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.

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. 

This is the second 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 finance leadership. Watch Episode 2 below.   Melissa Howatson didn’t always know she wanted to be a CFO. While today Melissa is Vena’s Chief Financial Officer, there was a time when she thought she might take a completely different path.  In recognition of Women’s History Month, Melissa spoke to Wendy Braithwaite, Chief Financial Planning & Orchestration Officer at Microsoft Canada, for Vena’s second Women in Finance video, “Harnessing Your Finance Leadership Potential.” There, she explained how she shifted into finance very early on. “I actually did a co-op in teaching when I was in high school,” she says. “And then I did one in accounting and I was really torn. I didn’t know which way to go. I’m very happy the journey’s taken me down this path.” After high school and university were over, Melissa’s path took her from senior accountant at KPMG on through increasingly bigger leadership roles. But her journey is just one journey. Every financial leader follows a different path to get them where they are. And if your dream is to be a CFO one day too, so will you—following the opportunities that come your way and chasing your own unique leadership goals.  Still, there are some key pieces of advice every young financial professional with leadership dreams can follow to keep on track for future CFO success. 💡Key Takeaways: The path to CFO starts with a relevant education and certifications that will assist you on your journey—which might simply mean a bachelor’s in finance, but could also include additional education such as a master’s degree and/or CPA credentials. To put yourself on the leadership track, you need to ask for opportunities that will get you noticed—whether that means asking for a chance to lead projects, for feedback along the way or for additional opportunities to set yourself apart. Don’t wait to develop the skills you need for a CFO position. Take a look at what your favorite finance leaders bring to the table and start developing those skills early on—including both technical and soft skills. And find mentors that will point you in the right direction. The Path to CFO and Five Tips To Get You There You have to start somewhere. And if becoming a CFO is your ultimate goal, that means putting together the right list of credentials to get you there. That starts with an appropriate education and any additional certifications you think will help. A bachelor’s degree related to finance or business might be enough, but you could also pursue a master’s degree and/or CPA qualifications as well. After that, it’s all about gaining the requisite experience you need and working your way up the leadership track. Ultimately, it’s a combination of education, experience and best practices that will set you apart. Along the way, there are a few tips you can follow to stay on track with your leadership goals. In her interview, Melissa offered these five: 1. Ask for Feedback Asking for feedback serves multiple purposes. Not only does it help you learn from your colleagues, mentors and leadership team—giving you a better frame of reference to fix any mistakes or to make improvements you might not have noticed yourself—but it shows you have a willingness to learn as well. And that’s an important trait to have if you’re hoping to tackle a CFO position one day.  But asking for feedback “can be scary sometimes,” Melissa says.  So how do you find the courage to ask for the feedback you know will make you better—while also staying open to possible criticism too? One way is to be specific. Asking specific questions in specific situations can help guide the feedback and keep any criticisms situational rather than soul-crushing. “It's lower stakes feedback,” Melissa says. “[Such as] ‘What could I have done better?’ or ‘Tell me where I went wrong?’”  By asking those types of questions regularly of the people you admire, you can start applying that feedback to your job and ongoing projects—and put yourself in a stronger position for promotions and future career growth. 2. Lead From the Side Even if you aren’t yet in a leadership position, you can still gain leadership experience. Just try “leading from the side,” Melissa says. “It can be ‘There's a project and can I be on this and take on a bit more of a leadership role?’” she explains. “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 and build soft skills such as communication, listening and empathy. Plus, you can start to figure out where you excel and what you still need to work on (in fact, it may be a good time to ask for feedback!).  That’s the kind of work that gets noticed—putting you on the leadership track. 3. Seek Out New Opportunities The common thread between the last two suggestions? They both started with asking. Because you can’t always wait for opportunities to come to you. Sometimes you have to ask for them. “If you asked me earlier [in my career] about things I would do differently, that's something that I would've done differently,” Melissa says. “I think I waited for leadership to happen to me. In hindsight, I would have been more proactive. So 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.” Asking can come in different forms: applying for promotions and new jobs you think will help you get ahead, for example, or asking your leadership team for the chance to get involved in new projects that will expand your skill set. Whatever the case, the idea is to round out your abilities and make yourself a better leader overall. Which brings us to our next two suggestions. 4. Build the Skills That Matter The best leaders have a range of skills they can draw on—including both the technical skills required in their industry as well as non-technical, soft skills such as decision making, communication and collaboration.  While the skills that matter will vary depending on the path you choose to follow, identifying those skills early will help you develop and build on them throughout your career. To figure out what skills you need, look at the leaders around you and where they excel, and examine the skills that make your colleagues or managers stand out.  By adding more tools to your own toolbox, you’ll make yourself the obvious choice when the next leadership role opens up. 5. Get Help Along the Way We talked about the importance of mentors in our last Women in Finance blog post, and Melissa reiterates the need for them as you build a career that will take you into leadership circles.   “Mentorship has been so key to helping me get where I am and having those places where you can go and bounce ideas off or get feedback from others,” she says. “And so I'd encourage anybody who's looking to move into leadership to look for some strong mentors.” To find the right mentor, go in with a specific goal in mind. For example, are you looking for industry-related help, seeking out gender-based advice or trying to find assistance getting over specific obstacles in your way? Knowing what you want and where you need assistance will help you choose the best mentorship fit from your professional network.  And if you’re a woman, that doesn’t necessarily mean you need to find another woman to take on that role. “I've had some amazing male mentorship as well,” Melissa says. Conclusion If you're a finance professional with ambitions to make it to the highest ranks of financial leadership, it’s never too early to start your journey. By putting the right skills, learning and best practices into place—and working on your leadership abilities—you can get yourself onto the leadership track.  From there, it’s just about having the confidence to know you can make your goals come true. Want to learn more? Watch Vena’s newest Women in Finance video, "Harnessing Your Finance Leadership Potential" with Vena CFO Melissa Howatson. The next interview, with Vena’s Vice President of Finance, Muneerah Kanji, is scheduled to be released March 22, 2023.

This is the first 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 finance leadership. Watch Episode 1 below.   A young Christine Harms was working in a restaurant when she first decided to pursue a career in finance. Early on in her college experience, the current Controller for the Arizona Cardinals had rejected her initial studies in electrical engineering, deciding it wasn’t for her. But she didn’t have a back-up plan either. “I went home and ran a restaurant. Or helped to run a restaurant,” she remembers. “And the owners were like, ‘You know, you're really good with accounting. You're doing all the headcount, you're doing all the payroll, you're doing all the bills, you're doing all of this—you should be an accountant.’ And I took that to heart and I researched it and said, ‘Okay, I'm gonna be an accountant.’” That was just the start of the journey that brought her to her current role. But there was a jagged path in between—including a period spent working in nonprofits, time off to start a family and some decisions that felt risky at the time. But for Harms, it was her mother—a first-generation immigrant turned small business owner—who inspired her at every step along the way.  “She's now in her seventies and she's very successful,” Christine says. “She taught my brother and me, ‘Do what you're good at and enjoy what you're good at. And you can do everything you want to do, you just have to learn it.’” While that might have been the case for Christine, though, is it still true for women today making their way up in finance? And how does the newest generation of female finance professionals navigate their own path to the top echelons of finance success? Christine spoke to Wendy Braithwaite, Chief Financial Planning & Orchestration Officer for Microsoft Canada, for “Building a Successful Career in Corporate Finance,” the first of Vena’s Women in Finance video series. There, she offered some words of advice for young women starting their own careers in finance today. 💡Key Takeaways: While women are gradually taking on more financial leadership positions, the balance of top-level finance jobs are still held by men—and there are still challenges in the way for women looking to make it to the top. The reason women aren’t making it to the top in greater numbers is multifold. Not only are they missing out on promotions early on in their career, but inadequate work-life balance is burning them out and a fear of failure and a seeming lack of mentorship opportunities are holding them back. To help build a clearer path to leadership roles, women need to get over their fear of failure, while finding a company that supports them, asking for the mentorship opportunities they need and pursuing a path they love—taking informed risks along the way. Why Aren’t Enough Women Making It to the Top? Before we look at Christine’s advice, let’s examine the state of women in finance today. Are they making it to leadership positions—and if not, why not? The truth is, while a similar percentage of women and men enter finance, women still aren’t making it to the top in the same numbers as their male counterparts. In financial services as a whole, women make up just 19% of C-suite positions throughout the United States. That’s even lower than the 22% average across industries. While the good news is that there are more female CFOs than ever before, the ratios are still widely uneven. And even today there are still a range of challenges getting in the way. These are just a few: 1. The “Broken Rung” If women and men are entering the financial services workforce in near equal numbers, but very few are making it to those top-tier positions, something must be happening along the way. And part of that is just a numbers game. Because the truth is, women are less likely to get promoted early on in their career—from entry positions into managerial roles. And that means they’re less likely to find themselves in a position later on to reach senior leadership too. “Within financial services, only 86 women are promoted to manager for every 100 men,” McKinsey and LeanIn.Org revealed in their 2021 Women in the Workplace report. In fact, they found that that’s pretty much the standard across industries. That “broken rung” early on in the career ladder presents systemic challenges that make it harder for women to make it to the top. 2. A Lack of Mentors The right mentors can help guide you—pointing you toward career-enhancing opportunities and becoming a sounding board for decisions along the way. In that role, they can be key to your professional growth and embolden you with the confidence you need to excel. Yet research shows that 63% of women haven’t had a formal mentor—even though 67% rate it as highly important for the advancement of their career. Of course, many women seek out other women when they look for mentors so the fact that there are fewer women in leadership roles can make it seem like there are fewer mentors to choose from. Yet, it’s also the case that female leaders simply aren’t being asked. In fact, 54% of women in leadership positions have only been asked a few times or less to be a work mentor, while 20% have never been asked at all. This despite the fact that 71% of those leaders say they always accept mentorship requests. 3. Inadequate Work-Life Balance Even today, women still spend more time on household responsibilities than men. This is true in every country around the world and is the case whether a woman works full time or not. In fact, research has shown that while women spend more time on “family activities” compared to men, they spend the same amount of time on “work activities.” Not surprisingly, then, work-life balance can be a struggle. That struggle to find a balance can lead to a higher risk of burnout and lower productivity overall. Both of which can affect a woman’s performance, damage her review scores and negatively impact her overall career trajectory—making top-level success harder to achieve. 4. Fear of Failure “Failure isn’t the opposite of success, it’s part of success,” Arianna Huffington once said. But fear of failure can often get in the way of actually achieving that success. This is true for anyone, but can especially be the case for women, who often feel a pressure to be perfect, something they’re taught from a young age. A global study of female students, published in 2021, found that this fear was particularly prevalent among high achievers. The study pointed to that fear-of-failure gender gap as one of the reasons women are underrepresented in certain occupations. Fear of failure—and an overall lack of confidence—can be a real obstacle, then, for women trying to get to the top. Not only because failure can be a learning experience that can make us better leaders, but because that fear can make us give up on those bigger dreams before we even have a chance to realize them. Advice for Future Female Finance Leaders Of course, those aren’t the only challenges women face in the workplace today. There are still biases that pervade many workplaces that can also get in the way when it comes to getting ahead. Despite those challenges, though, women entering the finance field today also have a wealth of opportunities available to build the type of career that will make those leadership roles possible. And with more female CFOs than ever before, the trajectory is clearer than it once was. So what can the next generation of female finance professionals do to put themselves on the fast track towards top-level success? Here are a few pieces of advice: 1. Find a Path You Love “I love numbers,” Christine Harms says. But when she first started her education in accounting, it still took her some time to find the best place to apply that love of numbers to her future career.  “I had never in my life received a C in any class and my very first accounting class was a C and I thought, what have I done?” she remembers. “But it got a little easier and I got a B. Then I went into managerial accounting. And I think that the different approach of financial accounting and managerial accounting is what tipped the scale for me.”   Of course, university isn’t the only opportunity to switch gears and find a new path that works for you. You’ll have those opportunities throughout your career, as you follow different career trajectories and explore different positions. And when you do, it’ll be easier to find the path you love and excel in.  “There are so many different areas of finance, honestly, that you can find your niche in what you find intriguing, interesting, fun. And it's not really a career once you find that point,” Christine says. “It's like doing what you love to do every day.” 2. Find a Company That Supports You Positive work-life balance is possible. And it’s even more possible at a company that does what it can to support it. You just need to find the right workplace. That might mean seeking out a company that offers flexible working hours that let you easily juggle things like childcare and family appointments as well as work. It may mean choosing to work with companies that provide mental health benefits or have a culture that recognizes your overall accomplishments, not just the hours you spend behind a desk. But most of all, it means finding a company that actually cares about your overall well-being and career progression—and will support you in your journey. Because when you find those companies, charting out a path to a successful career can be as easy as asking for it. “Your job and the people you work with, you have to let them in—to tell them ‘This is what I want and this is what I'm going to work for,’” Christine says. “‘And I'm going to do the best job I can for you, but these are also the things that I desire.’” 3. Ask for Mentorship Opportunities Research shows that men are more likely than women to seek out mentorship opportunities—as well as to offer them. But there’s an easy solution.  By seeking out and asking for the mentorship opportunities you want, you can start to reap the benefits the right mentor can offer. As we saw earlier, 71% of female leaders say they always accept work mentorship requests. And if you approach someone who, for whatever reason, doesn’t accept your request? Well, that doesn’t mean you need to stop looking for someone who will. Someone like Christine, for instance, who loves being a mentor. “Being an advocate and mentoring career growth not only makes me feel good, but it makes my team members feel good and it teaches them more,” she says. “I think the biggest motivator for me is being able to share my knowledge, to share my understanding of what I can help someone else with in their career.” 4. Take Informed Risks “Don't be afraid of change,” Christine says. In fact, taking calculated risks is often what it takes to get ahead.  Yet women have long been seen as more risk avoidant than men in the workplace—probably at least in part because of that aforementioned fear of failure. But 2022 research in the Psychology of Women Quarterly also shows that their risk taking isn’t always met with the same positive response as that of their male counterparts.  Does that mean women should avoid risks altogether? No. But you should embrace workplaces that will reward those risks—whether they’re made by a man or a woman. And while you can learn which risks will get the best response, you shouldn’t let roadblocks along the way stop you from taking more. Take applying for a job, for example. Women apply to 20% fewer jobs than men—in part because they feel like they need to meet 100% of a job’s criteria to be considered. Men, on the other hand, will apply after meeting only 60% of the requirements. Taking a risk, and applying for that job anyway, could go a long way to helping you realize your goals. 5. Face Your Fears “There’s nothing in the world that anyone can’t do if they would just put their mind to it,” Christine says.  But that doesn’t mean your goals are going to come easy—and that there won’t be failures along the way. And being afraid of that failure before it happens isn’t going to help you achieve your goals. In fact, by accepting the fact that you will fail at some point, and understanding exactly what it is that has you so scared, you can start to face your fears and get past them—so that they don’t get in the way of your success. "Fearlessness is a muscle,” Arianna Huffington said. And like all muscles, it takes some exercise to develop. The Next Generation of Finance Somewhere out there, the next generation of female finance leaders is already forging their way to top-level success. While you may not know yet what the future has in store, you have the goals to get you there. And that’s where it starts. Finding the path that will make those goals a reality is the next part. Thankfully there are female finance leaders—Christine Harms, for example—to provide inspiration along the way. Watch the entire Building a Successful Career in Corporate Finance video, featuring an interview with Christine Harms. And stay tuned for the next interview, with Vena CFO Melissa Howatson, scheduled for release March 15, 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 loss and so on. Jobs were done in a silo, and finance professionals stayed in their lane—poring over manual spreadsheets, making sure the numbers were good.  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 as their role has grown, finance leaders have become important strategic finance business partners—leading their organizations to successfully meet their business objectives. Today’s Finance Leaders Are Helping Their Organizations Become More Agile in the Face of Ongoing Change In our third annual benchmark survey, The State of Strategic Finance: Industry Benchmark Report 2022, we surveyed 132 business leaders and finance and operations professionals coming from organizations across a range of industries. We asked them about strategic planning, risk assessment, relationships, the three elements of the foundational framework for success—people, processes and technology—and more. In the following infographic, discover how this year's survey respondents are working to become better strategic finance business partners and what they’re prioritizing as they aim to make an even greater impact in the future.      2022 Industry Benchmark Report The State of Strategic Finance What role have finance teams played amid the turbulence of 2022? How are they positioning themselves for the next uncertainty? Find out in Vena’s latest Industry Benchmark Report. Download the Insights

You need to come to an agreement on a business deal. Lead your team through an acquisition or merger. Maybe you want to get your leadership team or department heads to sign off on new strategic goals or a fresh budget. Or one of the team members you lead is requesting a pay raise. Whatever your current scenario, it’s clear you need strong negotiation skills to see it through. That’s not surprising. Today, negotiation is almost as much a part of finance as are proficiency with numbers or strong analytical skills. And as finance takes on more of the role of strategic business partner, those negotiation skills are becoming even more valuable. It’ll often be up to you to build a foundation of support among your business leaders for the strategy and goals you’re advocating for, to reach an agreement with investors, customers and your own team members. And those negotiations aren’t always going to start with an automatic “yes.” So whether you’re a naturally skilled “people person” or tend to shy away from all forms of confrontation, you’ll need to hone your negotiation skills and learn how to apply them to every situation. Need some help in becoming a skilled negotiator? Here are six tips to get you started. 1. Always Start Prepared Whether negotiating is your cup of tea or something you dread like a morning without your daily dose of coffee, it’s not going to go down well without proper preparation. Long story short: You’re setting yourself up for failure if you don’t prepare. And preparing for a negotiation starts with knowing who you’re negotiating with. Is it an investor, part of the leadership team or another department head? A board member, supplier or customer? More than that, who has the decision-making power on the other side of the negotiation equation? Once you know all of that, preparing means trying to understand what all of the parties are after from the negotiations underway. And that includes your own goals. What are you trying to achieve? What are you willing to concede? And what can’t you walk away without? Before you even start, write down all of the details you need to discuss and find agreement on so that you don’t miss anything during the process. In his recent keynote presentation at Excelerate =SUM(it) 2022, “The Art of Negotiation,” Chris Voss—former FBI Lead Hostage Negotiator and CEO and Founder of The Black Swan Group—took it one step further. Preparation, he explained, 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,” he said.  A skilled negotiator starts every negotiation from a place of preparation, then. It puts you in a better position in more ways than one, to get more from the negotiation you’re about to begin. 2. 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 our closest friends, though, so building relationships throughout the negotiation 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 towards 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,” Cialdini said. In a negotiation, then, being empathetic and a good listener are key. They help 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 if it arises. “Focusing on influence and long-term business relationships is productive and profitable for both sides, long term,” Voss added. 3. Don’t Get Lost in the 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,” Voss said. 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,” Voss 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. Modern Finance Skills Watch “The FP&A Guy” Paul Barnhurst’s Excelerate =SUM(it) 2022 session, Contemporary Skills for Strategic Finance Professionals, on Plan To Grow to learn more about the skills needed in today’s FP&A. 4. Remember the Power of Compromise Building the critical relationships that help power negotiations, and recognizing the emotions in play, make it easier to understand and empathize with the points of view of the other side of your negotiation. And that’s a plus when it comes to another important part of all negotiations—compromise. Whether relationships already exist, or if you’re in the process of building them, it’s important to listen to what the other person says and to understand what they’re trying to achieve from the negotiation in progress. More than that, try to put yourself in their shoes so  you can understand why those goals are important to them. And sometimes finding out is just a matter of asking. “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,’” Voss suggested “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 don’t forget that list of “must haves” you put together during the planning phase. It isn’t a successful negotiation if you find yourself conceding on everything—especially those elements most important to you and what you’re hoping to achieve. Remembering—and understanding—all sides of the negotiation will help you reach a compromise all parties can get behind in the end. But it will also help you understand when to walk away—because the most skilled negotiators also know when no one is going to get what they want. 5. Understand That “Winning” Isn’t Everything If you go into a negotiation like it’s a game—where there’s a “winner” and a “loser”—the kind of compromise we talked about above won’t be possible. But more than that, you’ll be missing out on new opportunities that spring up from the conversation underway that can add extra value for everyone. The most skilled negotiators will find new value for all parties—or at least look for it. Maybe that means bringing additional people to the table or considering other alternatives to the options you’ve already considered. Whatever the case, don’t get so caught up in your own expectations that you stay closed off to other options. 6. Keep Working on Your Skills Like any other skills, negotiation is learned. Some will take to it naturally and for others, it will require more work. Either way, practice. Coaching and critical assessment is sure to make you better. So whether you walk away from your first negotiation happy or not, don’t worry. Assess what went right and wrong, and learn from your experiences.  Identify the pain points and challenges. Explore the emotional ups and downs. Assess whether each party walked out with more or less of what they wanted. What could you have done better? More to the point, what can you do better next time? Don’t be afraid to consult others, either. If you have any trusted advisors or teammates who you know are skilled negotiators, they can be a good resource as you continue to develop your own skills. That is, until you become a skilled negotiator yourself and start mentoring those who come behind you. Feeling Like a Skilled Negotiator? Then Let the Negotiations Begin “Negotiation is not an act of battle; it’s a process of discovery. The goal is to uncover as much information as possible,” Voss wrote in his book, Never Split the Difference: Negotiating As If Your Life Depended On It. Like any process, then, it can be learned, codified and improved upon. By building a negotiation style that works for you—then evolving it to meet the demands of each negotiation you find yourself in—you can make it just another skillset you bring to the table. And by doing so, you’ll be molding yourself into a strong financial leader in the process. Now go out and let the negotiations begin! Grow Your Finance Skillset Visit Plan To Grow to watch free, on-demand content of the latest skills financial professionals need today.