McStay on What Matters - 003 - Glenn Lesko and Judgement in leadership

McStay on What Matters Ep 007 - Ian Morgan: Building an Architecture Firm That Stays Small on Purpose.

Ian Morgan of Next Architecture on renovating Edmonton’s law courts without closing them, putting AI to work on RFPs, and why a flat, mid-sized firm is a competitive advantage. Ian trained at the Bartlett and in Cardiff, landed in Edmonton in 2002, and in 2016 co-founded Next Architecture with Alan Partridge, carrying forward a legacy that traces back to 1938. Thirty-four years into his career, he leads a deliberately mid-sized firm that competes with companies ten times its size, and in this conversation he explains exactly how. We get into the parts of running a firm they don’t teach in architecture school: cash flow, forecasting, the months where payroll keeps you up at night, and the planning tools that turn those months back into sleep. Ian walks through the renovation of the Edmonton law courts, where the building couldn’t close, so his team built the new envelope outside the existing one and worked four storeys above an operating courthouse. We talk about laser scanning heritage buildings, what point-cloud data reveals that the naked eye can’t, how his firm trained AI on twenty years of project sheets to answer RFPs, and where he thinks the technology stops and the architect begins. We also dig into how he builds his team: a flat structure where the partners sit at the same desks as everyone else, hiring for technical grounding, and why staying mid-sized on purpose is a client-service decision, not a growth failure. Topics include: firm succession, leading through cyclical markets, budgeting and value engineering with clients, energy performance in Edmonton’s climate, WELL certification, historic preservation, BIM and Revit, AI in architecture, and building a team built to last. Connect with Ian and Next Architecture: [link] [https://www.nextarchitecture.ca/ian-morgan] McStay on What Matters: conversations with experienced leaders about how they actually navigate the hard calls: developing and coaching people, building teams, and leading for the long game. New episodes twice a month. More at seanmcstay.com. Until next time, focus on what matters. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.seanmcstay.com [https://www.seanmcstay.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1]

The Succession Conversation Most Business Owners Avoid | Mike Mack, X5 Management

Most owners know succession planning matters. Almost none of them actually do it. In this episode of McStay on What Matters, Sean McStay sits down with Mike Mack, founder and president of X5 Management and author of the new book Succession, to unpack the conversation most founders avoid: what happens to the business when you are no longer the one holding it together. They get into why succession is really about making yourself replaceable, why your replacement should not be a copy of you, how a clear plan retains your best people instead of losing them, and the gap between intending to plan and actually doing it. Candid and practical, built for owners and leaders of small and mid-sized companies. What you’ll learn: * Why avoiding the succession conversation is what costs owners the most * How planning your succession makes you more valuable, not less * The three questions that reveal a real successor: do they get it, want it, and have the capacity * Why a clear path forward, even without guarantees, is your best retention tool * The difference between thinking about a plan and actually having one Chapters:00:00 Welcome, and Mike’s new book Succession01:07 Who Mike Mack is and what X5 Management does02:18 How X5 evolved from the original idea05:25 When to make your first hire07:59 Why slow and steady beats hiring to fix a problem08:38 The discovery process: where are you in three years?12:04 Succession: the gap between intention and action15:26 Making yourself replaceable, and the ego problem18:35 Why your replacement should not be another you21:23 Succession as a retention strategy, and timing25:31 Clarity over guarantees28:35 How to start the conversation at your own company33:27 “What if we train them and they leave?”36:23 The one thing every owner should do next38:57 Where to find Mike and the book About Mike Mack:Mike Mack is the founder and president of X5 Management in Edmonton, celebrating 20 years in 2026. X5 is in the people business: strategic planning, succession planning, leadership and team development, and executive coaching. Mike is the author of several books, most recently Succession. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.seanmcstay.com [https://www.seanmcstay.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1]

You Don't Matter Unless You Matter to Me - With Tony Chapman

Tony Chapman is a Marketing Hall of Legends inductee, entrepreneur, and host of Chatter That Matters. In this conversation we get into what it actually takes to earn attention in a world drowning in noise, why "too big to fail" has become "too slow to react," and how AI is reshaping who thrives and who gets replaced. Tony shares his head, heart, and hands framework for decision-making, why curiosity beats killer talking points, and the difference between using AI to do your work and using it to transform your work. If you're building a brand, leading a team, or trying to figure out what matters next, this one is worth your time. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.seanmcstay.com [https://www.seanmcstay.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1]

You Cannot Recruit Your Way Out of a Skills Crisis

Steve Cadigan, former Chief HR Officer at LinkedIn and author of Workquake, joins me to talk about what leaders are getting wrong about talent, development, and the future of work. We discuss why one-size-fits-all talent strategies are failing, why people are increasingly loyal to learning and growth rather than companies, and why organizations will not be able to recruit their way out of the accelerating need for new skills. Steve also shares lessons from LinkedIn’s rapid growth, his own transition after leaving the company, and why careers are built on trust more than hard work. This conversation is about development, but not in the classroom sense. It is about how leaders create the conditions for people to keep growing while the world around them changes. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.seanmcstay.com [https://www.seanmcstay.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1]

McStay on What Matters - 003 - Glenn Lesko and Judgement in leadership

In the third episode of McStay on What Matters, Sean sits down with Glenn Lesko, a partner at Pender and Howe and executive recruitment specialist with nearly three decades of experience finding and assessing senior leaders, to talk about judgment. What does it actually mean to use good judgment, and how do leaders develop it over time? Glenn shares how understanding an organization goes far deeper than a job description, why the gap between what companies say they need and what they actually need is where the real work begins, and how the best decisions in hiring and in leadership come from staying human in a process that often tries to be anything but. Glenn: https://penderhowe.com/en/ [https://penderhowe.com/en/] McStay on What Matters is a biweekly podcast about the decisions leaders carry alone and how they navigate them. YouTube Link: https://www.youtube.com/@SeanMcStay [https://www.youtube.com/@SeanMcStay] This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.seanmcstay.com [https://www.seanmcstay.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1]