Meet Paul

Paul is an expert at showing corporate teams how to be more unified and more collaborative. His proven team building program is guaranteed to bust through the silos as he shows your team how to be as unified as the players in a great orchestra.

A-list corporations have been using Paul’s team building program for almost two decades, his audiences include Microsoft, RBC, Goodyear, ING, Heineken, FedEx, PwC and P&G.

Paul Houle 8/24/17 Paul Houle 8/24/17

You could do it by yourself but should you?

Maybe you’re a bit like me in that you’re pretty independent when it comes to doing your job.

After all, you and I have spent years becoming proficient, knowledgeable and responsible in order to be able to do what we do.

There’s a certain satisfaction, a sense of pride, when you can do things without relying on others.

As children, we were taught to be self-reliant – strong and capable. And it’s still going strong. Google “children and self–reliance” and you’ll see there are reams of information on how to create an independent child.

Then there are the quotes we often hear that re-enforce the necessity of being self-reliant.

“If you want a thing done well, do it yourself.” Napoleon Bonaparte

You usually hear this when someone is complaining about a task they entrusted to someone else that didn’t go so well.

“Survival of the fittest” – This is a phrase that originated from Darwinian evolutionary theory, inviting us to make ourselves the brightest and the best in order to succeed.

“No one can really pull you up very high - you lose your grip on the rope. But on your own two feet, you can climb mountains. “ Louis Brandeis

You get the idea.

But there’s a downside to all this.

Sometimes we can be too independent, so much so that it costs us.

Paul Houle 8/10/17 Paul Houle 8/10/17

How to be more accepting of others

On a recent Sunday I found myself sitting in a church.

My church attendance could be referred to as spotty at best, and my religious education as a child was practically non-existent. So when I find myself in church, it is usually as a tag along because I have been gently prodded to attend with others who wish to go, as I was recently.

When I go, I tend to be more of an observer than a fully engaged participant. I also think we could all use a little more thoughtful reflection in our lives and churches can be a good place for that, no matter the religion.

Interestingly this time though, my take-away from this particular visit had nothing to do with the sermon but everything to do with the people who were there.

Paul Houle 7/27/17 Paul Houle 7/27/17

Why it's important to make your employees successful

Have you ever thought about the kind of leader you are?

Have you ever thought about how your employees see you? How they feel about working for you?

Leadership is heady stuff but I have found that it’s important to take some time to reflect on the type of leader you are and the type of leader you want to become.

Because when you’re finally sitting in that chair with people looking to you for direction, it’s good to know what type of leader you want to be.

Sure, this is important so that you can achieve your goals. But it’s also important because you’re going to need help.

Paul Houle 7/21/17 Paul Houle 7/21/17

What you need to know to help your employees through change.

I’ll never forget the first night my wife and I spent in our new house after a long moving day.

It was evening when we finally sat down to reflect on the day’s events. The children were upstairs in their barely-made beds, surrounded by half-opened boxes with clothes pouring out.

Our furniture was tentatively placed in rooms that were loosely defined from a couple of visits and my crudely made floor plan.

We weren’t sure which room we’d put the TV in so we picked one of the rooms on the main floor and I plugged in some wires.

We huddled up on the couch and tried to focus on the show but we couldn’t. We were distracted. Distracted by every new sound we heard through the open window, every voice, every car door, every little breeze, every normally unnoticed sound you notice because it’s the first time you’re hearing it.

Don’t get me wrong…we were filled with the excitement of new. This was what we had wanted to do.

But just hours earlier we had lumps in our throats and tears in our eyes as we closed the door for the last time on a place that, just 9 years earlier, had been the beginning of our biggest adventure together, a place where so much had happened.

It’s funny how you can see history in an empty room. It’s strange how you can touch a door handle and a flood of memories go through you.

And while you can also see the future in an empty room, it doesn’t impact you the same way.

The future seems to be more of a dream. It’s not so clear.

It’s because the past, even though it’s gone, holds the power of being the way things have always been. Or so it seems, because it’s been so long since the last change.

It doesn’t matter whether that’s in our personal life or in our work. The past has power.

So if you’re a leader who needs to help people through change, that is what you’re up against. The past has an incredible hold on most people. Especially if it has been a good past, a great past, a past that has served you well.

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