VANCOUVER, CANADA

Matt
Gates

Lead Yourself. Lead Others. Lead Teams. Lead Across Cultures.

Leadership Development · Intercultural Communication
Coaching · AI and the Future of Work

I help leaders and teams build the self-awareness, coaching skills, and cross-cultural fluency they need to lead well in a connected world. On Unpack Leadership, I write about leadership development, cross-cultural communication, feedback, coaching, multicultural teams, and AI literacy for leaders.

Latest Articles

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A leader presenting a plan to a team seated around a boardroom table, with a city skyline in the background.

Lead Across Cultures

Everyone Said Yes to the Plan. So Why Hasn't It Started?

You’ve led teams in Canada for a decade: lay out the options, ask for input, decide together, move fast. You bring that...

Aug 20, 2026 · 4 min read

A manager giving performance feedback to an employee, with a performance dashboard shown on a screen behind them.

Lead Teams

Your Feedback Is Not Failing Because You Are Too Nice

Picture the last difficult feedback conversation you had with someone on your team. Chances are, somewhere in the first ninety seconds, it...

Aug 14, 2026 · 6 min read

A leader facilitating a hybrid meeting with in-room colleagues and remote teammates joining by video from different time zones.

Lead Across Cultures

Same Team, Different Rulebooks: Why Global Teams Need Shared Work Norms

Your global team may not have a communication problem. It may have an invisible-rulebook problem.

Aug 3, 2026 · 2 min read

Two colleagues having a one-on-one conversation over a laptop in an office.

Lead Across Cultures

When Feedback Doesn't Land, Culture May Be Part of the Conversation

A common frustration leaders share is some version of this:

Aug 2, 2026 · 4 min read

A manager giving feedback to an employee across a small table in an open office.

Lead Others

Nice Isn't Weak: Give Feedback Without Losing Accountability

A question leaders often wrestle with sounds like this:

Aug 2, 2026 · 3 min read

A leader discussing a dashboard on a laptop with three colleagues around a table, city skyline in the background.

Lead Teams

The New Leadership Skill: Coordinating People and AI

AI usually enters a team quietly.

Aug 1, 2026 · 3 min read

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Leadership, L&D, and Cross-Cultural Insights

Evidence-backed leadership for the challenges that actually show up at work.

Lead Self

Lead yourself with greater self-awareness, judgment, adaptability, emotional intelligence, and AI literacy.

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Lead Others

Build stronger one-to-one leadership through coaching, feedback, influence, trust, accountability and difficult conversations.

Explore Lead Others articles →

Lead Teams

Create the conditions for teams to collaborate, make decisions, handle conflict, take ownership, and perform well together — including human-AI coordination.

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