High Performing Finance Teams
Is your Finance team a high performing team?
A good finance team has its books in order, forecasts timely and
efficient in all the process with no compromise on accuracy. When that team
takes it up some notches with a higher sense of commitment and has the ability
to influence without authority to achieve synergies, then it becomes a high
performing Finance team.
In the light of digital technology
reshaping the notion of the workplace, the strategic position of the Finance
function will be continuously challenged if it
just remains good. Automation has streamlined transaction related activities, while time
for books closure has been truncated to a large extent and rudimentary
approvals have moved out of Finance. If all the day-to-day is out of way, this
presents a great opportunity to the Finance function to use their acumen for the
growth story of the organisation.
What are the factors which hinder from being a high performing team? Here are five such impediments.
You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change
something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete. Buckminster Fuller
Tenure in the role – when the Finance leadership has spent a lot time in
the function/roles, the teams find incremental things to stay busy while
feeding the perception that is Finance is not coming to the party. Finance
leadership has to encourage lateral movements to the business and vice versa
and mobility within the function. This will let fresh ideas come in and
question the adage “this is how we always do it here”.
Sharing is a much better way to
communicate than proving. Yo-Yo Ma
Stashing of information – the late 90s and 2000s phenomenon of not
sharing information or giving crumbs of information will not foster a growth
mindset in the current times. This behaviour leads to having secret agendas
with cross purposes. Dissemination of information and easily accessible numbers
(no one asks for the full P/Ls on a daily basis) is what makes the Finance team
winning. Arming the business partners with numbers on a timely basis gives the
Finance team that much edge.
A team is not a group of people who
work together. A team is a group of people who trust each other. Simon Sinek
Trust: Finance is a function with different beads (Accounting, Business
finance, Tax & Regulatory and Reporting both statutory/investor relations) held
together by the string called numbers. Constant focus on specialisation without
building trust encourages working in silos. Trust begins to emerge when we see that people and teams
are driven by reasons that go beyond the self-serving. Efforts of these teams can
be consolidated & harvested by the Head of Function to cash out the
synergy.
The greatest danger in times of
turbulence is not the turbulence – it is to act with yesterday’s logic. Peter
Drucker
Change and the speed of adapting to change is another driver. Businesses
are becoming increasingly agile while Finance is not upskilling at the same
pace. Measuring the success of agile will be possible based on the responsiveness
of Finance function. Resistance to change or the notion that
the current wave of changes is a fad could be silent killer of the function. A famous quote sums
it up “adaptability is about the powerful difference between adapting to cope
and adapting to win.”
Narrative is the poetry that connects
the numbers, the music to go with the math. Casey Seiler
Storytelling: Everyone loves a story. Finance teams are grounded in
facts and numbers. Positioning the facts and numbers with a narrative to engage
the stakeholders for a buy-in makes the team more endearing. Storytelling is
another aspect not that fine-tuned. Being technically correct and giving clinical
analysis may give a perception that is not joined at the hips with the Business
units. Note that there are certain times when a clinical analysis is what is prescribed
and Finance should draw the line.
How quickly conflicts are resolved to move forward shows how well
aligned Finance is with the rest. If the above five causes are not addressed,
then the business units will build shadow finance within their business units
to meet their requirements while making their own reports and analysis.
The pandemic will need everyone to dig deep but that
shouldn’t be a challenge as cost control/management is important but should not
be the raison d'etre for the function. Priorities need to align with the
Business leaders and a more pragmatic approach to drive the strategic
conversations resulting in a serendipity that could be the next big thing for
your business.
The speed of the boss is the speed of
the team. Lee Iacocca.
The head of Finance /CFO has to foster a community where trust is
fostered by enabling relationships & where expertise is shared/recognised,
talent is nurtured, vision is communicated (walk the talk) in a consistent
manner. Talent is always abundant which needs the direction and example by
leading. Nurturing these behaviours will result in a by-product “fun” for which
everyone will show up to work. Coaching will help in the journey to the goal of
being a high performing Finance team.
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