Best Practices: How One Corporate Sponsorship Program Creates More Confident Women Leaders

By Melissa J. Anderson (New York City)

Within Citi, enthusiasm and support continues to grow for a new program designed to develop and advance women leaders in Risk. Brian Leach, Head of Franchise Risk and Strategy at Citi and architect of the program, said he designed the “Women in Risk” program (WIR) to focus on developing key leadership attributes.

“We believe the essential attributes of a leader include decision making, building and maintaining a strong professional network and team, and a willingness to take intelligent risks,” he said. The multi-faceted one-year program provides visibility, training, career planning, and access to senior leadership within Risk and across Citi, pairing a carefully selected group of senior, high performing women with a sponsor from the Risk function’s executive committee.

Leach continued, “To be blunt, I expected success. But what I was pleasantly surprised to see was how many of the participants, in the first year, took on new jobs with increased responsibilities as a direct result of the access and the opportunities the program provided them.”

In fact, more than half of the participants moved onto bigger roles in their first year. He explained, “When you go through a program like this, if it is successful, you wind up with an incredibly confident group of people. And if you’re confident, you’re willing to take on new challenges. Once you have that mindset, when opportunities present themselves, I think a lot of things line up.”

Diana Lozano Zay, now a Director in Commercial Risk at Citi, was one of the participants in the program’s inaugural class. She summed it up, “While the WIR program helped me transition to New York, and provided a great sponsor, most importantly, it allowed me to join a virtuous cycle that leads to better opportunities.”

Zay continued, “Since participating, I have received new and increased responsibilities. I feel more confident and am more aware of the importance of ‘taking control of my career. Thus, I have become more vocal about what I want. Further, my managers became more aware of my potential. I feel this new opportunity is a direct result of the program.”

In just three years, the Women in Risk program has produced better prepared, more self-assured female leaders. Here’s how it works, what Citi has learned since the program launched, and advice on how to develop your own high potential sponsorship program.

The Basics

Citi’s Women in Risk program was initiated in 2011 and operates around the concept of sponsorship. Female directors or senior vice presidents in the Risk function are identified and nominated by members of the Risk executive committee who then become their sponsor for the program. “Having that sponsor nomination creates an alignment of interest,” Leach explained. “Each of the sponsors nominates one or more women. Then there is an interview process by the HR group to make sure they have the right attributes and then if they are selected, they begin the one year program.”

The program, now in its third year, sees 10-12 women selected to participate in each annual class. The program kicks off with a one-week boot camp on the “attributes of success,” during which the participants (or “WIRs,” as they are called) meet senior leaders across Citi, learn about the different business lines, and get a deeper understanding of how Risk works with the rest of the company. “We also spend time that week focused on their career,” he continued. “We want them to really think about what they want to achieve.”

The women in the program attend panel discussions by leaders inside the firm, and with external speakers, on building teams, becoming decision makers, leading change, and other practical advice on developing leadership skills.

Lu Shi, a Director in Citi’s Institutional Clients Group Risk, says the week-long boot camp was one of the program’s highlights for her. “It was an opportunity to meet and strengthen relationships with many seniors for whom I have worked indirectly for many years. I also had opportunity to meet the Chief Risk Officer of Asia and expressed my aspiration of taking his job in a few years!” she said.

But it’s not all seminars and discussion, Leach continued. The women are expected to perform as well. “Twice a year, each WIR participant meets with executive committee members as part of a Business Review, and gives a presentation on an aspect of their business that is being discussed as part of that Business Review.”

He continued, “The idea is to give them experience presenting to senior management, so that they can get comfortable doing it – and my senior-most team gets to see them in action, and see them react in a high pressure situation.”

Shi described, “The most challenging part of the program is that it puts you ‘on the spot.’ It is like having a spotlight on you and everybody is observing what you are doing. Seniors are interviewing you. They want to know what you think and what you do. They expect great results immediately.”

Finally, Leach says, the women also work on building their network. “If you’re a WIR participant, you have a license to call anybody in the firm to ask about their business. “Every participant gets the phone numbers of every member of the Risk executive committee, and they are expected to reach out and build those relationships. I want them calling. The first couple of calls they make can be very unnerving but our senior-most people make time for them and it helps them build a network.”

Shi said this was one of the most valuable parts of the program for her. “I always knew that building my own network was critical to getting my job done effectively and to position myself for future career opportunities. Taking part in the WIR program taught me how important it is to keep the network active and utilized.”

She continued, “For example, we established ‘learn from each other’ sessions where every month, a member of the WIR group presents to the other WIRs about her role, key learnings, and best practices. Through those sessions, we learn a great deal about each other’s roles and responsibilities, which in turn makes us more aware of activities and opportunities in other parts of the bank. Even though we have all graduated, we have formed an active network that will benefit us in the years ahead.”

And of course, Leach said, there is mentoring throughout the process. Each WIR must meet with their sponsor on a regular basis, and must work with their sponsor to identify their strengths and weaknesses, develop a near-term and longer-term career plan, and agree on concrete actions to be taken to remedy weaknesses and advance that career plan.
If the program seems rigorous, that’s because it’s designed to push participants hard to build their networks and develop leadership strengths. Stepping outside your comfort zone is an important part of career development, Leach notes.

And it pays off. “We see WIR participants talked about with great familiarity among the executive committee,” he explained. “These women are getting different opportunities by virtue of their exposure to senior management and their active networking. It’s about trying to encourage them to take risks as well. That’s a key part of the program.”

Barbara Sobala, a Managing Director in Institutional Clients Group Risk at Citi, says the program propelled her toward leadership by bringing her greater visibility. “WIR enabled me and my work to be more visible outside of Poland. I believe it was instrumental in my being named a Managing Director and increasing my responsibility from running a Risk team to heading Risk for Poland’s Institutional Clients Group — both announced soon after the Program finished.

Sponsorship

Philippa Nesbit, Chief Risk Officer of Citi Private Bank and Citi Holdings, is both a sponsor of the overall program and a sponsor of a WIR participant. “Brian asked me to be a senior sponsor of the program because I’ve got a lengthy track record of, and commitment to, women’s professional development. As we put the program together, we thought about what we wanted to accomplish. It’s really important to have the responsibility for the program at the executive committee level to effectively develop the talent pipeline and endorse the program.”

Nesbit explained that sponsors take the responsibility for getting to know each of the participants and their aspirations. What’s more, they help push participants forward throughout and beyond the program.

In Shi’s case, the support of her sponsor led to a bigger role at the company. “The program made a big impact on me. Foremost, it ‘forced’ me to focus on developing specific and achievable career goals in the near-term — goals that my Sponsor put energy and support behind to help me achieve.”

Nesbit added, “I believe it’s really a responsibility for senior women to help junior women progress. In the past, women have been accused of kicking the ladder away and we can’t do that anymore.

That message also spread to program participants. Zay said, “Personally, the program made me think about the importance of helping other women in the organization and of mentoring more junior people. In other words, the program highlighted the importance of giving back. As a result, now I am on the Board of the Citi Commercial Bank Women in Risk Committee, which is a networking group for women in the CCB.”

Developing Diverse Leaders

What brought the importance of diversity into Leach’s view? “Well, of course I wanted to make sure we have a diverse workforce – it’s a competitive advantage for any organization,” he began. But, he continued, diversity is personal to him as well. Leach comes from a large family and was always surrounded by strong, successful women, he explained. “I was used to seeing people operate at their highest level, and I wanted to make sure we, in the Risk organization, are known within Citi for having the most talented, capable team. To achieve that for the Risk team now, and for the future, I wanted to create something tangible and sustainable.”

Leach wanted to bring more women in to decision making roles as well. “When you think about leadership, a fundamental element is decision making. Expertise without decision making makes you an advisor. Decision makers apply their knowledge. I strongly believe being an advisor, rather than a decision maker, will eventually stall a career.” He continued, “The person who makes decisions is running the risk. For career advancement, it is critical to stay engaged in the decision making process. Organizations feel more comfortable supporting someone with a track record of sound decisions. I always look for decision makers on my team.”

He believes the participants’ level in the organization is another important factor in the program’s success. “The WIR program is targeted at senior women often with deep subject matter knowledge who would benefit from a broader view of the firm. They get deep exposure across product lines. The more senior you get, the harder that is to do.” As such, the program is designed to give them a diverse range of experience without slowing their career progress.

Leach says that the program has evolved over time as well. During its first year, he realized that public speaking was a challenge for many of the participants. Because many of the participants were not native-English speakers, some had written and memorized their presentations in the form of a speech. “It was not very effective,” he continued. “We didn’t realize it would be an issue, but now it’s something we coach. Having lived in China for three months, I knew that anxiety myself. But you’ve got to work your way through it.”

After coaching sessions in this area, he said, “You can see the development in the presentation style.”

Zay says she was one of those women. “As part of the WIR program, we were invited to present to seniors, so I participated in a review that was held by Brian Leach at the time. I still feel the adrenaline rush when he approached me after the review. He gave me great feedback about my presentation skills. Furthermore, he shared with me his experience with foreign language seniors. English is not my native language so I feared that, when under pressure, I wouldn’t be able to express myself adequately.”

Other programs at Citi have developed based on this one, Leach continued. “They’ve borrowed some of the elements of success and we’ve borrowed the best features of other programs. We have also built on elements of this program to enhance career development and training opportunities across the entire Risk organization, at all levels.”

Since its inception, the popularity of the program has grown throughout the Citi Risk function, which is about 43 percent female, he said. “We are seeing people start to mimic the successful traits of those who have participated in the program and managing their careers to be eligible.”

And, Nesbit added, women are asking how they can get into the program. “We’ve really seen interest build over the past few years. We deliberately kept it somewhat low profile at first, so that we could see how it worked and make necessary adjustments, but now women are asking their managers what they need to do to be considered.”