Leadership is bringing people along... through empathy, integrity, and curiosity | Mary Anne Chambers

“Mine is not one of those sensational rags to riches types of stories.”

“I can either roll over and play dead now, or I can ignore what I just heard.”

“socioeconomic factors are really powerful and can cause lives to be buried, brilliance to be buried, just because opportunities are not made available.”

“childcare is not just a social imperative, it, it is an economic imperative,”

“And quite frankly, I believe that good public policy was also good politics.”

“It was investment in people as opposed to simply expenditures.”

“being the process is at least as important as the outcome.”

“I went into government with my integrity intact, and I left government with my integrity intact.”

“there's also personal capital, really, really hard to rebuild if we delete it.”

“to lose the trust, the public trust is a very, very slippery slope.”

“When I hear politicians say that people don't understand, I say, help them to understand. Bring them along with you.”

“I was not the minister of transfer payment agencies. I was the minister of children and youth services.”

“good ideas can come from anywhere, including your opponents.”

“If we look at some, some parts of the world, Education is seen by some governments as being counter to their ability to control their public. And it's one of the reasons why I think, education is so important, because it can lead to greater independence.”

“the whole analogy of how do you help a hungry person? Do you give them fish or do you teach them to fish? And, and, you know, preferred, I think the preferred approach is to teach them to fish while also serving their hunger, because if they're hungry, they can't think beyond that.”

“You know, in, in political science, one of the things I learned, so I majored in commerce and political science. And in political science, I learned about the comparative development.”

“when I went home after being told I had gotten a new portfolio, and so I was required to leave the one, that I, that I loved behind, I went home and I said to my husband, well, this is sad. And he said, you know what, the premier knows you better than you think.”

“a young fellow who was, who ended up working in my minister's office, but had been a political operative, if you like, for many, many years. And he told me that he had noticed that I made decisions differently to some of my, my colleagues who were career politicians. And I said, well, do you know, do you have any idea why that might be the case? And he said that he thought it was because I had already had successes, already had achievements. I've had kind of established my, my character, my personality, defined myself in different settings.”

“As a young girl in prep school, elementary school, I went with nuns from my school into areas that the infamous Bob Marley wrote songs about.”

“And as an adult, as a young wife, before leaving Jamaica, I volunteered in the adult, the, the Jamaican government adult, literacy program. I, I went to classes to, to learn how to teach adults who had not had the opportunity to acquire basic literacy skills.”

“And the response I got was in itself educational because I learned that they knew a lot about probability theory without knowing that it was probability theory. They said, if we have one or two kids, a chance of them not doing well is greater than if we have more kids.”

“It could have caused me to think of others as not equal to me, but it actually caused me to think of others as, in a way, there but for the hand of God go I, and how could I help them to achieve their potential, and how could I show them the respect that they deserve?”

“And comparative development speaks about The impact that developed countries' policies can have on developing nations. But it can also be applied to communities and to segments of markets. And so in other words, something that might work well for one stakeholder or rights holder group might not serve others as well.”

“They tell me about their own hardships and they don't tell me In a sad way, they tell me proudly about what they have been able to overcome. And they tell me about abusive homes, having to live in shelters for a long, about not having any support at home.”

“And so to my surprise, a few weeks after I joined Scotiabank as a computer programmer, a woman who was a business analyst working in the same, area I was working in, Canadian, single mother, blonde.”

“And she said, well, you're a woman. You are a black woman. You are not Canadian born. You are Jamaican born. She said, you're, you're married. You're a mother. And you're Roman Catholic.”

“And, and I share this story with young people as a way of encouraging them to take responsibility for their lives and their outcomes, their behavior, what they achieve.”

“if I am asked, or if it is suggested to me that something is because I am black, or something is because I'm a woman, I, I, I kind of chuckle to myself because I think there's so many ways to define me. I am not going to embrace any of that.”

“And he said that he thought it was because I had already had successes, already had achievements. I've had kind of established my, my character, my personality, defined myself in different settings. I guess the bottom line was I didn't actually need to do this. I was doing it because there was value I felt I could bring to the table.”

“So they resubmitted all of their applications and my mailbox filled to the brim, which made me feel ill. And it made me realize that socioeconomic factors are really powerful and can cause lives to be buried, brilliance to be buried, just because opportunities are not made available.”

“as a member of the governing council of the University of Toronto, where as, vice chair of the governing council, I had the opportunity to work on, on a small task force, a little working group, whose objective was to ensure that no student who was accepted at the University of Toronto would be prevented from attending because of financial constraints. And we, we were successful in implementing that policy.”

“In training colleges and universities, I felt like I had something for everyone, every child. I felt that I could impact every life, meeting them, as you said earlier, where they are, not telling them what I thought they should be doing, but helping them to achieve what they wanted to achieve, to achieve their best selves.”

“And it's one of the reasons why I think, education is so important, because it can lead to greater independence. It can lead to people having the opportunity and the ability to make their communities stronger, to make their societies, their world stronger, make their taxpayers, right, as opposed to requiring social assistance.”

“I realized that as I was speaking, and this obviously showed, as I was speaking, I was looking at these little kids and thinking of them as apprentices and skilled trades, and thinking of them as college and university students. In other words, I saw a future for them that I could help to create with the right foundation.”

“And my position as the minister was always to understand how things worked and understand how decisions would be made by my ministry officials, because I always wanted to be able to defend those decisions, which meant they had to work for me, right?”

“I think the public have a view of public servants that's, that's not accurate. Public servants work hard. They are thoughtful, they're brilliant,”

“And they said, well, Minister, our job is to provide options and to back up the rationale for the different options, and then it is up to our political masters to choose. That also told me that it was really important for me to read the briefing materials thoroughly.”

“Interestingly, Daniel, I was an active Scotiabanker for 26 years. I served in government for four years. When people talk to me, the overwhelming majority want to talk to me about my time in political life, in the political arena.”

“But they needed to understand I was not the minister of transfer payment agencies. I was the minister of children and youth services. And in order for me to fund their work, they would have to be accountable for what they were doing for the children they were set up to serve.”

“So accountability is also very, very important to me, has always been. And it's personal, it's professional, it's wherever I find myself in life. I believe we each should be accountable to a higher power. And sometimes that higher power is our public.”

“we know That childcare is not just a social imperative, it, it is an economic imperative, and it is known to be access to affordable quality childcare is known to be the number one barrier to women being able to leave social assistance and get jobs that will support them and their families.”

“So if I shut down that childcare center, I'm asking those women to stop working, or I'm asking those women to leave their children unsupervised. Very dangerous, very risky. And so I, I also had to deal with managing the impression I left with the media and what that headline might look like,”

“there were some of my colleagues who felt that I got all of this money and my stakeholders wouldn't be happy for more than a few days. Whereas if that money was spread across Little community organizations in their writings, how appreciative those organizations and their membership and the people they serve would be. They would love us for life.”

“And I always landed on good public policy. Has been my preference. And quite frankly, I believe that good public policy was also good politics. And so if you're interested in being reelected, then give the people what they need. Think long-term, not just short-term, plug in the holes that might in reality exist.”

“I felt it was strategic. It was investment in people as opposed to simply expenditures. It was about thinking long-term, thinking beyond the four-year election cycle.”

“this is one of the things I learned in government that being the process is at least as important as the outcome. And the process involved consultation, which is also why sometimes government seems to take longer than it should to do things.”

“coming from the financial services background, I grew up in that environment, learning that you act, you act quickly. Because if you don't act quickly, your competition will get the better part of the deal.”

“preferred, I think the preferred approach is to teach them to fish while also serving their hunger, because if they're hungry, they can't think beyond that. But you know that if you simply address their hunger today, tomorrow they're going to be hungry again.”

“I learned the importance of listening, of consulting, of Hearing what people wanted from government. I also learned that once you listen, you are actually in a position to say, well, you know what? I hear you, but I don't think”

“Effective influence is powerful. And it's about bringing people along with you. When I hear politicians say that people don't understand, I say, help them to understand. Bring them along with you. Help them to understand that if we give them this, it has to be paid for from something else.”

“My, my message would be to recognize that it's important that you respect the people you are working with, and you listen to the people you are working with, and that you're strong enough to say, I hear you, I hear you, I hear you, I'm going to go with this,”

“You need to have the courage to say, you know, that's a really good idea. To recognize that good ideas can come from anywhere, including your opponents. And, you know, some of what I accomplished, I accomplished because I worked with people who others wouldn't work with.”

“They don't have to be older. They don't have to be wealthy. They have amazing abilities to impact their world, to make life better for others.”

“So I'm really proud of the fact that I felt I went into government with my integrity intact, and I left government with my integrity intact. And I, I, I advise young people to understand that there's such a thing as personal capital.”

“So public trust, serving the public good, understanding that we are only in those positions because the public says they will let us be in those positions, honor that and respect that. And it serves everybody so much better.”

“And the challenge for institutions or for political leaders is to understand what that really means. It doesn't mean saying yes to everybody. It doesn't mean saying yes to the loudest voices.”

“The day after I was elected, I received a letter with a check, which was actually backdated to a couple of days before election day. And this check was for the largest donation allowed from a corporate body.”

“So I wrote a letter back to them saying, thank you very much for this, donation, but I'm not able to accept because I cannot commit to what you're asking me to do.”

“I think we also have to remember that progress is not necessarily sustained. We have to be vigilant. We have to be committed to doing the right things for the right reasons.”