Canada and Beyond: Breaking Down Barriers to an International Career
Aimée Look, External Affairs
April 16, 2022
Harnessing the skills required to build a career internationally requires significant adaptability and determination. For people looking into a career in international business, drawing inspiration from top-level leadership can help you understand how to optimize your own performance.
In an interview with two C-Suite Executives in the Fintech industry, The Observer uncovers the key to taking your career abroad. The discussion uncovers their perspectives regarding how to conduct multicultural leadership, what individual work habits work for them, how to distinguish yourself in a team, and the importance of replenishment to avoid burnout.
William Keliehor is the Chief Commercial Officer of Interac Corporation. He has diverse experience across the globe with Amex, Citibank, MasterCard, and other Fintech companies across 30 geographies. In all of these roles, he has leveraged innovative thinking and problem-solving skills; as a catalyst for evoking transformational change.
William’s international perspective and experience will be a central theme of our discussion, from how he navigated the beginning of his career, the challenges he faced while working in a politically unstable environment, and the key steps that his team takes to make decisions and mitigate risk as a leader in the Fintech industry.
Karen Adams is the CEO of Fundserv, a technology platform in the Canadian investment fund industry that increases the efficiency and effectiveness of business operations. Recognized as the 2017 winner of Canada’s 100 Most Powerful Women award from the Women’s Executive Network, she spent the majority of her career internationally in the Middle East, Asia, and Europe.
Her first role as a CEO was with HSBC in Jordan and Palestine. As she worked in C-suite positions across industries and countries, she constructed dynamic teams by inspiring employees and developing leaders.
These two international executives, Keliehor and Adams, were both speakers at Queen’s Conference in International Business in January, and recently guests on the Look for Strength podcast.
Both executives speak on challenges they faced in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region; Keliehor describes when he made key decisions in evacuating an office amidst the Arab Spring, and Adams on navigating a male-dominated industry in the Middle East.
AL: What is your philosophy on what makes a good leader, and what is the greatest misconception that people have about leadership?
KA: Many people will ask me, given that I’ve worked in a number of different countries, what the key is to multi-cultural leadership. [I believe] there’s no such thing as multicultural leadership because the term assumes that people are managed differently depending on their cultural background, the country where they grew up, race, or gender. And that’s not at all the case. I would manage a team member in Korea differently than I would manage a team member in London because they are different individuals, not because they are Korean and British.
AL: Interesting how cultural distance and observing differences in business interactions cross-culturally is something that we are taught to be aware of, but is not necessarily the most effective way to lead or interact with individuals of a team as it can lead to stereotyping.
KA: I think the most important skill I’ve had when it comes to managing people is to get to know the person and build a relationship of trust because then you can allow people to do their absolute best work. That’s how I’ve conducted my management and leadership style over the years.
WK: Leadership is not easy. Many people think that it is all learned, and from my experience, it is a combination of innate qualities and qualities that need to be refined through experience. It takes time, and most people rush through leadership. I’m not about fake stress or putting up walls, but rather taking them down. One thing that leaders also struggle with at times, is that they get wrapped up in an organizational structure, the way things should be. We need to take more of a human approach to leadership.
I think it is more about motivating people and getting the most out of people. I’ve seen this around the world- you need to embrace cultural diversity and diversity of thought. You need to learn how to accentuate and build up the things and people that are the best and most diverse. It is really key to understand who they are and what their strengths and development areas are. Good leaders work with people to see how they can be most successful.
A lot of leadership is self-actualization and a lot of it is intentional. It is stopping, listening, and being in the moment to understand what is going around you. By doing this, you can leverage people in the way that best benefits the organization, you as a leader, and most importantly, what grows and stimulates them in their career and personal lives as well.
AL: What are some unexpected challenges you have faced in your career, and what is your approach to tackling challenges?
WK: I think one of the biggest challenges professionally that I have been faced with was when Arab Spring broke out and we were looking at evacuating one of our offices with about 60 to 70 ex-pats. It was a real dilemma because you're in a country or working with the local staff and you're saying, there's a situation at play here and we're gonna take the ex-pats out and leave you behind to deal with tanks rolling down the road. And it was. It was a humbling experience because I thought, I have got to look out for the health and well-being of the staff that are not citizens of the country.
There are no guarantees that the international staff are going to be treated like the citizens would, and we had to evaluate when to “pull the trigger”, or activate the continuity of business and the evacuation. It was important to assess what actions we should take” and what messages our actions are sending. It was an incredibly difficult situation.
You know you're not part of the fire fibre, and you're not committed to the political situation in the same way that citizens are because you're not a citizen. It was a weird situation to be in, but I think that was probably one of the most poignant things that stuck in my mind.
KA: I don’t think I was even aware of many of the challenges that faced me; I just barrelled through. Many people also ask me, living in various different countries in the Middle East and Asia, did you have barriers as a woman, and were there challenges that you faced because of your gender?
I’m sure there were, but I don’t think I recognized it. I belonged to a generation of women, who I think dropped the ball a little bit on feminism. Our parent’s generation, my mother’s generation, were all real activists- “women’s libbers” they were known at the time. When I started my career, I thought that all of the barriers were broken, and there was equal opportunity. In hindsight I was wrong, but I didn’t realize that until later in my career when I looked around the room as a CEO in my late thirties, heading up a bank in the Middle East, in Jordan, and I was the only woman in the room. Then I realized, wow, I better start talking about this and I should become a little bit more of an activist.
Then I recognized there were many barriers, but my blindness and naivety throughout the years just allowed me to barrel through them.
Let me tell you a story about being the CEO of a bank in the Middle East. It was my first CEO role, and it was 2008, just after the bottom had dropped out of the global economy. My boss sat in Dubai, and he was the boss of all of the CEOs of the MENA region for the bank.
Every year, there was a strategic summit, a strategy meeting among all of the CEOs. It always took place in Abu Dhabi, and it always ended in a round of golf. I was really looking forward to it- I’m not the greatest golfer but I love the game, and I knew that golfing would be a great opportunity for strategic business conversations outside of the confines of the office.
As it turns out, it was a men's only Golf Club, and I was therefore not allowed to go. Many of my male colleagues sympathized but went golfing anyway. Relationships were forged and decisions were made on that golf course without me.
I learned early on that you fight the fights you can win. I certainly wasn’t going to win a fight with the owners of the golf club to be able to play that day. The next year, I proposed we have the strategic offsite in my country, Jordan, where I had come to know the Queen of Jordan, who is a progressive feminist herself. Instead of golfing, we went to an Equestrian event, and it was wonderful. Ultimately, the bank won the inaugural sovereign bond issue of the Jordanian government because of the relationship I had forged with her. A win-win all around.
AL: What is the most useful piece of advice you’ve ever been given on having a successful career, especially for those looking to work internationally?
KA: Say YES! Put your hand up for everything. Be enthusiastic and energetic. At a time when you think it is cool to be aloof and standoffish, you can really distinguish yourself as a young person by being enthusiastic- overly enthusiastic sometimes. By saying, “yep, I’ll serve on that committee” or “I will volunteer myself for that thing”, whatever it happens to be, keep yourself open to all opportunities, show enthusiasm and energy and you will distinguish yourself from your peers and get opportunities that they would not get.
WK: One of the things I learned early on is that anything worth having is worth working for. Most things that you want in life don't come easily, so you have to identify what's important to you and how much you are willing to sacrifice to get there.
I think the other thing that's important is to feed the beast. You've really got to feed your mind and your soul and you've got to figure out how you can put yourself back out in the world after rejection. With psychometric tests, we can test our personalities in a normal state and in a stress state. Life is going to happen and you’re going to be stressed out. What do you do to take care of yourself and how do you replenish yourself? How do you recharge yourself and put yourself back out in the world so you can rise and fight again?
You have got to find a way to be positive and look for a solution. I am not saying that you shouldn't lament, and you shouldn't lick your wounds or feel sad about rejection or failure. I'm saying that everyone deals with things in their own way, and you have got to work through that, and then figure out how you put yourself back out into the world.
If you want to achieve things in life, focus on what's within your control and what is within your power. Every time you fall, you can get back up and figure out where you want to be going, what your vision is, and what the end state is for you.
Thank you to Karen Adams and Will Keliehor for sharing their contribution to this article via the Look for Strength Podcast.