W(H)AM! Microfinance and the Leadership Challenge
by Kathryn Nilsson Reichert (New York City)
Founded in 2003, Women Advancing Microfinance International (WAM) is an international organization based in Washington, D.C. and with branches around the world whose mission is to “advance and support women working in microfinance through education, training, and by promoting leadership opportunities.” They also seek to promote the providing of financial services to the poor and economic opportunities to women worldwide.
A recent WAM event in New York City – “Promoting Women’s Leadership in Microfinance: Lessons from the US Financial Sector” – focused on leadership roles in microfinance and how lessons learned by women working in U.S. financial services firms translate to the microfinance field.
Two distinguished women speakers sparked a lively discussion by describing their experiences as leaders and the steps that financial services organizations take to identify and promote women leaders. The speakers were Linda Descano, CFA®, President and COO of Women & Co. at Citi and Rebecca Patterson, Managing Director, FX and commodities at JP Morgan Chase.
The evening started with a popular topic: how to best promote women’s leadership in financial corporations. The WAM moderator, Karla Brom, noted that as the microfinance field becomes more mainstream, it looks more like large corporations where men hold more leadership positions than women. Interestingly, women comprise a larger portion of the labor force overall.
Noting that companies that have a diverse workforce generally have a better return on equity, Ms. Patterson discussed her company’s efforts to build, maintain and grow a diverse employee population. “We promote diversity in the hiring process,” said Ms. Patterson, and went on to say that incentives and mentoring are other ways to promote women and that when the benefits of diversity to the company as a whole are recognized, it helps managers understand diversity’s value. Answering a guest’s question about how to break in to the microfinance field, Ms. Patterson pointed out that managerial skills are as vital in the microfinance sector as in finance and encouraged the audience to “concentrate on what you are good at and market it.”
Ms. Descano detailed several programs at Citi designed to help identify and promote talent already within the company, including a developing a “talent inventory” and identifying high-potential employees via an annual talent review. She noted that mentoring is encouraged companywide, with the many senior leaders in the company serving as mentors and promoting the program. There are also multiple employee networks globally to help employees with networking, professional development, and navigating work/life issues, with programs targeted to what is most important in that particular culture or market. Overall, the point of view is “gender neutral” and focuses on giving employees more control and support in their work and family lives.
A point of agreement was that women leadership matters when creating programs and products for women. Ms. Descano noted that the service experience is top of mind for many women, surpassing product features, and said that, in design as well as sales and marketing, it is important to think about “regardless of gender, what is the lens you use to do your work?”
A takeaway from the evening was that many business skills are indeed transferable to new, emerging sectors and that microfinance, while still focused on lending to women, has new challenges as the business evolves. As a guest said, “it’s a challenge, but these speakers showed that it’s possible for a diverse workforce to become the norm.”
