#IWD2020 - Real heroes lead by example and action

 

First published on RBCNet | March 04, 2020

 

International Women’s Day is a time for everyone to recognize and celebrate the incredible achievements and progress of all women around the world. Our RBC theme this year is "Be The Hero," encouraging and inspiring people to share authentic stories and have real conversations about acts of courage and respect that foster inclusion every day, not just on International Women's Day. Over the days ahead, we will showcase some of these inspiring stories from the 2020 RBC IWD Speaker Contest, featuring colleagues who courageously stepped up to speak out for inclusion through the lens of their own experiences.

 

 

RBCers around the world were invited to enter the 2020 RBC International Women’s Day Speaker Contest “Be the Hero” for the chance to deliver remarks at the global employee event on March 9 in Toronto. We reached out to semi-finalist, Gabriel Flores, to get to know him and understand his convictions around the advancement of women and speaking up for inclusion.

 

Gabriel believes in leading by example and action. He says we can all help foster an environment where we can be our best selves and better serve our clients, each other and our community. When he entered the speaker contest, he saw it as an opportunity to inspire colleagues to think about their own experiences and the common threads that bring us together. He hoped that through this contest, he could share his worldview that comes from his role as a father, an investment advisor, and member of the RBC family.

 

There are often significant experiences in life that help to shape who we are. What is that experience in your life?

 

I spent the better part of 10 years rock climbing throughout Canada, the US, Cuba, Central America and parts of Europe. Technical climbing requires trust, communication and a strong sense of responsibility. This sense of responsibility comes when you are faced with decisions that could put someone else’s life in jeopardy, as well as your own. Through rock climbing and mountaineering, I learned to appreciate the beauty of unspoiled environments that risk being lost as our climate changes. I also gained an important perspective on loss and life. I have had friends lose their lives in the mountains, and I nearly had a fatal fall myself but for the thinnest of margins towards the end of my climbing days.

 

At the summit of Bugaboo Spire in Bugaboo Provincial Park, BC (August 2008)

 

Being an example to others is important to you. Why?

 

I suffered the loss of my first child to congenital heart disease, and it inspires me to appreciate life through gratitude, and especially to value the time we spend with those we care about. Now I have two boys who ask inquisitive questions about the world around them, and it challenges my own curiosity and reinforces the need to set the example.

 

You are raising your sons to be supportive of the role that women play in society, and to understand that men and women have the right to the same expectations, including dreaming big. Tell us more about that.

 

From left to right, Denver, Gabriel and Evan. With two boys who ask inquisitive questions about the world around them, Gabriel says it challenges his own curiosity and reinforces the need for him to set an example

 

As a father raising two young boys, Denver (8) and Evan (4), I feel it is incumbent upon me to instill in them the values of respect and empathy towards others.

Talking with them about the good fortune and privilege they enjoy, and to use that as a springboard to leadership, cannot begin early enough. Highlighting the ability of girls to do the same things as boys, whether it be as astronauts or World Cup skiers, only serves to drive home the point that we are more alike than we are different.

I think about my own mother, who was among the few female physicians in her field of psychiatry, as someone who persevered in spite of the generally accepted conventions that women did not have careers of their own, and certainly not in the male dominated area of medicine that was part of her practice at the time.

 

In your submission, you challenge stereotypes, specifically the image of a typical household, and you credit female clients in your role as investment advisor as influencing your worldview. How do you promote equity in your profession?

 

The historically accepted convention is that the main bread winner in the household is male, or that you have the wealth management conversations primarily with the ‘man of the house.’ This way of thinking has been (rightfully) upended. As a forward-thinking advisor, I strive to include everyone in the conversation and process. I seek to live by the RBC Leadership Model in simplifying things that are complicated for all my clients, and ensure the leading members of the household all understand why we are embarking on any given strategy. Given the fact that statistically women outlive men, it is admittedly also smart business to involve everyone in building a long-term and sustainable advisory practice.

 

You see yourself as an advocate for the advancement of women at RBC and the need to speak up for inclusion. How does this play out in your daily experience on the job?

 

First, when I consider how I can better drive towards a gender-balanced world, where parity is the rule, not the exception, I begin with my specialization in Responsible Investing. The framework of Responsible Investing is in the three pillars of Environment, Social and Governance (ESG) and how empirical evidence shows that women are better managers of risk. Also, when women are in management or C-suite roles, the firms they represent are generally better run institutions with higher levels of employee engagement. In differentiating myself as an advisor through this specialization, I stand up for something that I believe in and see future opportunities to help affect the positive change we want to see in the world we live in.

 

As an RBCer, you speak about the importance of helping those around you to unlock their full potential. How would you motivate others to do the same?

 

While I have only been with RBC for a comparatively short time, I have been continually impressed by the quality of our people – and the goal of collaboration for the benefit of our clients. For that to happen at the high level that has become expected of us, it’s important to be inclusive and supportive. In a practical sense it means working together within our organization to find solutions for our clients. I see an organization such as ours as a living organism, with each of us playing the role of cells contributing to the smooth function of the whole. I recognize the importance in striving for a gender-balanced world, across all our lines of business, because complementing one another’s abilities through our varied experiences is the cornerstone of our strength. As in portfolio construction, diversification is paramount. Elevating, empowering and encouraging my colleagues that happen to be female benefits us all.