Question: I am taking on a leadership role where I will be responsible for more people and more projects than ever before. How can I be an effective leader, especially when it comes to communication with my large team?

We asked Beena Goldenberg, CEO at Organigram, Inc., to tackle this one:

In larger teams, communication is key to make sure everybody knows what their responsibilities are. It makes all the difference in the world when you are managing multiple projects.

Set the stage: To kick off a big project, outline what’s on the plate. What do we have to get done as a team? How are we going to ensure we’ve got the right resources applied to the right projects? Make sure you are fostering an environment where you listen to different perspectives and encourage everyone to contribute, so people feel heard and are motivated. More diverse perspectives always lead to stronger decision-making and better outcomes.

Delegate effectively: You can’t do it all yourself, so if you have five projects, assign the right team member to run each one. For example, right now at Organigram we have a project about utilizing AI – not everybody is going to be able to take on that kind of project. Assign responsibilities based on team members’ strengths, with those next level leaders coming back to you on a regular basis to discuss the projects and bring any challenges forward.

Learn how to prioritize: Probably the toughest part being an effective leader is knowing how to prioritize. I have this conversation with my team all the time. There is always more to do than we have time to do. It’s about figuring out which are the most critical initiatives – if there are ten, maybe you can get to the top four [right now]. Then after you set up this structure, prepare to adapt as projects evolve.

Admit when you were wrong: I have no problem admitting to mistakes. I think that encourages people to share their mistakes too. I’m much happier hearing the real story. My focus is never on what went wrong. If you’re willing to identify what’s not working, everybody will feel comfortable doing the same thing. Teams need to know that they can bring that forward.

Recognize a job well done: Recognition is mentioned in every survey I’ve seen of what employees want in an organization. No matter how many recognition or reward programs you have, people always want more of it. It goes a long way when you point out successes, even if they’re small, because then people are motivated to keep pushing themselves.

Encourage opportunities to learn: Make sure that there is a continuous learning loop in the background that allows members of the team to have professional development. A lot of times, that’s the piece that gets lost when things are busy. Whether it’s looking at industry trends or best practices, there should be time set aside to make sure people feel like they’re learning and growing in their roles. Maybe work is heavy for the next three months, but then the employee can take a week to do a course. Or maybe it’s an hour here and there. But it needs to be part of the conversation with your team members because you’re going to get more of their time and effort when they know they’re getting something back as well.

Time management coach Risa Williams urges clients to pick out three top goals that will rise over the flotsam and jetsam of daily life and work steadily to achieve them – but one of those three must be self-care.

“We need to befriend ourselves, not turn against ourselves in the pursuit of our goals,” she writes in Get Stuff Done Without the Stress.

Practising a self-kindness mindset for many years has brought her a surprising twist: She somehow is far more effective at getting things done.

The Globe’s Happy Enough is a new podcast where we explore what it truly means to be happy in our age of constant stress, bleak news and burnout. This week, host Garvia Bailey gets some crowd-sourced wisdom from people nominated by loved ones as “the happiest people in Canada” for a recent Globe and Mail feature. She speaks with Erin Anderssen, The Globe and Mail’s happiness reporter, about these happy people and checks in with the nominees themselves to discuss how to live a happier life.

New parents in Canada often struggle to find child care for their babies. But the school-aged care situation is just as fraught, or more so. After-care spots are difficult to secure, and before-care spaces are rarer still. It can be more expensive because federal funding – for the so-called $10-a-day program – often subsidizes infant and toddler spots only.

“School-aged care has not been getting the attention that preschool child care has,” says Morna Ballantyne, executive director of advocacy group Child Care Now. “This definitely has an impact on labour force participation of women.”