NAVIGATING TRUMP’S TRADE WAR: Grounded Strategies for Canadian Executives

Leslie Rohonczy, IMC™, PCC, Executive Coach, Leadership Expert, Speaker, Author

In a move driven by short-term political interests, Donald Trump’s latest round of tariffs targeting Canada, Mexico, and China has thrown our economic landscape into turmoil. As markets react, Canadian businesses are bracing for uncertainty and rethinking their strategies for resilience.

But Donald Trump’s trade war isn’t just a policy decision – it’s a disruption sending shockwaves through global markets. Canadian leaders now face an era where economic and political uncertainty isn’t just a possibility; it’s a daily reality. Supply chains are disrupted, key industries face instability, and businesses are left wondering how to adapt in a climate of unpredictability.

This fundamental shift in the way global trade and leadership operate is creating ripple effects of protectionist policies, retaliatory tariffs, and market instability that not only impacts corporate strategy, but also the livelihoods of Canadian families (Canada announces robust tariff package in response to unjustified US tariffs, 2025.

As an executive leader, you may find yourself wondering: How do I navigate this turmoil while maintaining stability for my organization and my team? The good news? You’re not alone. And you have more choices than you may realize.

THE NEW REALITY: CHALLENGES FACING CANADIAN EXECUTIVES

Change isn’t just coming – it’s already here. Many Canadian leaders find themselves:

• Grappling with career transitions and shifting roles as industries restructure in response to new tariffs and market instability, particularly in manufacturing, agriculture, and natural resources (Canadian factory PMI tumbles as tariff uncertainty hits sentiment, 2025.)

• Struggling to keep employees engaged amid uncertainty, as fear of job losses and financial strain grows – especially in trade-dependent regions like Ontario, Alberta, and British Columbia.

• Managing organizational change with limited clarity on the path forward due to fluctuating trade agreements and unpredictable policy shifts, including Canada’s ongoing negotiations within USMCA (United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement).

• Facing decision fatigue, making high-stakes choices daily about cost-cutting, diversifying markets, supply chain adjustments, and workforce management in response to the impact of tariffs on steel, aluminum, and automotive exports.

At the same time, leaders must balance financial sustainability, regulatory changes, and technological advancements that are reshaping industries at an unprecedented pace. The ability to stay grounded, agile, and forward-thinking will determine who thrives in this new reality (PwC Canada CEO Survey: Adapting to economic uncertainty, 2025.)

STAYING GROUNDED AS THE GROUND SHIFTS

1. NAVIGATE WITH A STRONG INTERNAL COMPASS

Your past experiences – both successes and failures – are invaluable. Reflect on what worked, and what didn’t. Honest self-assessment allows you to see where your strengths lie and where growth is needed. Leadership resilience starts with self-awareness.

In the face of shifting trade policies, having a clear set of leadership principles can serve as your anchor AND your compass. Take time to revisit your core values. What principles have guided your best decisions in the past? Aligning your leadership with these values fosters consistency, even in turbulent times (see my previous article that covers key leadership strategies in Leading Through Economic Uncertainty.)

2. RETHINK GOALS: FROM SURVIVAL TO STRATEGY

The brain craves direction. Neuroscience tells us that goals tied to clear rewards become habits more easily. Whether you’re leading a transformation or stabilizing your company, frame objectives in a way that motivates both yourself and your team: are you moving toward opportunity (growth mindset) or away from risk (fixed mindset)? The distinction matters.

For example, instead of reacting to trade restrictions with fear-driven cuts, reframe your approach: How can we reposition our business to capitalize on new markets or emerging trade agreements? Set three levels of goals with this question in mind: 1) short-term (adjusting strategy for immediate shifts); 2) mid-term (exploring alternative suppliers or partnerships, particularly within Canada and Europe through CETA, and especially as Provincial trade barriers fall); and 3) long-term (future-proofing your business against similar disruptions by diversifying exports beyond the U.S.). This structure ensures that no matter how unstable the present feels, you always have a guiding vision.

3. COLLABORATE OR COLLAPSE: WHY TEAMWORK MATTERS MORE THAN EVER

Many organizations are still structured around outdated competitive silos. But high-performing leaders know that success is collective. Redefine success within your teams by rewarding collaboration. Shared goals breed stronger, more adaptable teams.

And think beyond your own structure and resources: in the wake of supply chain disruptions, many Canadian companies have turned to industry alliances and local partnerships to navigate the challenges. Consider implementing cross-functional teams that bring together diverse perspectives from operations, finance, and strategy, with external partners and industry advisors, to create solutions that benefit your organization and the whole industry. Look to government-supported initiatives such as Canada’s Trade Commissioner Service (TCS) and expertise from Canadian crown corporation Export Development Canada (EDC) for insights and funding options that can support businesses through this transition (Canada's big banks push for reforms in Ottawa to confront tariff risks - Reuters).

4. THE EMPATHY ADVANTAGE: LEADING WITH HUMANITY IN TURBULENT TIMES

People don’t just follow plans; they follow people. Employees are experiencing economic anxiety and are worried about job stability, rising costs, and business viability. Acknowledge their concerns. Adapt your communication to show that you understand their challenges. Trust is built in conversations, not in directives.

Regularly check in with your team – not just about work, but about their well-being. A simple “How are you managing these changes?” can open up valuable insights and strengthen trust. Transparency about company decisions in response to the trade war can also help alleviate uncertainty and prevent misinformation (See how Canadians are adapting in: Economic uncertainty has 83% of Canadians changing their financial habits, 2025.

HOW EXECUTIVE COACHING CAN FUTURE-PROOF YOUR LEADERSHIP

Even the best leaders need a space to step back, reflect, and refine their strategies. Executive coaching provides that, offering tailored guidance, accountability, and fresh perspectives. Through deep conversations, structured frameworks, and actionable strategies, executive coaching helps leaders:

• Gain clarity in decision-making amid economic and trade instability.

• Build confidence in leading through uncertainty and market shifts.

• Strengthen their leadership EQ ‘super-power’: developing your emotional intelligence can guide employees through financial and operational stress.

• Identify blind spots that may be limiting strategic thinking in crisis management.

Coaching isn’t about fixing what’s broken – it’s about elevating what already exists. Leaders who invest in their own development create stronger, more resilient organizations that can withstand geopolitical turbulence. (Discover how strong leadership is shaping the future in Celebrating visionary leadership at a critical moment for Canada, 2025).

THE CONVERSATION THAT COULD CHANGE EVERYTHING

You don’t have to navigate this alone. The strongest leaders are not those who stand alone – they are the ones who know when to seek support, challenge their perspectives, and adapt to change with purpose. If you’re ready to explore how executive coaching can help you lead with clarity, confidence, and resilience, let’s talk. Schedule a free discovery consultation to see how you can turn today’s uncertainty into tomorrow’s strength. Powerful coaching conversations can make all the difference.

TAMING THE LONE WOLVES: Transforming Cutthroat Competition into High-Performing Collaboration

By Leslie Rohonczy, Executive Coach, IMC, PCC | ©2025 | www.leslierohonczy.com

A Team That Should Be Winning (but isn’t)

You’ve worked your butt off to build your team. You interviewed multiple high-flyers, chose a select few who rose above the rest, and hired yourself a highly driven, results-oriented team of rock stars. They’re confident, competitive, and relentless in their pursuit of bold goals. Congratulations! On paper, it’s a recipe for record-breaking success.

And yet…

Month after month, instead of celebrating big wins, they miss their targets, and you’re spending your already-squeezed time playing referee in a never-ending cycle of infighting, back-channeling, posturing, and finger-pointing. You’re frustrated. Opportunities are slipping through the cracks. Turnover is up, which means you’ll have to go back out there again, in search of your next unicorn.

Sound familiar? You’re not alone.

Many teams suffer from a ‘lone wolf’ culture, where individuals operate as fiercely independent agents, more focused on personal wins than collective success. While competition can be a powerful motivator, unchecked rivalry can be fatal. When team members view each other as threats rather than allies, trust erodes, collaboration disappears, and opportunities are lost.

The good news? It doesn’t have to be this way. You can harness that competitive energy and channel it toward team-wide success.

Why Lone Wolf Cultures Persist

Before we dive into solutions, let’s look at why this problem exists in the first place. Lone wolf cultures often emerge because:

1. Incentive Structures That Reward Individual Wins: When promotions, bonuses, and recognition are tied exclusively to individual performance, team members naturally strive for personal success over team outcomes, and efforts to work together may be seen as a distraction or nuisance, rather than a strategic advantage. If leaders don’t actively reward collective achievements over personal achievements, the message you’re sending is clear: winning alone matters more than winning together. Over time, this breeds a cutthroat environment where employees guard their insights, resist collaborating and knowledge-sharing, and view colleagues as competitors rather than allies.

2. Lack of Shared Goals: When success is measured solely by individual KPIs, team members naturally prioritize their own objectives over the broader mission. Without well-defined team goals that require collaboration, individual priorities often clash, inefficiencies rise, and friction becomes inevitable. And don’t kid yourself into thinking that having a few collective goals is enough. If most of the leader’s is focus is on individual targets, employees chase personal wins, often at the expense of the organization’s success. It’s not intentional; it’s human nature. High-performing teams don’t just coexist; they work toward a shared vision that unites individual efforts into a cohesive, results-driven force.

3. Lack of Accountability: And, while we’re on the topic of KPIs and metrics, let’s also look at KBIs: key behavioural indicators. When accountability rests solely on the leader’s shoulders to hold employees accountable, team dynamics suffer. Without clear expectations for team members to hold each other accountable in a constructive way, small frustrations fester into major conflicts. Instead of open, solution-focused conversations, tensions simmer beneath the surface, fueling competition, blame, and disengagement.

4. Scarcity Mindset: When employees believe opportunities, recognition, or resources are in short supply, they default to a survival mode of competition. In environments where promotions are rare, leadership roles are limited, or high-value projects are assigned to a select few, employees can feel pressured to outshine rather than collaborate. This scarcity-driven competition often leads to posturing, hoarding information, withholding support, and prioritizing personal advantage over team cohesion. Without a culture that reinforces abundance (where success is not a zero-sum game), trust erodes and true collaboration becomes nearly impossible.

5. Poor Leadership Reinforcement: Even well-intentioned leaders can inadvertently fuel a lone-wolf culture by rewarding individual achievement over collective success. If company leaders consistently celebrate top performers without acknowledging the team effort behind them, they reinforce a mindset of ‘everyone for themselves.’ And leaders who fail to model collaboration (eg: making unilateral decisions, keeping information siloed, or playing favorites) send a message that teamwork is secondary to individual success. To foster a culture of cooperation, be intentional about how you recognize and reinforce behaviors that strengthen, rather than divide, the team.

6. Fear of Losing Control: Some employees see their expertise, knowledge, or unique skills as their competitive advantage – and resist helping each other succeed because sharing assets feels like a direct threat to their success. Whether it’s withholding key insights, avoiding feedback or mentorship, or resisting teamwork, individuals who fear losing their edge often isolate themselves, unintentionally weakening the team’s overall effectiveness. This fear-driven behavior not only stifles innovation; it also creates an unhealthy dynamic where personal protectionism overrides collective problem-solving. To break this cycle, organizations must emphasize psychological safety – where sharing expertise is seen as a strength, not a risk.

The Cost of a Lone Wolf Culture

A hyper-competitive, cutthroat environment might sound like a high-performance culture to some, but in reality, it can have severe consequences to your bottom line and corporate reputation. Teams that operate in silos often miss out on significant opportunities that are only possible through cross-functional collaboration. Without a cohesive approach, projects stagnate, innovation suffers, and major deals or game-changing breakthroughs slip through the cracks.

Beyond lost opportunities, think about what a slog it is to come to work every day in a culture of lone wolves. Individuals prioritize their own success over the team's; distrust grows along with a toxic work environment; constant infighting, backstabbing, showboating; lack of transparency; and an atmosphere of stress and resentment. No wonder burnout and turnover rates are higher in lone wolf teams. Leaders can find themselves caught in a never-ending cycle of conflict resolution and recruiting, rather than focusing their valuable time on strategic initiatives and growth.

A fragmented team also confuses your clients and stakeholders. When different team members present conflicting strategies or undermine each other, it affects the credibility of the whole team – and its leader. This inconsistency damages trust and can result in lost business and diminished reputation.

Ultimately, a lone wolf culture doesn’t just hinder individual performance, it can cripple an entire organization.

Breaking the Lone Wolf Mentality: Leadership Strategies for Change

Surprise! There’s no quick fix! If your team is stuck in a lone wolf mentality, changing it will require deliberate, overt, and consistent shifts over time: in mindset, structure, and leadership approach.

The first step is redefining success. Instead of measuring performance purely through individual KPIs (key performance indicators), establish shared team goals that reward collective achievements. Celebrating wins as a team fosters a sense of unity and reinforces the idea that success is not a zero-sum game. Leaders should publicly recognize collaborative efforts, highlighting how teamwork contributes to overall success.

BCE Inc., Canada's largest communications company, introduced a comprehensive recognition program in 2021 that celebrated achievements within departments and teams to acknowledge collaborative efforts and foster a culture where teamwork is integral to success. And Canadian athletic apparel and accessories giant Lululemon Athletica implemented a team-based cash bonus program to reward groups for reaching store-specific goals, incentivizing collective performance while strengthening team cohesion and aligning individual efforts with broader organizational objectives.

Beyond KPIs, include a set of KBIs in your performance dashboard: Key Behavioural Indicators. What behaviours will you watch for to let you know your team culture is healthy, employees are engaged, motivated, focused on the right things, and interpreting your strategy and objectives the way you intended? (Check out my ‘Coaching Minute’ video on Key Behavioural Indicators here: https://youtu.be/WGh9UaqqYlA?si=wDYLBTiUzeIe9W_f)

Adjusting incentives and recognition structures is a crucial step in the strategy. Implementing team-based bonuses, peer-nominated awards for collaboration, and recognizing those who contribute to a project rather than just those who close the deal can reshape workplace dynamics. When employees see tangible rewards for working together, mentoring each other, and receiving straightforward feedback that helps them succeed, they become more inclined to share knowledge and resources.

Leadership also plays a pivotal role in shifting the team's mindset. The narrative must change from celebrating individual top performers to spotlighting collaborative successes. Be relentless in looking for ways to reinforce this message. Talk about it at cross-functional meetings, open forums for sharing strategies, and 1:1 coaching sessions focused on EQ growth and career development. As a leader, modeling this behavior by demonstrating your openness, cooperation, and a commitment to collective growth at every opportunity, helps your team adapt to the ‘new way we do things around here now'.

Cultivating a culture of trust is another essential element. Transparency is key – giving employees visibility into projects, expectations, decision-making processes – and even the performance ratings process – helps eliminate secrecy and encourages open dialogue. Group Coaching, Peer Coaching, and Mentorship programs can also bridge gaps between team members, fostering knowledge-sharing and reducing territorial behavior. Addressing conflicts quickly and constructively reinforces the expectation that undermining others will not be tolerated. Equip your employees with training, coaching, and frequent opportunities to practice the ideal team behaviours.

Healthy competition doesn’t have to be eliminated – it just needs to be reframed. Gamifying collaboration through contests that reward joint efforts, rotating leadership roles to prevent hoarding of responsibilities, and creating team challenges can maintain motivation while promoting unity. Providing training on the value of collective intelligence can further reinforce why working together is more powerful than operating alone.

What the Research Says About Collaborative Teams

A recent Harvard Business Review study found that companies with strong collaboration cultures outperform their competitors by 27% in revenue growth. Another study by the Corporate Leadership Council revealed that top-performing teams spend 50% more time sharing best practices than their lower-performing counterparts. And a 2022 study published in the Journal of Applied Psychology found that teams engaging in collaborative problem-solving exhibited a 20% increase in performance metrics compared to those working individually. A 2023 report by Deloitte highlighted that organizations fostering a culture of collaboration were five times more likely to experience high performance.

The message is clear: Teams that work together, win together.

Turning Lone Wolves into a Winning Pack

A fiercely competitive team may look strong on the surface, but if they’re constantly undermining each other, they’re losing more than they’re winning. The highest-performing teams aren’t just a collection of individual stars – they’re a well-oiled machine that balances competition with collaboration.

As a leader, your role isn’t just to drive numbers – it’s to build a sustainable, high-performing culture. That means shifting the narrative from ‘me vs. them’ to ‘us vs. the challenge.’ It means rewarding teamwork as much as individual success. And it means leading by example.

The lone wolf era is over. It’s time to build a pack that wins together.

Need Help Shifting Your Team Culture?

If your team is struggling with internal competition and missed targets, let’s talk. As an executive coach specializing in leadership development and team dynamics, I help leaders build high-performing team cultures that drive results. Schedule a consultation today at www.leslierohonczy.com.