Four Tips for Women Bankers Who Want to Build Their Brands and Advance Their Careers

Back in 2010 when Toronto Dominion Bank CEO Ed Clark said he could envision a woman running a Canadian bank sometime in the next “20 years,” women all over the world winced. During a women’s branding workshop held at the Bank of Montreal in honor of International Women’s Day last week, dozens of female BMO banking executives who’ve been tagged as emerging leaders were boning up on tools to help reverse the global trend of male dominance in the business.

The BMO event was designed to help women at the bank step up their personal brands and learn to market themselves more stridently, particularly during interviews.

One potential roadblock for women in finance: being sheepish about coming off as a leader who’s produced real results instead of helping others do so.

During one personal branding exercise at the workshop, “Many women shared very personal stories, often involving how they helped or nurtured someone,” recalls Lynn Roger, BMO senior vice president of talent strategies and executive resourcing, who addressed the event and was its executive sponsor. “I couldn’t help wondering if it would have been different had the room been filled with men.” While there’s nothing wrong with being a sympathetic nurturer, “Women tend not to lead with words like ‘I’m a strong leader with a history of great business results,’” Roger says.

In addition to learning to speak out for themselves, women who took part in the workshop—which was led by author and TV producer Amy Dorn Kopelan—gained some new insights into how to market themselves more effectively by becoming more conscious of what sets them apart.

Sherri Griffiths, a commercial banking area manager who has been with BMO for 12 years and also attended the branding event—which took place on March 8th and drew about 90 emerging women leaders BMO has earmarked for their leadership potential—says she has learned to think more introspectively at what she values and why in order to better articulate who she is as a leader and why someone would take a chance on her rather than another candidate.

For instance, she says, “Truth and honesty are important to me.” So, how does that make her a unique leader and employee? Griffiths, who has 10 account managers reporting to her at present, says, “I work really hard to find out what matters to an employee and I use that information and build on that trust to coach them and elicit better performance."

As a result, “People tell me they perform for me in a way they didn’t think possible,” says Griffiths—one solid takeaway she can use during interviews.

Here are other tips for women in finance seeking to move forward in finance through better marketing, networking and education:

1. Consider your career path carefully—don’t settle for support roles if that’s not your heart’s desire. For example, if you work in retail banking, consider a role in commercial banking, where you will work with presidents and CEOs of small businesses and ultimately mid-sized companies. “Higher complexity lending will open more opportunities to other senior roles in areas like risk and audit at the bank,” says Roger.
2. Realize “You are your brand” 100 percent of the time, says Megan Kells, BMO director of talent strategies and executive resources. That’s true “in any interaction, whether with juniors or seniors [at the firm], and whether you’re showing up at a meeting or in the elevator,” says Kells, formerly head of global treasury management sales for BMO Capital Markets. Again, base your branding on characteristics that make you unique as well as effective.
3. Be curious when interacting with others. Ask questions about their background, their previous roles, and their network. You never know what you might learn, says Kells.
4. Of course, it can’t hurt to scout a role at an organization that values women leaders and helps them to advance. About 34 percent of executive-level talent at BMO is female today versus just 9 percent in 1992, says Roger, and all of BMO’s newly appointed executives (from the VP level and up) become part of a mentoring relationship—men as well as women. As TD Bank Financial Group CFO Colleen Johnston, whom American Banker named one of the 25 Most Powerful Women in Banking last year, said, “Work for an organization you believe in and whose values align with your own.”