Ayesha Rekhi: Your story matters

My story begins with the journey of my parents, immigrants who left India because of religious intolerance and for the freedom to marry in Canada. While I think many people can relate to my experience as a working mother with school-age children juggling a busy job with family life, sometimes my gender or ethnicity are not quite what they expect when they meet a Canadian ambassador. It helps if I explain my parents’ story: they, like many immigrants and refugees (including Czechs) found a home in Canada, worked hard, and invested in their community and in their child’s education. During the pandemic, my story is similar to many others including working through a crisis over countless Zoom calls while my children were homeschooling in the next room. During these difficult times, this shared story has created a valuable human connection and mutual understanding.

Being able to tap into different networks, information and perspectives makes diversity not only the pathway to better representing our societies but also to better policy and innovation.

Knowing my story, articulating my values and reflecting on “why I do what I do” has helped me to identify my strengths and my blind-spots as a leader. It has made me a more authentic, empathetic and resilient leader, allowing me to define my role as ambassador instead of letting it be defined by others. Embrace your superpower because your story matters. Own it and use it to create space for new ideas and to connect with diverse people with different backgrounds. Now more than ever, the common ground we find in sharing and listening will help us lead with empathy, build resilience and find innovative, durable solutions to the world’s problems.