Diversity & Inclusion
Women in Leadership: Meet Debbie Lyttle
January 27, 2022
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1 minute
Our Women in Leadership spotlight series shines a light on some of the many talented women who work on our team and are committed to developing and empowering their female colleagues.
Debbie Lyttle, Director and Business Manager, Sustainable Finance & Corporate Transitions, is a long-standing culture-builder and inclusion advocate.
Debbie Lyttle
Director and Business Manager, Sustainable Finance & Corporate Transitions (SFCT)
Debbie is a pillar of our internal community and a founding member of the Canadian chapter of our Women in Leadership employee resource group. She is a mentor, an advocate and a champion of positive change, leading several impactful diversity and inclusion initiatives over the last 30 years.
Director and Business Manager, Sustainable Finance & Corporate Transitions (SFCT)
Debbie is a pillar of our internal community and a founding member of the Canadian chapter of our Women in Leadership employee resource group. She is a mentor, an advocate and a champion of positive change, leading several impactful diversity and inclusion initiatives over the last 30 years.
What I do
I act as the centralized strategic partner for internal connectivity across our firm, and with key TD Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) partners. I ensure the firm's interests are represented and embedded into enterprise-level ESG deliverables and promote our team's mandate and expertise across our global footprint with internal stakeholders and colleagues.
Proud moment
My career at TD has spanned almost three decades and there have been many proud moments for myself and the teams I've led. Before joining the SFCT team, I had the privilege of leading Corporate Citizenship, Inclusion & Diversity, Colleague Experience and Events departments, achieving many milestones. Two that I'm most proud of are:
- The launch of our firm's internal annual global recognition program, Pinnacle. This program recognizes our top-performing colleagues for their outstanding contributions to the company. Recognizing and celebrating our top-performers and their contributions has evolved tremendously since the program's inception in 2014 and is core to our culture. As the program owner, I got to meet and celebrate the award recipients each year and witness first-hand the excitement, gratitude and impact the recognition experience had on them.
- In 2020, we transformed our annual Underwriting Hope campaign to an online matching fundraiser to help charities and agencies across North America that we had a long-standing history with who had been disproportionately impacted by COVID-19. While the campaign was shortened, in true TD Securities spirit, we exceeded our fundraising target, increased year-over-year participation rates, and dispersed C$1.4M to 84 organizations across North America!
Advice to my younger self
My top five nuggets of advice are:
- Emotional Intelligence (EQ) matters in the workplace! Having a high EQ means knowing your strengths and how to use them to your full advantage while keeping your weaknesses from holding you back. The most successful leaders I've worked with had high EQ.
- Don’t get caught up comparing yourself to others. Instead, judge yourself against what you’re capable of.
- Never stop learning.
- Celebrate your victories in life – both big and small.
- Smile more, worry less and don't rush the years away. Enjoy every stage of the journey.
Read more about our female leaders. Visit our Women in Leadership spotlight series page.
Find a career opportunity that fits you. Visit our Careers page