Breaking Glass – Heeding it’s own Advice
When I first founded Breaking Glass, some of my colleagues and friends questioned the name Breaking Glass. I was warned many would default to the glass ceiling, others said it doesn’t sound like anything to do with HR, and others said it will never be found in google searches. All of those cautions were realized, but hasn’t affected business at all! I chose to go with what felt right.
For as long as I can remember, my advice to business leaders, as well as coaching for HR teams, has been “sometimes you have to break some glass in order to affect change”. Plain and simple, that’s how I came to name my HR consulting business Breaking Glass. I found myself most effective as a business partner when I worked with leaders in assessing what is holding the business back from being wildly successful, then helping craft and execute a plan to fix that. Change can be daunting, time consuming and requires a level of leadership that not everybody possesses or wants to invest energy in as there is always something more pressing happening in the business. Even more often, lack of change results from having difficulty finding the courage to make the tough decision required to the change. That’s where the coaching around breaking some glass comes in. My role is to help leaders through the daunting task of identifying the change needed, developing the plan, and building up the courage to make the tough decisions to execute the plan. Hence Breaking Glass Inc.
Great leaders can not only look at the organization and determine what change is needed, they also are willing to look internally at themselves at what may need to change in order to be most effective. Over the past several months I did just that – I looked externally at the business climate, especially with the short- and long-term impacts of Covid-19, and I looked internally at what motivates and drives me. I reflected on my own advice that “sometimes you have to break some glass in order to affect change” and as a result, I decided it was time to affect a change that I’ve been considering for a long time.
17 years ago, I made the decision to leave my hometown of Halifax, NS and with my four-year-old daughter we moved to Toronto for me to advance my career with Pepsi at the time. I am the youngest of 22 first cousins, most of which reside in Toronto, and along with some close friends and a brother two hours away in London, it was an easy transition for us. From career, family, education and social aspects, it was a very positive move for us and I’d say my daughter thrived in this environment. But it never felt like home for me. I knew someday I’d go back home to Halifax, but timing never felt right. 17 years later, with my daughter entering her fourth year at Dalhousie, Breaking Glass coming up on four years in practice, and my heart still in Nova Scotia, I made the decision to repatriate back home.
As of September 1, Breaking Glass has relocated its home base to Hammonds Plains, NS, just outside Halifax. We continue to practice across North America with a strong presence still in Toronto. If Covid-19 has proved one thing to all of us, it’s that if you’re effective, you can work from anywhere! While travel may be limited in the short term, Breaking Glass will continue to provide HR leadership support to existing and new clients across North America. And now I will do it with an even bigger smile, finally having my head and my heart truly aligned by being back home where I was always meant to be. I’m excited to begin this next chapter of my life, and to lead the growth of Breaking Glass in the Maritime market. Once again, I chose to go with what felt right.