The Human Art of Leadership

I grew up in Ottawa, where my dad was in engineering physics in the Navy, and my mum, an RN, was a stay-at-home mum. They both loved books and music. My father played the fiddle and my mother played the piano and when folks came to visit, we would sing together late into the night.

My personal entry into the arts began when I was five years old with ballet, a wordless world where expression came through the body long before it came through language.

Then, when I was twelve, my dad moved us back to the farm in Saskatchewan where he was born and raised. The ballet and piano lessons stopped, and my creative longing found sanctuary in the powerful rhythm of the prairies — and in high school drama class.

I became an English and drama teacher, and after a year I fled to the big city of Toronto to become a professional actress, which I still am. But over 20 years ago I joined the Humphrey Group. I love my work with THG. I believe in it. I believe in its quest to humanize leadership and communication.

Finding My Way into Leadership Work

When I first interviewed with The Humphrey Group in 2001, I was a working actor. I remember sitting down with founder, Judith Humphrey, and telling her that I didn’t know anything about “business.” I was a teacher. And an actress. Hardly a corporate creature. But Judith said, “That’s okay. They know their business. We need to know what you know.”

That was the beginning.

Judith had spent years crafting powerful, eloquent speeches for leaders. But she observed that when those leaders stood up to deliver those words, they would often fall short. What she had so carefully crafted on the page wasn’t making it onto the stage.

So, she began to hire actors to coach leaders. Actors train for years to be in command of their vocal and physical instrument, to breathe life into words, to connect with each other and with the audience. My entry point into the world of leadership and communication was not from the business world, but from my work as an actress: from the body, voice, presence, and language.

How Leadership Has Changed — and What Hasn’t

When I began this work almost 25 years ago, the form of leadership had a specific shape: usually that of a man, stuck behind a podium, speaking to large rooms of people. Leadership communication was far more formal, more hierarchical.

Over time, happily, that shape has changed. Leaders now lead in many incarnations – in large meetings, 1:1 encounters, town halls, emails and presentations. But something alarming has begun to show up within that change. Companies have become very good at prioritizing the thinking mind and have become less attentive to the whole human being.

Too often, the corporate world can treat people as if they are machines: a brain, dead from the neck down. There’s an obsession with information, logic, output, data, all of which are important, but leadership is and must be, at its core, human. Humans have brains, yes, but we also have beating hearts and bodies, which require nourishment through energy, breath, and connection.

A Series of Connections

What I’ve come to understand, through both acting and leadership work, is that effective communication requires a series of connections. We have to connect to ourselves through our breath; our body. We have to connect to the ground. We have to connect to the words we are saying. And, most crucially, we have to connect to the other, the humans we are with.

When any one of those connections is missing, our ability to lead is diminished. The leader does not feel present to us. Their meaning is unclear. They don’t seem invested in us or in their message. The Humphrey Group has created many tools to connect the whole human being to their message and to their audience.

This is where The Leader’s Script becomes so powerful. On the surface, it’s a clear, structured, almost analytical tool. It helps leaders create a thesis-driven argument that clarifies their belief and underscores the “why” behind it. This clarity is essential, but what I love most about The Leader’s Script is that, within its structure, it holds a roadmap for audience-centred connection.

The first part of the template for The Leader’s Script (the bridge) exists to create human connection. It tills the soil between you and your audience. Without it, there’s no reason for someone to open their mind or heart to what you’re saying. From there, every element serves a purpose.

Your message articulates your belief. New action requires new belief, and the way you inspire a human to hold a new belief is to first articulate your own. You then provide support for your belief, based on your audience’s concerns and priorities, and then propose a call-to-action.

It’s an exquisite architecture for leadership communication, an invitation and inspiration for the audience to see through your lens to take action together.

Presence as Practice

Of course, structure alone isn’t enough. What brings your words to life is “Presence.” Actors spend years learning how to inhabit the body, how to breathe, how to listen, how to respond truthfully in the moment. Those same skills are what leaders need, even if they’re rarely taught to think that way.

Presence is not about performing. It’s about connecting. Are we listening? Are we receiving? Are we offering? I often think of leadership as a kind of breath — inhale, exhale, receive, send. Sometimes it’s more important to listen. Sometimes it is more important to speak. The question is whether we are aware of what we are doing, why, and when to make an adjustment.

Where This Work Continues

I’ve been working in the field of leadership and communication for over two decades, and I’m still learning. As contexts shift and tools change, leadership, too, evolves. The questions become more complex, and who knows where it all goes next. But I do know that clear, structured communication will continue to matter. Leaders will always need a way to think clearly, articulate ideas, and guide others toward action.

I also know that, in an increasingly automated and technical world, insisting on our humanity will matter even more. Because people are, in many ways, mirrors. What we bring into a room — our energy, presence, intelligence, the intention to connect and to nourish the other with our humanity — is what we receive back.

We can refine the tools, build better systems, and even automate parts of work by inviting AI in as a companion. But leadership, at its core, is still about one human being connecting with another, through voice, body, energy, and the words they choose. It’s a beautiful thing.