EXCLUSIVE— Banking, like so many other industries in today’s world, is facing a diversity problem: and, just like the engineering or technological fields, the problem only gets worse the higher in the company one goes.

While companies are making concentrated efforts to hire more women in entry or manager level positions, women in the C-suite at technology companies and banks remain very much in the minority despite research which upholds the benefits of diverse leadership. This beg the question: what does it really take for women to step into the C-suite in financial services?

To answer this question, Bank Innovation talked to multiple women currently holding CEO or C-Suite level positions at their companies. Each of them highlighted three main areas that are essential to women reaching the upper echelons of a company: a supportive company culture, knowing (and holding to) one’s own monetary worth, and having a fantastic mentor.

Company Culture

Firstly, creating a culture where women feel they have the ability and the support to move is critical, Helen Yu, chief growth officer for conversational AI provider Clinc, told Bank Innovation.

“The challenge for a female executive is, if they make the same comment as one of their male peers, it could be perceived differently,” Yu, whose background includes stints at Oracle and Adobe Systems, said, adding that for mid-level executives looking to move ahead, it is essential that the company is “providing an opportunity to women, an environment where they can really understand what the responsibility of the C-Suite is.”

On the question of company culture, JoAnn Stonier, chief data officer for Mastercard, told Bank Innovation in an emailed statement:

No one should feel that they have to sacrifice their sense of self as part of a business deal or as part of business. An organization of worth is going to treasure their employees for the skills, insights and expertise that they bring day-in, day-out and stand up for them.

That company culture should also be focused on diversity, Madeline Aufseeser, CEO of financial fraud solutions company Tender Armor, told Bank Innovation.

“When women are looking to transition to a new organization they really need to do their due diligence,” Aufseeser said. “A question that can be asked is “what types of programs does the employer have available to promote and prepare women for leadership roles?”

This could be more difficult than it seems at first glance, as women might first need to break into the “tech bro” or “boy’s club” culture that, as 2017 has shown, is dis-proportionally common in Silicon Valley and Wall Street.

“I think there’s a level of camaraderie that happens with experience and tenure in the upper echelons of an organization, which breeds a level of comfort and familiarity among the leadership team,” Aufseeser said. “If at the top of an organization you only have men, then it will be more challenging for women to feel comfortable in that environment and a greater possibility of isolation.”

Knowing Your Financial Worth

The ability to know one’s own worth is a quintessential skill for professionals in any industry—however, when it comes to monetary value, budding female executives need to be aware of exactly how much their skills are worth.

Women should approach money conversations with their own skills and work in mind, Yu told Bank Innovation.

“Compensation should be correlated with contribution,” Yu said. “How is my contribution valued by the company compared to a male peer with similar responsibility? Gender pay gap will be significantly reduced if women are mentored to ask the right questions during compensation negotiations, and when women are given more opportunities to take roles that make a direct impact on a company’s bottom line.”

This can be a particular challenge for women due to factors like the gender pay gap, as well as the fact that women may be less likely to seek raises or negotiate salaries when compared to men, research suggests. How do women break that habit?

“You break it by making sure you’ve done your research. You should go in knowing exactly what the position [you’re asking for] should pay,” Amber Treshnell, a veteran of American Express (now Ameriprise) and Bank of America, now CEO, Americas, for John Paul, a concierge that services banks and financial institutions, told Bank Innovation. “Pay isn’t the only reason I would take a job, but I want to be paid fairly, and I want to be paid what I’m worth.”

Mentorship

While culture and money are important categories when it comes to reaching the C-Suite in financial services, nearly all of the women interviewed cited mentors as the key reason they were able to advance (or not) at a company.

“I think mentorship is extremely important for both men and women, to have someone offering advice [and guidance],” Lingjia Tang, chief operations officer and co-founder of Clinc, told Bank Innovation. “Women and minorities, we have a unique set of challenges.”

Women should also seek out both male and female mentors as they advance, Tang said, though that can be a challenge as one gets higher up in a company, into areas where as previously noted, the majority of positions are held by men. (Clinc, with two out of six members of its C-Suite women, is sadly beating out a large chunk of banks and fintechs).

“Women need to seek out male mentors—the challenge comes when you need to break into the social circle,” Tang said.

Tang, who founded Clinc alongside her husband (and company CEO) Jason Mars, comes from a technology background (where, for some of her time as a professor at the University of Michigan, where she and Mars both teach, there were more “men named Igor than female professors of computer science”), also noted that women need to “seek out mentorship,” a sentiment echoed by Treshnell.

“You need to find someone who really believes in you, and you have to be the proactive one,” Treshnell said. “You need to find multiple mentors, and you have to add value to them.”

While women themselves are focusing on these categories, each of these—company culture, money, and mentorship—are also areas companies themselves can work on improving. As more women step into the C-Suite of banks, fintechs, and technology companies, it seems likely that we will continue to see these improvements, and continue to add female CEOs to the ranks.

To learn more about diversity in banking, please join us in San Francisco next week for Bank Innovation 2018. Register here.