Halifax, Friday, June 1, 2012
Welcome all of you to Halifax. Welcome to the Governor General’s Canadian Leadership Conference.
Let me begin today by asking you a question: What do you hope to get out of this experience?
The goal of this conference—although it could just as easily be called a leadership journey—is unique. Once every four years, emerging Canadian leaders gather to learn and to grow. What this also means is that every governor general has one opportunity, one chance, to address such a distinguished audience.
And so, let me, for a moment, turn the question back on myself: What do I hope to see come out of this conference?
This experience is a wonderful way for you to redefine leadership, to renew our shared commitment to creating smart and caring communities. I hope that you will keep this in mind as you travel across this nation.
I know quite well the pressures and challenges of leadership. As some of you may know, I have spent the majority of my adult life in universities, in a variety of leadership roles. In 1974, I was dean of the Faculty of Law at the University of Western Ontario; in 1979, I became principal and vice-chancellor of McGill University; and in 1999, I was named the president of the University of Waterloo. As such, I have learned a thing or two about leadership in my time, largely through trial and error. Today, I’d like to share with you some of what I have learned.
Good leaders not only take intelligent risks, but also encourage others in their sphere to do the same.
In the 2010 Manion Lecture to federal public servants, Thomas Homer-Dixon likened good leaders to “gardeners” who establish the conditions for creativity and growth. And, as any gardener can tell you, some experiments don’t work out.
This analogy also brings to mind author Hugh Maclennan’s comparison of gardens to civilizations. This passage—from his book Voices in Time—is worth quoting in full:
“In the relatively rare periods in the past that we call civilized, people understood that a civilization is like a garden cultivated in a jungle. As flowers and vegetables grow from cultivated seeds, so do civilizations grow from carefully studied, diligently examined ideas and perceptions. In nature, if there are no gardeners, the weeds that need no cultivation take over the garden and destroy it.”
Of course, leadership is not as straightforward as gardening. There is no guide telling us which ideas are weeds, which ideas are flowers; which techniques will produce and which should be discarded. Leadership is risk.
And that is why leaders must surround themselves with the right people. When I was in university, I used to say that success was a 95% people game and a 5% idea game—but I believe this holds true for any leadership role. In fact, one of the defining characteristics of leadership, for me, is to recognize your total dependence on the people around you. Ideas are meaningless without the right people around to implement those ideas. And it is up to leaders to identify those people who would achieve the most success, but also to recognize when to step back and let those people take a more active role.
Let me give you an example from my own experience. By the end of my 15-year tenure as principal of McGill University and my 12 years as president of the University of Waterloo, I was fortunate to be surrounded by people passionately committed to implementing our long-term vision; I was comfortable with what I was doing and with where the university was going. Remember, you are responsible for the team around you, and for developing their leadership skills and passion for the cause.
And then, almost two years ago, I became governor general of Canada. When I arrived at Rideau Hall, I found that I had inherited a staff that knew more about what it meant to be governor general than I did. And so, I did what any good educator would do: I learned from the best. When you work with the right people, diving into an unfamiliar role is easy. And when you listen to the people around you, not only do you learn, but you also have a chance to grow into a better leader.
Keeping an open mind is an essential quality of a good leader, as is immersing yourselves in new experiences. That is what you are doing here. As you visit communities, you will be exposed to different points of view from those you will meet and from those with whom you will travel.
Finally, leadership requires that you develop a strategic vision for your cause or organization. Your experiences here will help you with this vital leadership.
E. B. White’s idea of “seeing things whole” is certainly of interest to us here. Leadership requires us to look at the big picture, to fit together pieces of a puzzle to project the right image.
Allow me to set out one of my own strategic visions for Canada, that of smart and caring communities.
What do I mean by this?
We must do all that we can to create the sustainable communities of the future, communities that thrive and offer the best chance for success for our children. Many Canadian communities are relatively strong on a comparative scale, but there exist many challenges. How we tackle issues such as poverty, economics or demographics will inform how well our country does as a whole.
Recently, Canadians had the honour of welcoming His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales in celebration of Her Majesty The Queen’s Diamond Jubilee. During his visit, he highlighted the importance of service, and how he is proud to bring people together and spread good ideas through a process he calls “Seeing is Believing.” I’d like to share with you some of his words. I quote:
“Over many years, I have seen how a good idea or example of best practice in one region or one part of a community can inspire others if they see it in action at first hand. This can have a tremendous multiplying effect. So often skepticism, resistance and deadlock in one area or community can be overcome by enabling people to meet and discover from those who have already been through a process of transformation that there really can be better opportunities and returns by doing things differently.”
Meeting new people, discovering new ideas, sharing your own successes, learning from others—this is what His Royal Highness meant when he said “Seeing is Believing.” And this is what you will open yourself up to during the Canadian Leadership Conference.
All of you here are leaders from communities across Canada. Each of you knows of some difficulty plaguing your community. You are actively adapting to changing times and helping those in need—in doing so, you are creating sustainability for everyone.
You know what needs to be done. We must be innovative, we must be altruistic. We need original ideas and at times sheer effort to succeed.
And so, I ask that you challenge yourselves over the next two weeks to listen and to think innovatively. How can you apply the lessons you will learn to your own community? How can non-profits help the economy? How can businesses be more generous? How can arts and the humanities mix with science and technology?
I posed the question earlier: what would I like to see come out of this conference? My answer: a renewed commitment to creating smarter, more caring communities, the type that I have already seen becoming a reality across the country.
How, then, can we lift the whole country—community by community—to be a smarter, more caring nation?
From what I have witnessed, it is the leaders of today, as well as tomorrow, who are showing us the way. But we also owe a debt of gratitude to the leaders of yesterday who paved the way for our success.
Let us cast our minds back to the days of Samuel de Champlain—a wonderful example of a builder and inspiring leader.
Champlain was an innovator who dedicated his life to creating a society based on the rule of law, diversity, tolerance, inclusiveness and peace.
I believe Champlain’s vision is just as relevant today as it was four centuries ago, and that we can learn many things from him about leadership in times of change and instability.
For example, Champlain was quick to realize his total dependence on the people around him. As an explorer, he meticulously gathered information on the geography and society of the New World from Basque whalers and fishermen and local First Nations. And indeed, the settlement at Port Royal would not have survived its first winter in 1605 were it not for the generous help of its Aboriginal neighbours.
Champlain was also a careful student of earlier attempts at colonization, applying the lessons of history to his own experience. The value he placed on justice and the rule of law gave him the legitimacy to lead through conditions of almost unimaginable hardship. Champlain was accountable to both the King back in France and those he led, but he also knew that success sometimes called for calculated risks.
As you can see, the challenges of leadership are timeless, though our circumstances in the 21st century have changed considerably.
Leaders must be confident but know their limitations. We must rely on what we know but keep an open mind to new ideas. We must strike a balance between organizational success and the betterment of the community and the country.
I wish all of you truly enlightening experiences and look forward to meeting you in Ottawa at the conclusion of this conference to hear of what you have learned. Whatever you anticipate getting out of this conference, I hope that you will also discover something surprising and new. After all, becoming a good leader is a lifelong learning process.
Thank you.
