Exciting news: The Humphrey Group has been acquired by Humance!
In this special episode of The Inspire Podcast, Bart Egnal speaks with Bernard Letendre, Managing Partner, Ontario and Western Canada at Humance, about the story behind this decision and the journey that led him there.
Bernard shares his remarkable career path from practicing law to leading major divisions in Canada’s financial services industry, to joining Humance and becoming the architect behind its acquisition of The Humphrey Group. Along the way, he reflects on lessons learned about taking risks, creating opportunities rather than waiting for them, and pursuing growth with purpose.
He also draws powerful parallels between leadership and his lifelong practice of judo, where discipline, humility, and mutual benefit are essential to success.
Bart and Bernard close with an inside look at how the merger came to be after a year of conversation and a shared vision for growth, and how it will set both organizations up to continue serving their clients in existing and new ways.
Whether you’re navigating your own career transitions or leading through change, this conversation offers powerful insights on creating your own opportunities, embracing non-linear growth, and finding strength in partnership.
Show Notes:
00:14 Show intro
00:48 Welcoming Bernard
01:14 Special announcement
02:05 "Humance" meaning
02:29 Judo and its importance
04:40 How Bernard began his career
05:01 Law and the law of electronic surveillance
05:34 Wife: "law made you less fun to be around"
06:47 Joined IG
07:06 Taking a 100% commission job
07:53 Making cold-calls to the bar phonebook
08:35 Finding opportunities in the new job
08:40 Officer training in the military
09:05 Good at management
10:19 Changing career paths regularly
10:36 Switching to Standard Life
11:21 Standard life
12:05 2009 Financial crisis - lost job
12:14 Landing at Manulife
12:36 Should you take a step down in your career?
13:01 Building a biz plan for private wealth at Manulife
13:44 Manulife tapped him to run his business plan
14:54 Advice for people who are ambitious with their careers
15:08 Don't wait for opportunity, come up with ways of creating value
15:36 Congrats, you have employment now figure out your job
16:50 How the Pandemic transformed his life
17:53 cert in organizational coaching
20:59 Why he made the leap to Humance
22:38 Long-term thinking
22:45 Doing is big "act" before it was too late
24:16 Advice: A career does not have to be linear
25:13 Not having a rigid mind
25:36 The final act: Humance
27:05 His Biz plan for expanding Humance outside the Quebec market
28:48 How Bernard reached out to Bart
31:17 Mutual benefit in Judo
33:41 Thank yous and wrap up
34:02 Outro
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Exciting news: The Humphrey Group has been acquired by Humance!
In this special episode of The Inspire Podcast, Bart Egnal speaks with Bernard Letendre, Managing Partner, Ontario and Western Canada at Humance, about the story behind this decision and the journey that led him there.
Bernard shares his remarkable career path from practicing law to leading major divisions in Canada’s financial services industry, to joining Humance and becoming the architect behind its acquisition of The Humphrey Group. Along the way, he reflects on lessons learned about taking risks, creating opportunities rather than waiting for them, and pursuing growth with purpose.
He also draws powerful parallels between leadership and his lifelong practice of judo, where discipline, humility, and mutual benefit are essential to success.
Bart and Bernard close with an inside look at how the merger came to be after a year of conversation and a shared vision for growth, and how it will set both organizations up to continue serving their clients in existing and new ways.
Whether you’re navigating your own career transitions or leading through change, this conversation offers powerful insights on creating your own opportunities, embracing non-linear growth, and finding strength in partnership.
Show Notes:
00:14 Show intro
00:48 Welcoming Bernard
01:14 Special announcement
02:05 "Humance" meaning
02:29 Judo and its importance
04:40 How Bernard began his career
05:01 Law and the law of electronic surveillance
05:34 Wife: "law made you less fun to be around"
06:47 Joined IG
07:06 Taking a 100% commission job
07:53 Making cold-calls to the bar phonebook
08:35 Finding opportunities in the new job
08:40 Officer training in the military
09:05 Good at management
10:19 Changing career paths regularly
10:36 Switching to Standard Life
11:21 Standard life
12:05 2009 Financial crisis - lost job
12:14 Landing at Manulife
12:36 Should you take a step down in your career?
13:01 Building a biz plan for private wealth at Manulife
13:44 Manulife tapped him to run his business plan
14:54 Advice for people who are ambitious with their careers
15:08 Don't wait for opportunity, come up with ways of creating value
15:36 Congrats, you have employment now figure out your job
16:50 How the Pandemic transformed his life
17:53 cert in organizational coaching
20:59 Why he made the leap to Humance
22:38 Long-term thinking
22:45 Doing is big "act" before it was too late
24:16 Advice: A career does not have to be linear
25:13 Not having a rigid mind
25:36 The final act: Humance
27:05 His Biz plan for expanding Humance outside the Quebec market
28:48 How Bernard reached out to Bart
31:17 Mutual benefit in Judo
33:41 Thank yous and wrap up
34:02 Outro
S7 E2: Eradicating Toxic Leadership with Alex Draper
The Inspire Podcast
42 minutes 58 seconds
7 months ago
S7 E2: Eradicating Toxic Leadership with Alex Draper
In this episode of The Inspire Podcast, Bart sits down with Alex Draper, founder and CEO of DX Learning, to tackle a critical issue in the workplace: toxic leadership. Alex starts with a simple truth—bad leadership is toxic and has negative impacts. So why does it persist when no one sets out to be a bad leader?
Alex explains that most toxic leadership isn’t intentional—it’s unintentional, and it stems from a lack of self-awareness and training. He discusses how leaders need to provide Clarity, Autonomy, Relationships, and Equity (his CARE model) and shares how to begin fostering CARE-driven leadership through data gathering, practical steps, and clear ways to measure progress.
Alex’s insights are essential at a time when employees are demanding more from their leaders—and when the opportunity exists to lead in a way that truly inspires. If you're a leader looking to create a healthier workplace culture and drive better results, this episode is for you.
Learn more about Alex at https://www.dx-learning.com/ and https://alex-draper.com
Connect with Alex on LinkedIn here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alex-draper/
Show notes:
1:00 Introducing Alex Draper
1:32 What does DX Learning do?
1:56 Purpose is to wipe out toxicity in the workplace
2:55 How to get leaders to behave in positive ways
4:05 How to go into a company knowing that your specialty is toxic workplaces
4:21 Some people are truly toxic and try to cause stress
5:00 There are narcissists out there
6:00 There's no flawless team or human
6:19 Toxicity exists in every team
7:32 What are the signs of a toxic leader or culture
8:23 Levels of silence indicate a problem
8:56 Ideas and challenging the status quo - is that happening?
9:36 Lagging indicators: retention issues
10:39 What is a typical engagement like?
10:56 Engineering mindset - data!
11:59 What data should we gather?
12:28 70% of variance in employee engagement is down to the managers
12:41 If the team has an issue, it's more than likely the leadership does
12:51 Bottom up approach is not the right approach!
13:15 How to gather the data?
13:28 4 dimensions of high performing leadership/teams
14:54 How "Equity" fits in
16:48 Cognitive dissonance - gaps
17:07 Bart asks for an example of a gap dissonance between leaders and employees
19:21 Advice on collecting "listening data"
21:02 How can leaders provide more clarity?
21:49 Example of a leader working on clarity
24:18 The projection bias
24:48 Heuristics - brain shortcuts -cause issues
25:44 Example of 'autonomy' problem
26:01 Psychological safety = Autonomy
31:46 The "Equity" piece
33:05 Equity is the lagging indicator
33:34 How do you measure equity?
33:43 Fairness orientation
34:23 Equity is the output of the three controllables
34:53 Re-measure!
35:07 What should the measurement frequency be?
35:31 90 days for teams
36:32 Teams are always adapting
37:19 Change is the one consistent
38:22 How do you feel about the state of leadership in 2025 and onwards?
39:56 AI and how it will fit in the mix — emotional intelligence as the distinguishing factor
40:21 Where can people go to find out more?
40:48 Thank Yous
41:35 Show outro
The Inspire Podcast
Exciting news: The Humphrey Group has been acquired by Humance!
In this special episode of The Inspire Podcast, Bart Egnal speaks with Bernard Letendre, Managing Partner, Ontario and Western Canada at Humance, about the story behind this decision and the journey that led him there.
Bernard shares his remarkable career path from practicing law to leading major divisions in Canada’s financial services industry, to joining Humance and becoming the architect behind its acquisition of The Humphrey Group. Along the way, he reflects on lessons learned about taking risks, creating opportunities rather than waiting for them, and pursuing growth with purpose.
He also draws powerful parallels between leadership and his lifelong practice of judo, where discipline, humility, and mutual benefit are essential to success.
Bart and Bernard close with an inside look at how the merger came to be after a year of conversation and a shared vision for growth, and how it will set both organizations up to continue serving their clients in existing and new ways.
Whether you’re navigating your own career transitions or leading through change, this conversation offers powerful insights on creating your own opportunities, embracing non-linear growth, and finding strength in partnership.
Show Notes:
00:14 Show intro
00:48 Welcoming Bernard
01:14 Special announcement
02:05 "Humance" meaning
02:29 Judo and its importance
04:40 How Bernard began his career
05:01 Law and the law of electronic surveillance
05:34 Wife: "law made you less fun to be around"
06:47 Joined IG
07:06 Taking a 100% commission job
07:53 Making cold-calls to the bar phonebook
08:35 Finding opportunities in the new job
08:40 Officer training in the military
09:05 Good at management
10:19 Changing career paths regularly
10:36 Switching to Standard Life
11:21 Standard life
12:05 2009 Financial crisis - lost job
12:14 Landing at Manulife
12:36 Should you take a step down in your career?
13:01 Building a biz plan for private wealth at Manulife
13:44 Manulife tapped him to run his business plan
14:54 Advice for people who are ambitious with their careers
15:08 Don't wait for opportunity, come up with ways of creating value
15:36 Congrats, you have employment now figure out your job
16:50 How the Pandemic transformed his life
17:53 cert in organizational coaching
20:59 Why he made the leap to Humance
22:38 Long-term thinking
22:45 Doing is big "act" before it was too late
24:16 Advice: A career does not have to be linear
25:13 Not having a rigid mind
25:36 The final act: Humance
27:05 His Biz plan for expanding Humance outside the Quebec market
28:48 How Bernard reached out to Bart
31:17 Mutual benefit in Judo
33:41 Thank yous and wrap up
34:02 Outro
