Call of Duty

Past Call of Duty

When I was a boy, my father would take me on weekends to visit the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Montreal. Obviously combining parenting and work, he was also hoping to interest me in what was the family business. The hospital was founded by my mother’s grandfather (Dr AR Griffith) and made popular by her father Jim (Surgeon in Chief) and Uncle Harold (Chief Anaesthetist). My father (Albert) was Executive Director at the time and with the legacy of family portraits on the wall in the hospital lobby, it seemed to me only natural that I would also work at the hospital someday.

Despite playing with a microscope and chemistry set when I was young, my growing aversion to allergy and blood tests dissuaded me from wanting to pursue a career in medicine. My father’s boss and the Chairman of the hospital (Phil Aspinall) was a senior partner at Montreal’s leading accounting firm (Coopers & Lybrand) and I chose accounting as my profession thinking in time I would turn my attention to helping run the hospital. I joined Coopers & Lybrand and immediately after qualifying transferred to Geneva and then Hong Kong to gain international experience before my eventual return to Montreal.

While still working for Coopers & Lybrand in Hong Kong (note 1), the English-speaking hospital with the offensive English name was closed by Quebec’s French separatist government (note 2). It was a troubled time for Quebec’s English community due to the repeated referendums threatening Quebec’s separation from Canada. My anticipated career to work in hospital governance came to an end before it began. While I was sad to see the hospital close, it had become apparent operations were increasingly difficult due to diminishing budgets and growing needs. I felt relief from no longer feeling the duty to manage the toxic mix of politics and economics at this difficult time in Quebec history. I also felt release to pursue my own goals. I started my family, started my business (note 3) and rode the waves of ups and downs for thirty years until another call of duty came from English Quebec.

Recent Call of Duty

In 2022 the toxic mix of politics and economics in Hong Kong had forced a lot of its talent overseas, a déjà vu for me remembering the English (and French) exodus from Quebec back in the 1990’s. At the height of the exodus, I was invited to apply for the position of Principal of Bishop’s University, another of Quebec’s venerable English institutions with family attachments, and also standing in the headlights of Quebec’s separatist government. Feeling the same sense of duty that resonated from my attachment to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, I applied for the position fulfilling the repeated suggestions many people had made to me over the years believing my international training, university teaching, and school governance experience would be perfect for Bishop’s.

I had only once applied for a job and that was in my final year of BBA at Bishop’s when I chose to become an accountant, starting on the road to what I thought would lead me into hospital governance. My second ever job application thirty years later was to take me back to Bishop’s as Principal but for one problem. I had lived outside Quebec too long and the people selecting the next principal were looking for someone they knew, with local relevant experience, not someone unknown and untested in the local market. I was never in doubt of my dark horse candidacy, but I had three examples of outsiders being selected for chief executive roles in English Quebec. My father moved from the Quebec lumber industry to run the Queen Elizabeth Hospital. Phil Aspinall moved from Coopers & Lybrand to run the Royal Victoria Hospital. And Michael Goldbloom moved from The Gazette to run Bishop’s University. The one difference these three leaders had over me was they were locally known. My outsider status was further compounded by my absence during three years of covid leading up to Principal selection in late 2022. In the end they chose someone more bilingual and more academic.

I wish the new principal at Bishop’s University every success. Since I was not selected, I feel the same sense of relief I felt back in the 1990’s. Running an English university in Quebec today faces a lot of the same political and economic barriers that obstructed English hospitals thirty years ago. Not being selected also gives me a sense of release, free to pursue opportunities to continue my consulting globally. My only concern is that Bishop’s University will be eventually closed by the Quebec government just like the Queen Elizabeth and Royal Victoria Hospitals. They will point to budget and declining English population. They have only themselves to blame for that.

Future Call of Duty

With my family members set in their own directions, my company closed, all but one of my directorships terminated, and the family home in Hong Kong sold, I look forward to the freedom this stage of life affords me to continue my life’s calling in the leadership, dialogue, and negotiation of change. I will continue podcasts, build my online community for current and emerging change leaders, pilot my first public online workshop, continue teaching post graduate courses at McGill (Montreal), AIT (Bangkok) and elsewhere, and I will resume my private sector work based from the Laurentians in summer, Hong Kong in winter, and online throughout the year.

When I visit Quebec this summer to plan renovations of the Potential Dialogue Center, I will feel both relief and release. In this 30th anniversary year of my work in the strategy, dialogue, & negotiation of successful change, I look forward to continuing to help current and emerging change leaders realise their potential while helping others realise theirs (Potentialism).

Happy New Year of the Rabbit.

Kindly,

Peter

Peter Nixon FCPA, professor, corporate trainer, author, speaker, consultant +852-9188-0056;

#potentialdialogue | #starnegotiator | #peterandrewnixon |

Notes

1. Coopers & Lyband became a legacy firm of PwC in 1998

2. The Queen Elizabeth Hospital of Montreal was closed in 1995 and now operates as a Health Complex offering outpatient services to the local community.

3. Peter Nixon declined partnership at C&L and started consulting in 1994. Potential Ltd operated continuously until 2022 after which Peter chose to simplify and continue operations under his own name.

“the quality of our dialogues today determines the quality of our future tomorrow”

Peter has helped tens of thousands of leaders in >600 organisations & 60 countries worldwide to achieve optimal outcomes through improved decision making based on dialogue, negotiation, and leadership. Peter is a Canadian citizen currently resident in Hong Kong.

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Text - Standing down from the call of duty