Boost Academy of Excellence Blog

Last week I was invited to speak at an event hosted a friend of mine in Toronto – a room of CEOs, entrepreneurs, and business leaders. When my friend reached out, he made one specific request: make it relevant not just to the business owners in the room, but to the parents too. So I […]

Think you know business dining etiquette? This 15-question quiz tests your technical knowledge, emotional intelligence, and understanding of the rules most executives get wrong. 3 minutes. Instant results. Quick question: What do you do when a toast is given in your honour at a business dinner? If you hesitated, you’re not alone. Last week, a senior […]

There’s a moment I love in every workshop I lead. It’s the moment when a room full of people who walked in anxious, arms crossed, convinced they’re “not the networking type” – starts to shift. You can feel it. The energy changes. The questions get bolder. The laughter gets louder. And by the end, they’re […]

Ask ten people to define “professionalism”, and you’ll get ten different answers. Ask ten people from different generations, and the gap gets even wider. This isn’t a new observation. But it is a common source of workplace friction – one that plays out in small, daily moments that quietly erode trust, damage relationships, and leave […]

I was speaking with a senior leader recently – someone who manages a large, talented team across multiple client accounts – and she said something that has stayed with me ever since. “They’re good at their jobs. Really good. But the way they communicate makes me question their judgment.” She wasn’t talking about attitude or […]

We spend a lot of time in the professional world talking about communication skills, executive presence, emotional intelligence. We send people to workshops. We invest in coaching. And yet some of the most quietly powerful professional skills – the ones that determine whether a client feels genuinely welcomed or merely processed, whether a meeting feels […]

There is a moment in many of the trainings I deliver when the room gets a little quiet. It happens when I ask people to think about the last time they sent a handwritten thank-you note in a professional context. Not a reply email. Not a LinkedIn message. A real note, written by hand, put […]

There is a dimension of business etiquette that rarely makes it into leadership development conversations – and it should. We invest significantly in teaching leaders how to manage their teams. How to communicate with clarity and respect. How to build cultures where people feel safe, valued, and motivated to do their best work. These are […]

I was sitting in a café not long ago, reading Emily Post’s book on business etiquette – which, looking back, was almost too fitting. About ten minutes in, I looked up from the page and found myself watching a real-life etiquette lesson unfold right in front of me. A woman nearby was on a phone […]