In episode 2 of The Manager’s Field Guide, Wendy Loewen continues the conversation with Daniel Anthony Doerksen and Chris Downey as they continue their series on You Can Manage: A Practical Guide to Becoming the Manager Everyone Wants, focusing on Essential 1: “Start with You”. They discuss how strongly managers shape people’s workplace experience, citing research that 70% of engagement variance links to the direct manager and that a direct manager influences mental health and wellbeing as much as a spouse. The conversation emphasizes grounding management in “ways of being” before “ways of doing,” clarifying personal purpose and values,… Read More

Wendy Loewen introduces The Manager’s Field Guide, an ACHIEVE Workplace Culture podcast mini-series based on the new book “You Can Manage” by Daniel Anthony Doerksen and Chris Downey. The series is designed to support people moving into management roles without formal training, helping them understand what to focus on and how to measure success. The authors argue that work is essential to a meaningful life, yet it has too often been accepted as a negative experience. Managers, they suggest, are the key to closing the gap between what work can be and what many people experience. In this first episode, they distinguish leadership as a human dynamic from management as a defined organizational role, and preview the book’s “Essential Five”:… Read More

In episode 66 of the ACHIEVE Workplace Culture Podcast, Eric, Chris and Wendy discuss shifting attention from what you don’t want to what you do want by celebrating and reinforcing positive behaviours. Wendy shares the “two wolves” parable to illustrate that what you feed grows, and the team recounts times specific positive feedback changed their actions, relationships, and even career trajectory. They argue that strengths-based recognition is a powerful motivator, that strengths are everywhere if you look for them, and that naming what’s going right helps create more of it. While constructive feedback is still necessary, they suggest rooting it in a strengths perspective rather than using a “sandwich” approach. Their key advice: spot it, say it, be specific, and… Read More