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PAM Insight hosts inaugural NextGen SkillsLAB

News Team, 21/03/2023

PAM Insight, eprivateclient's publisher, hosted the inaugural NextGen SkillsLAB last week (13/03/2023).

The event, which was titled The road to success: The importance of networking and building your skills, was kindly hosted by BDO and attended by over 65 future leaders in the private wealth industry.

While technical skills are crucial for successful advisers, the non-technical skills cannot be ignored. Particularly since the pandemic, less focus has been placed on many of these skills.

The event aimed to change this and help up and coming advisers develop these non-technical skills that will be invaluable in their future careers.

Wendy Walton, an ex-BDO partner turned business coach, hosted a panel discussion in which the panellists – Sophie Kennedy, joint chief executive of EQ Investors; Ravi Francis, head of private wealth in London at Gateley Legal; Ava Fairclough, managing director at Praxis; and Tahir Ebrahim, a partner at BDO – all shared ways in which advisers can network effectively.

Most are not offered any formal networking training from their firms, so trial and error is still the most common way.

The panel gave some tips on how advisers can make up for this lack of training.

Firstly, they should establish a networking strategy, this does not only include in person events but also LinkedIn activity and smaller meetings.

To work out this strategy, advisers should work out what they want to achieve from networking. For example, this could be winning work, establishing themselves as a leader in their field, or perhaps increasing their knowledge base.

The panel also stressed advisers should not feel they have to copy anyone else’s networking style. Not everyone will suit large evening events. Some may prefer one on one coffee or breakfast meetings. Others may look for speaking opportunities or write thought leadership pieces.

For advisers, being authentic and forging their own path is key to a successful networking strategy.

Finally, the panel shared their top networking dos and don’ts.

The ‘dos’ ranged from always following up if you say you will to keeping an open mind and giving everyone a chance.

Meanwhile, the panel’s biggest networking faux pas included: forming closed groups or cliques during larger events; not engaging in a conversation and looking for someone else to speak to; and ignoring someone or not involving everyone in the conversation.

NextGen SkillsLAB is an annual series comprising four events. If you would like more information please contact Katie Royals (kroyals@paminsight.com) or Kathryn Stokes (kstokes@paminsight.com)

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