88: From Deloitte to the Deep Blue: CEO Kendra MacDonald on Leading Bold Innovation

What if the biggest untapped leadership opportunity on the planet lies underwater?

In this eye-opening episode of No Limit Leadership, Sean Patton sits down with Kendra MacDonald, CEO of Canada's Ocean Supercluster and former Deloitte partner. Leading a national transformation to bring AI, automation, and collaboration into the $1 trillion ocean economy, Kendra shares insights on navigating complex stakeholder environments, leading without ego, and why 75% of the ocean floor remains unmapped—representing one of humanity's greatest frontiers.

You'll discover why successful leaders fall in love with problems, not technology, how to manage friction points in multi-stakeholder environments, and why the ocean economy may redefine global business in the next decade. Whether you're leading innovation in traditional industries or driving change across complex partnerships, this conversation is packed with practical frameworks for leading transformation in uncharted territory.

What You'll Learn in This Episode

01:20 -  Who is Kendra MacDonald and her journey from Deloitte to ocean innovation

05:28 - Project-based vs. sustained leadership: the crucial differences

10:29 - From 275,000 people to one: transitioning to mission-driven CEO

12:38 - The mission of Canada's Ocean Supercluster and the $1 trillion opportunity

16:53 - The unexpected truth about the ocean economy most people don't realize

23:13 - Leading without ego in a complex stakeholder environment

26:59 - The friction point framework: where leaders need to focus their energy

30:36 - The #1 mistake companies make: falling in love with technology, not problems

37:22 - Essential skills rising leaders need for the next 10-15 years

40:01 - The timeless leadership principle that will always matter

Connect with Kendra MacDonald
💻 Website: oceanssupercluster.ca
🔗 LinkedIn: Kendra MacDonald

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No Limit Leadership is the go-to podcast for growth-minded executives, middle managers, and team leaders who want more than surface-level leadership advice. Hosted by executive coach and former Special Forces commander Sean Patton, this show dives deep into modern leadership, self-leadership, and the real-world strategies that build high-performing teams. Whether you're focused on leadership development, building a coaching culture, improving leadership communication, or strengthening team accountability, each episode equips you with actionable insights to unlock leadership potential across your organization. From designing onboarding systems that retain talent to asking better questions that drive clarity and impact, No Limit Leadership helps you lead yourself first so you can lead others better. If you're ready to create a culture of ownership, resilience, and results, this leadership podcast is for you.

Transcript

[00:00:00] Sean: Most leaders think innovation happens in boardrooms and tech labs, but what if the biggest untapped opportunity lies underwater? Today's guest is Kendra McDonald, CEO of Canada's Ocean super cluster, leading a national transformation to bring AI automation and collaboration into one of the world's most overlooked frontiers.

We talked about falling in love with problems, not technology leading without ego in a stakeholder jungle, and why the ocean economy may redefine global business in the next decade. If you wanna sharpen how you lead innovation, drive alignment across complexity, and stay ahead of what's coming next. This episode is your playbook.

Welcome to the No Limits Leadership Podcast. We discuss ancient wisdom, real world experiences, and the latest concepts on mastery leadership of self and others. If you're committed to maximizing your life and your impact on the world, you're home.

Welcome to the No Limit Leadership Podcast. I am your host, Sean Patton, and today's guest is Kendra McDonald. She's the CEO of Canada's Ocean super cluster. With a background as a partner of Deloitte and a passion for innovation, Kendra is leading a national effort to transform the ocean economy through cutting edge technology.

Responsible AI and strategic collaboration. She's a champion for curiosity driven leadership, and her work is reshaping how we think about innovation in one of the world's most untapped environments. So I'm super excited for this conversation. Kendra, welcome to the show,

[00:01:20] Kendra: Thanks so much.

[00:01:22] Sean: and I'm excited to have you. and you are calling in from Canada.

Are you from Fairfax or what's the area you're in? You're

[00:01:30] Kendra: I am in St. John's at Newfoundland. So if you picture North America way off east on a piece of rock in the middle of the North Atlantic, that is, I'm on the end of that rock. Yep.

[00:01:41] Sean: The end of the rock on the end of the rock. On the end of the rock. Yeah. you're in such a cool, space and when technology and really an industry, is looking at the ocean and looking at this untapped resource and on trying to make sense of such a complicated environment.

But I'm just wondering what brought you to this tech space and inspired the move specifically to ocean innovation?

[00:02:07] Kendra: Yeah, so tech space goes way back to when I started my career, so I had the opportunity back at Deloitte to work in telecom, and I got to visit a satellite, before it got launched. And I just found the telecom space really interesting because at the end of the day. I could understand the purpose of the tech, which was to get a call at that time.

It's probably more instant messages now, but at the time you were trying to pick up the phone and get somebody to answer at the other end. But there was a ton of technology that made that happen from capturing the call and then, transiting it across and picking it up at the other end. And so I just, that really interested me.

And then I went through, not to date myself in terms of my career, which had voiceover IP and the internet came along. So all these different technologies, but the purpose of communication, like human to human communication remained the same. And so I carried that forward and with Deloitte got really involved in educating on new technologies.

And you had things like 3D printing or blockchain or robotics and artificial intelligence. And so then when this role came along, someone said to me, if you really care about Canada and you really care about technology. This is a really good opportunity. And bringing that technology capability.

'cause what we're really trying to do, I've been involved with, digitalization in FinTech or media where we talk a lot about bringing more and more technology. This is bringing technology into the ocean. So while it's a very different space, it's a very similar concept in terms of bringing more and more tech into an industry.

[00:03:37] Sean: it's interesting, I talked to different people that came from, consultancy in, in different areas or, different, firms. How did your time at Deloitte shape your approach to leadership?

[00:03:52] Kendra: so. I had the opportunity at Deloitte to live and work in four different cities. and so that, actually I should say that five different cities. And I think you learn to be. You are responding to other people's challenges. So you learn to think outside of the box. You have the opportunity to work with really smart people all around the world, both within the organization and more broadly.

I worked, , I was part of the global team by the time I finished, and so I think it just, it, you're deadline driven. You're also accounting for your time in six minute increments. So you learn how to be efficient in terms of, , tackling challenges. But yeah, I think it, it creates a lot of resiliency.

It creates a lot of opportunity and I think at the end of the day, it gave me so much variety of opportunity across industries, across technologies, across geographies. , And so that I think allowed me to take on to be more innovative, right? So to think about different ways of doing things. and you would think, I actually started my career as accountant, so you wouldn't necessarily think.

Background in accounting over to innovation, but you just had so many, , varieties of challenges that, I just really enjoyed it.

[00:05:07] Sean: is there a difference when you're leading like a project-based team, like DeLeT, you got assigned to do a project, maybe a shorter term project or a few months or something, and leading that team versus leading, , inside of a company that is like long-term more sustained, right? So we're leading, you're not, how do you approach those two scenarios, differently.

[00:05:28] Kendra: Yeah, so I think one of the things that I actually, I learned as I was exploring this opportunity is I really like to build things. And so as much as I enjoyed the client delivery side of what I was doing, if you actually looked at what I did at Deloitte, I. Went to Australia and I helped to build the telecom team in Australia.

I went to Hong Kong. I helped to build the Hong Kong team, focused on telecommunications. I came to Montreal and then we had new regulation and I helped to educate and build the team that was going to deal with that particular issue. And so as much my day-to-day was tackling client problems. If you look at the broader things that I really enjoyed doing, then I actually joined the.

The global team and I built the first internal audit function within the global team. And so what I realized was that was what I liked. I liked building something new, and I also liked the opportunity to see it through. So part of the challenge when you're a consultant. You come in when you're asked to come in and you leave when you're asked to leave.

And often you don't get the celebration of actually finishing the project. You do your part and you move on. And so I really like this idea of, , being able to build something now because I'm used to building, part of my role here is what is the next thing that I can build? So how do you make sure that the thing that is built is as efficient as possible, but what is that next thing?

Because our job is to build the economy. And the environment is constantly changing and technology is constantly changing. And so how do you keep that build mindset even though the original machine is built? 

[00:07:04] Sean: Yeah, I think a lot of leaders, maybe you've seen this with some of your, Your colleagues from Deloitte or some people you've worked with that are either maybe entrepreneurs or, a lot of consultants is they like the, almost the novelty, right? Of like the new project, the new thing, and you get it done.

It's exciting, and then it's done. And then you go onto the next new thing and that's exciting. And then, maybe they go to a larger company or, they build a company and now it's, They've got to, they got it to 50 employees or a hundred employees, and the pace and the novelty changes and there's a mindset shift that I think some people can, make.

Some people don't want to make and some people really struggle with. Did you, have you seen that?

[00:07:49] Kendra: Yeah. So I think you see that the, founder is not necessarily the person that can then scale the company because it takes a completely different set of, , skills. So the, what I find with the founders, because we work, we have a startup project we work with a lot of founders, is they bring an incredible amount of passion.

they can tell the story around the idea and why it's. So important to them. Often they'll have a personal connection to why they got into doing what they're doing in the first place, but then you reach a certain size and scale and now you're dealing with, regulatory and financial and capital markets.

And that's a different skillset. So it is often why you see a founder, they get good advice that founder finds, a CEO or someone else to help them, scale the business. once it reaches a certain size.

[00:08:38] Sean: Either people you personally know or you just see in the industry as, a leader who's seen so many sides of this, when you do see that rare founder, or maybe it's a rare consultant who can step into a role of a larger company when they do that, what do you, think? how do you think they make that transition successfully?

Like what it is, how do they have to shift their mindset? Is it about getting the right team around you? Like how do you make that shift if maybe you've built something and you're like, oh, it's getting a little outside my scope right now. Or do you think the best thing is, just go find someone else, but what if you want to stay with it?

Like, how, would someone tackle that challenge?

[00:09:20] Kendra: Yeah. So we would see, I would've had several colleagues that went into industry, right? So left consulting and went into industry. I think that, the great news when you're a consultant is you get to work with all kinds of different companies. And so when you find a good cultural fit, so that's part of it is all of a sudden there's a good cultural fit, you have a passion for what that organization is trying to do, and you have a skillset that is relevant to that organization for a longer period of time, because often you're going in as a consultant, they need you to do X or fix X or make a recommendation for X, and then you fix X and you move on.

But in some cases they would need sustained capabilities. So whether that is, a big IT transformation that's gonna take a number of years and they're planning on having multiple, or whether it's taxation, which is something you're going to have to deal with forever. And so all of a sudden you're able to really find that I like the company, I like the culture, and I can continue to grow in my skillset.

And so that makes it possible to make that transition.

[00:10:21] Sean: so what was that transition like for you moving from, a corporate partner, a consultant to a mission-driven CEO?

[00:10:29] Kendra: Yeah, so I, went from 275,000 people to one. so

[00:10:36] Sean: It's a slight change. It's a slight change.

[00:10:38] Kendra: yeah, and, the very basic things I didn't think about, Setting up the bank account or picking the IT system. These are things that when you're in a large organization, you're simply not responsible for doing, they're not necessarily hard things, but I wasn't used to having to do them.

So, that was certainly one. I think what's exciting about, I was building it from scratch, so that was exciting. So I still, as part of what you hear when you make that transition as well. you're not necessarily gonna be surrounded with the same energy or the same passion or even the same skill sets.

I haven't found that because of what it is that we're trying to do and through the magnitude of what it is that we're doing. Canada's Ocean Super cluster, we're part of the global innovation cluster program. it's part of Canada's innovation strategy. Our job is to grow the ocean economy for Canada and invest in technology projects.

And there's just. So much opportunity, that it kept it really exciting. It. some people say you're gonna come, you're not gonna work as hard. I feel like I, I am working harder, or at least as hard as I was working before. what's really exciting about being in a mission-driven, organization is that I don't have to, it's not hard to sell purpose.

the purpose of what we're doing in terms of the economy, in terms of the planet, in terms of the country, in terms of the region, there's just so many facets to the impact that we're having and that we can have that, that is, you wake up every day. My biggest challenge is even before I started, one of my colleagues or one of the people that hired me said, no pressure Kendra, but whether or not my grandchildren get to stay in this region depends on whether or not you succeed.

So there is just this, you have no shortage of motivation sometimes. Then you need to balance that with, everyone needs a break. but yeah, it's, been overall a very exciting transition.

[00:12:38] Sean: So can you inform us and inform the audience more about the mission of the ocean Super Cluster Center?

[00:12:49] Kendra: Yeah. So if you look at, Canada's economy, so Canada has, the fourth largest, sorry, the longest coastline in the world, fourth largest ocean territory. And yet, not to get too far into the numbers, but we're actually half the world average when it comes to the contribution from the ocean economy to Canada's GDP.

So as much as we are a maritime nation. We don't necessarily operate or think as a maritime nation. And so this was a tremendous opportunity. There's a lot of growth expected globally. the ocean economy is outpacing the broader growth of the economy globally. And so there was this huge economic opportunity for Canada, to be able to do more in the ocean economy.

And so our job is really, We have federal funding. We invest in projects, and so we're a private public partnership. We co-invest in technology development projects, and that is anything from, today it's artificial intelligence, lots of artificial intelligence, but it's also underwater autonomous vessels.

It's creating digital twins, so virtual replicas of assets at sea to be able to help you make better decisions about what to do. It's drones and being able to use drones to collect data. And so we have now over $500 million a combined project value across what we've invested in, what the companies have invested to really be able to grow and scale these solutions, not only for Canada, which is a relatively small market, but to bring these solutions to the world.

[00:14:23] Sean: bit of a side quest, but why do you think. Canada was under investing in their maritime economy before this?

[00:14:32] Kendra: So this is my personal opinion. I think, what I've seen is. 80% of our population is really in the center of the country and only about 20% of the population actually sits on the coast. If you compare that to other maritime nations like, Norway or Iceland or others, they have the bulk of their population that actually sits on the coast.

So I think when you sit on the coast, you naturally think about the ocean economy and ocean solutions, when you don't as much as Canada has a huge, we're got the Great Lakes right in the middle of the city. We got. City right in the middle of the country. We've got water everywhere, but we're not necessarily waking up thinking about the ocean.

And so there's been a lot of work. Actually, one of the things in my role that I probably underestimated the most was the awareness building piece. Helping people understand what the opportunity is, why it's important, what technology looks like in the ocean. I think we have a habit of thinking. It's about marine biology and it's about whales and it's about dolphins, and it absolutely is.

It's very, important. But it is also about the fact that 75% of the sea floor right now is not mapped, and so we're going to have huge amounts of data. It's about better understanding whether it's about maximizing how we move ships. It's, there's just so many other facets to it that I think most people, unless you are seeing it, are not thinking about it.

[00:15:54] Sean: I didn't even think that. even non maritime countries, I think of the us you know, is it, I wouldn't consider a maritime country, but I don't know what percentage of, our population is within. 50 miles of the coast, but I think it's, I think it's probably over 50%, even though we're, we're such a large nation.

So yeah, that is very unusual probably for most countries that such a large percent of their population isn't on the coastline. Something I, I hadn't thought of.

[00:16:25] Kendra: Yeah. And part of that is we have, probably almost half our coastline is in the Arctic and it's relatively sparsely populated, right? So that, Changes the balance, the post line of people,

[00:16:39] Sean: it's not, Miami or Barcelona.

[00:16:41] Kendra: right? Yeah.

[00:16:43] Sean: that, that's, yeah, that is very interesting. what's maybe one unexpected thing people don't realize about the ocean economy?

[00:16:53] Kendra: I've probably touched on it already. I think, if, it's the size of the opportunity, even, for me, right? So I, my mother is from Nova Scotia, so she grew up on the water. I'm now married to a Newfoundlander who, grew up on the water and when I started really exploring this role, I was amazed by the size of the opportunity.

I was amazed by, the current size of the ocean economy. I never think about as much as, we all. Procure things, I've never really thought about how they get here. That, depending on which stat, 80 to 90% of, all of our supply chain is coming by water. So these huge ships, have the opportunity to, study a little bit, of marine law, like hundreds of years of law, international conventions of how goods move across the ocean.

that has, Hugely relevant. I never thought of it. The fact that every second breath we take is coming from the ocean, the role of the ocean in terms of, climate and carbon. And, I think it probably got carried away with the question, but that, the, just the learning of the importance, to so many sectors and the role that the ocean plays.

I had always, I visited as a kid. I went to the beach. I enjoyed the ocean. It was beautiful. It was relaxing, but I really hadn't, realized the economic potential. And also, not only today, but going forward.

[00:18:29] Sean: Yeah, it's so true that like we don't appreciate. things just show up at the store. Just, they just show up and we're like, why is this thing like empty shelf? in the middle of, the middle of the country. You're like, how's there an empty shelf here from the thing that was made by someone 4,000 miles away in a factory, put together and shipped here?

and it just happens and we take it. We take that for granted. And that's just the supply chain issue much less. that was another area I'd love to. Talk more about is the, international maritime law aspect of it. 'cause it's, it's one thing to have a border, a land border between two countries.

That's like everyone's agreed upon, or in some places in the world not, for most part agreed upon. And, there's a fence or there's some sort of line or a checkpoint, but, when you get out, it really is, it's no one owns it, right? So it's that just like changes so much of the. Even the power dynamics, I would imagine, right? Like out, out in the ocean.

[00:19:33] Kendra: Yeah, so once you get beyond everyone's borders, now you're in international waters. And so what you're allowed to do now needs agreement by multiple countries. And so that becomes quite complex and but we are learning that while it is a big asset, we can also, we can cause damage right at the size and scale of the population of humanity.

We've seen that with fisheries. now aquaculture is a greater source of food than the wild fishery because we have exhausted, wild fish stocks all around the world. and part of that is because you have these wide zones of the ocean that are, not easily regulated and also not easily agreed upon in terms of use.

[00:20:20] Sean: I'm gonna mess it up. And I had it to my tongue, but there's, it's like the tragedy of the commons the term? Yeah. It's

[00:20:27] Kendra: I know what you mean. Yes.

[00:20:29] Sean: It's like a tragedy. It's everybody takes care of their lawn and everyone wants a community park, but takes care of the community park,

[00:20:35] Kendra: Belongs to everyone, but no one. Yes. Yeah.

[00:20:38] Sean: Yeah. So of all the d different types of innovation projects you've seen or were working on, what's, exciting you the most right now?

[00:20:47] Kendra: Yeah. So I think it's, it is really exciting to see, The technology. So one of the challenges when you get into artificial intelligence and artificial intelligence is exciting in terms of the potential that it represents for the ocean, but is also all the things that you need to collect the data.

So we are seeing projects Using drones. We are seeing projects, putting buoys in the water. We are seeing projects, developing sensors. We are seeing more and more autonomous vessels, which I find really interesting. And then you've got the autonomous vessel and it puts different types of sensors and it collects data and then it.

Trying to support a decision. I think that EDNA is another area where you can now, sample the water and say, Hey, I saw, I can see that there was a whale going through there. Or in one case we had, there was a moose that had gone through the water, so figure out how the moose got into the water.

but those are the.

[00:21:44] Sean: Hopefully that what hopefully was that wasn't, was that international waters or I hope not. Okay, good.

[00:21:51] Kendra: How did the moose get in the water? but I think, we can ask new questions and we can gather more information, to be able to collect more data. And so I, think that's really interesting and I think we're just. Sort of scratching the surface. There's a video I saw, I don't know, it was the sixties or seventies where there was an explorer and we can go deeper and farther than we've ever gone before.

that is true of every decade. And in this decade we can truly reach, every part of the ocean. And I think there are new species to discover. I think there are lots of things to be able to learn, and I just find it really exciting.

[00:22:27] Sean: With all that discovery and new, you mentioned like 75% of the ocean floor hasn't been mapped. Is that

[00:22:36] Kendra: Yeah, there's no high, at least high resolution mapping. Yeah.

[00:22:39] Sean: Yeah, so we don't even know what's at the bottom of 75% of the floor plus everything in between. and then you have the collaboration that needs to happen between countries and businesses and, organizations.

So where does, your role in leadership, or how does leadership play a role in that complex environment that is. there's no, set hierarchy when you have these different, and sometimes maybe competing interests. trying to coordinate effort.

[00:23:13] Kendra: Yeah, so I think it was interesting when I came into this role, one of the folks on my board says she's great for this, because she has no ego. And at first I was like, I might be, should I feel insulted by that? I'm not sure, was my first reaction. But then as I thought about it, this is an or this is an organization that sits in the middle of multiple stakeholders, right?

So you've got government funding and they've got their objectives for the program with an industry led board, and they've got their objectives. They represent multiple industries. So what shipping is trying to do could be different from oil and gas, or renewable energy, or aquaculture or, so we've got, lots of different dynamics and cultures that sit on our board.

we've got different geographies of Canada. We've got indigenous communities and non-indigenous communities. We're increasingly working with international partners. And my job is to try to navigate through all of these different expectations. And some days I say at least make them all equally unhappy, I don't wanna so out of balance. that one is feeling like they're winning and another is losing. And so that's where that no ego piece comes in. It's not about what I am trying to accomplish in this, it's really making sure that we are doing the best job that we can to try to meet everybody's needs.

in this cluster. So that's definitely one of them. I think, Innovating with intent. So this is not just about putting more and more technology in the water. So what are the things that we're trying to solve? And that has evolved, over time in terms of, first we did focus more on the technology.

Now we're trying to focus more on the problems. But how do you work, with people? To make sure that you're understanding what you're trying to solve for. 'cause it is really easy to get sucked into the technology, right? And so I see that with companies. we gotta figure out this AI thing. you don't need to figure it out for its sake or put a robot in the water for its safe.

Are we trying to make people safer? Are we trying to make better decisions? Are we trying to be more efficient? what is it that we are trying to solve for is I think incredibly important. Making it a cultural change. And so I talk a lot about the fact that this is a, big culture change.

We're trying to change the way business is being done in the ocean. Ocean. And so it's all about transformation. It's all about change management, understanding. It's uncomfortable for people. And so how do you make sure that you are thinking about the culture we want? Our job is to make Canada Canadian industry invest more in innovation.

So that is a big cultural change. So why are we doing it? What's working? How do we learn from each other? How do you bring, our job is also to make projects collaborative. Also a change in culture. When you bring different cultures together and you're trying to collaborate, that maybe is one of my other learnings.

Collaboration is much easier to say, than it is to do, right? Collaboration is a bit like a marriage when you're bringing companies together and they're working together, and so if you haven't clearly established the expectations and understand how each other works, and you can get yourself into trouble, and again.

Lots of education, lots of awareness, building lots of patience, and, lots of experimentation. And, part of what I tell my team is our job is to also walk the talk, right? So we need to be innovative, we need to try new things. We need to learn from our mistakes and be able to pivot.

and 

[00:26:59] Sean: one concept that I learned about from leading in the military and I brought to, brought with some of my clients and they found useful is is this concept of a friction point. So I look at a friction point as a leader is sort of friction point, is identifying what. are there, upcoming instances or requirements for different teams to work together outside of their normal business function?

So that could be two individuals or two different departments, or in your case, two companies that have to come together and collaborate in, in a way or at a moment in time that is not part of. Regular operations and those friction points, that's where the leader needs to go, right? you don't, always know, sometimes as a leader, you, have a lot of things going on.

You're not sure like where you should be spending your time and your focus and your energy. And I'm like, those, that's where they need you. They need you to focus there to make sure that those wheels are greased together and you're doing that in such a complex capacity. So when you. When you look at bringing two companies together, when you look at these friction points and you go into that, do you have a checklist or an SOP or a process that you've refined to make sure that has the greatest chance for success?

[00:28:20] Kendra: I don't know that I have a very good, SOP, I think we're, so the projects come together and we're still one step removed, so we usually get brought in when things have already gone a little bit sideways. And so for me, the number one is to try to understand. Each perspective. So what is each person trying to achieve?

And then usually there's another layer down of what is frustrating them. So there's the, we're trying to do X, but there's typically A, we're trying to do X because we're trying to accomplish Y. And so if you can understand that, and then you can find where there is commonality. Which there typically is, right?

Because we've come together to do this project in the first place, we're trying to achieve a thing. So if you can get people back on what we have in common. A reminder of that, then usually , the things that are more challenging can get worked through when we're really caught in the, , you are not doing what I expected and you are not doing what I expected and I'm super frustrated with you, and like, how do you bring the emotion back out of it so we can get back to the resolution of what is the issue so that we can all get back to the path that we are trying, the objective that we're trying to achieve.

[00:29:36] Sean: Yeah. Isn't it crazy from, your kids, your partner, your business, your collaboration? When there's issues, it almost always comes down to mismatched, mismatched expectation doesn't it does.

[00:29:50] Kendra: Yeah, we had a coach come in and say, if you start on the premise that the person you're dealing with is not waking up every morning, just thinking about the ways to upset you and frustrate you and make you angry, right? let's park that lens and then think about if we are assuming they are coming with an intention of wanting to have a good day and wanting to meaningfully contribute and wanting to be successful, how would you have that conversation?

And I thought that was really, helpful.

[00:30:17] Sean: I love that. Yeah. I, do have some of my clients, I'm like, listen, we need to assume good intent. let's start there. Let's start there. right. as you, you see these different companies try to roll out these new technologies and be innovative. what are the mistakes that companies make when they roll out new technology?

[00:30:36] Kendra: the number one mistake I would say is falling in love with the technology. we've got lots of companies, who have a technological solution and it's probably absolutely brilliant, but you need to make sure that it is matching a need. So if you fall in love with the problem you're trying to solve, then the technology or the solution will follow.

And so I think that is. Is a common challenge as we fall in love with the technology and so we're not necessarily thinking about the use cases. And so Ocean has lots of different use cases and part of our magic is where we can bring the technology solution and the user together to de develop it. But I would say, yeah, one of the big challenges is we, love our technology and I think we're in that, we're in that bubble again.

We love. Artificial intelligence and the idea of artificial intelligence, it's the buzzword of the day. Blockchain was another one. The internet was another one, but it's not getting caught up in the technology. It is really being able to understand back to the basics, understand the client's needs, understand what it is you're trying to solve for, and then thinking about the hammer that you're going to bring to the nail.

[00:31:54] Sean: Yeah, I love that. Really not falling, staying in love with the problem. Not any particular solution is what I'm hearing.

[00:32:04] Kendra: Yeah. I think the other challenge, with technology is, It evolves, right? And so thinking about the technology, the, it's hard to think long term when you're in the technology game, but at the same time, especially when you're dealing with bigger organizations, these things are going to take time to solve.

And so giving it the time and then thinking about where the technology's going to be, not only where it is today so that you can build for the right thing, it's probably another one that sometimes trying to find that balance of short-term and long-term thinking.

[00:32:39] Sean: it is, really true. I see this in technology with companies, I saw it in the military as well, where sometimes. You have the latest and greatest thing that came out and so you immediately went out and got it right. You put it in and then the next year, this either new thing or it breaks and you go back and it's like the thing that you have from, 1995 is the only thing that's still working, 'cause it was just simple and almost timeless.

So I love that. keeping in mind, especially I'd imagine with these law, larger projects. if there's a long developmental timeline, it's gonna take five or 10 years to build something. what, what's still gonna be relevant and what's not, and what's gonna become obsolete? All those conversations, I'm assuming have to happen.

[00:33:24] Kendra: If you're building a ship, you're building it for 30 or 40 years, so you are trying to make decisions today, right? And, even think about how do you create the platform such that it can be updated. I think the other key piece with technology is the people, right? So we are in this interesting place, I get excited when I think about, brain to computer interface and being able to get the computer to do something by reading my brainwaves, or I get excited thinking that I can walk in the room and now we've got so many sensors, that the room is going to adjust because it knows I'm walking in or it knows that I'm down the street and, makes a different adjustment.

I read one where there's gonna be so many sensors in your clothes, your washing machine is going to know the setting. Based on the sensors that are in your clothing, but that's not the same. we all sit on a curve of our readiness and our interest and our ability to embrace innovation.

And so understanding the people, especially when we get into the ocean economy, lots of traditional industries. And so also thinking about how you introduce the technology so that it's successful, how you introduce the technology so people feel empowered with the technology. They're not scared of the technology, they have the opportunity to.

Experiment with the technology. All of those things have a significant impact on whether or not any implementation, , or any project is successful.

[00:34:46] Sean: And how do you, from a leadership perspective, address that? Because I even think of, you're dealing with these traditional industries, but also different cultures and countries. where, one country might be at in terms of their readiness to, automatically scan and put sensors in all, everybody and do all that stuff versus, we're gonna go, I don't know, drop something off on the horn of Africa.

it's probably gonna be a different port experience, I'm assuming, So how do how do you, when you go into that, how do you, lead from that perspective when, you're in charge of that or you're helping a team understand that?

[00:35:25] Kendra: Yeah, so part of it's the planning, right? being able to. Understand the environment that you're going into, being able to understand the types of challenges. I was in South Africa and they were talking about, the fishery and small communities in Africa, and, how you approach that, how you approach it culturally, being able to understand the types of tools that are available, which.

Very different to what we would think about in North America having access to, I had one example where we were talking about, tourism, and tourism in some of these countries looks very different to how we think about tourism. And one example, we were talking about going to the north and research being an extractive industry.

'cause it takes information out and then it brings it back to the south. and how do you balance that? And so I think planning is really a really, important understanding. The people. Understanding the cultures, understanding the objectives, what is everybody trying to achieve? And then the more you have those conversations upfront, the more, again, I said I underestimated communication and awareness, if that's the one thing I constantly underestimate.

It's communication and awareness. how many times do you have to have the conversation? How many times do you repeat? How many, making sure you've got all the audiences that you need to talk to. One of my lessons, I always forget someone, right? I always forget, no matter how much you think you've told everyone, someone comes into the room, you're like, oh, I forgot to update that person.

But yeah, so planning, communications, and then ongoing check-in, right? Are we, accomplishing what we're trying to accomplish? Do we need to pivot and try something different? What's working, what's not working? Again, back to that communication.

[00:37:08] Sean: So you've learned all these lessons in your, journey and continue to learn them what? What skills do you think rising leaders need to thrive in the next 10 to 15 years?

[00:37:22] Kendra: I would certainly say curiosity, right? I think there's a lot that we can't, We just are having, can't imagine. So the speed which, things are moving, being able to ask good questions is really important and being open to new ideas. , I just, last week completed my master's in technology management.

, You don't need to go back to formal school, but it was part of, for me. Being able to learn those next things and being back in touch with some of the things that were happening, in the university. And I think curiosity is incredibly important, being open to change and being flexible. part of the challenge in this moment is that you've got this tech enabled workforce now that has lived through their entire lives with technology that are bumping up against.

A generation of leaders that is much less familiar and less comfortable. And so how do you find that balance, so that you are actually able to benefit from the skills and capabilities that you've got and create the environment that is open. So I think asking good questions, being open-minded.

Being flexible, being authentic I think is, just another big one. I was reading again an article the other day on LinkedIn that said people are much more focused on individual profiles and not company profiles. I think we're heading into a world right of disinformation and so we need to trust individuals and being able to be authentic, being trustworthy is not only for you and your personal brand.

But also for your corporate brand. So I'm sure there's many more, but those would certainly be a few. My, I learned in university, someone said to me, one of my professors said, when you look back on your career after 25 years, make sure you've got 25 years of experience, not one year of experience, 25 times.

So that is one of my, I always look and say, what am I learning this year? What am I doing differently? What am I trying differently? It's been a really good lens for me over the course of my career and I expect that will certainly continue over the next 10 years. 'cause there will be a lot more to learn.

[00:39:28] Sean: I love that. we talked a lot about the change of upcoming of leaders and technology and, lifelong learning, which I think is a critical aspect of stepping up and accepting the, mantle of leadership is that's how, being a lifelong learner, but what's maybe one leadership principle that's timeless?

Like what's, one leadership principle that you believe will always No ma always matter. No matter the technology and workforce changes we see.

[00:40:01] Kendra: Communication. I probably touched on it several times, but I think the ability to communicate, the need to communicate, the ability to build a vision that you're getting people to, be able to support. that is the one skill. When I reflect back on where things went the most sideways, it is generally because of my personality.

When I get, under pressure, I. put head down and I get things done. And every time I do that, is the wrong choice. It is really being able to communicate and I think no matter the technology, we are going to need to be able to, leaders will need to be able to con, continue to be effective communicators that can look different, but you need to be able to, you will always, I think, need to be able to communicate whether it's on stage or one-on-one or.

Using different social media mediums by being able to communicate, I think is incredibly important and will continue to be.

[00:40:59] Sean: And speaking of that, where are you most active? Where can people find more about what Kendra's doing?

[00:41:03] Kendra: so yeah, certainly. So from an ocean super cluster perspective, you can find Ocean Super cluster.ca. I am most active on LinkedIn. I have tried to experiment with other social media platforms. I'm getting ready to launch a website, so watch that space. It will be, it will be posted on LinkedIn. I haven't quite got there yet, but I'm working on it.

But yeah, I, LinkedIn, I also, enjoy and started experimenting with for Forbes articles as well, which are also connected to LinkedIn. But my number one social media platform these days is, definitely LinkedIn and my daughter on Instagram from my daughter. But for me, I'm still, still on LinkedIn.

Yeah.

[00:41:42] Sean: Yeah, I, hear you. you're doing such cool work with the, Canada Ocean super cluster and it's been a great conversation and I will put all those links and by the time this comes out, if you got the website up, we'll get that link there too. We'll get some traffic pushed to you. but hopefully there's some people listening that, wanna learn more about the work you're doing 'cause it is very cool.

And, I know I learned a lot from our conversation, so thank you so

[00:42:06] Kendra: Awesome. Thank you for the opportunity. Appreciate it.

[00:42:08] Sean: Thanks for being a part of the No Limit Leadership Family. This isn't just a podcast. We're building a movement of no limit leaders driven to unlock our greatness and lead the world forward. If this made you think or gave you something useful, please, right now, go hit follow, and then share it with one leader You believe in challenge limits, develop leaders, fuel greatness.