Nora Charette is the Business Support ERP Manager at the Niagara Region. A lifelong Niagara resident, she followed her desire to contribute back to her community by joining the Region shortly after earning her Chartered Accountant designation. She veered off a more typical finance path in 2015 to enhance her technical knowledge when she led the Finance stream of the implementation of the Region’s ERP, PeopleSoft Financials. This provided an opportunity for her to continually evaluate processes, systems, and communications looking for improvements.
Inquisitive by nature, Nora is always looking to learn something new and challenge the status quo. When she isn’t delving into a new challenge, Nora loves spending time her family, reading stories with her son, and baking.
To me, civic leadership is about bettering your community. It’s making a positive difference to the place you have decided to call home, improving the quality of life for everyone who lives there and striving to make it a place newcomers also want to call home. We choose to live in the Niagara Region, invest in our homes and families here and should do the same in our community.
I believe that the Niagara Region has amazing potential to become one of the best places to live in Canada and beyond. We have fantastic access to healthcare and education, infrastructure, a beautiful greenbelt and waterfront, and so many diverse industries. That said, there are definitely places where we struggle and could improve by focusing on relationship development working towards a more cohesive vision for the Region.
I think we need to work harder to understand the struggles of minorities and people of different educational or economic backgrounds as well as the environmental impacts of global warming to make sure we are setting the Region up for a thriving future. Through building relationships and improving communication, we need to make the residents of the Region more informed and drive a sense of civic ownership so they feel that their decisions and input matter. People need to feel encouraged and engaged to take action today for tomorrow.
As mentioned in the previous question, I believe that communication is crucial for success. Communication skills help a leader to be open and transparent to facilitate building trusting relationships. These skills also allow a leader to demonstrate both that he/she is forward-thinking and realistic in his/her assessment of situations. Through the communication of actions, leaders need to inspire others and demonstrate integrity.