Today I stood in line at a Canadian Tire in Cobourg to pick up an air purifier for my home. I was there for a simple transaction, but I ended up witnessing a profound lesson in organizational risk and the fragility of human connection.
A Black man was at the checkout with a box that had been previously opened. When the cashier questioned him about the packaging, he explained that a floor associate had opened it to verify the contents were undamaged. The cashier repeated the question, essentially challenging his word. His response was quiet and piercing. He said, “Well, I am Black.”
The cashier immediately took offense and called for assistance. She likely felt her personal integrity was being attacked. She may have even believed she was just following a standard operating procedure that she applies to every customer. But her reaction revealed a total lack of understanding regarding the cognitive load of marginalized people.
In management theory, we talk extensively about the importance of trust as a professional asset. But we rarely discuss the asymmetry of that trust.
As James Baldwin famously articulated during a talk show appearance. He stated that he did not need to know if the individual real estate lobbyist hated him personally. He only needed to know that the system they represented ensured he was not allowed in.
In our institutions, we constantly ask marginalized people to take a leap of faith. We expect them to believe in the best intentions of a system that frequently greets them with passive aggressions, micro-invalidations, and unearned suspicion.
From a leadership and risk management perspective, this is a systemic failure point.
When a manager or a front line employee operates without empathy, they are creating a high friction environment. They are triggering a defensive response that erodes the possibility of a successful transaction or a productive dynamic. If you are managing a diverse team in 2026, your primary responsibility is to understand that your employees and your customers are not starting from the same baseline of psychological safety.
A leader who dismisses these interactions as “misunderstandings” is ignoring a massive operational risk. You are not just losing a customer or a talented staff member. You are fostering a culture of disassociation where people realize that their reality is not valued by the organization.
The future of management is not found in rigid compliance manuals that treat every person as an identical unit. It is found in the radical empathy required to acknowledge the weight that others carry. It is about building systems that do not require the marginalized to perform the emotional labor of protecting the feelings of the majority.
Excellence in leadership is the ability to bridge the gap between intent and impact.
We must stop asking people to believe in our goodness while our systems continue to treat them with suspicion. We must build organizations where the “leap of faith” is no longer a requirement for entry. When we create environments of genuine respect, we aren’t just doing the right thing. We are building the only type of institution that is resilient enough to survive a fractured world.
The work is not to be offended when our biases are named. The work is to ensure those biases no longer have a place to hide.
I am a Canadian insurance and investment professional and the President and Chief Executive Officer of Chazz Financial Inc. and Chazz Capital Assets. I write about leadership, markets, insurance, investing, and decision making, with a focus on how structure and incentives shape outcomes.
I hold a business degree and I am a Fellow of the Canadian Securities Institute (FCSI®), a Chartered Life Underwriter (CLU®), a Chartered Financial Planner®, a Certified Health Specialist and a Mutual Fund Investment Representative.
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