Donna Picton’s primary role may be branch manager and private wealth adviser but she views mentoring as a natural extension of her core roles. Part of her role is to mentor her team of six full-time advisers at Elston in progress development planning.
In doing so, she conducts monthly reviews of their plan and provides them with catch-up meetings to facilitate a two-way communication to support and encourage her staff members.
“Part of that I find is to just really support and encourage them to think big, more around long-term goals and moving through some of their roadblocks that they naturally can find at times and really just moving them towards being able to implement those stepping blocks towards what they’re wanting to achieve for the year,” Picton said.
“A big part of what I like to do in those meetings is really just to bring it back to their whole purpose of why they’re in their roles, what is the true area of fulfillment that they’re seeking as advisers for the long-term so that it becomes more of a self-sustained drive towards those sorts of goals that they have.”
Picton was born on a cattle property in Western Queensland, which led her to develop a niche close to her heart: helping rural families plan for their succession. She undertook mediation training and developed an engagement process for rural clients to achieve their desired outcomes.
She has run several seminars leveraging off the Queensland Rural and Industry Development Authority (QRAA), Cane Growers Bundaberg and various accountants and solicitors in the region. She included the entire team in the seminars and introduced them to potential new clients and professional partners.
“I think there’s great opportunities for me as a mentor to really encourage my team to delve into that purpose and that’s where we create our own unique reasons for why we are in the industry,” Picton said.
Along with mentoring her staff, Picton is currently completing the final module of the Certified Financial Planner (CFP) accreditation.
Fellow nominee, Natalie Dinsdale, received praise for being instrumental in revamping Tyro Payments’ marketing function and brand. She came into the fintech business specialising in merchant credit, debit, and EFTPOS acquiring, with the difficult job of resetting the marketing function and building it to support the group’s growth plans.
