As a woman in a male-dominated field, the early days of my career in the industry were interesting, to say the least. While I received my share of patronizing and sexist comments, some of my best advocates were men. When I was interacting with advisers and executives at Securities America or with our strategic partners, I always felt comfortable and valued.
Early on, the biggest challenge was the competitiveness of other women, who felt they had fought for their position in the business world and that younger women needed to earn their stripes. Thankfully, that attitude has given way to one of supporting other women to achieve their full potential and dreams.
In that spirit, here are nine lessons I've learned in my 30 years in the financial services industry:
1. Take advantage of opportunities. Don't be afraid to take chances, but have a fallback plan. Thoroughly understand your options and risks. Although my first job title with Securities America was marketing coordinator, I rolled up my sleeves, dug in and learned everything I could about running a broker-dealer.
2. Understand and love the people you serve. Some of the most important lessons we learn are from our customers. I learned early on that nothing happens unless our advisers get new clients and retain existing ones. That inspired me — and still does — to learn everything I can to serve them better.
3. Go deep and wide on the technical aspects of your job and the business. Being a go-to person puts you in a great position to get to know a wide array of people and get your name mentioned often. Take every opportunity to understand what's going on around the company.
4. Be passionate and tell your story often. Be known for something inherently important to your firm. For me, it was looking for opportunities to improve at serving our advisers. When I'm at the decision-making table, I want to represent our advisers in the spirit of helping them serve their clients well.
5. Not everyone is like you. I have a strong personality, and I sometimes felt others didn't care as much as I did. I have to remind myself I am not the general manager of the universe. I have a tendency to want to control the situation and, quite frankly, I still haven't mastered that vice. But half the battle is self-awareness, right?
6. Over communicate. People are bombarded by information, and we only have so much mental real estate. If you want your message to sink in, say it often. If it is a core message that never expires, keep talking about it. If it has a shelf life, communicate it at least seven times. Share stories and use different communication vehicles to engage people. When it comes to communication, more often is better.
7. Learn to determine what's noise and what's a signal. Set up a circle of
trust to get feedback. You can't sound the fire alarm all the time. But sometimes when there is smoke, there really is fire. Figuring out your feedback methods both internally and externally may be time consuming, but it is an important trait for leaders.
8. Play to people's strengths, and thank them often. You need to have the right people on the bus and tell them where you're going. Give them excellent directions, prepare them for potential rough terrain, point out the scenic views and help them have fun. If they endanger the trip, you may need to take them off the bus. When things go wrong — and they will at some point — review the process and outcome with your team to discover lessons for improving skills or processes.
9. Stay positive. Our job as leaders is to be rational optimists. It takes vision and courage to help people see beyond the distractions and bad news to a brighter future. The toughest times require lots of teamwork and resiliency. Sure, you may have your own doubts and fears — my fear buster is always prayer — but you can be a calming influence in the most chaotic storm.
It used to be a sea of men at industry events, but in the past few years we are seeing more color among the black suits. I find that together we are much better. There are amazing women in our industry, and while I'm pleased at how far we've come, there's always more we can do to empower women to excel.
I'm proud of the steps we've taken at Securities America to support female advisers, emerging female leaders and female investors, and I'm excited about our collective potential going forward.
Janine Wertheim is president of Securities America Advisors Inc. and senior vice president and chief marketing officer at Securities America Inc.
