My brochure from an historical event for Vancouver and its women leaders!

Hillary Clinton Inspires Vancouver

On Wednesday, March 5, 2014 I participated in history in two ways. First, I attended an event that was the largest in the 127-year history of the Vancouver Board of Trade. Second, while I appreciate everything that the VBOT does for fostering business and innovation in the Lower Mainland – with particular emphasis on its Women’s Leadership Circle – the real historical moment for me happened when I saw potential-future-president Hillary Clinton speak.

Ms. Clinton chose to address the excited crowd of business leaders, social entrepreneurs, politicos, educators, and downright fans because of the important work of VBOT’s Women’s Leadership Circle, which she credited with transforming the Canadian – and, soon, North American – business landscape for women.

Here are my three takeaways from her speech:

1. Dare to Compete.

Positive transformation doesn’t move forward when change agents sit on the sidelines. Ms. Clinton’s stories ran the continuum of risk from reputational damage (her campaign for a New York Senate seat) to torture and death (the current presidents of Liberia and Brazil). For women leading change – and all the men supporting them – the first step can be scary and, possibly, dangerous. Just know that, whether you see us or not, there are a lot of people behind you.

Speaking of which, Ms. Clinton spoke a lot about co-operating, too. Through collaboration – as hard as it might have been for Liberian women to work with warlords, they did – communities are more likely to sustain positive social, political, economic, and environmental change. So, we must dare to co-operative, too.

2. “Skin Like a Rhinoceros”.

“Take criticism seriously, but not personally.” I absolutely loved this statement. For the most part, it is both important and meaningful to honour peoples’ positive and critical opinion of us; however, if we let hurtful and vitriolic criticism sink in too deeply, well, then we’re not likely to go far in upsetting the status quo. Many people have criticized Hillary Clinton throughout her decades in public office and she acknowledged that her think skin allowed her to build on – and learn from – hurtful comments.

3.  No Ceilings.

Here are the facts: communities that fully engage women in ways that allow them to reach their potential outperform communities who place real and/or invisible barriers on women’s participation in social, economic and political systems. While Ms. Clinton’s evidence-based case was an incredibly compelling one, I came away with a sense that her stories of female potential were common sense that were not common practice: the more high-potential people we have in our communities will undoubtedly produce more shared value for all folks engaged in the journey. We just need to help Hillary Clinton speed along the transformation, which is no small feet.

As I continue to reflect on this historical significance of Hillary Clinton’s visit to Vancouver, I keep returning to the important idea of “No Ceilings” – ceilings certainly continue to exist for women in this country. And the Women’s Leadership Circle will continue its good work to smash through them. What also needs to happen are collective efforts to acknowledge the economic, political, social, health, environmental, and educational barriers that limit so many human beings from reaching their full potential.

So, if healthy communities do not have ceilings, what will you do to ensure that your community doesn’t have any?