She says “being part of a minority, [I am] used to dealing with people who are not from my background. This means we naturally tend to be more inclusive”.
She continues: “Not all men are sensitive to the needs of women and how women like to be communicated with,” and therefore she finds it is “more of an advantage” to be woman of ethnicity.
However, being an Asian female and an IFA is not without its challenges.
When she started out as a financial adviser, she said she noticed a difference in the way she was treated at first.
She says: “The men would ask each other questions and seemed to assume I did not know the answers as I was a younger woman. I also noticed that when I did speak I was interrupted more.”
However, through open conversations and time taken for her male colleagues to understand that her way was direct and honest, her male colleagues became “more sensitised” to her ability and needs and started to include her more regularly in their conversations.
She says: “I don’t need male colleagues to change their language or be more politically correct around me. I want to be inclusive and include the presence of white, middle-class men in my reality and I want them to include me in theirs.”
Lift up other voices
Another challenge Ms Lira witnesses is at conferences. “The culture and anecdotes used tend to be geared to whoever is dominant in terms of the population. Usually there is less than 12 per cent women, so the dominant population tends to be white men.”
Ms Lira says that one way to promote inclusion at conferences is for the facilitator to be mindful of who is asking the majority of the questions.
“Is one person asking the questions? Who else is in the room? Are there Black men or women in the room who might want to speak as well?”
In this way a facilitator can ensure that various diverse voices are heard.
Communication
As well as promoting inclusion, Ms Lira is also passionate about the practice of nonviolent communication. This practice focuses on a four-step communication process that involves: observation, feelings, needs and formulating a clear request.
Ms Lira explains: “The idea is that when human beings feel connected, it is easier to collaborate and cooperate with each other.
“So often we want to get to an end goal, like going on holiday, but we haven’t spent time working out what you might need, what I might need, and what we would like to happen. We haven’t connected with each other over this. This connection is the key.”
In the belief that “we all have the same underlying longings, motivations and needs, to different intensities”, NVC is ultimately a very inclusive and collaborative practice of communication.
Through NVC, Ms Lira is able to see that clients are, to different degrees, vulnerable and have anxieties and fears around money.
She says: “In my advice work just listening to clients about their feelings and needs is a big part of [NVC] – being able to go to a deeper level when they use certain words.
“For example sometimes clients are quite ashamed and use ‘should’ a lot: ‘I should be better with my money’, ‘I should have more savings’. ‘I should’ words are quite violent.So I try to reassure them that most people struggle to look at money and it’s normal to do so.”
However, being able to identify her clients’ anxieties and needs is only part of the story.
Ms Lira has also devised a series of money workshops and a newsletter to help her clients examine their relationship to money more thoroughly.
“Money is important, but we work for other needs like meaning, contribution, fun or play. Many times we are conditioned that we should earn so much, or work in a certain profession and we do things to please other people.
“But what we want to do is this other ‘something’ that brings us alive” says Ms Lira.
This is what Ms Lira calls “following your soul path, your soul passion”, as well as following a “life path”.
It works, because it helps clients unblock their unconscious biases around money like their fears and prejudices (around greed or immorality for example), and so engage with their finances more proactively and freely.
It tends to lead to better investment choices in line with her clients’ values and allows them to do things with their money they truly want.
She says this is important because “money systems work mostly for people with power and privilege.”
She adds: “Unless more of us become ‘conscious’ with money we cannot change the way these systems work.”
Her advice to other IFAs is to consider money coaching to supplement their advice work.
“I think a big part of the IFA’s role is behavioural coaching.
“It’s not the actual mechanics of investing – that’s the easy part. It’s getting clients to think about money and adopt healthy habits around money and their relationship to it. If they are willing to explore deeper and engage, it can really create a shift.”
Having a niche is also recommended. “I find that having a niche means clients come to me. They already have an idea of what they want, which is ethical investment, and they have read my website.
"If you are interested in ethical investing, follow it. But be aware it needs a lot more research and it requires a lot more detail.”
Anita Boniface is a freelance journalist
