International Women’s Day 2019: #BalanceforBetter with Terminal’s Female Leadership
This year’s theme for International Women’s Day is #BalanceforBetter, which reminds all of us to celebrate women’s achievements while also taking strides to make this a more gender-balanced, and consequently better, world for all. At Terminal, 3 out of 7 current leadership positions are held by women so to both celebrate and strive for balance — we wanted to take a moment to dive into each of their stories and get their thoughts on how they’re applying some of the lessons they’ve learned along their journeys to create more space for the women around them to thrive.
Veronique St-Germain, Director of Talent Acquisition
- Who’s your favorite female icon or superhero?
Nadia Comaneci, Romanian gymnast that won three Olympic gold medals at the 1976 Olympics and was the first gymnast to receive a perfect score. Nadia was a role model to me because of her dedication, determination, perseverance, physical and strength and I was fortunate enough to meet her at a gymnastics camp that she was leading when I was 12 years old.
2. What influenced you the most on your pathway to leadership?
Early on in my career, I had this dream of becoming an entrepreneur. I wasn’t sure how exactly it was going to happen, but it was my goal. I even remember designing a variety of business cards for all the different entrepreneurship ideas that were floating through my mind, just for fun.
After having my children, the desire to be a successful women entrepreneur became even more intense. I wanted to show them it was possible to work hard, love what you do, and to be both successful in the business world and in personal life. I started by building an idea wall in my home office, bringing my kids into the process to brainstorm concepts and company names. This directly resulted in me starting my first venture — an in-home personal training service.
The reality of trying to balance work passion with being a mother of young children was much more challenging than I could have imagined. I had to be honest with myself about where my priorities now ranked, so I looked to find something else that would give me that same feel of being in control of my own destiny but allowed me more regularity so I could be home for breakfast with my kids and to tuck them in at night. This resulted in my discovery of the world of talent acquisition and joining BlackBerrry where I was fortunate enough to be surrounded by incredibly smart colleagues and strong leaders to foster my growth and fuel my passion.
Throughout my many years in talent acquisition since, I’ve had many personal highs and lows but have been able to share in both those successes and failures with my family which gives everyone the opportunity to learn and grow. My kids and my husband have probably heard so many stories by this point that they are honorary recruiters.
3. What has stood out to along that journey as being in most need of more #balanceforbetter?
With the mission always being to try to balance career with family — no part of it ever gets easier. On one hand, it’s an amazing feeling to love what you do, but because it never feels like work and it all starts to blend together. I think we need to think holistically about #balanceforbetter as many of us are building our careers while being mothers and it’s not possible to always separate the two.
4. What are you doing at Terminal to help improve on some of those things that stood out to you before? How are you working to create a better environment for women to thrive in?
Because time is limited, I try to prioritize being there for both my family and my team to make sure they feel supported. I know that women especially take on a lot, and recruiting is a high pressure role so I encourage everyone on my team to all live very full lives in and out of work and to always take the time they need to pause and unplug.
Michelle Bradley, Director of HR
- Who’s your favorite female icon or superhero?
Oh it’s my Gram. I’m fortunate to have had such a strong role model like her in my life. She pushed boundaries and social norms as she blazed a career for herself in the 1940’s when in those times the women for the most part were encouraged to stay at home and support their husband and raise a family. She was determined though. She had goals and dreams of her own that weren’t going to be pushed to the side. She was going to have the career AND a family, and she did.
I will always carry a great amount of respect and admiration for her for many reasons, but mostly for always being true to herself. She did life her way and always followed her heart. Her life was not easy, but no matter what obstacle or challenge was in front of her, it was her endless strength, drive & determination that got her through.
She was, and always will be my superhero.
2. What influenced you the most on your pathway to leadership?
I was fortunate enough to work for two phenomenal female leaders at different points in my career. These ladies were amazing and I was always in awe of them both. They were the epitome of exemplary leadership in my mind, and I was like a little sponge taking in EVERYTHING.
Leadership wasn’t necessarily something I saw myself doing. It felt like a rather scary and intimidating endeavor to be honest with you, but they saw something in me rather early on that I didn’t even yet see in myself.
Their support, encouragement and mentorship lead me down a path that I most likely would not have pursued on my own. Surrounding yourself by talented, trusted and supportive mentors is critical. It’s the best way to learn and truly flourish.
3. What has stood out to along that journey as being in most need of more #balanceforbetter?
I love this. “Better the Balance. Better the World.”
I truly believe that all voices need to be heard in order for the world to thrive, which is why driving gender balance everywhere is so important. Ensuring women feel empowered, respected and supported provides the encouragement and confidence to speak up and use their voices.
It’s so inspiring to see a global day of recognition of women’s achievements and a call to action to support women’s rights and advance gender equality.
4. What are you doing at Terminal to help improve on some of those things that stood out to you before? How are you working to create a better environment for women to thrive in?
I think leading by example is one of the best ways. Supporting, encouraging and empowering those around me to be the very best they can be, truly makes my heart happy. I love seeing others flourish and grow. I feel very fortunate for the experiences and opportunities provided to me over the years and love being able to pay that forward.
Leading by example also applies at home too. I have two daughters who are watching and learning from me on how to navigate this world. There’s a big responsibility there in being a positive role model to them so that they can tackle their life journey with confidence and strength.
Elisabeth Hawkins, VP of Marketing
- Who’s your favorite female icon or superhero?
This might be a bit of an unexpected answer, but Wonder Woman! She is tenacious, can hold her own in any situation, and has overall confidence in her strength. Fun fact — I actually have a (not so) small collection of Wonder Woman socks for different occasions, so whether I’m snowboarding steep terrain or going into a major meeting, I can wear them on my most intimidating days as a little reminder to myself to bring that level of strength to the table.
2. What influenced you the most on your pathway to leadership?
Looking back, I’m really fortunate to have a handful of people really believe in my potential and cheer me on along the way. From the CEO that took me under his wing early in my career to give me access to all areas of marketing and send me off to many conferences to accelerate my learning, to the former bosses who encouraged me to take the next step (sometimes even the step or two beyond the immediate next one) and saw me as way more senior than I ever saw myself — I owe my career to the special group of supporters who are determined to see me grow.
Not everything has been easy along my journey, I’ve been knocked down a lot and had to navigate through several difficult situations — but I like to think this has served to build up my resiliency along the way. I truly believe that with every challenge comes opportunity.
3. What has stood out to along that journey as being in most need of more #balanceforbetter?
As privileged as I am to have had all of these many amazing people believe in me and my abilities throughout my career, there was noticeable lack of balance with the majority of those people being men. In retrospect, I wish there were more positive female leaders in my story. This has been something I’ve taken to heart and folded into my leadership philosophy to try to fix-forward for others.
4. What are you doing at Terminal to help improve on some of those things that stood out to you before? How are you working to create a better environment for women to thrive in?
As a female leader in business, I feel I can push for more balance by the way I build out my team and help raise up the women around me to create pathways for growth. I think it’s important to be available to mentor others and to make time to connect good people to other good people.
As the marketing leader at Terminal, I have the unique opportunity to help push for diversity and balance in many meaningful ways, like with our company initiatives, in events that we host, and groups that we work with. We’re not always perfect, but I feel strongly that striving to do better by creating space to foster diversity is core to our values — and part of the reason I joined Terminal.
You can learn more about ways to celebrate this year’s International Women’s Day and what #BalanceforBetter means by visiting https://www.internationalwomensday.com/
