Leader’s Digest: Meet Justin Kalicharan
At Sun Life, leadership is about more than setting direction – it’s about shaping a culture where people feel connected to their work and empowered to achieve their full potential. Our leaders play a critical role in creating a safe, supportive environment where teams are encouraged to grow, innovate, and challenge what’s possible. In doing so, they strengthen the people and culture that power our success, enabling us to deliver on our Purpose of helping people achieve lifetime financial security and live healthier lives.
Leader’s Digest shines a light on the people behind that leadership, sharing stories that reflect how Sun Life leaders show up every day to support their teams, embrace change, and lead with Purpose. In the interview below, Justin Kalicharan shares his perspective on leading in the age of AI – helping teams rethink how they work, adapt to change, and stay focused on what matters most.
Justin Kalicharan
As Assistant Vice-President of Contact Centre Platform and Engineering Practices, Justin leads the evolution of Sun Life’s contact centre. He played a key role in modernizing our contact centre technology through cloud adoption, AI, and automation, and continues to drive efficiencies that support innovation and growth.
1. What does being Purpose-driven mean to you and how does it show up in the way you lead?
My leadership approach is grounded in a core principle – that technology itself holds no inherent value; its value comes from being used to solve real problems and deliver meaningful outcomes. Leading a team in technology, there are times where we become so immersed in technical discussions; it can be easy to lose sight of what we are trying to achieve. By consistently driving conversations back to the “why”, we can ensure our work is driving meaningful outcomes that support Sun Life’s Purpose.
2. What leadership behaviours matter most in this moment of rapid change — and how do you model them day to day?
While there are many behaviours needed to help lead high performing teams, if I had to pick just one, I would choose empowerment. As a leader, I focus on creating a safe space where teams can fail fast and learn quickly without fear of blame. This encourages my team to innovate and bring their best ideas forward. Shifting the focus to ideas and how well they solve problems empowers teams to self-organize, problem solve independently and own the delivery of their solutions. This approach builds confident, self-sufficient teams that have autonomy to move work forward without relying on their leader.
3. As change continues to accelerate, what are some ways you enable your team to move faster, adapt quickly, and deliver impact?
AI is a major focus on my team, and as its evolution continues to accelerate, we’ve reached a point where writing code manually can actually slow us down. That said, keeping up with technology is not the hardest part. In my experience, the real challenge is in the mindset. What slows teams down isn’t their ability to learn new technology, but their willingness to rethink how they work and how their function can evolve. By helping my team challenge traditional ways of working, we remove those barriers before they take hold, allowing us to adapt quickly, learn fast, and continuously improve. This approach prevents perfection from becoming the enemy of progress and helps us deliver meaningful impact for our Clients, even as change continues to accelerate.
As the world of work continues to evolve, leaders like Justin remind us that technology alone doesn’t drive progress – our people do. In moments of change, leadership matters most in how it supports our people – building trust, encouraging growth, and guiding teams as they learn, adapt, and thrive.
