Quiet Champions: A Way Forward for Mentors in Turbulent Times

“Thoughtful. Honest.
And Important.”

W. TIMOTHY GALLWEY
New York Times bestselling author,
The Inner Game of Tennis

QUIET CHAMPIONS: A WAY FORWARD for MENTORS in TURBULENT TIMES

“Enjoy the care that went into this book.”

ZITA COBB
Founder and CEO
Shorefast Foundation

Become the kind of mentor who naturally connects and builds community

In a time when connections are fractured, patterns are complex, and sage guidance is even rarer, mentorship has never mattered more. Quiet Champions is a practical and insightful guide for experienced professionals who want to step up together for the next generation. Drawing on over three decades of executive coaching and leadership development, Ian Chisholm helps you turn everyday interactions into powerful acts of presence, accompaniment, and support that serve the greater good and bring more significance to your own career and life.

Hover to pause…

Ian Chisholm’s insights are a roadmap for anyone who wants to build a culture where people grow, learn, and lead with purpose. Essential reading for leaders, coaches, and anyone committed to making others better.

DANIEL COYLE
New York Times bestselling author

The Culture Code and The Talent Code

Quiet Champions is a powerful and inspiring celebration of the leadership our world truly needs—anchored in integrity, humility, and an unwavering pursuit of excellence. Ian doesn’t just speak about leadership; he embodies it in his work. His approach serves to uplift, nurtures authenticity and shapes stories that ignite real, lasting and meaningful change. This book is a must-read for anyone dedicated to cultivating leadership that creates deep and enduring impact across communities and organizations. Ian’s vision is exciting and resonates strongly with the values of economic sovereignty and authentic leadership that fuel the Indigenomics movement. Quiet Champions is not just a book—it’s an energizing call to elevate the human spirit and lead with clarity, courage, and purpose.

CAROL ANNE HILTON
CEO and Founder

Indigenomics Institute, Global Centre of Indigenomics

As someone who’s spent a lifetime building businesses, I know firsthand that success is never a solo journey. In Quiet Champions, Ian Chisholm captures the heart of what truly matters in moving forward as a society: character, mentorship, and passing the torch to our next generation of leaders well. This book is a testament to the quiet, steady influence of mentors—those who guide, challenge, and support us when the stakes are highest. Ian’s insights reflect the same values that have shaped my own career: integrity, resilience, and the importance of giving back. Every leader on the threshold of becoming a mentor, no matter how experienced, will find wisdom in these pages. I highly recommend Quiet Champions as a handbook to anyone who believes in the value of developing character through the transformative power of mentorship.

JIM TRELIVING
Canadian Entrepreneur and TV Personality

Forget the spotlight—real mentorship happens in the margins. Ian Chisholm’s Quiet Champions is your wake-up call: mentorship isn’t about titles or noise, it’s about the guts to show up and lift others—methodically, consistently, and with a little quiet panache. If you’re ready to be the mentor people actually want, this book is your new playbook.

KYLA DUFRESNE
Founder and CEO

Foxy Box

For over a decade, these ideas have shaped my journey of becoming a more authentic leader. The more intentional I become with my conduct, the more personal growth, joy, fulfillment and success I have experienced. Ian Chisholm has helped me to understand that the practice of leadership can happen anywhere and within anyone. The practice of leadership is just as meaningful at the dinner table, the drive home from school, or by simply being there for a loved one or colleague. Practice is not about perfection, but greater persistence, patience, and most importantly, the understanding that growth and success is part of the practice itself. Quiet Champions is a masterclass in how to find the key to unlock your greatest potential. The best part is that no two keys are the same.

RYAN POMEROY
CEO

Pomeroy Lodging

Chiz’s philosophy has been the cornerstone of our corporate culture for the last 20 years. The Roy Group team continues to work with us to position our leaders as mentors in their communities and to our Fountain Tire teams across the country. We are excited that it is time for the wider world to be introduced to this approach of developing Quiet Champions.

JASON HERLE
CEO

Fountain Tire

In building ONE Championship from a bold idea into Asia’s largest sports media powerhouse, I learned firsthand that every champion’s story is written not just in the ring, but by the quiet mentors who shape, challenge, and believe in them when no one else is watching. Quiet Champions captures the essence of what it means to lead from behind the scenes—where real greatness is forged. Ian Chisholm’s insights remind us that the world’s most impactful leaders are often those whose names aren’t in the headlines, but whose influence echoes in every victory. If you want to understand how legacies are built and teams are transformed, this book is for you.

VICTOR CUI
Co-Founder

ONE Championship

I literally just stumbled on a point one day, live on stage, and this book perfectly illustrates the thought that was forming way back then. When addressing an audience of leaders, I once said: No client will remember you years from now, but every person who ever worked for you will remember everything you taught them about life and leadership. They’ll remember who you were and how you infused them with that “thing,” good or bad. This treatise gives life to that concept and helps you see how meaningful your life as a leader can be.

DAVID C. BAKER
“The Expert’s Expert” (NY Times)

These convictions about mentorship in our communities were the essential foundations of a powerful approach which I had the privilege of bringing to South Africa and establishing for 12 years. This approach has not only unlocked human potential and agency in young leaders, but these young leaders now form part of a national movement driving transformation of school culture and positive social change. Young leaders who would otherwise have been lost to society. This approach holds the unique capacity to transform the trajectory of youth in South Africa, and in the world.

Whenever I talk about the giants on whose shoulders we stood, I never fail to mention Ian Chisholm.

ROB TAYLOR
Founder

Columbia Leadership (South Africa)

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Quiet Champions on Substack

These notes are drawn from the same threads that shaped Quiet Champions: A Way Forward for Mentors in Turbulent Times. Think of this as a slow unfolding of ideas—an invitation to pause and consider who has walked beside you, and who might need you now.

10 Signature Moves of a Quiet Champion

by Quiet Champions on October 14, 2025 at 3:41 pm

For whatever reason, the pattern in life that interests me most is mentorship.

The mentorship that might be us

by Quiet Champions on October 6, 2025 at 5:01 pm

For anyone who has ever written a book, you will know that you work on the book … and then it starts working on you.

Quiet Champions On the Move – Join Us

by Quiet Champions on September 29, 2025 at 6:38 pm

We’re hitting the road.

This book was designed as a gift

This book was designed to be a gift to anyone deserving of the title mentor: someone who has been a quiet champion, and changed your life and the course of it in some meaningful way.

Share it with anyone who has been a mentor to you and those who you sense are also on this path (or soon will be).

SEND THIS BOOK
as a gift

Step 2: Access the Research Behind Quiet Champions

Roy Group Research Paper: Making Sense of Mentorship - Sep 2025

Beginning in 2023, Roy Group collected hundreds of people’s stories about the mentors in their lives and their experience of being mentees. Supported by a deployment of SenseMaker® in coordination with The Cynefin Co., these stories helped answer a number of research questions related to what makes mentorship work and what gets in the way.

The research identifies mentorship as a powerful dynamic that has the potential to enhance the lives of individuals, the cultures of organizations, the resilience of communities, and our society as a whole. It was the catalyst for Quiet Champions.

Step 3: Bring This Work to Your Organization

Since 2004, Roy Group has been working closely with mentors to develop their next generation of leaders.

Please reach out if a conversation would be helpful to explore why clients choose Roy Group and our unique approach to this work.

Reach out to us

6 Learnings from Writing this Book

I made a bit of a mistake in 2023 – taking a 5-month sabbatical to write my book, but not actually finishing the writing of it. I let my writing coach, my team and myself down in not keeping my promise. Now I was back in the thick of my work at Roy Group, and flailing to find hours here and there to drag my pen across the finish line and begin the work of finding a publisher. It all felt like I had tucked myself behind the 8-ball, and I was exhausted.

Fast forward to April 2025 – the book was complete, a publisher found, title chosen, and we were in the final stages of graphic design before publishing. Here are 6 learnings from the writing of this book I’d like to share with you…

1. Motivation

Why write a book? . . .

Because you must

2. Energy

Jill Payne . . .

Managing your energy

3. Coaching

Alex Van Tol . . .

Engaging a book coach

4. Publishing

Jesse Finkelstein . . .

Publishing with Page Two

5. Research

SenseMaker® . . .

The truth in our stories

6. Sabbatical

Five Months Away . . .

How to create yours

Music for Your Reflection

Enjoy the haunting melodies of the original music composed for the Quiet Champions audiobook.

Performed and Written by Jameson Daniel
Featuring Vocals by Megan Ennenberg

LISTEN NOW

About the Author

Ian Chisholm is a founder and partner of Roy Group, a “small giant” leadership development firm founded in 2004. Roy Group uses research, experiential learning and integrative team practices to work with organizations in developing their next generation of leaders by development their senior leaders as our next generation of mentors.

Originally from Saskatchewan, Chisholm began his career with the American Management Association of International’s Operation Enterprise division, working closely with the US Postal Service and inner-city high schools to bring young talent from tough socio-economic realities into immersive leadership-development experiences. His passion for the potentials of these young people brought him to the attention of Scotland’s Columba 1400 Community and International Leadership Centre on the Isle of Skye, where he served as the organization’s first chief executive officer. He was named as the organization’s first Fellow in 2004.

Chisholm is an avid skier, overlander, and father of three. He lives with his partner in business and life, Anne-Marie Daniel, on Vancouver Island.

AVAILABLE FOR

Interviews (podcasts, TV, radio, print)
Op-eds and guest essays on mentorship, leadership and community
Speaking engagements at conferences, universities, leadership forums
Workshops and conversations with organizations interested in developing mentorship cultures

Quiet Champions Press Kit

‘Mentor‘ as a Gift Word

Mentorship is not a title to claim but something earned through presence, conduct, and impact.

The Power of Quiet Influence

The most influential mentors are steady companions who foster belonging, ownership and resilience—not the loudest voices in the room.

Community is a Need

Mentorship is rooted in community, reminding us that true leadership is sustained in relationship and shared practice.

Discernment as Practice

Great mentors know when to advise, when to teach, when to coach, when to be an example and when simply to walk with others.

Stewardship for the Next Generation

Inheriting immense challenges, today’s young people deserve to be surrounded by the skilled, the willing, and the wise.

A Way Forward in Turbulent Times

Anchored in humility, care, and quiet strength, Quiet Champions offers leaders a path to navigate uncertainty with purpose.

Send your request

“An energizing call to elevate the human spirit and lead with clarity, courage, and purpose.”

CAROL ANNE HILTON
CEO and Founder
Indigenomics Institute,
Global Centre of Indigenomics

“Essential reading for leaders, coaches, and anyone committed to making others better.”

DANIEL COYLE
New York Times bestselling author,
The Culture Code and The Talent Code