Dianne Charman doesn’t know who nominated her for the 2012 AFA Female Excellence in Advice award, but has a message for whoever it was.
“I would probably say thank you, to begin with – but I’d like to know who they are,” she says.
“I’ve grilled my staff to see if it was any of my team members, but it’s not.
“I’d like to know what they saw. But it’s nice to have a secret admirer.”
Charman (right) didn’t find out she’d been nominated until late in the process and then it was all hands on deck to get the application completed.
“There was a lot of scrambling, I guess. We had to pull together a lot of information because we wanted to do it justice – especially if someone has gone to the trouble to nominate you, you want to make sure you give it your best effort.
“A couple of my clients wrote wonderful references for me, just based on certain situations that I’ve assisted them with, especially as women.
“And a couple of previous advisers who I’ve mentored over the years wrote [references] as well, so there was a bit of coordination of them there. The mayor of Ipswich also wrote for me.
“We took it from the point of view of the community, our clients, industry people and then my team.”
Women like to be educated
Charman, a director of Jade Financial Group in Ipswich, Queensland, says participating in the female excellence awards was a chance to garner some publicity for issues that are important to her.
“I have always done a lot of work with my association with women over the years through the Business and Professional Women’s Association, and other people who I’ve been associated with to get more of an understanding for women about particularly superannuation and their retirement savings, and what that means to them with a broken work life,” she says.
“With the award we can do two things. We can encourage women in our industry, but also encourage women generally across the community, that we recognise that advice to women can be quite unique, and we recognise that there is a need there.
“Women learn differently. They like to be educated, not spoken to or told what to do. They like to be part of the journey of making a decision. That’s what I find, anyway, with my clients. It’s very much a collaborative effort. They’re great decision makers once they’ve got the information.”
Charman (pictured here and below on a study tour to China earlier this year) recognises that the award finalists will be held up as role models for other women.
“I believe that we do that every day in what we do anyway,” she says.
“I’ve met the other finalists and they’re tremendous women. This formalises that a little bit. Everybody I have met is a tremendous role model for our industry, and having the recognition of an award just gives it that little bit more oomph. We’ve got this accolade that we can hang our hat on – this is an award, this is how it’s been deliberated and judged, and the process that these women have gone through.”
Leading by example
Charman knows first-hand the value of having a mentor early in one’s career and has endeavoured to mentor others.
“Me mentoring other people is just natural,” she says. “That’s a privilege that I had and that’s what I do. I always give back.”
Mentoring is particularly important for women, according to Charman, because “one of the biggest challenges that women face… is time management, and getting some sort of work-life balance”.
“I still do evening appointments with clients, and things like that,” she says.
“As a business owner, you’re on your own… and I’ve got to make some pretty hard business decisions. All business owners face that, but for women it’s a big challenge because sometimes you’d like to get advice and you’re not sure where to go.
No longer a man’s world
One of the challenges she has faced over the years has been breaking into the blokes’ world and making sure she is head.
“Sometimes that can be a bit lonely, because there are not that many women around. And I’m pleased to see so many younger women coming through now who are taking this as a serious career option. When I started 10 years ago as an adviser – though I’d been in finance a lot longer – I was one of the few.”
With a husband in the defence force, which meant regular postings around Australia, Charman initially started working in a bank, reasoning that she’d be able to get work regardless of where they were posted.
However, when settling down to raise a family became an issue, Charman moved to Brisbane and joined Jade Financial Group.
“We were both very much encouraging each other to further education, and we were both studying,” she says.
“I started studying financial services; my husband was studying explosives. It was funny doing the cross-exams – he was testing me on financial stuff and I was testing him on explosives.
“But out of all of that, I ended up as a financial adviser because I loved it. I love the fact you have the relationship with people. You need to know the ins and outs of investments, which I absolutely enjoy, and insurance and wills and all that stuff, but the client relationship is what really got me. Being able to sit in front of people and have meaningful discussions, help them understand, make informed decisions going forward. That’s my premise for doing it.”
