LifeLab CEO and president Sue Paish is set to share her experiences and insights as a female leader at the Women in Leadership panel next month in Richmond.
Hosted by the Richmond Chamber of Commerce, the panel will also feature millennial entrepreneur Tara Bosch and COO of the Vancouver White Caps, Rachel Lewis.
Paish believes social and work environments need to be more encouraging of women pursuing leadership roles.
“While I’ve seen a lot of progress in supporting the leadership in women over the last many years, there is still enough of a gap,” Paish told the Richmond News.
She noted that among all the S&P 500 companies (500 leading companies having common stock listed on the NYSE or NASDAQ), only five per cent have female CEOs.
“B.C. is a little bit better; 12 per cent of CEOs in B.C. companies are women, but that’s still a very small percentage,” Paish said.
“And 45 per cent of Canadian companies have no women on their boards.”
Paish said the factors leading to the gap can start very early on in people’s life.
Growing up surrounded by people who constantly told her “you can do this”, Paish always believes in the power of encouragement.
“I’ve noticed over the years that women tend to be self-deprecating.
“They are far more focused on making sure they have all the qualifications for a position before they put their names in… while men tend to be more bold.
“So helping build women’s confidence is something we can work at,” she said.
Paish added, business leaders also need to support women who are building families as well as their own career.
“As women, anybody actually, we can have it all (work and family.) We just can’t have it all at once,” she said.
As a mother of three, Paish didn’t step away from her ambitions.
Instead, her husband retired to look after their kids when they were in elementary school.
“We must decide what’s important to us, what parenting environment we are comfortable with.
“But the most important thing is that women need to make those decisions themselves, with confidence.”
As a successful leader, she believes the key skills are vision, strategy, and most importantly the ability to attract people and build good teams.
“Top talent is our most scarce recourse in our next 10 years. If we are not encouraging women to pursue and build themselves in to those positions, we are missing out on half of the talent pool,” said Paish.
Richmond Chamber of Commerce hosts Women in Leadership 2.0: Luncheon and Panel Oct. 5 at 11:30 a.m. - 2:00 p.m. at the Sheraton Vancouver Airport Hotel
