Last week I was downtown and parked the car curb-side. The city transitioned from parking meters to a remote-pay type system that runs via an app and pay machines that are located on every block around town.
I loaded two hours and when I returned 90 minutes later I see a parking ticket on my windshield.
The righteous indignation starts to bubble.
I place my ticket stub next to the parking ticket and take a picture with my phone.
“The city is going to hear from me !”
Still somewhat perturbed that it was going to take extra time and effort to get this sorted out, I take a closer read. How much is the ticket ? and what violation am I being charged with ?
In a taxi zone ? “I’m not in a taxi zone !” So now I need a picture of the parking sign on the street. I step off the curb, look up at the parking sign and sure enough, “I’m in a taxi zone. Dang.”
I don’t think much of this for a couple days and then realized this experience was a teachable moment.
Prejudging others who I assume are in the wrong while assuming I am in the right—is a common human tendency, which gets even more exaggerated if the person in the wrong is not in my presence—like the person who issued the parking ticket or like someone at the other end of an email. The more anonymous the other person is, the more likely my indignation is to grow and fester.
The effects are almost always detrimental when you react too quickly.
I believe gratitude is fix for this and had I did a gratitude intervention on myself before I got carried away by my self-righteousness, I would have avoided my ego-fest (fortunately I discovered the truth before acting out). Here’s what my intervention looks like:
Steve, what are you grateful for in this situation ? A few quick thoughts pop to mind:
We have people in the city who monitor parking to ensure fairness - and very likely deal with a lot of abuse through the course of their work
That although I’m sure they make occasional mistakes, they aren’t making them on purpose
That I have the ability to pay a fine if indeed I’m at fault
Tomorrow morning the sun is going to rise - this is not the end of the world
And even if I was in the right, this exercise would help me provide a kinder, more human approach to resolving the issue.
I encourage you to give it a try next time you get a healthy dose of self-righteousness !
And if you have any tips or tricks that work for you when you get self-righteous, please share in the comments.
Most CEOs will tell you their people are their greatest asset. I don't think that's quite right. It's not the people—it's the mindset those people bring to work every day.
In this video, I lay out why a positive, curious, engaged workforce functions as a genuine asset on your balance sheet, while a negative, entitled, complacent one is a liability, and why so few organizations do anything intentional to build the mindset side of the equation.
With so much going wrong in the world right now, this isn't a nice-to-have anymore—it's a competitive necessity.
Why does knowing a process is risky so rarely lead to fixing it? That question sits at the center of this short video from Steve Foran, a professional speaker with a background in safety who spent years removing avocado pits the unsafe way — hand in the line of fire — despite knowing exactly what he was risking.
Emergency rooms have a name for the resulting injury: avocado hand. Steve's shift came not from new information, but from watching a five-second, zero-risk method someone else had been using all along.
The lesson for leaders: awareness of a risk and action on a risk run on separate tracks, and teams tolerate known-flawed processes until they fail. A leader's job is to build the pause between the two.
🎬 Watch now, then take 15 minutes this week to ask your team what risk they've been quietly tolerating.
This story from a golf course highlights a common leadership blind spot: we expect others to step forward without considering whether we’ve created the conditions that make it possible.
👉 Watch the full story to discover how great leaders create true belonging 🎥
Leadership is often associated with having the right answers. But in today’s complex world, the real advantage lies in asking better questions and creating space for reflection.
Through years of facilitating executive groups, I’ve seen how removing the pressure to “fix” leads to deeper, more honest, and more impactful insights.
This video explores a simple yet powerful practice you can use immediately with your leadership team.
Most leaders underestimate the impact of what they “go on about.”
During a CEO peer group retreat at North America’s first single malt whiskey distillery, an unexpected voice cut through collective silence. This story explores leadership, group dynamics, and why outsider perspective can be the most powerful force in a room.
Most leaders underestimate the impact of what they “go on about.”
This story-driven video reveals how casual negativity can become a leadership reputation—and shape what your team feels safe to suggest or try.
A simple reminder with big implications for culture and communication.
👉 Watch now ▶️
Leadership often lives in the space between words—and that’s where things quietly fall apart.
This brief, personal story illustrates why clarity is one of the most underestimated leadership skills.
👉 Watch the video 🎥 and explore how to close the gap before gravity does.
Great leadership isn’t always loud or exciting. Often, it’s the quiet consistency that makes people feel safe. In this post, I share a simple family story that reveals why stability is one of the most underestimated leadership qualities—and why protecting it matters more than ever.
▶️🦖 Watch the video
Standing on sacred ground at Vimy Ridge, I realized something essential about leadership: people don’t follow numbers—they follow meaning. This reflection bridges history and modern leadership in a powerful way. 🎥👇
👉 Watch the video and consider the story you’re telling your team.
Organizations rarely “choose” dysfunction. More often, they drift—one copied workaround at a time—until inefficiency becomes the standard operating system. Whether it’s outdated norms, clunky tools, or unnecessary steps, the pattern is the same: when no one questions the default, the default wins.
This video gives you a simple, practical prompt to reset your team: audit one habit they copy from you.
▶️ Watch the video ✅🎬
In 1987, at my first job as an engineer, my boss’s boss—Fraser Blair—felt larger than life. He had a booming voice, a big presence, and a senior title that honestly intimidated me. One day I asked him a simple question about the origin of “Mahone Bay.” That night, at 10pm, he called me at home with the answer. That quiet act of follow-through completely disarmed my fear and built a bridge of trust and camaraderie that changed how I worked.
This experience taught me a lesson I’ve never forgotten: follow-through builds trust faster than authority. In this short video, I share the story and invite you to consider one outstanding commitment you could close today—an email, an introduction, a decision, a promise.
👉 Watch the video below and reflect on how your own follow-through shapes trust at work. 🎥
“Steve, I’ve tried the gratitude list thing… it just doesn’t work for me.”
That’s what a participant told me at a recent gratitude retreat. Her experience is more common than you might think. A lot of people—and a lot of leaders—are faithfully writing gratitude lists that never really touch the heart. The problem isn’t gratitude itself; it’s that we’re only practicing one-third of it.
In this video, I walk through three components of meaningful gratitude:
In the video below, I share how I shifted from vague expectations to a clear, five‑minute integrity talk that spelled out what cheating looked like, what the consequences were, and why it mattered. More importantly, I share the leadership question that changed everything: “What did I not say, clarify, model, or reinforce that might have made this outcome more likely?”
Most meetings have someone running the agenda. Far fewer have someone hosting the conversation - and people feel the difference.
At a recent Salon Dinner, I sat with 10 people, some lifelong friends and some total strangers, and watched a thoughtful host turn a big topic like AI into an evening everyone wanted to repeat. The 18th-century salons did the same thing: they brought together people who normally wouldn't mix, and let ideas, not rank, carry the room.
For executives and event producers, the lesson is practical. Before your next meeting, decide who is hosting the conversation, not just who is running the agenda.
▶️ Head over to watch the video to hear the full story.