Struggling with data? It’s about how you think, not your technical toolbox

More of our economic and social activity resides online than ever before, and more content continues to shift to the digital space. The amount of and types of data that organizations have access to continues to grow alongside this trend, meaning it is no longer possible for leaders to ignore data.

This data can be an enormous asset for organizations – if they know what to do with it.

It’s not enough to make investments in new technology and analytical talent any more.  Those investments are important, but unless business decision makers understand data and analytics and how they can be useful to the organization, the effort is wasted. Leaders and managers need to be able to answer the following question: what do we want to know?

To answer that question, you need a basic level of data literacy. Leaders who have invested in their own data literacy are better equipped to direct their organization’s data efforts and investments because they understand the different ways data can be used. This allows them to identify immediate opportunities in their organization where they can best utilize data.

For example, if you have information about which items or services your customers purchase together, what would you use it for? A data literate leader might look at that information and have the insight that this information could be used to predict future purchases and even drive additional purchases from similar customers.  You don’t need to be an analyst to make that connection, you just need to understand what can and cannot be done with data, and to approach that data thoughtfully. The most critical skill a leader can have in their toolbox is the ability to think.

One of the challenges leaders face when it comes to data is that their analysts use technical jargon with which they are not familiar, and it can be daunting to ask for clarification. A bad analyst uses jargon to avoid questions, but many good analysts simply forget, the way we all do, that not everyone uses those terms regularly or is familiar with them. No one wants to look like they don’t know what they’re talking about. Simply de-mystifying these analytics buzzwords and techniques can make it immediately easier to see the big picture and uncover deep insights.

There are a growing number of undergraduate and graduate programs in the areas of analytics, producing a generation of bright young analysts who can help an educated leader have a major impact on their organization. But in order to get there, leaders need to be able to articulate the skillset they are looking for, because the tools of the field are changing rapidly. How will you measure and evaluate the success of your efforts? What new technologies will you want to take advantage of? For example, in the next five years, artificial intelligence and machine learning will transform the way we do business. Leaders need to be ahead of this trend or risk being left behind.

Rotman’s Data Literacy program provides an intuitive introduction to these emerging technologies as well as insight into where and how they will have an impact. If you regularly receive reports or data, or if you are trying to build more data-driven and evidence-based teams, this program is ideal. You will learn how to ask the right questions to drive effective and efficient decision-making using data so that it becomes an intuitive and necessary tool for improving performance across the board.

Want results? Learn how to nudge your customers.

What’s the best way to get someone to do something? You can incentivize them financially, you can limit their choices, or you can nudge them. Nudging is an insight from the field of behavioural economics, a way to get someone to do something without restraining their freedom or changing the financial incentives.

The Behavioural Economics in Action (BEAR) research institute at Rotman conducts leading edge research in this field, working on real projects that help people design better products, services and programs.

But how does that work exactly? Let’s take a look at a real world example. If you want to encourage people to stop littering, you have a few options. You could

  1. Hand out fines for littering
  2. Pay people for using the garbage or recycling bins, or
  3. Place green footprints on the ground pointing the way to the nearest bin

That last option is what Professor Dilip Soman would call a nudge. “Human decision making isn’t rational,” Dilip says. “People make mistakes, they get emotional.” But so what? Green footprints on the ground aren’t logical, and yet a 2011 Copenhagen study showed a 46% decrease in littering where the green footprints were in use. That’s not just a nudge, that’s a major behavioural change, and a very effective one at that.

Sometimes nudging is about simplifying processes, including the decision-making process. In a 2013 Cornell University study, they found that simply placing junk food on higher shelves and healthy food at eye level immediately helped high school students make healthier choices. They were 13% more likely to choose fruits and 23% more likely to choose vegetables in their school cafeteria. It was that easy.

What’s really interesting is that influencing behaviour in this way isn’t just an academic study. Every organization, public and private, is in the business of changing behaviour, from getting customers to switch from a competitor, getting people to be more honest when filing their taxes or applying for insurance, or even getting patients to take their medicine and treatment as directed.

Despite this being a universal constant across the board, many organizations are not particularly good at managing behaviour change. Without the right tools and information, the actions of your customers and clients can seem irrational, unpredictable, and difficult to measure.

Rotman now offers a new Behavioural Economics at Work program based on proven research out of BEAR, providing hands-on experience so you can start applying these techniques immediately upon returning to work. Seats are limited and class starts April 19. Apply now.

Want to make partner one day? What are you bringing to the table?

The competition for new positions at law firms is more intense than ever before, in part due to an increase in the number of law school graduates and in part because of disruption of the legal services market. Law firms need now, more than ever, a new long-term strategy for business development and staying relevant in a changing landscape. But business development strategy isn’t a major part of the law school curriculum. So what can junior and mid-career lawyers do to make themselves more valuable and contribute more to the business?

Identify strategic business needs

Start with a close look at your existing clients, and identify their pain points and business needs. What are their strategic priorities? Why?

Starting with a client you’re very familiar with is good practice for then practicing the same exercise with prospective clients. If you can enter meetings with new potential clients armed with insights about how your firm can best serve them, you’re already ahead of the game.

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Develop your personal brand

Obviously you want to work within the framework of your firm’s over-arching brand, but your personal brand can make a huge difference. It’s why you have a favourite barista at the coffee shop, or are particular about who at the salon cuts your hair.

Working through a personal branding exercise can give you insights into your personal strengths and identify how best to apply them to deliver more value to clients. What is your unique value proposition and how can you leverage it to the best effect? How can you apply that to lead generation or to creating personalized business development plans?

Learn how to ask for business

One of the most valuable skills a lawyer can have outside of their technical expertise is the ability to bring in new business. Professionals who consistently bring in new business are significantly more likely to be recognized by senior members of the firm for their accomplishments, and to eventually make partner.

Learning how to ask for business is about becoming more adept at spotting and seizing organic networking opportunities, clearly articulating the value you and your firm can offer to clients, and perfecting your personal pitch both on paper and in person.

If you feel uncomfortable networking or pitching business, ask yourself if you’re being too pitchy, too self-promotional, or too self-aggrandizing. If you feel that way, certainly your potential client feels the same. Pitching business should start with genuine, authentic conversations, and learning how to do that will have a transformative impact on your bottom line.

Strategic Business Development for Lawyers is a two and a half day interactive program designed specifically to help junior and mid-career legal professionals learn the difference between strategy and tactics and find out how to use both in order to create and implement a business development plan that leverages their unique value proposition and highest potential opportunities.

You will get answers to the most frequently asked business development questions, a set of business development plan templates, and benefit from the real-world experience of senior legal professionals.

How to Succeed at the Enterprise Level

“What got you here may not get you there.”
Marshall Goldsmith

Last Fall, I had the opportunity to sit with a diverse group of senior managers looking to move from functional management to performing at the enterprise level. They were the latest cohort in Rotman’s Strategic Business Leadership program and came from both the private and public sectors which added a lovely richness to class conversations.

The journey to senior management will typically progress through a number of phases. You begin your career as an individual contributor, progress into roles in which you’re responsible for getting work done through others, and finally transition into a senior position which requires you to think differently about a much broader and more complex set of competing issues.

It truly is different at the top.

Making this transition from function head to enterprise leader involves learning new skills and developing new mindsets — and this can be a seismic shift. It involves moving from:

  • tactician to strategist
  • specialist to generalist
  • analyst to integrator
  • bricklayer to architect
  • problem solver to agenda setter
  • warrior to diplomat, and
  • supporting cast to leading role

An all-star line up of Rotman Faculty teach in Strategic Business Leadership:

Photos of the faculty in the Strategic Business Leadership program

Rotman’s Strategic Business Leadership program is built around a model of leadership that integrates people, strategy, culture and systems. Here are just a few of the topics we covered:

Diagram of a model of integrative leadership

Strategy: As a senior manager, you are responsible for developing and implementing strategy for the business units you lead. However, managers are often confused about what strategy really is and what constitutes a good one. So, the program helped us identify the critical elements of effective strategies, the characteristics of hard to attack strategies and the importance of deliberately choosing where to excel and where not to.

Design Thinking: Over two days, we got to play with Design Thinking: a customer-centered design methodology practiced by some of the most innovative firms in the world (e.g., IDEO, Google, P&G, IBM, GE, etc.). Design Thinking is applicable anywhere in the value chain from the design of new products and services to customer experiences and business strategies. As senior leaders need to nurture innovation at all stages, it is important that they have a strong knowledge of the basic processes and skills of Design Thinking.

First, we looked at ways both public and private sector organizations used empathy to design neat new solutions for the client journey whether it was enhancing the experience of cancer patients waiting for chemo therapy or Delaine Hampton sharing her insights from decades at the helm of P&G’s marketing department. We learned how to reverse engineer the moment of choice to think about opportunities at each stage of the decision process.

We also experimented with a variety of ways to generate ideas so members of your team who may need different approaches to harnessing their ideas can really unearth smart new solutions. Finally, we got to work building a prototype and experienced the benefits of prototyping early and often.

Networking for success: As you move into enterprise level positions, creating new connections becomes even more important since success increasingly depends on coordinating across units and having a broad strategic perspective. To tackle the often unsavory topic of networking, we used the Reciprocity Ring to form more meaningful connections. The Reciprocity Ring is used by major companies and universities such as GM, Stanford, Abbott Laboratories, Bristol-Meyers Squibb Company and the Kellogg School of Management.

Leaning into conflict

A  major theme running through the program was leaning into conflict. Rotman believes tension is an opportunity for innovation and transformation. This is a different mindset that requires a curious and open stance.

  • Model-Based Problem Solving: In this session, we were given the tools to discern the different models at play during conflicts, the likely sources of tension and strategies to capitalize on those conflicts. We then applied these learnings to the context of a senior management team.
  • Negotiations: Negotiation is also a problem-solving process and the typical method by which resources are allocated in organizations. The ability to negotiate effectively is a key managerial and leadership competency. Using best practices and cases, we conducted a series of negotiations and group decision-making exercises and then debriefed the results. This way, we explored what is involved in effective negotiation and strategies and techniques senior managers need to do it well.
  • The Culturally Fluent Leader: Becoming what Professor Nouman Ashraf calls an ‘emancipatory leader’means moving from tolerance for differences to embracing differences. Again, using the model-based problem solving approach, this session helps leaders go from ‘oh no, conflict’ to ‘oh, yes conflict’. This approach changes your mindset to see a diversity as a strategic advantage.

As we make the shift to senior management, it’s important to realize that what got us here may actually hamper us at the next stage of our career. To this end, the class drilled down on what they needed to do differently in their new roles, but also what they needed to stop doing to ensure their success for the future. Each participant left with a personal action plan to put their new learnings into practice. They also met with a coach three weeks after class to work through any roadblocks that arose.

After being back at their jobs for two months, the class came together to share how they applied their new skills to increase their impact as senior leaders. They shared ways the program has helped them approach situations differently, tackle complex challenges and even improve their personal lives.

They ended with a workshop on personal productivity to learn how to pivot their time from focusing on tasks that can overwhelm to carving out time to dedicate to longer lasting strategic activities.

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At Rotman, we learn best practices in theory, use cases to apply those theories, and finally create personalized action learning plans to apply your new skills and mindsets as soon as you return to work.  If you’re ready to move from managing people to increasing your impact at the enterprise level, join us March 27-31, 2017 or call me at 416.946.0722.

Is HR a part of your board’s winning strategy?

Too often boards aren’t able to carve out enough time for the HR Committee. It’s easy to forget. And boards know this. On average, boards spend about 11% of their time on talent management, but 53% of directors want to increase that number. So, what’s stopping them?

The challenge is that board directors need to better understand issues such as talent management and succession planning to appreciate how they can add value to the HR Committee.  Board directors also need to know how to speak the same language as HR executives so they can collaborate together.

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So, what do directors need to know to make their HR Committees more effective?

  1. Understand current trends and practices in executive compensation
    Executive compensation practices change frequently. Board members need to have cross-functional expertise and stay abreast of the latest industry trends to stay competitive.
  2. Effectively manage CEO succession planning
    Succession planning sometimes gets pushed aside until it is suddenly very urgent. Creating smart succession planning strategies not only improves the quality of talent acquisition, it also makes boards more effective.
  3. Leverage HR Executives
    Your HR executive has expertise and insights that can dramatically change outcomes if you know how to work together. Building a strong relationship with your HR executive is key.
  4. Better understand talent management
    Every day, organizations lose talent because there is no clear path to career advancement. The board should engage in talent management strategies that will retain star players who will deliver strong value to shareholders.
  5. Create a culture at the board level that promotes transparency
    Lack of culture or bad culture on boards can be not just toxic to the organization, but deadly. While culture is hard to pin down or define quantitatively, it’s one of the most important factors for board success. Directors must exemplify the values of the organization and increasingly work to improve transparency, which is the best way to communicate values across business units.

And lastly, it’s helpful for board directors to learn more about each of these items, but they can have a much greater impact if they learn them alongside their HR executive. That’s one great step towards building a better relationship and being on the same page, working with the same context on challenges throughout the year. We recommend directors and HR executives pair up to attend Rotman’s Board Human Resources Committee program to learn together how they can better deliver HR strategy.

Before you hold that strategy meeting, read this

How many times have you gone to a strategy meeting and had people listlessly sit there, unfocused or distracted? How often, at the end of one of these strategy meetings, have you seen everyone just agree with whatever the most senior person in the room suggests?

That is a terrible way to approach strategy – if you want to win.

Strategy is one of the most important tasks of any employee in an organization, no matter his or her job description. Strategy is about choice. It’s about explicitly choosing what you will do and not do, not just agreeing with someone because they’re in charge. If you’re just going along to get along you’re missing out on strategic value.

""A winning strategy is something you think about all year, every day. It’s not something you can decide at a single meeting or even in one week.  You either tick strategy off your to-do list the same way you do expense reports, or you actively choose to make strategy a real key priority throughout the year.

Strategy comes from every level of the organization

Employees at every level of the organization have a great deal to contribute to your strategy. They see and hear things on the front lines that no one in the C-suite does, and that’s valuable intelligence that can make a huge difference in your strategy. Engaging the entire organization not only helps you access that data, but it makes sure that everyone on your team is committed to winning, because it’s their strategy, too.

Strategy needs to be specific

Before setting out to create your strategy you need to be able to answer these five questions:

  1. What is our winning aspiration?
  2. Where will we play?
  3. How will we win?
  4. What capabilities must be in place?
  5. What management systems are required?

These five questions are part of the Playing to Win strategic framework, which can be applied to any real-world challenge. Leading organizations around the world use the Playing to Win framework to help them develop the strategic capability to make better strategic choices and to guide the process of creating strategy.

Before your organization starts its strategic planning, get everyone on the same page. Rotman offers a one-day Playing to Win workshop, blending hands-on experience, reflection, and group discussions.

What you need to break into the next level of leadership

The business landscape changes more quickly than ever now, and we are facing massive changes in the demographics of the workforce as well as disruption.  So what is it that makes some leaders so much more successful than others?

When you think of leaders who are widely recognized for their work, there’s always something that sets them apart – a personal style, a unique approach, and a self-awareness that is difficult to develop. But it can be done! So what do you need to break through to the next level?

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A different way of thinking about leadership

Leadership isn’t a one size fits all proposition. Different leadership styles work better for different leaders and different organizational cultures. So when you’re developing your leadership skills, you should think about it from a very personal perspective. What are your particular strengths and weaknesses? Where should you devote more time? How are you assessing what you need to work on as well as the progress you’ve made a few months later?

You can’t address your personal development in a short period of time and then carry on as normal. True leadership comes from an ongoing process of continual self-assessment and re-alignment.

The right management, leadership, and engagement models and systems for your personal style

There are a lot of historical and new leadership models, and they may have worked for you in the past, but they all have the same flaw: they’re not yours. A model is only a construct – it can’t accurately represent reality. Instead of getting locked in to a single model, combine models, even if they seem to be in opposition to each other. Keep an eye out for new models from which you can borrow bits and pieces.

The best leadership model is one that you piece together yourself, integrating from other models the parts and pieces that work best for you and your context. Give yourself the time to create and develop a new insight before moving ahead.

A more conscious and intentional manner of leading

Soft skills are some of the hardest skills to learn. Cognitive intelligence will help you handle the day to day quantitative challenges – financial reports and operational issues, for example – but emotional intelligence will give you the capability to use emotions to facilitate performance. By understanding the causes of emotions in yourself and others, you’ll be able to see underneath what people say or do and address the real issues at hand.

And part of that is being conscious of how you come off to others, as well. What messages are your words and actions communicating other than the bare facts? How does your attitude or emotional state change your message? Take the time to pause and reflect before answering or offering your own input. You’ll be surprised by the results.

Self-awareness and wellness strategies

Too often people say leadership when they mean management. Management focuses on external forces and how you can best direct and support your staff. Leadership starts with you. How self-aware are you? Are you balanced physically, emotionally, mentally? Are you resilient?

To keep up with the high demands of senior leadership positions, you need a mindfulness strategy and practice that will ensure your wellness and ability to defeat overwhelm. Integrating mindfulness practices into your daily routine can either be the easiest part of your leadership development or the hardest, but either way it is one of the most important facets.

A coach who knows how to ask the right questions

The benefits of mentorship and coaching are invaluable. Finding the right coach means finding someone who will do more than just offer solutions. The right coach should instead ask you the right questions so you can discover the solutions or next steps that work best for you.

A coach who immediately offers advice or solutions instead of asking questions might not get to the real issue at hand. Your challenges are personal and specific, and they should be treated that way by both you and your coach.

Intensive programs can deliver skills and present new theories, but for real progress, you need to change the way you think about and engage in the act of leadership. A longer, more thorough program that follows up with your progress and personal journey is key to making real change and accomplishing your leadership goals.

Rotman’s Executive Leadership program combines a thorough pre-program assessment, a 5-day intensive and multiple touchpoints over an 8-month period to truly develop your personal capabilities.

What you need to know before a negotiation

Negotiation skills may not always appear on a job description, but having them will help you in almost any role. To be an effective leader you need to be able to balance analytical skills with a broad array of decision making and interpersonal skills. This is no easy task. So how do great leaders build or develop their negotiations skills so they can add value to any situation? They practice.

There’s no better way to learn about negotiation than with an experiential, hands-on approach. Models, concepts and theories are helpful, but sitting down face to face with another person (or group of people) will help you truly develop your toolkit.

Senior managers, directors, and executives will face a variety of different types of negotiations during their careers—some significantly more complex than others. The most important thing to do before entering a negotiation is to do your homework. Ask yourself these questions:

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Where is the value?
Putting a dollar amount on an item in a negotiation can be helpful, but there are  other kinds of value. Is it valuable because of time or its impact on other resources? Studying examples of existing negotiations to see where different sides placed value can give you a greater level of insight into both your own position and that of the other party.

What are your goals?
You can’t negotiate if you don’t know what you’re hoping to get out of it. What is your ideal outcome? What are your must haves versus your nice to haves? Aside from the deal you hammer out together, there are other, less concrete elements that might also factor into your bargaining, such as your relationship with the other party. And speaking of that relationship…

What kind of relationship do you have with the other party?
A negotiation that is based on mutual trust will go better for everyone involved. It’s important to establish trust at the onset. Often this can involve agreeing to a fair process regardless of the outcome. Take a close look at your existing relationship with the other party, but don’t forget to do a careful self-assessment, as well. Personality, ethics, culture, even your willingness to use particular strategies can impact your negotiations. If you’re working with a team, are you all on the same page? How will your team react to strategies used by the other party?

Great negotiators have the skills to get the deal done, but they also know how to evaluate the success of a negotiation after the fact, how to lead a negotiation team effectively, and how to create value for their organization.

And those skills are important in any leadership role. By practicing negotiation, you can improve your communication and persuasion skills and learn how to wield more influence in other situations.

Rotman’s Strategic Negotiations program is led by expert faculty and is designed to provide you with a safe but challenging environment where you can develop your negotiation skills alongside other senior professionals.

Getting HR a Seat at the Leadership Table

Human Resources is often the department that people don’t think about until they need something, and then they need it immediately. But HR professionals know that great HR work requires long-term strategy and planning, a year-round set of tactics for talent development and succession planning, and being recognized as a valued partner in the organization. ­­

And that last item is a key factor for HR success. So how do you get HR a seat at the leadership table as a valued business partner?

Link HR to business strategy

You know that HR is a key element of the overall strategy for your organization, but you also need to make sure that your counterparts in other departments or divisions understand the value of HR and how they can work with you to achieve strategic goals.

Think about how pieces of the HR portfolio such as succession planning, culture change, or even compensation impact other key strategic priorities. As a senior member of the HR team you need to not just be aware of what other areas of the organization are focused on but how HR can contribute to their success. By breaking down silos, you can position yourself and HR as a valuable resource, allowing them to rely on you for insights.

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Integrate leadership development and succession planning

When a senior member of the leadership team leaves, organizations can be left scrambling for a replacement. It can be difficult to get your board of directors or leadership team to commit to long-term strategies for leadership development or succession planning, but the pay-off is more than worth it.

In helping the board plan for the future, you will again gain valuable insights into the larger organization, as well as information you can use for other projects such as culture building and change, talent management, performance alignment, and more.

Make HR strategy part of organizational strategy

The more closely you work with and contribute to other areas of the organization the better you can incorporate pieces of the bigger picture into your own long-term strategy and other pieces of your HR toolbox. The relationships you build across the organization should be like a feedback loop: your work on talent management, culture and performance alignment and compensation should have a direct impact on larger strategic objectives. And the outcomes of that larger strategy work as well as those priorities should feed back into your priorities.

The reason HR often isn’t seen as a key partner of the organization is because it is siloed or not considered a contributor to overall success. Your challenge is to remind people that HR is more than hiring, firing, and benefits. HR is a key factor in strategy, in the longevity of the organization, and can drive innovation and change by embracing formal strategies and frameworks. Over time you need to better incorporate elements like workforce planning, leadership development, strategy alignment, and employee engagement in new ways that are more meaningful to the larger organization.

It’s up to you to learn how you can best effect the perceptual shift in your organization that will make HR a valued partner at the table, truly seen as not a cost centre but a profit engine.  Rotman’s Strategic Human Resource Management program allows for the exploration of latest research, best practices and thinking in areas such as business and human resource strategy, leadership development, talent management and succession planning.

5 Questions to ask as a leader

“Be curious, be lazy, be often,” says Michael Bungay Stanier, one of the world’s top three leadership coaches.

Yesterday, I attended a Rotman Speaker Series sponsored by our Executive Programs featuring Michael Stainer, Partner and Co-Founder of Box of Crayons. Michael wants everyone to do less good work (what’s in your job description) and more great work (the kind of work you can’t stop talking about). And coaching teams to help them do just that should be a regular part of any leader’s day.

Combining research based in neuroscience and behavioural economics, Michael led a packed house at the Rotman School of Management in a highly-interactive and highly-entertaining one-hour session.

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Between laughs and a-ha moments, he shared five of his seven essential coaching questions and got the entire room talking and practicing proven coaching methods.

1.      First, he had us practice The Kickstart Question: What’s on your mind?

He paired us up and the person with the longest hair asked the other ‘What’s on your mind?’ We had to listen without interrupting or trying to add value or give advice. If you are too quick to offer possible solutions, you might solve a problem, but it probably won’t be the most important problem or even the real problem one.

2.      Next, we took turns asking The Focus Question: What’s the real challenge…for you?

He asked us to nominate the best looking person in the pair to go first. I went second.

The ‘for you’ pulls away from the problem and gets to what’s really affecting the individual.

3.      Then, we asked The AWE Question which, according to Michael, is the most important question in the world: And what else?

This question helps us stay curious. Michael said the first answer given is rarely the only answer or the best answer so asking ‘And what else?’ helps your team dig deeper for the real problem or the heart of the challenge.

4.      So, what do you want? This is Michael’s Focus Question.

This helps you be a good lazy coach by enabling your counterpart to work out the solution on their own.  The insights my partner and I gained simply by answering this question were surprising!

5.      Finally, we wrapped up the session with The Learning Question:What was the most useful part of the session’?

We were surprised to learn each of us came away with a unique take away from the talk.

Learn more with Michael’s short book The Coaching Habit.

For upcoming Rotman events, check out our Speaker Series

For more Executive Education, check out our portfolio of high-impact programs or contact me at any time at 416.946.0722.