Industry Efforts
The Equipment Leasing and Finance Association (ELFA) is not only promoting more inclusiveness in an industry long dominated by men, it is providing leadership and taking decisive action. With the creation of a Women’s Council and women’s leadership event, along with the emerging talent group, more women and next-generation executives are seen at industry gatherings. At the ELFA’s second annual Women’s Leadership Forum in Washington, D.C., there were more than 160 attendees, double the year before and a sell-out event.
Reducing gender bias, embracing diversity and opening the industry to attract people from a variety of backgrounds will be critical for companies that want to survive and flourish in a new world order. This new era in equipment finance is being carved and sculpted by intelligence from big data, and by evolving strategies with artificial intelligence, blockchain and pay-as you-go financing. Many parts of financial services are coming together, from payments to mobile banking and credit cards. A broader perspective is imperative to remain competitive.
Efforts to cultivate diversity also help organizations attract and retain a wider pool of talent, which has become essential in today’s tight job market. In time, perhaps more equipment finance businesses will be listed in rankings like Fortune’s best workplaces for women.
Our Part
Diversity is important at Cloud Lending, a Q2 company, and it’s evident in the diverse backgrounds among our nearly 1,000 employees. Teams are composed of people qualified for the role without regard to gender, race, or age. Many of us are coming not just from finance backgrounds but from previous technology jobs.
Where there is innovation, we see diversity. The most creative solutions are stimulated by different minds from different backgrounds coming together and feeling empowered to contribute.
I was reminded at the recent Women’s Leadership Forum, however, that many women walk a tight line when interacting with others in their professional lives. They want to assert themselves but not come across as aggressive. They want to rise in their careers, but not sacrifice important family needs.
Fiona (center) meeting with other attendees at opening lunch during ELFA’s Women in Leadership Forum in Washington, D.C.
At Q2, our mission is to build stronger communities by strengthening their financial institutions. We call that Financial Experience or FinX. Our diverse employee base is focused on providing a unique problem-solving approach, with open technology and data driven insights. Having diversity among our employees means we offer many different viewpoints to our clients to engage in their problem solving. We are thinking about not only the capabilities of our technology but also about the emotions and outcomes that our product suite offers.
Empowering Women
Lori Frasier, ELFA Women’s Council president and senior vice president of strategy and performance management for Key Equipment Finance, encouraged attendees at the women’s leadership conference to take off their “masks” and realize their “super powers.” This was a reference to the event’s theme and to the fact that women already possess many qualities needed to succeed in equipment leasing and finance. The interactive sessions on personal branding, negotiation and career development revealed that many of the participants felt they are persistent, capable negotiators and problem solvers. In my own career I have focused on showing
results, and this has been rewarded with continuous promotions based on performance.
Gender issues will fade as more women gain leadership skills, and I would add—technology savvy.
I encourage more women in equipment finance to get involved in their company's technology initiatives. Technology has become integral to profitability and responsiveness to customers, and women (and men for that matter) can advance their careers and expand their skill sets by becoming technology decision-makers and leaders. There are inspiring examples of this already in our industry. Of course, the career paths of women in equipment finance are as varied as the women themselves but technology has, and increasing will be, a defining force. For inspiration, here are just a few stories profiled in ELFA’s magazine when the Women’s Council was launched.
Becoming active in our industry associations and bringing others into the fold are important, too. Many of the women who attended the leadership forum had never been to an ELFA meeting before and were eager to participate and become more involved. And the few men who attended were certainly in the minority. We brought one of those male “allies” into an informal discussion during a networking break. We learned that he was attending along with a female colleague from his company. He seemed a little uncomfortable, so our group of women reached out to include him. That is what inclusion is about really—reaching out to another human being and offering support.
To that end, under Frasier’s leadership the Women’s Council has set the goal of increasing female attendance at the annual 2020 convention by 20 percent.
With a renewed spirit of inclusion and smart technology adoption, the industry will propel itself for future successes. In the meantime, industry women were invited to stay in touch and reach out virtually, until the next conference, through a new LinkedIn group called ELFA Women4Inclusion.
Fiona Gellatly is senior regional sales manager for Cloud Lending, a Q2 company.
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