had employees in four regions, each representing an area of the country: Atlantic, Quebec, Ontario and Western Canada. To say that nobody understood each other would be an understatement. Conversations with the group, especially on national projects and activities went something like this: National office: Here is what we need the regions to roll out … Them (in no particular order): 1. You don’t understand us. 2. We are big and have lots of resources so we will do what we want. 3. No. This is not going to work here (angry tone). 4. We have so few resources, so we will take whatever you give us. It was predictable, and not all that progressive. More time was spent listening to criticism of content and process, as well as defending decisions, than being productive and co-operative. The national office wanted things to look ...