Meaningful change

In the past, financial institutions had been accused of paying lip service to equality and inclusion. Marketing teams sometimes shouldered the brunt of these criticisms, when promotion of new initiatives did little to effect meaningful change. With gender diversity, there are plenty of statistics to suggest that efforts, this far, haven’t achieved the ultimate goal of equality in the workplace.

A 2022 report by Deloitte found that women held 21% of board seats at financial institutions in 2021, 19% of C-suite roles, and just 5% of CEO positions. For one senior leader, the frustration became too great, and she decided to take a very practical approach to solving the problem.

Rosie Guest is Apex Group’s chief marketing and communications officer. Highly educated, exceptionally competent, and with years of industry experience under her belt, she is a member of the Executive Committee of a company that is growing at breakneck speed.

Yet, despite the example set by industry leaders like her, female senior leaders in C-suite roles remain ridiculously low, as suggested in the Deloitte report.

In 2022, Guest recognised that she was now in a position where she could effect change for future generations and launched an internal initiative designed to accelerate the progress of high-performing female talent within the business.

“I feel really strongly that it shouldn’t be as difficult as it is for women to progress,” she explains.

“At the current pace of change we’re still nearly 300 years away from gender equality, so I wanted to find ways to ease the path for women and make it happen faster.

“In 2022, we launched an internal initiative at Apex Group. This was designed to accelerate the progress of high-performing female talent, mending the broken rungs on the career ladder and eroding the gender disparity at mid-and senior-management levels to provide a clear path for career progression.”

Even as an internal initiative, the project achieved remarkable results in its first year. Of the 51 women who took part in year one, more than half secured promotions or progressed into new roles. Some 86% of those on the programme said it enabled them to have confidence to discuss career progression with their manager and a community evolved as a result.

This year, she has taken that initiative to the entire industry.

Worthy ambitions
The Women’s Accelerator Network has the potential to be game-changing. It claims to be the only free-of-charge, grassroots private membership community that connects women across age groups, roles and professions, throughout financial services.

It is designed to foster positive change through mentoring, community events, knowledge sharing and cross financial sector collaboration.

“We are looking for women that have a genuine passion for supporting one another,” Guest explains.

“It’s about us as individuals, but also as a community, that can affect change. Although supported by Apex Group, the network is a grassroots, community -driven initiative, so although places initially will be limited, we encourage anyone who is interested to register their interest.”

At present, membership to the programme is only available for those identifying as a woman, but others are welcome in the discussion, where deemed appropriate, as the initiative also recognises that allyship is a crucial element of change.

Guest says that the goal is to ensure members represent a diverse range of women, across all ages, ethnicities, and specialisms, so they can create an environment of mentoring, reverse mentoring, and change, for a lasting impact on the industry.

“The Women’s Accelerator Network is a development initiative designed to drive equity for female progression and diversity at all levels within the industry,” she explains. “When it comes to gender diversity, people tend to look at the C-suite as it’s the most visible. But, the issue starts much earlier and we need to be supporting women through mid-management to have a lasting impact.”

Crucially, the network is not about quotas – there are other industry initiatives focussed on that. It also doesn’t aim to get women promoted over men. Instead, it is designed to nurture existing female talent in the industry to drive equity in progression. In the coming months, the network will be focussed on growing the number of chapters to have a presence in as many key financial centres, globally, as possible.

“Success will be when we start to see more women move through our industry with equity,” says Guest. “We hope our members take their learnings from the network back to their own organisations to instigate movements for change there too.”

A confident outlook
Research for the Network found that women make up around 52% of the workforce across the financial services industry, but that percentage declines at each rung of the career ladder, resulting in representation of 37% at mid-management and reducing significantly further thereafter.

In 2021, Harvard Business Review published an article entitled “Stop telling women they have imposter syndrome” where academics noted that women’s lack of confidence was actually attributable to the systemic bias within sectors, and the widespread exclusion that remains in industry.

Guest agrees with this sentiment and says Apex’s internal programme identified that the strongest theme among skilled, capable, women was that they lacked the confidence, or the necessary tools, to articulate their ambitions or boundaries in a way that felt comfortable to them.

“We talked a lot about not needing to take on male traits to be successful and the reticence women often have about being assertive for fear of being branded ‘difficult’ or ‘bossy’,” she adds.

“I think community is key, and hearing from others that are experiencing the same emotions or dealing with similar scenarios gives confidence. That was something almost 100% of our members felt was their biggest learning and created a real sense of strength in the community.”

In her own career, Guest says she has learnt to embrace “being underestimated” and to use what was originally a frustration and turn it into a strength.

“In my early career I really jumped into the workplace as an outgoing and energetic young professional, unafraid to bring her personality to work and was comfortable interacting and building relationships even with the most senior people across the business.

“Particularly when working in a male dominated industry it’s so important for women to resist being stifled by outdated perceptions of how a female professional or leader ‘should’ behave,” she says.

As Guest started to progress into more senior roles, she admits that she tried to temper some of her personality traits, believing that she would be “taken more seriously” if she was less jovial or more reserved. But she found that impossible to do and learned to embrace her own style.

Looking back, she now believes that embracing her own approach was ultimately what underpinned her ability to be successful.

“You should be proud of not fitting the mould,” she says. “Find a working environment that allows you to flourish and draw on these strengths.”

For those interested in finding out more, the Women’s Accelerator Network is now open for applications and the website is live. Visit www.womens-accelerator.com for more information