Browse by category
To be strategic business partners to their organizations and push their teams to excellence, finance professionals need strong leadership skills. That much is a given.
But what exactly are those leadership skills?
Good leaders have a depth and breadth of skills they can draw fromfrom technical skills to people skills. Excellent leaders are good communicators, for instance. They can influence and negotiate with the best of them. They know how to build relationships and can collaborate and compromise with the people around them.
Those are fundamental. But true leaders bring a little something else to the table too. From good time management and problem-solving capabilities to acceptance and courage of conviction, these are skills that turn good leaders into great ones.
Ultimately, leadership is not about glorious crowning acts. Its about keeping your team focused on a goal and motivated to do their best to achieve it, especially when the stakes are high and the consequences really matter. It is about laying the groundwork for others success, and then standing back and letting them shine, astronaut Chris Hadfield wrote in An Astronauts Guide to Life on Earth.
And whether you're serving as commander on the International Space Station, like Hadfield, or leading your organization through its annual financial planning cycle, the same principles of good leadership apply. So how do you help your team shine?
In this blog, well take a look at how finance professionals can take their leadership skills to the next level.
First up, what type of leader do you want to be?
To become a great leader, it helps to understand which style of leadership you want to adopt Not every style of leadership is going to work in every situation, or with every team or organization you work with.
Choosing your leadership style means understanding your own strengths and weaknesses, the environment youre working in and your leadership goals. Here are some of the most common styles, including some of the pros and cons of each:
Democratic leaders are team players, taking other peoples points of view into account in their leadership decisions.
Pros: Democratic leaders welcome input from their team and delegate authority where it makes sense.
Cons: Getting consensus on decisions and next steps can be time consuming in this kind of environment, making on-the-fly decision making more difficult.
Autocratic leaders, on the other hand, make all the decisions for their team, without any input from their team members. They expect others to follow their lead simply based on the fact that they are the leader.
Pros: This type of leadership allows decisions to be made quickly.
Cons: Autocratic leaders can sometimes leave their team feeling unheard and unsatisfied.
Laissez-faire leaders have a more hands-off approach. They give their team members the tools they need to do their jobs, then step back to let them approach their duties however they see fit.
Pros: This type of leadership shows you have complete trust in your team.
Cons: It can also leave teams feeling adrift, uncertain what to do or whats expected of them.
Transformational leaders are all about raising the bar at every step, trying to get more out of their teams by pushing them to continuously improve.
Pros: With strong empathy and communication skills, this type of leadership can create a highly productive team.
Cons: With the wrong approach, this kind of leadership can lead to team burnout.
Transactional leaders establish all the specific responsibilities and duties of their team members, then reward them when those jobs get done. Everything is a transactional back and forth.
Pros: There are clearly defined expectations for every team member.
Cons: This leadership style can make it hard for employees to step outside of the box, to innovate or be creativepotentially impacting job satisfaction.
Knowing which type of leadership style resonates with you can help you start honing the skills you need to make it happen.
So how do you set yourself up for leadership success and begin to develop the skills you need to become the exceptional financial leader you want to be? Of course, working on core skills, such as communication, negotiation, compromise and empathy, is a good place to start. But there are other ways to get noticed and ensure youre ready for leadership when it comes your way. Here are five tips to get you there:
Time management may not seem like a particularly exciting skill to start bragging about on your way up the corporate ladder, but its an important one. By learning how to effectively manage your own time, you can make the most of it in order to make a bigger impact. That will in turn prepare you to help your team do the sameand to ensure nobody is taking on too much and getting burnt out in the process.
But effective time management actually involves a series of skills, all working in tandem. To improve your time management, you must learn how to prioritize, delegate and set goals. You also need to learn how to say nobecause sometimes theres just not enough time to take on everything at once.
When you become a leader in your organization, the culture you create will be critical. Through that culture, you can foster growth, motivate your team and encourage them to further develop their skill sets. Workplace culture also affects team productivity, staff turnover and employee health overallall of which are important in getting things done and meeting your strategic goals.
Building the right culture starts with hiring the right team. But it also means nurturing that team so theyre ultimately empowered to successfully meet business goalsas well as their own growth goals. As you build on your leadership skills, start thinking of the culture youll want to create. Find the mentors you think embody the values you want to instill. Ask questions. And, if you can, find ways to nurture others on your team.
My number one challenge and [number one] opportunity is always around the depth of the team and the strength of the team, said Patricia Burkland, CFO of Climate Pros, in Venas livestream, CFO Confidential: The Rise of Strategic Finance. I think it really does always come down to the team, and making sure that we are developing the team and that we're giving them experiences [to learn from].
Learning how to build a positive team culture is going to get you a long waybut it doesnt mean there wont ever be any fires to put out. And ultimately, if youre a leader, the buck stops with you. Being a good leader means being a problem solver, thenready to step in and find the best solution for each situation. In fact, in Venas 2022 benchmark survey, we found that problem solving was second only to communication as one of the most critical non-technical skills for finance teams. Forty-four percent of respondents saw it as a priority.
So how do you become a better problem solver? You can start by arming yourself with some questions to have ready when you face your next problem:
How did the problem start?
Has this problem happened before?
What is the ideal outcome if the problem is solved?
What are the negative consequences if its not solved quickly or fully?
Then put some empathy into playlooking at the problem from all perspectives. By doing so, you can come to a solution and determine how to apply that solution to the task at hand.
At the heart of any great leader is courage and conviction. Courage and conviction can help good finance professionals become great finance leadersthe type of leaders that finance teams want to follow. That starts with understanding what you want to achieve, what lines youre not willing to cross and what you want to stand for along the way. Then its about having the courage to follow through on those convictions. In finance, it may also mean learning how to advocate for the businesss long-term goals to departments across the organization that may not have access to the same data you have.
But being courageous can mean a lot of other things for leaders too. Courageous leaders arent afraid to stand up for their team, step outside of their comfort zone, take risks and rely on those around them. They also look forward and stay agile, creating new goals when circumstances change. Its sort of a mindset of not wanting to accept the status quo, Vena Vice President of FP&A Tom Seegmiller said in the Vena-hosted 2022 livestream, Driving Agile Business Outcomes With Finance at the Heart of Strategy. How do you find ways to drive scale in your organization?
But how do you start learning these leadership skills if youre not yet in a leadership position? Try leading from the side, Melissa Howatson, Vena Chief Financial Officer, suggested in Venas 2023 livestream, Harnessing Your Finance Leadership Potential.
It can be, There's a project and can I be on this and take on a bit more of a leadership role? she explained. It doesn't always have to be formal leadership.
Those experiences can set you apart and show your managers that you have what it takes to expand your role and take on new responsibilities. They can also help you hone your leadership style, build your skills and figure out where you excel and what you still need to work on.
Today, the scope of the finance function is growing. Finance leaders have become business leaders. And no matter what your position is on the finance team, you may be called in to take a leadership role, guiding the rest of the organization through financial planning decisions, departmental budgets and strategic goal setting.
Knowing which type of leader you want to be as you take on those roles, and building up your leadership skills in general, will put you in a better position to be a better partner to your business as a whole. And thats a plus for your organizationand for your own growth goals.
To become the strategic business partner your organization needs, you need the right leadership skillswhether youre a CFO or a junior analyst. In fact, demonstrating a strong set of skills early on could put you on the path towards those top positions. Technical skills are a must, of course, but thats just the start. The right soft skills will get you where you want to go faster. Theyll help you drive your business goals, get departmental consensus on budget changes and build favor with the executive team around strategic decisions. And theyll also help you become someone your team is happy to get behind.
The good news is that you can learn those skills just as easily as you once learned how to use Excel.
With a little application, you can develop the skills you need to become a dynamic leader and a standout business partner. And in doing so, you can become the finance leader youve always wanted to be.
Looking to elevate your skills as a strategic business partner even further? Learn how effective storytelling, negotiation and interpersonal skills can help you communicate the meaning behind your data to engage and persuade leaders across your business.
As Senior Director of Content and Communications, Jonathan Paul leads content strategy and execution at Vena, overseeing the development of owned media and content experiences that help finance professionals fuel business health, as well as their personal and professional growth. When he's not dreaming up new ways to offer audiences value through content creation, Jonathan loves to lose himself in an immersive video game with a solid narrative, lose golf balls pretending to be good at golf and lose time dreaming about time travel.
