In this episode of the BISA Portfolio Podcast, learn why mentoring matters and how to make the most of it from 2023 DE&I Rising Stars awardee Lindsay Diehl Green, United Bank, and her mentor, Pamela Dawson, US Bank. Piera Valle of Pacific Life is guest host of this podcast.
Topics covered include:
- Takeaways from the DE&I Rising Stars mentorship program
- What they've learned through this program
- Why they see mentorship and sponsorship as valuable to the industry
- What they've learned from each other
- How mentees can make the most of their time with a mentor
About Piera Valle
As a senior director in strategic accounts, Piera is responsible for developing and growing strategic partnerships for Pacific Life’s Consumer Markets Division. She also serves as a board member for Pacific Life’s Women at PL connections group, focusing on their community efforts and has been on the BISA DE&I Committee for the last five years.
About Pamela Dawson
As director of advisory business relations within U.S. Bank Asset
Management Group (AMG), Pamela is responsible for driving increased
awareness of AMG’s investment thought leadership, resource capabilities
and portfolio construction guidance.
Pamela specifically works with wealth management teams in U.S. Bancorp
Investments, an affiliate of U.S. Bank, in affluent markets. In this role, she
develops and delivers appropriate education and coaching to help team
members better understand, access and leverage AMG’s expertise in client
acquisition and retention opportunities. She is also a member of AMG’s
leadership team.
With more than 30 years helping organizations grow their businesses,
Pamela is an experienced executive in the financial services industry.
Prior to joining U.S. Bank, she was the senior director of the bank channel
for Russell Investments, where she established and grew the retail channel to
more than $4.5 billion in assets during her seven-year tenure. Prior to Russell,
she was a district sales manager for U.S. Bancorp Investments, an affiliate of
U.S. Bank. Pamela has also spent time in national accounts with American
International Group (AIG) and was the president of the broker/dealer division
at Washington Mutual.
About Lindsay Diehl Green
Lindsay serves as vice president, assistant director of operations & client services for United Wealth Management and United Brokerage Services, Inc. Responsible for the day-to-day management and oversight of account administration and operations, Lindsay works as part of the leadership team to develop and improve long-term strategies to meet client and company objectives. Lindsay joined United in 2005, and has held several leadership roles across the retail, brokerage and wealth management departments. Lindsay also serves as vice chair of United’s DE&I Council. She has been nationally recognized by BISA, being named to the DE&I Rising Star Program Class of 2023, and statewide by The WV State Journal’s Generation Next: 40 Under 40 Class of 2023 honoree. She is a long serving Advisory Council member and active volunteer for the Children’s Home Society of West Virginia. Lindsay holds the following licenses: Series 7, Series 66 and Life & Health Insurance.
BISA is the leading financial services industry association dedicated to serving those responsible for the marketing, sales and distribution of securities, insurance and other financial products and advisory services through the bank channel.
Piera Valle 0:09
Welcome to the BISA Portfolio Podcast, a podcast featuring the voices of members of BISA, the leading financial services industry association. I'm your guest host for today's podcast, Piera Valle. I'm a Senior Director of Strategic accounts for Pacific Life, and have been on the BISA DE&I Committee for the last six years. During this time, I've had the honor to lead the BISA DE&I Rising Stars program. In this podcast, I'll be speaking to Pamela Dawson of US Bank. And Lindsay Diehl Green of United Bank. They will be discussing their journey as mentor and mentee in the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Rising Stars program this year. Can you both Introduce yourselves for the listeners? Pamela, why don't you get started?
Pamela Dawson 0:55
Sure. Thanks, Piera. Hello, I'm Pamela Dawson. I work for the asset management group within US Bank. And I've been in the financial services industry now for over 35 years, and part of the BISA for 20 of those years. I am the past recipient of the Circle of Excellence Award from the BISA, and I've been part of the Diversity Equity and Inclusion committee now for four years and a mentor for three of those years. And it is my pleasure to be here today with my amazing mentee, Lindsay Diehl Green.
Lindsay Diehl Green 1:27
Thank you, Pamela. Hi, everyone. As Piera said, I am Lindsay Green with United Bank. I reside in Parkersburg, West Virginia, and have been in the financial services industry for nearly 18 years, all at my current employer. So I guess you could say I'm a lifer. At this point, I started my career at United Bank and the wonderful world of retail as a teller at 22 years old, and weaved my way into the investment management side of things where I currently am the director of operations and client services for our United wealth management team as well as United brokerage services.
Piera Valle 2:06
Great, thank you. All right. Before we dive into today's conversation, I wanted to give some background of the DE&I Rising Stars program. It's a BISA sponsored recognition and leadership development program for all stars who are committed to advancing DE&I efforts for the financial industry and for our community. Today we're going to highlight our mentorship program, where rising stars connected to a leader within our industry. The mission of the DE&I rising star mentorship program is to provide a resource to gain more knowledge for the financial services industry, have more exposure to senior leaders, receive career coaching advice and gain more exposure to career opportunities. The mission will also allow senior leaders of BISA to create a talent pool for future leaders, provide leadership and coaching skills, transfer the knowledge of current business practices and gain a better perspective of current views of future leaders. So now let's get started. Can you share a few takeaways of the rising star mentorship program? How did your unique strengths complement each other? Pamela, why don't you start with this one?
Pamela Dawson 3:14
Thanks, Piera. Well, first of all, having been a mentor now for the past three years, one of my biggest takeaways is the importance of the commitment to the program, both on behalf of the mentor, as well as the mentee. When both make the time come prepared and have real interest in working together for a common purpose, the program works beautifully. Lindsay and I, we hit it off from the get go and, funny story, when we had the initial webinar to connect mentors with mentees, one of the questions was "would you prefer to go camping in the outdoors or stay in a luxurious resort?" Lindsay said she would choose the resort and right then I knew we would be a great fit. And it's proven to be true. We both have passion for what we do. We're open to learning new things, and we are authentic in how we approach our business. It truly is a great partnership.
Piera Valle 4:07
Great. Lindsay, do you want to add to that?
Lindsay Diehl Green 4:11
You know, my number one takeaway is that you get out of it what you put into it. I'd say the next key takeaway for me is that I learned mentorship is a two way street. I tried to offer Pamela what I could in return even if it was simply offering insight into my world and that reciprocity strengthened our bond and trust. The ball is in your court as the mentee. We made a good team having complementary strengths. We are both strong willed, but cautious. We're both opinionated, but open minded, and both outspoken yet reserved when needed. So we complemented each other very well almost to a tee I think, and it's really made us thrive in our mentor-mentee relationship.
Piera Valle 4:56
That's wonderful news. So my next question was going to be whether the challenges to getting started as a mentor mentee, but it doesn't sound like there was once you first started. But have there been any challenges throughout the year? And then what have you learned through this process?
Lindsay Diehl Green 5:12
You know, we did not experience any challenges with getting our relationship started. I feel that we could not have been paired up more perfectly, because it was like we're the same person in so many ways. As Pamela said earlier, we hit it off right off the bat, really connected both personally and professionally. And Pamela is very easy to talk to. And our conversations always seem to just flow organically without much effort. Pam always made herself available to me, she's an active listener, which was so great, because I had a lot to talk about. It was very beneficial to me to have someone outside to bond with and provide advice. Through this process, Pamela really validated me, you know, as a woman in the industry, who's still trying to forge my own path. I learned that I'm not alone. And she has experienced many of the same hurdles in her career that I'm currently experiencing. And she really provided me with wonderful insight on how to push forward.
Piera Valle 6:11
Great, thank you for sharing that. Pamela, did you want to add something?
Pamela Dawson 6:15
Sure. Yeah. You know, to Lindsay's point, we didn't have any challenges getting started. We are two peas in a pod, as they say. We from the get go set a regular schedule of meetings at our first interaction and have kept those meetings on the calendar. Lindsay was very clear in what she wanted to accomplish in this mentor mentee relationship. And that brought clarity to all of our conversations and our interactions. And something that I've learned through this process is that as Lindsay just articulated, some of the same challenges that I faced earlier in my career are similar to some of the challenges that she faces in her current career. And while the world has changed quite a bit over the years, in many different ways, when it comes down to people management, many of the same principles still apply.
Piera Valle 7:04
Okay, well, that makes sense. So as someone that has been in industry for over 25 years, I've had the opportunity, as most of us have, to listen to a lot of leaders within our industry, but even outside of our industry, whether that be in athletics or other corporations. And oftentimes, I find that when a leader is asked how they got to where they are, he or she always mentioned a mentor or sponsor who helped pave the way for them. So why do you think mentorship and sponsorship is so valuable in this industry? Pamela?
Pamela Dawson 7:36
So you know, I believe everyone should seek to have a mentor in their career, whether it's in our industry or any industry for that matter. Like you, I personally would not have had the career I have had without a couple of amazing mentors early in my career who helped provide guidance, support and most importantly, gave me the confidence to take on jobs that challenged me and helped me grow and develop in my career. I truly believe that the mentorship program as part of the DE&I Rising Star Program is one of the best that the BISA has to offer. I have had the pleasure of seeing a couple of my mentees take on new and increasingly important roles in their careers after completing the mentorship program, and not that the mentorship program was the only reason for their success, but I have to believe it did help.
Piera Valle 8:25
Great. And Lindsay, why do you think mentorship and sponsorship is so valuable in this industry?
Lindsay Diehl Green 8:30
I'm a huge advocate for mentorship and sponsorship at all levels. I've been fortunate enough to not only have Pamela as an outstanding mentor, but have a few unofficial mentors and sponsors during my career, people who I've looked up to and respected people who I shadowed myself after, and people who saw the work I was doing and advocated for me. Sometimes when I didn't even realize it at the time who guided me to where I am at today. You know, it doesn't always have to be an official mentorship program to make a real impact. Outside of this DE&I rising star mentorship program. This is the only official mentorship program I've been a part of. And while I love this structure, and I thrive off of this type of leadership development program, I can say that I'd benefited the most from the organic mentoring I received by my colleagues or superiors who didn't even know they were being that type of role model for me. So now in return, I feel an obligation to pay it forward in an impactful way. And I always strive to be that advocate or role model mentor, or even silent sponsor for others.
Piera Valle 9:40
Great, thank you for sharing that. What is one thing that you learned from Pamela that sticks out to you that you want to share with our audience?
Lindsay Diehl Green 9:48
Gosh, it's hard to narrow it down to one thing, like Pamela is a boss babe. She validated so many reassurances. For me this was a big year for my career for a few reasons. This Rising Star program for one. And while I am on a high note, it also comes with new challenges that can be difficult to navigate. Pamela told me to be myself no matter what, don't let anyone get in the way of your goals and take a chance to do something different and always be a boss.
Piera Valle 10:19
One of my favorite parts of this program is hearing from mentors. We have a handful that volunteered each year and Pamela, you being one of them, with this being your third year in a row. And the feedback that I received from many of them was they received so much value learning from the next generation of leaders in this industry. Can you share one thing that you've learned from Lindsay or from other of your mentees in the past?
Pamela Dawson 10:42
Well, you know what, if anyone's a boss, babe, it's Lindsay. But what I've learned from her is she's going places, she's already taking on more responsibilities in our firm as she is shared with you. And while we've been partnered together and watching her learn and grow and be the best leader that she can be to her employees is quite frankly, inspiring. She's courageous, and she's determined, and she always has her employees' best interests at heart. What I've learned is she inspires me to be the best that I can be as well.
Piera Valle 11:16
Great, thank you for sharing that. So how would you suggest a future mentee make most of their time with their mentor? Pamela?
Pamela Dawson 11:25
So Piera, I think it comes down to a few things. Number one is commitment, I said it earlier, be committed. And by that I mean, really want this program to help you grow and develop in your career. And set a schedule that you and your mentor agree upon to keep these conversations going throughout the year. Next would be be prepared. And when you have scheduled meetings and calls, have an agenda, send it to your mentor ahead of time so that they also can be prepared for the conversation as well. And by the way, there is a guidebook that you can use which we have found to be very helpful in preparing for meetings. And lastly, be open to feedback and have a willingness to listen and learn. have what is known now as a growth mindset. And remember, every day is a school day.
Piera Valle 12:10
Great tools there. Thank you. Lindsay?
Lindsay Diehl Green 12:14
Take this opportunity seriously, and set SMART goals: Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic and Timely objectives are a good way to plan the steps for each meeting, and piggybacking off of what Pamela said, come prepared. I know we're all busy, but don't come without an agenda. Make the most of it. But be respectful of your mentor's time as well. Be appreciative and give back. Keep the channels of communication open and don't let the relationship fizzle out. Most importantly, I think bring your true authentic self to each meeting and be open to feedback.
Piera Valle 12:54
Well, thank you both so much for being here. If you enjoyed the podcast, please subscribe, rate and review so you won't miss future uploads. And please share this podcast and join the conversation on social media. Thank you for joining us and make it a great day.