01Vancouver, British Columbia
Fear is the most expensive thing inside your organisation.
I am Deb Best. I coach senior leaders, I write about culture and pay, and I have spent thirty years doing this work inside real organisations.
02Who I am
A practitioner first, then a coach.
I am an executive coach, an author, and a semi-retired senior HR leader who returned to BlueShore Financial as Chief Human Resources Officer in April 2022. Before that came a decade at Raymond James, more than a decade at HSBC, and five years at the Toronto Stock Exchange through the merger of the Vancouver, Montreal, Winnipeg and Alberta exchanges.
I lecture at Acsenda School of Management in Vancouver, and I speak at WorldatWork Total Rewards 2026 on culture, leadership and governance, and wellbeing.
03The book, 2026
Fear at Work: Insecurity, Culture and the Roadmap toward Wellbeing
Fear sits quietly inside pay decisions, restructures, performance reviews and boardroom silences. This book names where insecurity comes from at work, what it costs an organisation, and the practical route leaders can take toward wellbeing that holds.
04Working together
- Coaching
One senior leader at a time
I coach HR and executive leaders who are making decisions inside cultures shaped by fear.
Continue - Speaking
Rooms that need plain talk
Talks on fear at work, psychological safety and total rewards, including WorldatWork Total Rewards 2026.
Continue - Writing
Notes from thirty years inside
Essays on what culture, pay and wellbeing look like from the inside of an organisation.
Continue
“You cannot rewrite a bonus scheme when everyone in the room is afraid to name what is wrong. That is where fear does its most expensive work.”
05Career context
Places where this work was done. Listed as career history, not as endorsements.
BlueShore Financial
CHRO
Raymond James
10 years
HSBC
10+ years
Toronto Stock Exchange
5 years
Acsenda School of Management
Lecturer
06Latest writing
Essays in progress
Coming soon
On naming what is wrong out loud
Coming soon
What pay says when nobody is listening
Coming soon
Wellbeing after the restructure