What makes the WLA Mentorship experience unique?

Something has been missing from the mentorship experiences often provided through formalized corporate programs.  Especially for women who are seeking to advance themselves in an historically and persistently male-dominated profession.  The Women’s Leadership Alliance wanted to address this void and to develop an impactful mentor program specifically designed to support women financial advisors.

After extensive research uncovering the specific challenges women often face in growing in this profession, we chose to create a carefully crafted program designed to provide training and facilitation for mentors and guidance to mentees, to help participants clarify and achieve their individually defined goals.

Our research revealed a significant lack of trained mentors properly equipped to deliver a meaningful mentoring experience. Additionally, we discovered that cookie cutter programs with preset goals and outcomes with no accountability and no opportunity for the mentee to customize their goals were less than effective.  What’s more, women advisors are often paired with male mentors who can’t always relate to the specific experiences that impact the career trajectory of advising women.

The result of this research is the WLA Woman to Woman Advisory mentorship program, now in its 8th year.  In partnership with Connie Deianni, founder of Corepoint, the WLA has thoughtfully designed a mentorship program that addresses these needs of women advisors.  Connie’s extensive experience designing and implementing successful mentor programs for corporations and other organizations made her an ideal fit to customize a mentorship program for the WLA.

So, what makes the WLA mentorship program different than others currently in existence?

First, we threw out the concept that all mentees needed to have the same, top down mandated goals.  We encouraged our mentees to focus on what was most important to them, not necessarily goals related to production or asset gathering.  We help empower each mentee to determine what she wants to achieve.

Next, we carefully pair each mentee with a mentor whose background and experiences will provide mentees with the most suitable support to help her achieve these goals.

Then, we provided extensive distance and in person training sessions for our volunteer mentors.  We wanted to be sure to get these advisors the tools and resources they needed to be effective mentors.

Finally, we check in with both mentors and mentees on a monthly basis via conference calls throughout the course of this six-month program to gain feedback, answer questions, and provide additional resources to the group.

What’s more, throughout the entirety of the mentorship program experience, and beyond, both mentees and mentors now have access to the wider WLA Ambassador community of advisors, industry leaders, and allies, in a nationwide movement to attract, support, and advance more women in the advising profession.  This community creates a source of resources, support and organized advocacy throughout the various stages of an advisors career.

Mentees in our program have repeatedly commented how pleased they are with their pairings and how the similarity in backgrounds and experiences is making a real impact on their processes and outcomes in life and in business.  Participants also deeply value the fact this program is mentee-centric, allowing them to define success on their own terms.  For many, having the support and perspective of a more experienced, successful woman advisor committed to their success, has been an invaluable, often transformative experience.

To learn more about bringing WLA mentorship program to your firm, email our Executive Director at [email protected]