Victoria Zhuang
Nearly two decades ago, in 2004, Titi Cole began her banking career as a new executive at BMO transitioning from the management consulting world. She was assigned an executive coach whose advice as a mentor, she said, truly changed her life and has stayed with her ever since.
“This one is funny,” Cole said, in a panel at American Banker’s Most Powerful Women in Banking conference last month. “She was like, you need to exercise more.”
The room of bankers laughed. “I was like, physically exercise more?” Cole said. “What are you talking about? She’s like, you have too much energy.”
The coach filmed Cole and told her that her teammates felt she had come off as “challenging” and “a little chaotic” because of her energy levels, which made it hard for them to follow her. She encouraged Cole to develop a daily morning exercise habit that has since helped her moderate her energy levels, and “be more intentional” in her interactions.
“That was a piece of feedback from a mentor who had observed me, and gotten feedback about how I was interacting with my team,” Cole said, reflecting that mentors who are willing to offer personalized and honest feedback can have a long-lasting influence. “And that changed my life.” From then on, Cole said, she had exercised just about every day. “It also changed my personal relationships, which my husband can attest to,” she joked. “I do so much better when I’ve got my exercise in the morning.”
Cole is now CEO of legacy franchises at Citi. This year, American Banker ranked her among the Most Powerful Women in Banking.
Mentors have long been a buzzword when it comes to advancing one’s career, and giving back as a mentor is equally important to many leaders, especially women in finance who continue to be underrepresented. Only 23.5% of CFPs are women, as of this year, and it’s a number that barely changed despite the passage of nearly two decades. In banking, a McKinsey report from last October found that women comprise 53% of the entry-level workforce but fill less than a third of SVP and C-suite roles. Women of color, including Black, Latina, and Asian professionals, struggled most with promotion, as they made up one quarter of the entry-level workforce but only one in 20 had made it to the C-suite, the study found.
But what does the journey to success with mentors and mentoring look like for women, in practice? Everything from watching table pounders, to kicking pants, to Formula 1, it turns out.
Cole was joined onstage by Ellen Patterson, general counsel of Wells Fargo, and Erminia “Ernie” Johannson, group head of North American personal and business banking at BMO Financial Group, who swapped tales and tips with her on being mentors and mentoring others. Patterson is a former winner of the Most Powerful Women to Watch awards, and Johannson is an honoree on the Most Powerful Women in Banking list this year. Chana Schoenberger, editor-in-chief of American Banker, moderated.
Read below for more practical career advice from their conversation.
To view this year’s list of the Most Powerful Women in Banking, click here. For the Most Powerful Women in Finance, click here. For our list of the Most Powerful Women to Watch, click here.
