CFO Leadership

“The key to successful leadership is influence, not authority,” author and speaker Ken Blanchard has said.  And it makes sense. Influence lets leaders lead. It empowers them by getting a person, a team or an entire organization behind them, ready to go where they take them.  That’s as true for finance leaders as it is for any other leader. As strategic partners to the rest of their business, finance leaders need to be able to influence in order to guide the way toward a shared set of goals, empowering organizational planning and business growth.  Just as critical to leaders? Negotiation skills. Negotiation helps build consensus for those goals when influence alone isn’t enough. When consensus isn’t the starting point, negotiating skills help everyone get on the same page toward a common set of objectives.  And while influence can happen during negotiations, the two aren’t the same. Influence is about someone having an effect on others. Negotiation, on the other hand, is about moving multiple parties toward a conclusion they can all agree on.  Both skill sets are key to building a force for change and achieving organizational and stakeholder buy-in. But negotiation and influence don’t come naturally to everyone. So if you’re a finance leader—or you hope to become one in the future—you may have to start putting in the work to learn them now. Want some help? Improving your communication skills is a good place to start—but we’ve also got some other tips to offer. First, though, let’s dive a little deeper into both skill sets to see what makes them important to finance leaders today. 💡Key Takeaways:   Influence and negotiation can help finance leaders gain consensus and rally all stakeholders around a common goal. That makes them key to helping finance leaders become effective business partners. Both influence and negotiation start from a place of understanding. That means listening to other parties’ points of view, developing strong relationships and coming in prepared, to fully comprehend all the people involved and the path you’re hoping they’ll follow. Negotiation and influence also benefit from a sense of knowing you're all in it together, and from not just trying to “win.” Don’t get lost in your emotions, follow through on your promises and know when to walk away.  Why Influence Matters  Influence is a part of business and part of being a good leader. It helps you get your team and the rest of the organization aligned toward your goals. And it can help build your authority in the workplace as people learn to go to you for direction. All of that is pivotal if you’re a finance leader and find yourself in a situation where you need to build support for your decision making. Which is why, if you’re on the leadership track, demonstrating influence in the workplace can help you move up the ranks even faster. But there are right ways and wrong ways to exert influence. We’ll get into those soon—but let’s look at negotiation first. The Value of Negotiation  Sometimes influence isn’t enough—you need to negotiate in order to create consensus and figure out the best way forward for everyone. Yet negotiation is often overlooked as a key business skill. In fact, in our 2022 benchmark survey, only 5% of respondents prioritized it. But strong negotiation skills, just like strong influencing skills, can help you bring others to your point of view. More than that, though, through negotiation, you can take into consideration everyone’s point of view, coming to a consensus that has all parties’ needs in mind. Negotiation is used at all levels of business—whether you’re negotiating a raise or promotion with your boss, determining the terms of a business agreement or trying to gain consensus across the organization on your business planning goals. The last is particularly relevant in finance, where FP&A leaders—as the people most familiar with business performance data—try to gain consensus around their strategy and goals. Of course, the common denominator between all of those scenarios is that there is always more than one party involved, with different perspectives and goals, but an overall shared purpose.  As with anything, developing your negotiation and influencing skills means putting in the effort to get better. We’ve got some tips to help. 7 Tips for Improving Your Influence and Negotiation Skills How do you begin to develop your influence and negotiation skills, to add to the arsenal of attributes that make you a better finance leader and strategic partner to the business? Here are a few guidelines: 1. Come Prepared Negotiation isn’t something you need to do on the fly.  Even the most experienced negotiators know to go in prepared. And for good reason: one study found that in business negotiations, negotiators that come in prepared perform almost 27% better than those who don’t. Of course, the level of preparation you put in depends on the type of negotiation you’re dealing with, but whether you’re negotiating a new budget, looking to make changes to your product line based on revenue objectives or trying to get the rest of the organization aligned to your performance goals, it helps to understand the full scope of the situation before negotiations even begin. That means knowing the parties you’re negotiating with, what you’re looking to achieve, the market standards and what you’re willing to concede. In doing so, you’ll not only be better prepared—but more relaxed and confident going in as well. In fact, preparation can help settle your emotions and get you ready mentally, not just intellectually, for a negotiation. “Getting ready to engage in a process actually settles you down,” Chris Voss—former FBI Lead Hostage Negotiator and CEO and Founder of The Black Swan Group—explained in The Art of Negotiation, his keynote presentation at our Excelerate Summit 2022. 2. Know When To Listen “One of the best ways to influence people is to make them feel important,” former Zimbabwean politician and author Roy T. Bennett wrote in his book, The Light in the Heart. And one way to make people feel important is to listen to them.   In fact, both negotiation and influence—like any form of communication—are just as much about listening as they are about talking. With negotiation, that’s probably obvious: if you’re trying to come to a consensus between multiple parties, actively listening to all sides is paramount.  “Start the conversation with ‘Before I give my perspective, let me make sure I’ve got your perspective right. That's your opening phrase. Then you follow up with, ‘So far, you've told me’ and you lay out the facts of what they've said,’” Chris suggested in his 2022 keynote address. “Then the second part is, ‘As a result, you feel and you …’ and lay out your best guess, based on their demeanor, their actions or tone of voice.” But listening isn’t just key in negotiations. It’s a critical part of influencing as well. No matter who you’re trying to exert influence over, part of being a successful influencer is understanding where they stand. That starts with listening to and valuing their perspective before trying to persuade them to a particular point of view. Listening will also help them feel acknowledged—a great starting point if you want to have a lasting influence. 3. Build Strong Relationships Not surprisingly, getting people to agree with your point of view is easier if you’ve already built a good relationship with them. We can’t only negotiate with or influence our closest friends, though, so building relationships throughout the negotiation and influencing process can be a successful way to make sure everyone walks out happy. “Nobody would be surprised to know that we prefer to say yes to those individuals who we feel a liking, or a rapport, with,” psychologist Robert Cialdini, author of Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion, said in his Excelerate =SUM(it) keynote presentation, “The Science of Ethical Influence.” Another key ingredient in getting a “yes,” he added, is a feeling of unity—or a sense that you’re all part of the same group, working together toward a single cause. “If you can arrange for people to see you not just as like them, but as one of them, they will become significantly more likely to say yes to you as a result,” Robert said. In a negotiation, then, being empathetic is key. Empathy helps you understand the other person’s point of view and use that knowledge to develop the kind of relationship that makes everyone feel like they’re part of the same team, with the rapport to match. Good communication and a foundation of trust can also make it easier to keep the negotiation civil and work through any conflict that arises. 4. Don’t Focus on Winning Negotiation and influence aren’t about winning, and if you treat them like they are, you’re setting yourself up for failure. Rather, the most skilled negotiators understand the power of compromise and know that the best discussions will find new value for all parties, unveiling alternatives you might not have even known existed.  “Negotiation is not an act of battle; it’s a process of discovery. The goal is to uncover as much information as possible,” Chris wrote in Never Split the Difference: Negotiating As If Your Life Depended On It. Chris’ advice is surprisingly relevant to corporate finance professionals, where you’re often negotiating with other departments within your own business, trying to allocate limited resources and budget. While everyone wants their piece of the pie, you all ultimately have the same objective—to see your business succeed. “You’re having to help facilitate that negotiation ultimately through your organization, to make sure you find that effective and appropriate balance,” 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.  5. Don’t Get Lost in Emotions Even when you’re empathetic to the other side of the negotiation, and try to be as good a listener as possible, negotiations can still become fraught with tension, as everyone tries to get what they want out of the process.  But when emotions drive a negotiation, neither side is going to get far.  “If they're frustrated with the situation, they're probably annoyed with you,” Chris said in his 2022 keynote. To get past any of those negative emotions, he suggests demonstrating “respectful awareness.” In other words, calling out the emotions in the room as a way of deactivating them. “[It’s about] calling out negatives, not denying them—but simply observing them, calling them out, recognizing them [and] verbally articulating the negatives,” Chris added. All of which, of course, means developing your own emotional intelligence so that you’re able to monitor and recognize the emotions in play—both positive and negative. Emotional intelligence will also help you see through the words being spoken so that you can better understand how everyone really feels. From there, you’ll be able to get to a place where you’re all content and ready to proceed. 6. Understand That You’re In It Together “Negotiation is not an act of battle; it’s a process of discovery. The goal is to uncover as much information as possible,” Chris wrote in Never Split the Difference. Rather than setting up sides with a line that can’t be crossed, the best way to influence others is to create a sense of togetherness or unity. By doing so, you show the other parties involved that you’re all similar—sharing common goals or interests. And that sense of similarity and togetherness will go a long way to getting you to your goals. “We like people who are similar to us. This fact seems to hold true whether the similarity is in the area of opinions, personality traits, background, or lifestyle,” psychologist Robert Cialdini wrote in Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion.  Along with that sense of togetherness comes a certain amount of flexibility. If you go in with all points of view in mind and a healthy respect for the others you’re working with, you’ll be more willing to bend or compromise to those other perspectives—a critical component in both negotiations and influencing. 7. Don’t Forget To Follow Through (and Know When To Walk Away) Finally, good negotiators and successful influencers don’t forget the follow up. That means if you’ve made promises, you keep them. And you keep an eye on next steps to make sure everything’s going as planned. But great negotiators and influencers also know something else. That is, when it’s time to walk away. Because sometimes negotiations and influence just don’t pan out—and at some point, it’s time to cut the negotiation off because you know you’re not going to come to a consensus.  At that point, it may be time to regroup—to see if you can find another way instead. Becoming a More Influential Business Partner  If you’re a finance leader, it’s part of your job to be the best business partner you can be to your organization. And that takes negotiation and influence skills.  Through influence and negotiation, you can start to build consensus and an organization that’s rallied around common goals. All of which is critical if you want your business to thrive. Looking to elevate your skills as a strategic business partner even further? Learn how effective storytelling and relationship building skills can help you excel as a finance leader and become an invaluable partner to your entire organization. Watch Excelerate Summit 2023 On Demand Improve your FP&A processes, grow your Excel skills and learn how to plan for anything by streaming all the best sessions from Excelerate Summit 2023.

  Finance has always been a numbers game.  The traditional role of finance, after all, was largely an accounting role: budgeting, cash flow, profits and losses and so on. Jobs were done in a silo, and finance professionals spent much of their time poring over manual spreadsheets.  But that’s not what finance is today. While those accounting duties are just as important as they always have been, technology, automation and more collaborative processes have left finance with more time to spend on other things. And the rest of the business has learned they can rely on finance for analysis, advice and strategy. As a result, financial planning and analysis (FP&A) has become integral to finance teams—and critical for their organizations. And finance leaders have become important strategic business partners—leading their organizations to successfully meet their business goals. But to thrive in this new role, finance leaders require a fresh set of skills. “Softer” skills than the data analysis and number crunching that might come more naturally to finance-oriented professionals. And that means building those skills can be critical to future financial leadership success.  "I think that if somebody aspires to be a leader or thinks maybe they will but doesn't know, ask for those opportunities to have those experiences,”Vena CFO Melissa Howatson suggests. Because in the end, those experiences can help hone your leadership style and build soft skills such as communication, listening and empathy. And by showing you excel in your interactions with others, you can get yourself noticed—putting you on the leadership track. So what exactly are those skills and how do finance leaders develop them? We're diving deeper into the skills that make finance professionals better business partners, starting with communication and storytelling. 💡Key Takeaways:   As finance embraces its role as a strategic business partner, communication has become a more critical skill to master. Good communication skills help finance leaders get their message across and build consensus throughout their organization. Storytelling is an effective communication device that can help finance leaders get others engaged in the message they’re conveying.  To master good communication and storytelling, don’t be afraid to write out a script, but keep your communication authentic and customized to your audience. Use precise and well-placed data to drive your point home. Mastering the Art of Communication and Storytelling: The Key To Excelling as a Finance Business Partner Enhancing your communication and storytelling abilities is crucial to “shine” as a finance business partner. By developing these skills, you'll be able to effectively convey your findings and recommendations to your stakeholders, build trust and make a meaningful impact on your organization's success. Here’s how.  From Small Talk to Big Impact: How Effective Communication Can Transform Your Financial Career Effective communication is a key proficiency in life and in business. And it’s critical for modern finance professionals today. Not convinced? Just look at the results of our 2022 benchmark survey, where 48% of respondents were prioritizing communication in their finance team—making it the single most prioritized non-technical skill listed.  And no wonder: from investor calls and leadership meetings to team planning conversations and cross-departmental strategy sessions, communication is a critical skill to have as a modern financial leader interacting with teams across the organization. As a strategic business partner, you’re responsible for communicating your findings and strategic goals and building consensus over future plans.  The Power of Narrative: How Storytelling Can Help Drive Better Business Decisions in Finance  Storytelling techniques can level up the way you communicate, giving you the tools you need to create a more impactful message. As such, storytelling—especially when backed by strong data—can be a way to build support for your decision making and get your message across more effectively. After all, there’s a reason 23% of respondents prioritized storytelling skills in our 2022 Vena benchmark survey. “Stories add value. If you think of any great achievement or anything that has value to you, there’s probably a great story attached. A story of overcoming challenges and reaching your final goal,” Vern Redwood, CPA and Senior Consultant with Vena, said in his Change Management Playbook session at Vena’s Excelerate =SUM(it) 2022 virtual conference. By using the tried-and-tested tools of storytelling—establishing a complication, for example, and ending with a resolution—you’re adding drama to your message. In doing so, you’re keeping your audience engaged. “A story has an arc,” Paul Lima, Managing Partner of Lima Consulting Group, said in our 2022 livestream, CFO Confidential: The Art of Impactful Communication. “Sometimes there’s even a villain. Sometimes the villain’s the problem, not the person.” Say It Like You Mean It: Proven Tips for More Impactful Communication and Storytelling  If you’re the type of finance professional who finds interacting with numbers easier than interacting with people, effective communication and storytelling can be a challenge. Like any skill, though, it can be learned.  So up your communication and storytelling game today with these tried-and-tested tips from the pros:  1. Write a Script You may need to be a good communicator to thrive in a finance leadership role today, but there’s nothing saying you can’t “cheat” a little to get there. Whether you’re on an investor call or meeting with your executive team, following a set script takes the pressure off. It lets you communicate your message effectively without forcing you to ad lib if that’s not your strength. After all, if communication doesn’t come naturally, missteps can be made if you try to force it on the fly.  For instance, Paul uses the Balanced Scorecard to structure many of his communications with clients. “It starts off with the financials,” he said. “And then from there, it goes into the customer-centric objectives and the internal operations. Then it’s what you need to do to innovate and learn and grow. It's a waterfall.” By putting together a script ahead of time or following a prescribed framework, you’ll go in knowing exactly what points you need to make and how you want to make them. That helps you communicate more effectively and concisely, without missing any of your talking points along the way.  2. Know Your Audience Whether you’re relying on a script or not, your communication style—not to mention the story you tell—should keep in mind your audience. How you communicate with your closest teammates, for instance, isn’t going to be the same as how you communicate with your Board of Directors. Nor should it be.  If you want to get your message across effectively, you need to customize that message, including the level of detail you offer, to the audience in question. You may be more formal with your Board of Directors, for instance, and offer only top-level details you think they need to make the decision on hand. With your teammates, on the other hand, you’ll probably have a more casual rapport and may need to delve into more depth to dig into the situation you’re discussing. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be authentic in both situations. In fact, authenticity is a key ingredient in all communication.  3. The Art of Authenticity in Communication Authentic communication is honest and empathetic. And those are attributes that go a long way in getting others to embrace the message you’re trying to convey. When you’re communicating authentically, you’re not hiding behind corporate jargon, but rather showing your passion for the conversation at hand, inviting others to have their say and actively listening and trying to understand their viewpoint. That’s why authenticity in communication goes a long way in building trust and creating a safe space for everyone—which makes it a critical tool if you want to be a valuable business partner. So how do you integrate authenticity into your communication style? Being open and transparent regarding your goals is a good start, as is being respectful to those around you. That means recognizing the challenges and obstacles in their way, taking the opinions of others into consideration and empathizing with different points of view.  In doing so, you’ll help create an environment where communication thrives and everybody’s ideas are welcome. 4. Choose the Best Data To Make Your Point “As a finance professional and somebody that's used to getting into the details and the numbers, you can get caught up in what I sometimes refer to as inside baseball. You need to step back,” Amy Schwalm, Vice President of Investor Relations for Canada Goose, said in our 2022 CFO Confidential: The Art of Impactful Communication livestream. You can lose your audience if you get too caught up in the details—but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t have any detail at all. Don’t be afraid to choose the best or most relevant data points to drive your message home. With data to back you up, your talking points will hit harder and remain top of mind for your audience.  By applying data to the story you’re telling, you’re adding weight to your message and backing it up in a way that will resonate with the people around you. But make sure you use that data wisely … which brings us to tip number five. 5. Precision Is Paramount This is finance, after all. The numbers still matter—as they should.  So don’t just force fit the data that best fits your narrative, even if it’s imprecise or misleading. And don’t throw out a number without checking its veracity first. Your stakeholders want to know they can rely on you as a finance leader to stick to the facts—so if you don’t do exactly that in your communications, they’ll start to doubt everything you do. “If the culture is aspiring to be data driven, then there has to be an acknowledgement that we can trust the numbers,” Paul said. The Bottom Line: How Effective Communication and Storytelling Help Drive Financial Success  As a finance leader and strategic partner to the rest of your business, you play a pivotal role in advocating for your business goals and gaining consensus and support throughout the organization and beyond. But to do so effectively requires strong communication skills—and powerful stories. So start developing your communication and storytelling skills now—and get ready to be the best finance leader you can be. _______________ Looking to elevate your skills as a strategic business partner even further? Learn how you can master the art (and science) of influence and negotiation to rally stakeholders around a common goal. Watch Excelerate Summit 2023 On Demand Improve your FP&A processes, grow your Excel skills and learn how to plan for anything by streaming all the best sessions from Excelerate Summit 2023.

April is Earth Month and to mark the occasion, Vena is looking at ESG—environmental, social and governance. Throughout the month, we’ll be exploring how to integrate ESG principles into your organization. By now, most organizations see the value of good corporate citizenship. In fact, a majority of businesses have some sort of environmental, social and governance (ESG) program in place. Just look at a 2022 survey done by Deloitte for proof. They found that 57% of executives have implemented a cross-functional working group to drive strategic attention to ESG. Another 42% were making moves to do the same. Those leaders were introducing new roles and bringing in technology to support their efforts, underlining the importance they saw in ESG. But for many of those businesses, the prime focus still seemed to be on the “E” of ESG: that is, their environmental impact. The chief sustainability officer took primary responsibility for ESG disclosure in 42% of the businesses surveyed.  While environmental programs are obviously critically important, what about the “S” in ESG? How can businesses bring emphasis to the social side of ESG and become good corporate citizens all around? For that matter, what does a socially conscious corporate citizen even look like? Let’s take a look. 💡Key Takeaways: The social pillar of ESG has become more of a focus for businesses over the last few years. As more customers, employees and investors have prioritized the social impact of the brands they do business with, those businesses have as well. Collecting data, measuring performance and reporting on your ESG efforts will help your business evolve through the five stages of corporate citizenship and create a more socially impactful organization. To start your journey, begin by having cross-functional conversations, hiring a diverse workforce and examining your business practices as a whole. What’s the “S” in ESG? As most of us know by now, the “S” in ESG stands for “social”—as in the social impact your business has on the world around you. And over the last few years, we’ve seen more and more businesses prioritize their social impact. This includes some of the biggest brands in the world. Ben & Jerry’s backed Black Lives Matter. IKEA advocated against child labor. Coors Brewing Co. has supported LGBTQIA+ rights. In a lot of ways, it just makes good business sense. Customers are putting more value on issues such as diversity and inclusion, health and safety, human rights and ethical business practices—meaning businesses need to as well. And world events and causes such as the pandemic, Black Lives Matter, the war in Ukraine and issues around LGBTQIA+ rights have only served to bring these issues more and more into the forefront.  The more inequality people see in the world, the more they want to do their part to support the social causes that will change it. And businesses like yours are being asked to play a role as well.  Why Should Social Responsibility Matter? But why should this matter to your business? Why should you care about these kinds of social justice issues at a corporate level? There’s reason number one, of course: It’s simply the right thing to do. To build a better world, those with a voice should do what they can for those with less of one, and businesses have more of a voice than the average individual. But there are other reasons your organization should care about social change, and do what they can to support social issues. Below, we explore how those reasons can affect your bottom line.  Your Customers Care 13% of customers say they’d pay 31% to 50% more to businesses they believe are making a positive impact on the world. Customer Thermometer  A lot of customers today want to shop ethically—meaning they’ll look to do business with organizations that support diversity, human rights and other social issues. In fact, in their 2021 Consumer Intelligence Series survey, PwC found that 76% of consumers are more likely to buy from a company that stands up for social issues.  Another survey found that 13% of customers would pay 31% to 50% more to businesses they believe are making a positive impact on the world. And through social programs and transparent reporting, you can show them that you’re exactly that type of business.    Source: PwC Your Employees Care Many employees actively search out diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) and other socially progressive programs when they’re deciding on new job opportunities. In fact, the PwC report found that 83% of employees are more likely to work for a company that stands up for social issues. And when McKinsey & Company surveyed employees across backgrounds, they found 39% had turned down or decided not to pursue a job because of a perceived lack of inclusion. So if you have active programs in place and show you take them seriously, you could be putting yourself in a better position when it comes to recruiting top talent and retaining your existing employees. Your Investors Care Investors commonly use ESG information as another part of their investment decision making. “Until the mid-2010s, few investors paid attention to environmental, social and governance (ESG) data,” the Harvard Business Review explains. Today, though, investors commonly use ESG information as another part of their investment decision making. Some might be focused specifically on your environmental impact, but others highlight the importance of social impact and how your business is contributing to the wider world. Investing in your social programs can affect how much they invest in your business. “As more investors look to put money into companies with stronger ESG performance, larger pools of capital will be available to those companies,” the Harvard Business Review explains.  It’s clear why the social side of ESG has become more important for businesses. But the next question is, how do you begin to integrate it into your organization’s underlying values? To answer that, let’s first look at how socially conscious organizations evolve. The 5 Stages of Strong Corporate Citizenship Building a socially responsible organization is an evolution—one that involves collecting data, measuring your results and creating a culture of continual improvement. Rome wasn’t built in a day, and neither is a sophisticated socially impactful business. Building a socially responsible organization is an evolution—one that involves collecting data, measuring your results and creating a culture of continual improvement. As you introduce social programs and evolve them, here are the five stages of corporate citizenship you can expect to follow: Stage 1: Elementary You’ll start by taking baby steps. At this point, your programs are still undeveloped and leadership is often indifferent or uninvolved. In fact, your social policies and processes may largely just be a matter of compliance and lip service—all about obeying the law and protecting your reputation. But you’re still making moves, and it doesn’t stop here. Stage 2: Engaged At this stage, leadership becomes more supportive as they begin to better understand the importance of social responsibility. The main goals are still to mitigate risks to your organization’s reputation, protect against possible litigation and react to market or industry trends, but you’re also doing more information gathering and getting staff involved. Stage 3: Innovative This is where your business begins to fully embrace their role as a corporate citizen, taking a more comprehensive approach and getting more deeply committed. You’re trying to learn more, do more and talk to a more diverse set of stakeholders and experts, while building more of a business case for good corporate citizenship by putting set criteria and metrics in place. Stage 4: Integrated Corporate citizenship, at this stage, has become a strong part of your core business values. It’s embedded into all areas of the organization, with key performance indicators (KPIs) and performance monitoring in place to help you continue to build on your successes and learn from your failures. And you’re also embracing transparency, by reporting on your ESG endeavors. Stage 5: Transforming This level is reserved for those businesses that are visionaries, reshaping what corporate citizenship looks like. Corporate citizenship is a defining part of your brand at this point and you embrace full disclosure and transparency. You likely also partner with other businesses, nonprofits and community groups to move your mandate forward. 3 Tips for Getting Started  So how do you begin making a stronger social impact as a business and start progressing through the five stages of corporate citizenship? Here are a few suggestions to get you off the ground: 1. Encourage Candid Conversations  To make a more positive impact, start by talking about how you can do better—and encourage honest conversations throughout your organization.  By creating a safe space for discussion, you’ll help create more of a force behind the positive impact you’re trying to have, build a collaborative environment for change and get ideas from across departments. This might come in the form of organization-wide information forums, executive-led discussions and/or employee resource groups (ESGs) focused on social issues.   2. Hire a Diverse Workforce   The most ethnically diverse organizations outperformed those with the least diversity by 36% in profitability.  McKinsey & Company  One way those conversations thrive is by introducing different voices to the table. And that starts by hiring a diverse workforce. Setting DEI targets is a good start to introducing a social mandate to your organization—and for more ways than one. Not only does it show you’re serious about having a positive social impact and helps all employees feel like their voice belongs, but those diverse voices have been shown to be better for business as well. McKinsey & Company found that the most ethnically diverse organizations outperformed those with the least diversity by 36% in profitability. 3. Examine Your Business Practices If you want to evolve beyond lip service and show your customers and stakeholders you’re ready to take action, you need to look closely at your business practices and begin to make changes. Creating a positive impact and an ethical brand means aligning all of your operations, product development and marketing practices with the core values of your business. For instance, treating your workers right, abiding by fair trade policies, supporting local suppliers and offering fair compensation. Socially focused KPIs can help get you there—for example, consider introducing metrics related to: Employee diversity  Pay equity  Employee health and safety  Supply chain standards Employee volunteer hours  Charitable contributions Product safety These kinds of changes don’t happen overnight, of course. But by putting a plan in place and working towards it, you’re showing your team, customers and investors that you’re serious about change.  And that’s just the start. Embracing transparency around your successes and your failures, investing in a socially responsible way, giving back to the communities you impact and advocating publicly for the issues you believe in can all help you build your brand around your values. The more you do, the more your corporate citizenship will become intertwined with your brand’s identity as a whole. Start the Journey Now Changing the world is never going to be an easy job—but the more people that get involved, the more chance that change will have to grow. And businesses can have a major impact. By introducing good corporate citizenship and putting the right social programs in place, you can be a force for social good.   It’s not only the right thing to do anymore. Today, it’s also a good way to do business. Start Evaluating Your Company’s ESG Performance Download your ESG Reporting Template from Vena today.

When you think about your workplace, what are some of the things you wish to see? What’s most important to you?  Your answers may vary based on your lived experiences and what you value most.  For many women+ employees, their experiences and the opportunities available to them can differ greatly based on various aspects of their identity.  In a 2022 study conducted by McKinsey & Company and LeanIn.org, it was found that “Many women experience bias not only because of their gender but also because of their race, sexual orientation, a disability or other aspects of their identity – and the compounded discrimination can be much greater than the sum of its parts. As a result, these groups of women often experience more aggressions and face more barriers to advancement.”  For women+ to thrive and succeed in their workplaces, certain conditions such as psychological safety, equitable career progression opportunities and inclusive leadership practices need to  be in place. But how far have workplaces come in securing safe environments for women and what can women in leadership roles do to ensure these conditions are met?  This week, we went straight to the women on Vena’s ELT team to find out what they’re doing to ensure safe workplaces for women+ employees and how they’re helping to create an environment where women+ team members can bring their full selves to work and succeed within the workplace.  Women make up 60% of Vena's ELT. The industry average for women in tech C-suites is 24%.                                                                                                                 How Do You Help Create Safe Workplaces for Women+?     Tina Goulbourne Chief Operating Officer at Vena I am pretty transparent about all of my own challenges as a woman, wife, mother, executive and person of color. I share that information to debunk any mistaken belief that I haven’t struggled with self-esteem, self-confidence, juggling work and family, or at some point, suppressing some aspect of myself in order to fit in. I am pretty transparent about all of my own challenges as a woman, wife, mother,  executive and person of color. I share that information to debunk any mistaken belief that I haven’t struggled with self-esteem, self-confidence, juggling work and family, or at some point, suppressing some aspect of myself in order to fit in. This vulnerability usually makes people feel comfortable sharing their own challenges, and I use that information, combined with my own experiences, to try to create inclusive environments where people feel valued. Melissa Howatson Chief Financial Officer at Vena You have to be deliberate about giving all voices in the room a chance to be heard.   You have to be deliberate about giving all voices in the room a chance to be heard. If you notice a few voices are always consuming the air time, open up the discussion. Ask those who haven’t had a chance to participate if they have anything to add.  Make it okay for employees to be human.  You have to talk to them about the challenges they are encountering both personally and professionally. Also, be vulnerable by opening up and sharing your own challenges.   Debbie Lillitos Chief Customer Officer at Vena Creating an environment where women can be strong, soft, bold, kind, passionate, competent, anxious and fallible all at once—without negative judgment—is critical in building psychological safety. Being my most authentic self, showing compassion and vulnerability, sharing stories of struggle and being open are ways I try to create psychological safety for others. When we are vulnerable and open, it helps to build safety for others and demonstrates to people that we all do not have to “have it together, buttoned up perfectly” all the time and that you are not weak if you need help or share something about yourself that you’re working on. As a leader, showing vulnerability can have a profound impact on others, in particular, changing people’s perceptions of what “strong leadership” looks like.  I think creating an environment where women can be strong, soft, bold, kind, passionate, competent, anxious and fallible all at once —without negative judgment—is critical to building psychological safety.  There’s no one way to be or an archetype of what a successful woman should behave or look like. To accept others, embrace them and understand them as who they are, creates space for other women to be themselves.  When people can be themselves and are not spending energy concealing aspects of who they are out of fear of judgment, they can apply that energy into even better productivity and contribution.    Tracey Mikita Chief People Officer at Vena Creating a safe workplace for women+ for me really starts with living your values—both your company values and your personal values.   Creating a safe workplace for women+ for me really starts with living your values—both your company values and your personal values. Building a culture that embraces open/transparent communication and feedback, celebrates the differences that everyone brings to the table and encourages employees to bring their authentic selves to work are helping to create these safe places. These are all important pieces of who I am and want to be and the type of company I want to be a part of. We have to encourage ongoing education and continued development, especially for leaders, around building a culture that supports inclusivity, allyship and psychological safety. So when issues come up, and they will come up, we have to make sure they are addressed in a timely, thoughtful and respectful manner.   Allison Munro Chief Marketing and Ecosystem Officer at Vena  How can we learn if we are all the same? By creating space for our differences, we can all learn a lot from each other.   A safe place, in my mind, should be safe for all by nature. How you create space for the different ways people show up, their different points of view, ways of expressing ideas and ways of processing information needs to be intentionally fostered. At Vena, we live and breathe by our CORE values. They guide the way we work and enable us to always have something to refer back to. Within these CORE values, working as One Team and having Respect and Authenticity provide a foundation for how we can drive conversation, coach and support those on our teams. In my 20+ years of being in different industries and roles, where I was often the youngest and only woman on a team, it is only now that I can truly say that I am a part of a culture that prioritizes diversity and prioritizes it as a true value-add for the business. It's a culture we are all responsible for nurturing and fostering. Besides, how can we learn if we are all the same? By creating space for our differences, we can all learn a lot from each other. Le Truong Senior Vice President, General Counsel & Corporate Secretary at Vena  As leaders, it's important that we create and help sustain environments in which everyone, and in particular women+, can see themselves, not just accommodated, but as welcomed members who are embraced for their diversity of experience and contribution. As leaders, it's important that we create and help sustain environments in which everyone, and in particular women+, can see themselves, not just accommodated, but as welcomed members who are embraced for their diversity of experience and contribution. This means being really thoughtful about every stage of the employee journey—starting with ensuring that our hiring practices and criteria are inclusive and seek to maximize the diversity of our candidate pool. We can build on this by creating opportunities for women+ to advance and excel after they’ve joined.  For example, through encouragement to take on new challenges and responsibilities or serving as sponsors where interest, ability and opportunity align.   Tune in for the next blog to find out what the women on Vena’s ELT have to say about the challenges that still lie ahead for achieving gender equity. Come grow with us! Vena is hiring. We have offices in Toronto, Canada and in London, England. Visit our Careers page for current job openings or follow us on LinkedIn, Instagram, Twitter or Facebook to learn more about life at Vena.

Do you ever feel inexplicably exhausted at the end of the workday and have no motivation to do anything outside of work?  Do you ever look back at your day and feel like you couldn’t get everything done and had difficulty completing your deliverables?  Do you feel like what you do isn’t enough or you’re starting to fail at your job?  If you identified with any of the above, you’ve likely crossed paths with burnout.  According to this article by the World Health Organization, on burnout as an occupational phenomenon, burnout is in the 11th Revision of the International Classification of Diseases (ICD-11) and is defined as follows:  “A syndrome conceptualized as resulting from chronic workplace stress that has not been successfully managed.” It is characterized by three dimensions: Feelings of energy depletion or exhaustion Increased mental distance from one’s job, or feelings of negativism or cynicism related to one's job Reduced professional efficacy Unfortunately, burnout is not something that just impacts your work life. It deeply impacts your personal life as well. So how do we work towards managing the stress that can come with work and how do we find that work-life balance?    "Burnout is a syndrome conceptualized as resulting from chronic workplace stress that has not been successfully managed." A huge part in achieving work-life balance is recognizing the stressors that impact you individually, but also working with your leader to solve them together. Discover some of the ways the women on Vena’s C-suite team are working with their teams to help them find work-life balance. Find out how in this blog. This week, we asked them: How do you help your team find work-life balance?  Did you know that women make up 60% of Vena's ELT, in comparison to an industry average of 24% representation of women in tech C-suites?                                                                                                                 How Do You Help Your Team Find Work-Life Balance?   Tina Goulbourne Chief Operating Officer at Vena I work with my team to prioritize and focus on doing the most impactful thing rather than everything. I work with my team to prioritize and focus on doing the most impactful thing rather than everything. At times, this means saying “no” to good ideas.  As long as they can achieve their objectives and be responsive to our customers, I give them flexibility around where and when they work to suit their needs. Melissa Howatson Chief Financial Officer at Vena Everyone has peaks and valleys in their schedules, and when you know people are maxed out, it’s helpful to have others lean in when they are less busy.   I encourage well-planned vacation time. If you plan ahead, you can truly log off and disconnect. The individuals covering also won’t be overly stressed because everyone knows what is expected and proper backups are in place.  I also ensure there are balanced workloads across the team. Everyone has peaks and valleys in their schedules, and when you know people are maxed out, it’s helpful to have others lean in when they are less busy.   Debbie Lillitos Chief Customer Officer at Vena Prioritizing the most impactful things that you are there to do is the best way to create a shorter to-do list. Everyone’s tolerance and definition of balance is different and previous working habits are often deeply embedded. For example, those who may neglect time for themselves often require additional reminders that time off is truly going to make them more successful and productive. Whereas, for others, this may not be needed as they’re disciplined about taking time to recharge. It’s really important to know your team members and build an environment of trust so they feel comfortable sharing with you when they are overwhelmed—this way, you will know how to support them accordingly. While working in a fast-growth environment, such as ours, I try to remind  my team when I observe imbalance that there will always be more work and time tomorrow. Prioritizing the most  impactful things that you are there to do is one of the best ways to create a shorter to-do list.  Helping my team establish what those things are or reminding them that there is a hierarchy of impact is important. Considering the impact radius of a task, the consequences of not doing it, and the option of delegation and empowering someone else to do it, creates clarity and space and can help bring more balance at work.   Tracey Mikita Chief People Officer at Vena Take vacation time and truly take yourself offline. Lead by example. This is sometimes easier said than done. I find I easily fall back into “old habits,” but I really try to make this a priority. Take vacation time and truly take yourself offline. Keep communication in the evening and on weekends to a real minimum. If it is not urgent,  schedule it to send during regular work hours.  Furthermore, build strong relationships with your team members. By building psychological safety and trust, your team members are more likely to share when they are finding it difficult to balance their competing priorities. With open and transparent communication you can work together to support them through the challenging times.   Allison Munro Chief Marketing and Ecosystem Officer at Vena  As a leader, people manager and human, I work to see the human in my colleagues and do my best to help them see it too. I’ve always been an advocate for work-life integration. It’s important to recognize that every individual goes about finding this integration differently. The balance is to be found in supporting the individual to be their most authentic self in the way they work, and to create space for what they value in addition to work, into their day to day. If you’re tired, had a late night, feel under the weather, need time to go for a run or play with your puppy, or prioritize a family event, I trust my team to tell me that’s what they need and to act accordingly. If I see they aren’t, for whatever reason, listening to their own bodies or minds, I make sure to create space to ask and encourage the action they need to feel like they can do their best work and live their best lives.  In our line of work, we’re not saving patients, we build software and help create efficiencies and increased productivity in the way people work—and we are united by that mission.  While this is a part of every Venanites’  life, it needs to be balanced with all the other things that make a person who they are. This way, they can experience a full life while bringing their best self to work and face the challenges ahead while doing productive work.    As a leader, people manager and human, I work to see the human in my colleagues and do my best to help them see it too. Le Truong Senior Vice President, General Counsel & Corporate Secretary at Vena  True work-life balance will remain out of reach if we create environments where busyness is a virtue and long hours are celebrated as heroic feats. Our teams look to us for guidance on strategic priorities, cues on what contributions are valued and signals on what behaviors are encouraged. True work-life balance will remain out of reach if we create environments where busyness is a virtue and long hours are celebrated as heroic feats. I think it’s really important that leaders walk the walk.  Telling my team that work-life balance matters, reminding them that our careers are marathons and not sprints and warning them of the dangers of burnout are all great—but ultimately of limited impact if I don’t lead by example. This means unplugging while I’m on vacation, being upfront when I need to be offline for a couple of hours in the middle of the day to go to my daughter’s dance recital, or having to log off early for a doctor’s appointment.  Doing this reinforces to my team that this is not only ok, but expected. Because we are able to bring our best selves to work not in spite of work-life balance, but because of it.   Tune in for the next blog to find out what the women on Vena’s ELT have to say about creating safe workplaces for women+. Come grow with us! Vena is hiring. We have offices in Toronto, Canada and in London, England. Visit our Careers page for current job openings or follow us on LinkedIn, Instagram, Twitter or Facebook to learn more about life at Vena.

The SEC imposes strict laws mandating corporate financial reporting, including the information the CFO reports to the Board of Directors. Financial statements demonstrate to the board that the company complies with federal and state laws, including Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP). CFOs also compare actual figures with their budget regularly to identify potential cash flow problems and ensure the figures add up when presenting them to the Board.  Monthly financial reports serve as a valuable tool for the Board to assess a company's financial condition at a given point in time. They also provide an overall view of how the organization is performing over time. 💡Key Takeaways: Streamline CFO reports with monthly financial reporting templates that enable accountants to submit detailed information on multiple pages or summarize the most business-critical data on one page.  When designing your templates, consider the audience by creating reports that are simple to review and understand. Not all board members will understand accounting terminology.  Incorporate charts and graphs for quickly reviewing data, combine data sets to help viewers gain perspective and do not include unnecessary data, which could confuse some board members.  The CFO has a corporate responsibility to report to the CEO. Best practices for the CFO include developing a strong relationship with the Board to create and define value in the organization's financial records. Monthly Financial Reporting Template The format of monthly financial reports depends on the specific information the Board seeks. CFOs may submit monthly reports with detailed information on multiple pages or summarize the most business-critical data on a single page. Some organizations believe that visual aids, such as graphs and charts, can help board members more easily understand financial data.  The following template shows the standard components of a simple monthly financial report CFOs typically use to present information to the Board (graphs and charts not included):     Source: Earlystagetechboards.com Designing CFO Reports for the Board of Directors Companies need to make sure their business leaders have the information they need to make effective business decisions. So it’s important to deliver this data to the Board as straightforwardly as possible.  Here are some tips for designing a CFO report template for the Board of Directors:  Consider the Audience     Not all board members wear suits, and they don't sit in conference rooms all day waiting for business reports. Many are not knowledgeable about department terminologies.  Consider the demographic of your audience. Best practices encourage the format of financial reports to be simple and easy to comprehend.  Board members will most notably be interested in where the organization's performance changed and why. Histograms, for example, display data in a year-over-year format, giving the Board a clear understanding of long-term trends. Display Information for Easy Viewing Present data in a clear and visually appealing manner so the eye can easily track, interpret and analyze it. Use various column charts, graphs and other visual aids to display data changes over any period and highlight comparisons. Add summaries or comments to explain outliers or other clarifying information to help the Board understand the significance of the data.   Source: Vena Also, combine data sets to provide the Board of Directors with a clear perspective. Include cash in both dollar amounts and as percentages of the company’s total assets. Highlight any accounts receivable fluctuations and provide information pending collections of any debts. You also want to note any financial events the company may need to write off.  Incorporate Only Necessary Data The Board will often specify data they want in the CFO’s report. Ensure financial reports reflect only accurate and relevant data to avoid confusing those reviewing the reports.  Many organizations provide the Board with detailed quarterly or annual reports, with a simplified overview of the monthly reports. However, when reporting monthly figures, it's essential to have the data to answer any questions the Board may have.  Monthly reports will not have this data. However, automating your reporting processes will provide easy access to more detailed information with just a few clicks. Building a Strong Relationship With the Board Whether the CFO sits on the Board or reports to the CEO, they have the primary responsibility of helping board members understand the organization's financial strategy and provide a comprehensive business forecast. One of the best practices for a CFO is to develop a strong relationship with members of the Board to create and define value. Savvy CFOs do this by providing the necessary information to help the Board make strategic decisions. This also increases the board members’ confidence in the CFOs when they can anticipate and address any questions or concerns the Board may have.                                                                                                               Source: YouTube The CFO's role should always strive to provide an objective view of the organization's financial performance and compare it to previous quarters and overall market trends. A CFO's objective vision should also explain what the Board can anticipate for the organization's future and allocate resources accordingly.  Through transparent reporting, the CFO can effectively assist the Board in understanding the company’s weaknesses or strengths, helping the Board make informed decisions about the future of the company. Automate Your Financial Reporting Process With Vena Automation simplifies your reporting process, streamlining monthly, quarterly or annual reporting to the Board. At Vena, we developed an FP&A solution that enables you to work closely with the entire C-suite, stakeholders and the Board of Directors. Our platform provides a secure environment for collecting, storing and delivering financial reports that are easy to read and comprehend.  Vena’s Executive Dashboard places all the data you need to ensure the Board understands the organization's financial position. Integrate that with our free reporting templates and deliver insights to board members with confidence.  Learn more about how savvy CFOs are mastering their reporting process. Read these helpful articles: What Is Financial Reporting? Top 3 Dashboards To Improve Financial Reporting Are You Using the Right Cash Flow Report? Excel at Reporting Stop spending time developing and formatting your reporting templates in Excel. Try Vena today by downloading our ready-to-use template and streamline your financial reporting process.

What’s holding you back from achieving your career goals? Chances are, these same obstacles or challenges once held back the successful women executives of today.  Last week, six women on Vena’s Executive Leadership Team shared the advice they would give their younger selves. Now we want to know, what are some of the success habits that led to their career growth and success? Habit building has positive effects on your individual resilience, both at work and outside of work. As you learn about the habits that have driven the success of our women executives, find inspiration for building your own habits around your desired career path and personal development. Did you know that women make up 60% of Vena’s ELT, in comparison to an industry average of 24% representation of women in tech C-suites? The first step is to envision what you want from your career and to dedicate time to self-reflect on the things that motivate you. Once you have a clear sense of who you want to become and what legacy you want to have in your career, the right habits you need to put in place become more obvious. As James Clear states in his book Atomic Habits, “Every action you take is a vote for the type of person you wish to become.”   “Every action you take is a vote for the type of person you wish to become.”                                                                                                                   —James Clear So what matters most to the women in Vena’s C-suite and how do they build success habits around this focus? Find out how in this blog. This week, we asked them: What are some of your success habits? What Are Some of Your Success Habits?   Tina Goulbourne Chief Operating Officer at Vena Learn from others. Ask questions and seek advice from people you trust. Emulate the behaviors of people you admire. I try to consistently show up at my best in every interaction—always being prepared, doing more than the bare minimum and consistently meeting deadlines.  Almost every job in my career has been a result of a previous impression I made on someone. I try to learn from others. To do this,  ask questions and seek advice from people you trust. Emulate the behaviors of people you admire. And when you can, read a lot.     I also try to take care of myself. To me, that looks like eating well (most of the time), getting seven to eight hours of sleep wherever possible, exercising regularly and enjoying time with family, friends, and my two dogs. Melissa Howatson Chief Financial Officer at Vena Have windows blocked off in your calendar so you can focus on getting stuff done. It’s important to have windows blocked off in your calendar so you can focus on getting stuff done. It’s so easy to get caught up in the constant stream of email, Slack and Zoom meetings so focus time must be protected. I also find regularly maintaining my to-do lists has been a contributor to success—I love marking off items as complete.   Debbie Lillitos Chief Customer Officer at Vena Get to know people, understand them, invest time in relationships and collaborate effectively. Whatever we do, we are more effective when we work well together. Preparation: I make time to prepare and that preparation time is commensurate with how important something is. For me, preparation creates calm and real clarity of purpose which translates into better communication. I reflect on how well (or not) a situation went. I analyze things from multiple angles and ask myself and others what I could have done better or differently to contribute to a better outcome. Doing this routinely has definitely helped me be more effective and grow. Getting to know people, understanding them, investing time in relationships and collaborating effectively has been a really important part of my approach to life. Whatever we do, we are more effective when we work well together.  This is something that’s a constant focus in my work and home life that’s contributed to success and happiness. Taking on more than the average person. If you want to do something special, you have to do something special.  This means being willing to go above and beyond, or to take risks that make you uncomfortable. Discomfort is good. It’s a sign of growing pains, so a success habit for me is challenging myself regularly.   Tracey Mikita Chief People Officer at Vena Don’t forget to take time for yourself—make yourself a priority. Keep yourself organized and prioritize. It’s important to build organizational habits that work for you. e.g. get good at calendaring, prioritize what needs to get done both professionally and personally. It helps to start each day reviewing what you want/need to accomplish and do a retro at the end of the day to understand how things went. While things don’t always go as planned, I believe organization and prioritization together help me navigate more effectively through challenging times. Don’t forget to take time for yourself. This has definitely been a “learned” success habit for me where I’m focusing on the importance of self-care—you can’t be your best self (at work or at home) if you don’t take time to recharge and relax. Figure out what works for you and then make that a habit to build into your life. It may be as simple as a daily walk, some meditation or ending the day by reading something you enjoy.  Just make yourself a priority.   Allison Munro Chief Marketing and Ecosystem Officer at Vena  Keep an open mind and be curious over being opinionated, while leaning into the unknown versus status quo. Foundationally, I practice self-care as time with myself and in nature before I give time to others. When my son was young, even though I am not a morning person,I would wake up 20 minutes before he did to fuel my mind and body with what served me, whether that was music, stillness or a slow shower. Now, when I have more personal time as he’s older, it means a walk or run with my dog in the morning in nature with my favorite source of inspiration in my Airpods, which allows me to give to myself before I give to others. When it comes to the way I work, I always try to remain curious about what I think I know and what I want to learn. This includes how I can learn more about what I don’t need to know, but would enable me to empathize and align to the needs of others. Keep an open mind and be curious over being opinionated, while leaning into the unknown versus the status quo.  Le Truong Senior Vice President, General Counsel & Corporate Secretary at Vena  Get comfortable with likely never getting to the bottom of the to-do list. And let go of any guilt that comes with that. I don’t believe there’s a one-size-fits-all approach that works for everyone or even one that always works for any one person. Like with all things, context matters and the ability to flex is probably the most important habit of them all. That said, I’ve come to believe that for me, it comes down to a fairly simple idea: doing the right things well enough.  It’s straightforward in concept, but consistent execution is the hard part. What it requires is being really clear about what matters and why. Everything else will distract and detract. This means getting comfortable with likely never getting to the bottom of the to-do list. And letting go of any guilt that comes with that.   While calling the right plays to maximize impact is important, so is applying the right level of effort and attention. Mission-critical, bet-the-company projects that have little or no margin for error will require a different level of focus. Others won’t. Successful people know the difference.   Tune in for the next blog to find out what the women on Vena’s ELT have to say about helping teams find work-life balance. Come grow with us! Vena is hiring. We have offices in Toronto, Canada and in London, England. Visit our Careers page for current job openings or follow us on LinkedIn, Instagram, Twitter or Facebook to learn more about life at Vena.

This is the fourth and final installment in a series of blog posts based on Vena’s ongoing “Women in Finance” video series. Each post corresponds with a different interview with a woman in financial leadership.  Watch Episode 4 below.   When Larysa Melnychuk was 17, still living in her native Ukraine, she decided to pursue an education in physics. Looking back now, though, she thinks she was always destined to end up on her current path, in financial planning and analysis (FP&A). “I started [my studies in] physics of materials for six years. It’s a numerical discipline,” Larysa says. “And then, when a lot of things started to happen in the former Soviet Union in Ukraine where I lived, there were amazing opportunities to study economical disciplines: management and marketing and finance.” She ended up becoming a business trainer, worked for the first investment fund in Ukraine and was a teacher of organizational behavior for an American MBA program. And all of that experience led her to the United Kingdom, where she became a British-qualified accountant—and began actively pursuing a career in FP&A.  It was her love of finance and curiosity around FP&A’s constant evolution that in turn led her to found her own company, the FP&A Trends Group, nine years ago. She’s currently the CEO, as well as Managing Director of the International FP&A Board. “I knew it was my mission to look at the latest trends and developments in modern FP&A, to understand what are the best practices and to set the trends with so many people around the globe,” Larysa says. She was interviewed by Wendy Braithwaite, Chief Financial Planning & Orchestration Officer at Microsoft Canada, for Vena’s fourth Women in Finance video, “Navigating the Future of Finance.” And as someone who studies FP&A and its evolving trends for a living, Larysa understands the roles that are shaping finance today—and those that will continue to reshape it in the future. They’re the five roles that those starting out in modern finance will follow to financial leadership success.  Let’s look at each of them—and how to turn them into leadership success. 💡Key Takeaways: Five roles—both new and familiar—promise to reshape the future of finance. On the technical side, the analyst will continue to be critical, while the FP&A data scientist and FP&A architect will help bridge the gaps between finance and other roles. On the soft skills side, the storyteller will play a key role in the finance team, helping to build narratives around financial analysis and planning. Meanwhile, the influencer will help get the rest of the organization on board. To follow these roles into future leadership success, finance professionals should consider whether they want to build an “I-shaped,” “T-shaped” or “X-shaped” career to shape their progression and ongoing success. The Future of the Finance Career “There are, generally speaking from our research, five top FP&A roles,” Larysa says. “There are three technical [roles) and also two soft [roles].” Together, these roles promise to reshape the future of finance and build FP&A’s position as a strategic business partner integral to every organization. A mix of new and old, these are the positions Larysa and her team identified: 1. The Analyst The first role is one you’re probably already well familiar with. “[It] is our classical one. Analyst. And it's something that is easy for us because if you are an accountant, if you are a finance FP&A professional, you are an analyst,” Larysa says. Analysts are the backbone of corporate FP&A now and promise to continue to be the same in the future of finance. Because—unlike traditional accountants—they’re forward thinkers. That means they don’t just look back at past performance, but analyze your business data, track its financials and forecast the future. In doing so, they drive budgeting, lead planning and determine the key metrics that judge performance—all of which fuel organizational direction and business goals.   2. The FP&A Data Scientist “[The] emerging roles that are happening at the moment are multifunctional roles—they’re in between different functions,” Larysa says. “What we really need at the moment, because the quality of the data continues to be one of the biggest problems, are those bridges between the data science world—people that are specializing in data—and finance. The problem that exists at the moment is that they speak different languages and they’re not connected with each other.” That’s where the FP&A data scientist fits in. A specialized role, it’s “not a classical data scientist with a university degree in data science,” Laryssa says. Rather, this is someone who can bring a better understanding to the data through a finance lens, ensuring that you’re using the best data and properly filling the holes that exist in your ongoing planning. In doing so, they’re able to enable better financial insights overall.  For organizations looking to stay competitive and agile in today’s market—and finance teams that want to be strong business partners—that’s a critical skill to have. Data, after all, will only continue to play more and more of a role even as finance evolves. 3. The FP&A Architect Next up? The FP&A architect. “This is the bridge between finance and IT. But not only this. It’s also modeling, and it’s also understanding the infrastructure of different systems or ecosystems that are required for FP&A.” The FP&A architect empowers finance departments to take full advantage of the technology on offer, including analytics platforms and driver-based planning models. With the right person driving them, these technologies can help teams identify new trends, build out more accurate forecasts and stay agile to market changes.  This is critical for organizations looking to stay competitive as the market continues to evolve. And they’ll be even more of an advantage in the future, as the use of technology continues to grow and machine learning, artificial intelligence and other emerging technologies start to play an even bigger role. 4. The Storyteller While the last three positions were more technical, soft skills will be just as important in the future finance team. And that’s where the storyteller comes in. The storyteller already drives FP&A’s strategic business partnering and will continue to play a growing role in how finance partners interact with the rest of the business and influence strategic planning overall.  That’s because storytellers take the data that finance relies on and communicate it to leadership and the rest of the organization in a way that makes it easy to digest and understand. The best ones out there know how to apply the elements of good storytelling to communicate finance’s message powerfully even to non-financial employees. Technology like data visualization helps. And while this is a critical skill today, it will continue to be even more so in the future, as businesses rely on FP&A more and more to provide a story that every department can get behind.  5. The Influencer Another soft skill that will become more and more important in the future is the influencer. The influencer helps guide the direction of the business, working with leadership to build toward change and present new opportunities for revenue growth.  But that kind of influence needs to be earned, and the influencer requires a range of soft skills to build the respect they need to do that. That includes communication and collaboration, problem solving and empathy. Those kinds of skills, and the relationships the influencers develop with them, will help them better understand the needs of the business so that they can start to recognize what it requires to thrive. How To Build Your Skills Into Leadership Success If these are the roles that will drive FP&A in the future, then it makes sense for young finance professionals to begin developing these specialized skills now. But depending on the role you choose to pursue and the industry or business you work in, excelling within your finance team—and following that success to leadership positions—might take a little extra too. So if that’s what you’re hoping to do, consider whether you want to develop an “I-shaped,” “T-shaped” or “X-shaped” set of skills.  The I-Shaped Individual Think about the way an “I” is shaped and you’ll have an idea what drives I-shaped individuals. These are team members focused on developing skills in one single area of interest. And that focus means they’re able to build a depth of knowledge and experience that stands out. This kind of specialized skill set will be necessary, especially if you want to excel in any of the three technical roles above and become a subject-matter expert. But to truly build your leadership potential, you often need knowledge that expands across disciplines too—so you might want to consider adding to that skill set. That’s where T-shaped skill development comes in.  The T-Shaped Individual The T-shaped individual still has that depth of knowledge in a specific area—think about the vertical line at the base of a “T,” which looks very similar to an “I.” But there’s a little something else as well. Those could be soft skills—communication and collaboration skills, for instance, are very valuable when they’re added to a more technical base. But a storyteller with some of the data skills of an FP&A data scientist could also be incredibly valuable to a finance team. The X-Shaped Individual The X-shaped employee has developed skills in a variety of areas, which means they can easily move from one part of the finance team—or the business as a whole—to another. They also usually have the soft skills needed to bring people together from throughout the organization, to collaborate and get consensus on organizational plans. In other words, they are well-rounded. And that’s a position that seems well-suited to roles such as the influencer, which depends on that ability to move around seamlessly from one area of the organization to another. It’s also useful for a finance leader, who benefits from a clear understanding of each role on the finance team—and the organization as a whole. Mapping Your Future in Finance So what path will you pursue towards finance success? And how will you follow the future of finance toward a position you excel in? No matter the role you choose—and whether you hope to develop an I-shaped, T-shaped or X-shaped set of skills—the truth is, finance is always evolving. And you’ll need to evolve with it if you plan to stay on the leadership track But if you do, you can help reshape the future of finance too—just like Larysa has. Want to learn more? Watch Vena’s newest Women in Finance video, "Navigating the Future of Finance" with Larysa Melnychuk, Founder and CEO of the FP&A Trends Group and Managing Director of the International FP&A Board.

This is the third installment in a series of blog posts based on Vena’s ongoing “Women in Finance” video series. Each post corresponds with a different interview with a woman in financial leadership. Watch Episode 3 below.   For Muneerah Kanji, the definition of good work-life balance comes down to one thing: having enough time for all of the important things in your life.  Over the years, Muneerah’s ability to actually accomplish that, though, has been a little hit or miss. “It’s never perfect. Work-life balance is not 50% here, 50% there—it’s a sliding scale,” she says. “Some days you devote more time to work, some days you devote more time to family. But as long as you have that flexibility, you have that even-keel balance.” By taking that approach, Vena’s Vice President of Finance has been able to find her way to the top echelons of finance success—all while raising a family of her own.  It hasn’t been a direct path, though. In fact, she pursued a career in pharmacology and toxicology before even deciding to pursue her MBA and CPA designation. She’s worked across industries since, and over that trajectory, she’s learned a few things about establishing boundaries and building positive work-life balance. Muneerah shared those experiences in Vena’s third Women in Finance video, Finding Work-Life Balance in the Hybrid Workplace. And during the interview with Wendy Braithwaite, Chief Financial Planning & Orchestration Officer at Microsoft Canada, she offered some tips on achieving better work-life balance.   Let’s take a look at some of the benefits of setting boundaries and achieving positive work-life balance first. Then we’ll see what advice Muneerah offers on how to achieve that balance while still building towards your leadership goals. 💡Key Takeaways: Setting boundaries and establishing good work-life balance can have a positive impact on long-term career success, helping keep burnout at bay, teaching you to communicate your needs and instilling the traits of good leadership early on. Establishing work-life balance isn’t always easy—especially early in your career. Being more intentional with your home life, by making plans and keeping to them, can help, as can staying mentally present wherever you are. Also important is learning how to say no when things get to be too much, finding a flexible workplace that prioritizes work-life balance and taking the long view of your career so that you’re not trying to take on everything at once. The Impact of Setting Good Boundaries So why is good work-life balance even important? If you’re starting out your career and are eager for leadership opportunities, why worry about building that balance into your career?  The truth is, learning how to set good boundaries early on can help you throughout the trajectory of your career, and actually benefit your leadership ambitions. And there are several reasons why. Here are three: 1. The Threat of Burnout Is Real You may think you can do everything. You may even think you have to do everything if you want to get noticed and make your goals a reality. But a lack of work-life balance can quickly lead to burnout, especially when you’re in a workplace where you don’t feel supported. Establishing boundaries early on—and finding a workplace that honors those boundaries—will go a long way in ensuring you don’t burn out before you even get a chance to shine. 2. You’re Learning To Communicate Your Needs As your life progresses, your needs will change and the boundaries you set in the workplace will have to change with it—becoming more flexible or rigid depending on your life circumstances. Whether you’re starting a family, experiencing mental or physical health challenges or going through a personal or family crisis, work won’t always be the most important thing in your life. Learning early on how to set boundaries and communicate your needs will prepare you for when it’s not, ensuring you always have the work-life balance you need to stay on top of work and life—no matter what. 3. The Best Leaders Lead by Example The best leaders understand what it takes to build both a productive and happy team. And they know that’s not going to happen if everyone is on the brink of burnout. So helping everyone set their own boundaries is simply part of being a good leader. But so is showing them how to do it by leading through example. Learning how to set boundaries early on, then, will let you achieve better work-life balance when you do achieve those leadership goals you’re looking for—empowering you to become the leader your future team deserves. 5 Tips for Establishing Better Work-Life Balance But the question is, how do you establish those boundaries—and good work-life balance in general—while still demonstrating to your managers that you’re the right fit for leadership opportunities? All while also building the skills you need to make those goals a reality. In her interview, Muneerah offered some tips leaders-in-the-making can use to put that work-life balance in place: 1. Be More Intentional About Taking Time for You It can be easy to forget about work-life balance if work is the only thing you have in your calendar. And that’s how burnout happens. So one of the keys to finding balance is to intentionally put aside time for your own life. This is especially important in the new remote and hybrid work environments, Muneerah adds, where work and life are both happening in the same space. “For me, we’ve started doing date nights—dates with family, with friends, my kids and with my spouse,” she says. “I think that’s important. [As is] taking family vacations. Part of the joy is planning ahead so that you can have something to look forward to, then taking that time.” 2. Stay “Present,” No Matter Where You Are Of course, when you do take that time for yourself, it’s just as important that you’re able to enjoy it—and use it to focus on yourself and the people around you. That means staying present in the moment—whether you’re on a family vacation or taking care of a new baby—rather than splitting your focus with thoughts of work. “Make sure you’re there, as opposed to not, and not letting that attention wander,” Muneerah says. “As humans, we have to be self-aware enough to not feel guilty that we’re taking that time. That is your time and make sure you prioritize it.” Of course, sometimes that’s easier said than done—and there will be times when you’re going to fail. But by trying, you’ll not only be able to share more meaningful memories with the people in your life, but you’ll be rejuvenated when it’s time for work as well. That means you’ll be better able to put your full self into your work goals too. 3. Learn How To Say No When you’re first starting out but have big ambitions going forward, it can be easy to get into the habit of saying yes to everything. This can set unreal expectations, though, on the amount of work you’re able to take on. And that’s not fair to future you, who’s likely to burn out. That’s why it’s important to learn how to say no. Saying “no” doesn’t have to be confrontational, either. It just means learning to communicate with your managers so that they understand your limits, as well as your goals—and prioritizing your opportunities around those. “For me, the keys to successful work-life balance are, first, the ability to prioritize and create boundaries [and], I think, open communication with your leader and your team about your requirements,” Muneerah says. 4. Find a Flexible Workplace In our last Women in Finance post, we talked about the importance of finding a workplace that supports you along your leadership journey. That’s true when it comes to work-life balance, as well. It’s easier to balance boundaries with leadership ambitions when you find a workplace that supports both. A flexible workplace and a culture that supports their employees’ home lives can go a long way in avoiding burnout and staying on track.  “It's the culture of the company that you're in—the way your leader is and what their expectations are,” Muneerah says. “If they have unrealistic expectations, unrealistic priorities or deadlines that you cannot really meet, that causes that imbalance to happen.” 5. Take a Longer View Finally, don’t be afraid of saying no or speaking out for fear of missing out on a project or other opportunity. Because there are other projects and opportunities waiting around the bend.  “Your career journey is a marathon, it’s not a sprint,” Muneerah says. “Things will come, and as long as you are following your heart and following your priorities, things will happen as they should.” By taking the long view, you can pursue the opportunities that best fit your goals, workload and current availability—as opposed to every opportunity that’s put in front of you. And by doing that, you can still have time left for other things—including family and home life. Conclusion The world of finance is competitive. We know that. But you still shouldn’t have to sacrifice your life and mental well-being for your work goals. A positive work-life balance and the right set of boundaries will help you stay on the leadership track—with a focus on the long term—without burning you out along the way.  And that’s going to help you become a better leader once you get there. The full "Finding Work-Life Balance in the Hybrid Workplace" video is now available, featuring an interview with Vena Vice President of Finance Muneerah Kanji. And stay tuned for the next interview, with Larysa Melnychuk, Founder and CEO of the FP&A Trends Group and Managing Director of the International FP&A Board. It’s scheduled for release March 29, 2023.