National Post - Financial Post Magazine
TOP 100 WINNERS JUST GETTING STARTED: MENTORING, SUPPORTING AND GIVING BACK ARE IN THEIR FUTURES
Being named one of the Most Powerful Women in Canada isn’t only the culmination of a lot of hard work. In some ways, it’s just the beginning. At least, that’s how many of this year’s winners see it, on top of feeling awed and humbled by their appearance on the Canada’s Most Powerful Women: Top 100 list from the Women’s Executive Network.
“This honour helps me enhance and turn up the volume on what we’re doing today,” said Rola Dagher, winner of the HSBC Corporate Executives award, president of Cisco Systems Canada and president within the Americas of Women in Cisco, an internal organization that supports and develops women at the international technology company. “It’s going to help me increase the amount of initiatives that we have and push women out of their comfort zone.”
Frances Donald, chief economist and head of macro strategy at Manulife, agreed that she, too, is motivated by her accolade, the Mercedes-Benz Emerging Leaders award.
“It makes me want to work harder and live up to the potential that other people seem to see in me and, increasingly, I see in myself,” said Donald.
Among her many projects, Donald wants to make economics more accessible to more people, and having a 33-year-old woman like herself in such a senior role at Manulife is helping her do just that.
“When people think about chief economists, they’re usually not picturing a young mom bouncing a toddler on her knee and making bar charts at the same time, or tweeting finance jokes and memes on social media between conference calls,” she said, referring to her two-year-old son. “But much of what I attempt to do is to make economics and finance interesting and relatable.”
She’s also a vocal advocate for affordable childcare, which she frames as an economic issue: when families can’t afford childcare, it’s usually the woman who puts her career on hold to stay home and look after the kids. “That’s holding our economy back and giving us less optimal outcomes,” she said. “I can show the numbers on that any day of the week.”
Even women who have already received accolades from other organizations, such as Samra Zafar, an honouree in the RBC Champions category, see the WXN award as a big boost. Zafar is an award-winning international speaker, bestselling author and social entrepreneur. She moved from Pakistan as a teenage bride to the Greater Toronto Area, where she was isolated and abused by her husband before getting out, getting educated and raising her two daughters on her own.
“For so many years of my life, my power was taken away from me and my strength was diminished. I was living in fear, without hope and without support,” said Zafar, who earned a master’s degree in economics from the University of Toronto and works as a director of business finance at BMO. “Today, to be recognized as one of the most powerful women in the country, it’s so meaningful to me because power, to me, is about helping others and making an impact.”
To that end, Zafar mentors women across Canada, has started her own non-profit organization, Brave Beginnings, to help abused women, and in her capacity at BMO is studying how to help working women who are abused.
“Oftentimes, for a woman who is going through that the only safe place she has is work,” Zafar said. “Workplaces have a huge opportunity to make a difference on that front with supportive HR policies, help lines in staff rooms, training for people managers in order to make the workplace a safe place for women to come forward and bring their whole self to work.”
Manjit Sharma, CFO of GE Canada, said that winning the Intact Professionals award will motivate her to help other women, especially young women who are early in their careers, to navigate a successful path forward. Her advice to those young women? Get a professional accreditation, like she did as a chartered accountant.
“Master your art, master the job you’re at and become that expert that people look to for advice and counsel, then build your brand,” said Sharma, who finds accounting to be a fascinating field and acknowledges that it’s sometimes portrayed as the opposite. “And don’t be afraid to bring all of yourself to work. You’re a woman, a daughter, a mother, a sister, a caregiver and more. Ultimately, it’s your diversity that’s your power.”
Dagher’s advice is similar. She tells people to “be yourself, because everyone else is taken.” She’s a big fan of being busy and giving back: she grew up in a war zone in Lebanon, she’s a cancer survivor on the board of Montreal’s Cedars Cancer Foundation and she’s on three other boards, as well.
“Surround yourself with people smarter than you,” she said, “and find someone who is going to push you out of your comfort zone, the mentor or sponsor who can help you be who you want to be.”
Those personal connections are important to Zafar, too, who recommends aspiring leaders build their own “cheerleading squad.”
“You have to have a core group of people who champion you and lift you up and support you unconditionally,” she said. “There are a handful of people on my speed dial who I know I can turn to any time, for anything, personal or professional. They’re invaluable to me.”
Surround yourself with people smarter than you