Matt Gates

I help leaders get clearer about how they lead, how they communicate, and how their behavior lands with the people around them.

I’m a Vancouver-based leadership development consultant, coach, and intercultural communication specialist. My work sits at the intersection of leadership development, cross-cultural communication, leadership coaching, executive coaching, and the practical side of learning at work.

Most of my work is with leaders and teams who are trying to do something that sounds simple until real people get involved: give useful feedback, build trust, make decisions, handle conflict, communicate across cultures, and keep people aligned when the work is changing.

I bring a mix of adult learning, coaching, facilitation, and intercultural communication to that work. I care about tools that hold up in a meeting, not just ideas that sound good in a workshop. A leader still has to walk back into the room, say the hard thing, listen well, and help people move forward.

Unpack Leadership is where I write about the parts of leadership that show up every week: self-awareness, feedback, accountability, coaching conversations, multicultural teams, cross-cultural communication, and AI literacy for leaders. The goal is to make the work more usable. Less theory parked on a shelf. More language, questions, and frameworks a leader can reach for when the moment is live.

I also run Peak Potential Consulting with my business partner Jay Vergara. Our focus is leadership development, coaching, team effectiveness, and learning experiences that help people work better together.

Based in Vancouver, Canada.