Legendary Canadian curler delivers opening keynote at HSPC PDC 2025
Olympic curling champion Brad Gushue challenged workplace safety professionals to rethink leadership, resilience, and team dynamics during his keynote presentation Sunday evening ahead of the Health and Safety Professionals Canada (HSPC) Professional Development Conference (PDC) 2025.
Delivering his talk across the street from where he captured the 2017 Brier title, Gushue brought lessons from the ice into the conference hall — focusing not on technique or medals, but on the culture of psychological safety that powered his team through some of its highest-pressure moments.
“Within a team, vulnerability is a superpower,” Gushue told a packed room of safety professionals. “It opens the door to trusted and honest communication, and that’s where the real magic happens.”
From curling ice to boardroom insight
Gushue, who now balances entrepreneurship with high-level curling, structured his keynote around six characteristics he believes define successful teams: talent, leadership, planning, attitude, resilience, and communication.
Each, he said, has played a crucial role in both his Olympic performances and in running his businesses.
“I try to find people with leadership qualities — people who will challenge me,” he said. “Because I’m not ‘on’ every day, and on those days, I need others to step up.”
He emphasized that talent alone is not enough — workers, like athletes, need to be in the right positions to succeed. “You have to put people in roles where they can be successful,” he said.
Mindfulness turns performance around
The curling veteran also credited mindfulness training with transforming his team’s consistency under pressure — a method he believes workplaces can easily apply.
“One missed shot used to spiral into this whole narrative — you lose the game, you lose the season, your sponsors leave,” Gushue said. “Mindfulness stopped that. It brought me back to the present.”
He described how a performance coach introduced daily meditation, starting with five minutes and building to 20, creating what he called a “mental buffer” between performance setbacks and emotional reactions.
A culture built on purpose
Gushue described how his team rebuilt its internal culture in 2010, after a major disappointment and team disbandment. With guidance from a sports psychologist, they began recruiting not just for skill, but for cultural alignment — prioritizing curiosity, adaptability, empathy, and vulnerability.
Those values paid off during the 2017 Brier, hosted in St. John’s — an event that brought extreme pressure, personal expectations, and emotional exhaustion.
“One of my teammates finally said, ‘Brad, I’m not comfortable. I’m having trouble sleeping. I’m having trouble eating,’” Gushue recalled. “And then we all admitted we were feeling the same.”
Instead of breaking apart, the team shared the burden, adjusted their game plan, and went on to win the championship.
“That conversation in the locker room was the turning point. A burden shared is half the burden,” he said. “That’s what resilience really looks like.”
Curiosity sparks innovation
Gushue also described how his team embraced a culture of curiosity and continuous improvement, even in seasons when they dominated competition.
During the 2014–2015 season, they noticed that two teams repeatedly defeated them — and began analyzing every variable. Their discovery: the teams were using prototype brooms that altered the behavior of the ice.
“We realized they were only using 10 to 20% of the broom’s capacity,” Gushue said. “We went to Korea, ran experiments, threw out everything we thought we knew about sweeping — and developed a new technique.”
Although the World Curling Federation later banned the broom heads, the sweeping method remained — and is now standard across the sport globally.
A challenge to safety leaders
Gushue closed his keynote with a personal challenge to the safety professionals in attendance: lead with vulnerability.
“Go back to your team and share something that makes you uncomfortable — a worry, a weakness,” he said. “Then wait. Do it again in a few weeks. And again. You’ll start to see people come to you. That’s when trust forms. That’s when the real work gets done.”
A winning lesson for safety culture
For those managing safety across sectors — from construction and energy to health care and public service — Gushue’s message is clear: safe teams are strong teams, and strong teams are built on connection, curiosity, and communication.
“We built our success through culture, not coincidence,” Gushue said. “And you can too.”
