LocationsWhat I Carried Home from a Room Full of Ambassadors
August 7, 2026
Photo of a panel discussion of the Ambassadors at the fireside chat
I walked into the French Ambassador's residence on a Monday morning expecting a panel discussion. I walked out with a page of notes I couldn't write fast enough & a completely different picture of what leadership actually costs.
The Women Shaping Global Influence Fireside Chat, co-hosted by UNDP Ghana, the Embassy of France and the High Commission of Canada to mark the International Day of Women in Diplomacy, brought together four distinguished ambassadors and high commissioners to reflect on leadership, diplomacy and the realities of women in public service.
I went in to cover the event. I left with a few things I couldn't quite file away as "communications output."
The ceiling isn't glass. It's concrete.
One idea has stayed with me long after the event ended.
High Commissioner Montrat challenged a metaphor many of us have grown accustomed to hearing. Glass, she explained, is transparent. You can see what's on the other side, and if enough pressure is applied, it eventually breaks. Concrete is different. It hides what's ahead and is far harder to break through.
That distinction reframed everything else she shared about her own journey from working under difficult supervisors to being labelled "aggressive" for behaviours that would earn male colleagues praise for being "decisive." She also spoke about the quieter barrier many women face: talking themselves out of opportunities before they've even tried.
What stayed with me wasn't simply the obstacles she described, but how matter-of-factly she spoke about them before explaining how she navigated them. She found allies, built a strategy, remained focused and kept moving. Perhaps that's the real lesson. Progress isn't only about pushing harder against barriers. It's also about making invisible barriers visible, so that more people can recognise them, navigate them and, eventually, dismantle them.
Excellence finds you, but only if you've already shown up for it.
Ambassador Bynoe-Sutherland's story is the one I keep replaying. A student activist who never planned to become a diplomat, she was running a women's health clinic when a USAID-funded project she managed caught the attention of people she didn't even know were watching. That thread ran through her entire career, from CEO of Barbados's national hospital through a COVID response, a hurricane & a volcanic eruption, to a phone call from her Prime Minister asking if she'd serve as High Commissioner to Ghana while she was, by her own account, sitting on a yacht in Fort Lauderdale.
Her story reminded me that careers rarely unfold exactly as planned. But one thread remained constant: people were paying attention long before she knew they were. She was refreshingly honest about the role sponsors play in opening doors, but equally clear that sponsorship only works when your work consistently speaks before you do. Excellence has a way of finding people who have quietly committed to it long before recognition arrives.
Diplomacy is not silence. It's timing.
Before the event, I had unconsciously assumed diplomacy meant saying as little as possible. The conversation challenged that assumption completely. Ambassador Labille challenged my assumption that diplomacy meant avoiding difficult conversations. To her, it was about saying difficult things with respect, honesty and facts. Ambassador Ranalli shared advice given to her during diplomatic training: "Prima di parlare, taci." Before speaking, be quiet. Not because silence is always the answer, but because knowing when to speak is often more powerful than speaking often. Ambassador Bynoe-Sutherland put it a different way: open your mouth when it counts, because if you open it too often, you lose your credibility along with it.
The parts nobody puts in the official write-up
Perhaps the most powerful moments were the least polished.
Ambassador Ranalli reflected on years of feeling she had to work "like a man", never asking for leave, constantly proving herself and only later recognising the personal cost of that mindset.
Ambassador Labille spoke candidly about living with a disability that others cannot see and the frustration of still having to advocate for greater understanding, even within institutions designed to serve people.
Ambassador Bynoe-Sutherland acknowledged something many people think but rarely say aloud: that leadership at the highest levels often comes with personal sacrifices no one prepares you for, including difficult choices around relationships, family and the competing demands of public and private life.
What stayed with me was that none of the women tried to romanticise those sacrifices. They spoke about them honestly, as part of the reality of pursuing leadership. Their stories were about navigating complexity with honesty, resilience and purpose.
The conversation extended beyond the panel itself.
Moderator Emelia Ainooson, Head of Communications at UNDP Ghana, shared a simple story about bringing her young son into a meeting when work and motherhood unexpectedly collided. She recalled how UNDP Ghana's Resident Representative, Niloy Banerjee, responded with understanding rather than frustration, a small moment that quietly reflected another lesson from the morning: meaningful leadership isn't only measured by decisions made in boardrooms, but also by the space leaders create for others to navigate life's competing demands with dignity.
Why it mattered to be in the room
Ghana has one of the highest proportions of women ambassadors in the world, nearly half. That fact was repeated a few times through the morning, and it's genuinely worth being proud of. But the room made clear that representation at the top isn't the finish line. It's the argument for why the next generation of Ghanaian women, the students, the midwives, the young fellows who stood up with questions about self-doubt and unconventional career paths, deserve rooms like this one long before they're negotiating peace agreements or signing bilateral agreements themselves.
I came for the coverage. I stayed for the reminder that the confidence these women project publicly was built, deliberately and at real cost, in private. That's not a headline. But it's the part worth carrying home.
Group photo of participants
Meaningful leadership isn't only measured by decisions made in boardrooms, but also by the space leaders create for others to navigate life's competing demands with dignity.