STRATEGY + SUPPORT

Daring + Kind advises on human leadership matters across all human resources functions. We help you develop, implement, and transform your leadership strategy, culture, and HR programs to align with and propel your business strategies. We provide you with flexible solutions tailored to your organizational and business needs, including dedicated full-time leadership and support, support for special projects, and preliminary or interim support.

We take a top-down approach. Starting with your executive leadership, we work with you to build and operate your organization so that it motivates your people from the top down through genuine, inspired leadership at every level of your business. Through the creation of a culture of excellence, we will help your people to self-regulate performance standards, exceed expectations, inspire creativity and flexibility, and generate sustained value for your organization. We help you adapt to fast-changing market dynamics by building your talent management capability into a key differentiator and competitive advantage.

LEADERSHIP + CULTURE

We understand the fundamental differences between “managing” and “leading” and the linkage between respect, caring, integrity, value, talent, and performance. Every business school teaches management skills. Not everyone understands how to teach leadership skills. A leader is a steward over the lives of their team. Employees are more supportive of each other, are more collaborative, and are more excited to come to work when they feel truly valued and appreciated, and most importantly when they trust each other and their leaders.

We bring a human-focused leadership approach to help organizations across all types of industries create and implement positive, effective enterprise-wide cultures by shifting their executive mindset from management to leadership, creating meaningful dialogue with employees, and putting care and trust in their people as an investment in the future of their business. We work with your executive team and specific teams across your organization to audit and measure your organizational health, shift behaviour, and shape your organizational culture to achieve sustained excellence in enterprise-wide performance.

TRAINING + MANAGEMENT

Many executives sincerely try to do things right, and yet their employees don’t feel committed to or inspired by them. Many executives fail to drive transformative change or command the loyalty of their employees because they behave more like managers than true leaders. Traditional leadership philosophies and practices focus on management criteria rather than leadership principles. Executives often establish their power and authority through titles and reporting chains and tend to focus on getting to the finish line rather than on the processes and efforts that make success possible, sustainable, and replicable.

We believe that a better understanding of leadership is deeply rooted in what it means to “be” a leader. We work with your team to unglue traditional leadership principles and unlock innate leadership potential to create transformative leaders across your organization who inspire others, align people, set direction, and navigate your human resources talent to deliver success. We help you develop a talent management paradigm focused on optimal hiring methodologies to recognize talent, training programs to develop talent, and retention plans to retain high-performance talent. We work with you to design and implement pragmatic strategies to optimize performance management, performance evaluation, rewards and incentives, and succession planning.

POLICIES + PROCEDURES

We advise clients preparing, providing, and administering made-to-measure HR policies and procedures consistent with your organization’s culture and provincial and federal laws and regulations, including with respect to employment standards, health and safety, human rights, and workplace harassment and violence.

We work with you to develop documentation and methodologies consistent with best practices and regulatory requirements, including your employee handbook, job descriptions, offer letters, employment agreements, independent contractor agreements, disciplinary programs, and termination procedures. We help you protect your intellectual property, including trade secrets and copyright.

CHANGES + TRANSFORMATIONS

Our experienced human leadership advisors have diverse expertise across a wide range of industries to help your organization design and implement major human leadership change programs, particularly where business results are dependent on people shifting their behaviors and mindsets to drive value. We help you design and implement enterprise-wide transformational change programs, including moving from good to great performance, cutting costs, or turning around a crisis.

We work with you to navigate organizational transformations as a result of critical changes, including new employment initiatives, new leadership or new leadership vision, key M&A transactions, or internal restructurings. We help you throughout the transformative process to build and sustain your culture of new or continuous improvement, shaping your change vision, setting targets linked to business outcomes, providing tools to diagnose your organization’s ability to meet targets, and delivering improvement initiatives that strengthen performance, build capabilities, and change organizational mind-sets and behaviours. We support your efforts to build commitment and alignment with respect to the transformation across your senior team and help your leaders become models for change, providing them with the tools necessary to succeed in their role as pilots of your transformational change.

COMPENSATION + BENEFITS

Daring + Kind advises clients on all aspects of compensation, benefits, and retention strategies. We work with you to design and implement compensation programs (including salary structures, incentive plans, and pay equity structures) that properly reflect your culture and attract, motivate, and retain the right talent, accelerate your organization, and optimize your long-term business success.

FOREIGN COMPANIES OPERATING IN CANADA

Daring + Kind advises foreign clients looking to operate in Canada. Our experienced advisors have a wealth of diverse domestic and international expertise across all areas of Canadian HR matters to optimize your expansion into the Canadian market.

Our Expertise

• Strategy + support

• Leadership + culture

• Training + management

• Policies + procedures

• Changes + transformations

• Foreign companies operating in Canada

VIRTUAL CHIEF PEOPLE OFFICER

You want to do right by your people. But you may not have the budget for a full time CPO. Or you may be finding that hiring the right full-time CPO is challenging. We can act as your Virtual CPO - helping as needed.