By Amanda Swoverland, President at Hatch Bank.
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The banking industry has historically had a narrow definition of leadership. A leader was someone who could follow an established path and succeed while respecting and enforcing an existing set of rules. Experience mattered, but so did conforming to an industry model, a particular communication style and a long-standing mold.
That model is no longer effective.
Banking today is more complex, interconnected and dynamic. Institutions are navigating rapid change, heightened regulatory expectations, shifting consumer behaviors and growing pressure to make decisions faster and more transparently. In this environment, decision makers shouldn’t stick to the status quo. There has to be more of a focus on navigating ambiguity, integrating various perspectives and building organizations that are resilient enough to evolve.
Modern banking requires decision makers who can operate across disciplines. People who understand that strategy and governance are not opposites. People who can pivot between product discussions, board conversations, operational challenges and regulatory expectations without losing the thread. It requires judgment, adaptability and the ability to build trust across very different constituencies.
Banking today needs different kinds of leaders – and more women among them. McKinsey data shows women hold less than one-third of senior vice president and C-suite positions in banking. At the same time, companies with more than 30 percent women in leadership are significantly more likely to financially outperform those with lower representation.
Women who are in the industry have often had to develop their skillset in intentional ways – adjusting to institutions that didn’t always expect them to lead, learning to influence without relying on tradition or hierarchy and building credibility across environments that can still be resistant to nontraditional leadership styles.
My career path, which has been shaped by both regulatory and operator experience, has taught me that there is not one right way to lead. Instead, the most effective decision makers are often those who have learned to see institutions from more than one angle, understand risk and growth and can build and challenge. People who know how to move forward without losing sight of responsibility.
That perspective is especially relevant for women because many of us have built careers by learning how to do exactly that. We have had to be credible across different expectations, standards and settings. We have had to lead with substance before being granted full authority. And in doing so, many women have developed the very muscles this era of banking now requires: judgment, range, resilience and trust-building.
If banking wants stronger institutions, the industry needs to widen the aperture on leadership.
That means promoting more women into operating, strategy and board-facing roles and positions with real decision rights. It means looking beyond traditional pedigrees and asking better questions about what the environment actually needs. It means recognizing that it’s not just about who has held power before, but who is equipped to lead through what comes next.
We’re already seeing progress with the share of women in financial services reaching the highest levels of leadership – the C-suite and the board – continuing to rise. Deloitte research shows that women have accounted for a growing share of new C-suite appointments in financial services over the past decade. However, at current rates, global growth in the share of women financial leaders may not even reach 25% by 2031.
There’s a significant opportunity for institutions that want to stand out in the years ahead – rethink leadership as a combination of perspective, discipline, adaptability and trust, not a single archetype. The organizations that thrive will be led by teams that reflect the complexity of the environments they operate in.
Banking is better served when people in positions of authority are not one mold. Diversity in leadership is not only about fairness – it’s about better governance, better judgment and better institutions.
