Participating in the THRIVE: A Leadership Journey program helped me become more thoughtful and deliberate in how I interact with my colleagues, family, and friends. I find myself trying to listen more and understand people’s positions before jumping to conclusions or reacting on instinct.
What really stood out to me was how the program tied everything together. It’s not just a collection of ideas, it’s a full journey that builds from the foundation up: understanding yourself, working with people, and then combining people and process to take action. Having it all in one binder means I can go back to it whenever I’m facing a challenge or need a refresher.
What I appreciated most about working with Melanie is that she doesn’t shortcut the process. She takes the time to help people learn and reinforces the concepts by sharing her own experiences and encouraging others to share as well. It really helps the material take root and become part of a person’s management process/style.
I highly recommend the THRIVE program to any experienced executive interested in continuous improvement and evolving their leadership style to create more impact within their organization.
Robert Poultney
Chief Financial Officer
Melanie was deeply invested in our organization’s success and went above and beyond to help our senior leadership team, team members, and organization learn and grow.
Our entire company, from founder-level down, participated in the THRIVE: A Leadership Journey program, meeting with Melanie weekly for over seven months.
Feedback from team members was very positive. Strong appreciation was expressed for the ability to get to know each other and themselves better and develop a common language and shared understanding of how to be effective leaders and team members. We saw increased confidence and effectiveness in identifying issues, navigating difficult conversations, and working as a team.
For those with prior leadership training, THRIVE introduced a fresh perspective on best practices—emphasizing the individual and their needs over productivity-focused coaching. Leaders learned ways to build on their strengths and best support their fully-remote teams. Team members learned the importance and value of self-leadership and how to apply leadership thinking to being a great coworker.
Melanie’s communication style was approachable and sincere, striking an ideal balance of honesty and vulnerability to build trust and create a safe space for others to share openly. Her empathetic listening, even and especially toward the “skeptics,” played a key role in opening minds and driving positive change.
As VP of Operations, THRIVE reaffirmed my belief in leadership as a means of enabling and empowering others to be their best selves, and highlighted the immense value of leading by example.
Nina Pyron
VP Operations
Melanie is amazing at what she does. She changes people’s lives, for the better! She makes us want to be better at what we do!
She creates a space where people feel comfortable getting uncomfortable. She tailors all her work to your situation, prioritizes listening over talking, emphasizes accountability, doesn’t bogg you down with the fluff, nor does she allow you to get away with fluff responses. And then she caps it off with reinforcement.
Simply the best!
Lorrie Guggisberg
Human Resources Director
Melanie challenged us to look at ourselves and our practices individually and as a team. She coached us to make goals for ourselves and our practice and she held us accountable to our goals by checking in and asking questions.
Melanie helped us to see that all of the concepts related to strong leadership are familiar to us, but helped us to make sense of them in a way that continues to benefit us personally as well as a team. Melanie used humour, her own experiences and our experiences to help us to learn and grow and to work together as a team.
Cora Burns
Executive Director
Melanie showed humor and exuded warmth. It’s not always easy to create that type of connective energy in a virtual setting or to create an environment where participants feel comfortable sharing personal details without having spent any previous time together.
Melanie is a skilled facilitator able to create an intimate space for participants to have real meaningful conversations. I look forward to partnering with her again in the future.
Lisa Forestieri
Learning & Development and Diversity Specialist
My organization (CPB Canada) worked with Melanie to help our high-performing team address our group dynamics and the changing expectations as we grow. It was a thought-provoking session that shed insight into critical questions every group of co-workers should be addressing regularly.
We took a lot of insight and value from this session. We highly recommend Melanie as a facilitator and guide for any team and organizational development work.
Rick Johal
CEO
“THRIVE: A Leadership Journey” exceeded all my expectations. Melanie’s program goes far beyond typical leadership training. It provides a foundational framework for creating a culture of genuine efficiency through trust, safety, and empathy.
This course provides the potential to make a real difference in any organization looking to create thought leaders who can bring the best out of the people they support.
Michael Degli-Angeli
Senior Software Engineer