Blog Posts in “Leadership”

How to set personal goals that “stick.”

Few would deny that having and achieving your personal goals is an essential part of being happy and feeling good about yourself. But it’s also true that far too often we come up short when it comes to our personal goals. This week, we will explore why we struggle and then turn it around to set…

The world needs better leaders, and it starts with each one of us

We all have opportunities to lead, be it as teachers, parents, spouses, coaches, or the head of a not-for-profit or major corporation. The size of the leadership opportunity and your impact varies depending on the scope of the role and your level of authority. We all get multiple chances to lead…

A case study of Rooney’s, a successful 65-year-old third-generation family business that’s still blowin’ and goin’.

In this post, I outline the successful transition of our family business, Rooney’s Hire Service, to the third generation and why it worked so well despite considerable challenges. The first transition to the next generation started when my dad—who was extremely hard working but also a functioning…

Before my dad started his family business, Rooney's Hire Services—which is still going strong today—he had a stint on Lord Delamere's farm, converted the backyard into a fridge factory, and manufactured hula hoops.

My dad, Daniel Joseph Rooney, was affectionally called “Mickey” by some, simply “D.J.” by others. Back then, he would have best been described as adventurous, hard working, short tempered, entrepreneurial, and a “heavy drinker,” a not-uncommon trait among folks in those hard-driving pioneering…

What I did when my daily journaling failed to give me the peace of mind I was accustomed to.

Research has convincingly shown that people who have an attitude of gratitude are both happier and healthier. The COVID-19 pandemic has wreaked havoc with everyone’s mental health in the last two years. The mortality rates, even in Canada, have been shocking, especially in retirement homes. So, it…

Networking — something only salespeople do or an essential life skill for us all?

In my last job in the music industry, with PolyGram Canada, I created the acronym TN2T. This acronym stands for teamwork, networking, negotiating, and time management. I felt at the time that this quartet of essential skills in combination, like dynamite, constituted a powerful combination of life…

Three critical steps to begin building a motivated, cohesive, and productive team.

The saying “nobody is perfect, but a team can be,” is still my most memorable and meaningful takeaway from an executive program run at the London School of Economics that I attended in the 90s with other executives from Polygram International. My belief in this simple principle and the requisite…

Effective decision making can sometimes best be served by not overthinking.

The opposite of “Just do it” is to delay, to think it over, to overthink it, to put it off until another day, to say you are too busy or already committed. In short, to procrastinate. This recognizable pattern can ultimately lead one to miss the many opportunities that are presented daily. You…

Christmas dinner in our house was a big deal. Tradition meant that the turkey and all the Christmas trimmings were the center piece of our final meal of the day.

The turkey this particular year had arrived on the property for fattening up a good six months before Christmas day. It was the job of my brother Rory and I to take the slops from the kitchen down to the chicken run and feed the ever-fattening turkey daily. Come a few days before Christmas, the…

Saudades is a special Portuguese word that, according to Google, means a feeling of longing, melancholy, or nostalgia—characteristic of the Brazilian temperament. When the last moving truck left for our new home, Moira and I both had strong saudades. It was time to say goodbye to a home we had lived in for the last 32 years, from the time we had arrived in Canada.

Upon first arriving in Canada, we were hit with culture shock, having spent the last 5 years living in Rio de Janeiro. The climate there was hot and humid, with temperatures regularly in the 90s. The culture and lifestyle were totally different too. When we left Brazil, we experienced saudades for…