Words of Wisdom: Catherine McDowell, MD of ANZ Private Banking

Today I read an interesting interview in a recent issue of 'inFinance' with Catherine McDowell, who is the Managing Director of ANZ Private Banking.

In it, she talks of her experiences - she says,

"I learnt at an early stage that a lot of your career progression is based on a couple of fundamental tenets: always be good at what you do; make sure that you've got the training and you are performing. And network. You've got to manage your own career and plan."

She goes on to say, "Having a mentor or coach for me was absolutely critical ... I was very committed once I decided I wanted a full blown career."

Here are my learnings from this:

1. To be good at what you do, it's important to know what you do really really well... and then do it.

2. Assess gap areas: for example skills you know you need to develop or knowledge you need to expand - then set a simple action plan for how you want to attack these areas in the next 90 days.

3. It's not necessarily what you know, but who you know. Networking is vital. I'll be sharing some top tips on this soon.

If you need help getting clarity for yourself on any of the 3 tips above, get in contact with me at any time.
-RW