Women in Municipal Finance Series: Making Personal Connections with Nancy Taylor
As part of our “Women in Municipal Finance Series”, MFOA is highlighting inspiring and trailblazing women across Ontario’s municipal finance sector. This month, we met with Nancy Taylor, Commissioner of Finance/Treasurer at the Region of Durham. Nancy highlights the importance of connecting with colleagues both near and far.
Joining the Municipal Sector
Nancy: I joined the municipal sector thanks to sheer coincidence and a good mentor. When I started at Deloitte, the partner that recruited me had made a point of saying that the MUSH (municipalities, universities, schools, and hospitals) sector was their speciality. This interested me more than the commercial sector, because an open community; the MUSH sector was interested in sharing and learning from one another. The partner I worked with encouraged me to continue working with clients in the sector.
When a job opened at the Town of Newcastle (now Municipality of Clarington), I almost didn’t apply. I was six months pregnant and thought it would be a waste of time. At the eleventh hour, I decided to hand in my resume. To my benefit, the Treasurer was a woman who had gone through a number of challenges working for very traditional male bosses.
When she was promoted to Treasurer, she kept an open mind and gave me a chance. She told me after she hired me that there were a number of people on the interview panel that asked why she would hire someone who’s going to be on maternity leave in a few months. Her response was that she hired me for my knowledge and my career, not a short-term concern that I’d be away. Having someone who was willing to fight back on the notion of hiring a pregnant woman helped to launch my career in municipal finance.
Finding Fulfillment in Helping Others Succeed
Nancy: I’ve been blessed to work with passionate people. The highlights of my career aren’t the positions I’ve obtained but the respect and trust I’ve built with my colleagues, and having the ability to help others grow and give them new opportunities. I like to see what people’s skillsets are and help them develop it. Everybody fits in a particular place at the right moment in their career.
Having the ability and freedom to encourage and shape an organization has been a tremendous opportunity. At the Municipality of Clarington, the CAO gave me the opportunity to work across departments and employees. Gaining the trust to build a great workplace was an impressive experience.
Coming to Durham Region, my goal was modernization and giving people authority to make decisions, make changes, and really look externally. The Region was previously focused on internal accomplishments, which was great, but encouraging people to look outward and ask how they can help support the municipal finance sector and become more of a voice has been a nice opportunity.
Inspiring Inclusion in the Hybrid Workplace
Nancy: This may be an unusual answer, but when COVID-19 hit I was only a year or two into the Region. I was still figuring out names and who’s who, and suddenly we were all remote. Today, we work in a hybrid format and there’s many successful aspects about that, but the challenge, especially with new employees, is how do you make people feel like they belong and are part of a team?
When women act more formal and businesslike in emails, people may misinterpret a harsher tone. My determination was to build a team by having people know who I am. Every week I send an email to the entire department, almost 200 people. My perspective is that they will feel more like a core group if they know who I am, as opposed to a name on an email. Sometimes my emails are personal, they include a bit of home life, some personal history, whatever I’d like to share. I want them to know me.
When I’m in the office, staff will always come up to me and say, “oh I’m so glad you talked about this issue, it made me feel better about something I’m grappling with”. I will often get replies to my emails where someone shares a personal story, and that’s fulfilling to me, because it feels like I’m part of their lives too.
Sending an email a week may sound a little bland, but by having it be a personal “who I am” email and sharing tidbits that I think they would find informative in their roles has made a tremendous difference in this distant work environment. I don’t want someone to be intimidated or panicked when they need to meet with me or see an email from me. I want it to be a positive reaction and have them see how they can help.
I always look at the statistics on the numbers of staff who opened and read my emails, and it’s consistently almost 90% of staff that read it weekly, which I take to be a great compliment. I have staff on the road too, so I consider it quite a success. If I’m away for week I have to tell people ahead of time otherwise they’ll wonder why they haven’t heard from me!
Advice for Young Women in Municipal Finance
Nancy: We’re entitled to be an integral part of any organization and career path we choose. I’ve always felt that this is what I want to do and this is what I’m passionate about, and I have a right to be here at the table. Don’t feel intimidated because of the environment you’re coming into or the hierarchical structure at the workplace. You have a right to be here and to share your gifts and talents. You don’t have to justify why you’re here.
Explaining Complex Concepts in Everyday Terms
Nancy: I work hard to make sure my voice is heard, especially at the Council table. I want them to understand who I am. That way, when I speak and answer questions there’s respect and trust that they know where I’m coming from. When presenting, I try to engage by looking at all of their faces and not my screen. I also try to explain complex concepts in everyday language. I’m not a joke-teller, so I try to use real life examples, and they can get a sense of who I am and what value I provide. If they know me, they’ll want to know what I have to say – that’s critical.
The Evolution of the Municipal Finance Sector
Nancy: I’ve been in the municipal finance sector for 31 years plus my time at a CPA firm. When I started at an audit firm, all my clients were men in navy blue suits. The audit junior who came with me was a 6’3” male and everyone assumed he was the audit lead and I was the assistant. Now, there is a gender mix of representatives at various senior levels.
At the Region, our CAO is a woman and half of the senior leadership team are women. The sector has come a long way, and I’ve been fortunate to work with such great people. The last five years has seen a change of diversity amongst staff, which provided me with more perspectives and the ability to understand the complexities of the community. We have a Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion team now at Durham Region too. I think the taxpayers and clients appreciate the diversity of the staff – you want to see people working in the community who have lived experiences like you. This is especially critical during these times of recruitment challenges.
Making Connections at MFOA
Nancy: Being involved in MFOA has truly made an astounding difference in my career. Being on the MFOA Board of Directors has broadened my horizons on what we need to do as a sector and has taught me that we need to help each other out rather than focus solely on our own portfolios. The support system I’ve built through MFOA has been invaluable.
