The nine years I spent in the role set me up for everything else I have achieved in my career. I spent my time visiting brokers, explaining our proposition, and helping them with cases. Most brokers then were male but were largely respectful — only a few were dismissive in their attitude towards me. The job of a BDM requires you to be a self-starter, to face each day with the same drive as the previous one, and to get on with people. 

Since then, I have held various director of sales and managing director positions, but there is a similar skillset required. For me, it’s not just about the individual. I have always tried to build the right team around me. If you get smart and hungry people, look after them, develop them and add of dash of motivation and direction. You’d be surprised where you can all end up. I am where I am today because of how my teams have performed in the past.

•   Only now am I starting to understand that I don't need to have a 'game face'
•   'We need to think about more lateral hires and outside-of-the-box recruitment'
•   'Be unapologetic in fighting for what you deserve'

Similarly, my advice to women looking to succeed in this industry is that you are only ever as good as your team — so build it wisely. I hate generalisations when it comes to gender, but I think that female leaders are better at attracting, developing, and retaining talent — we just have less of an ego (or at least we just don’t feel the need to swing it around at every opportunity). So, use that to your advantage and become a talent magnet. With any luck, your team members will then take a similar approach in future.

While I’m not keen on gender stereotypes, the specialist lending sector is still male-led, and there is a lot more work to do. The numbers speak for themselves and, as an industry, we need to do more to get women into senior positions. Equally, there are still many industry events taking place where there is a minority of women on panels. In my opinion, this doesn’t seem to be difficult to address, and so event organisers need to ensure more representation for women.

That said, I’m so proud that, at Hampshire Trust Bank, 50% of the managing directors are female. So perhaps the industry just needs to be a bit more HTB…

Are you a woman in the financial services industry keen to get your voice heard? Contact press@medianett.co.uk — we would love to chat!