Future Finance Leaders

This should be no surprise, but leadership skills are critical. Sometimes referred to as ‘soft’ skills (and referenced as such in the report), it is now widely recognised that these skills set a successful leader apart. In professional services such as finance, we often find it hard to justify the cost and the time needed to develop these ‘soft’ skills, but skills such as inspiring communication, effective influencing, change agility, and emotional intelligence are exactly the areas aspiring and existing leaders must be investing in(as you can see from the report findings).

To fully understand a role, we need to look beyond the job title. This became apparent through the future leader interviews. The variety of job titles within H E and the roles and responsibilities within them are huge. This may seem a small point, but it highlights the need to think about what type of finance leader role you aspire to. It also means you can better understand any development gaps between your current and your aspirational role.  

Building on from the above, two Finance Director or Chief Financial Officer roles are rarely the same. There are significant differences between roles and whilst seemingly obvious, this means individuals should carefully consider the type of finance leader they want to be and then plan their development accordingly. Some Finance Directors are incredibly hands-on in the finance function, some are less hands-on in finance and are involved in a wide range of other areas as well. Indeed, several finance leaders in Higher Education are responsible for Legal, IT or Operations, for example. These factors are important to consider when identifying a potential leader role for yourself, and the individual development needed. The commonality across the roles, however, are the soft skills needed to be able to lead successfully, whatever your remit may be. 

In addition, you may want to reflect on how your present job title reflects what you currently do. You may need to better articulate your own responsibilities when talking about your job as you could be underselling your value.  

Learning through experience is critical. You need to learn and develop beyond any training you may have. Any learning from a development course must be followed up by hands-on experience. Going on the course is not enough. What’s your plan after attending the course to use and become comfortable with these new skills? Find ways to be involved in or, indeed, be responsible for, new activities, conversations, or projects. Often people attend a course, and this is not turned into a consistent change in behaviour or skill - think about how you are going to measure your output, your return on the training investment.  

Increasingly development can come from experience alone and the following boxes articulate development outside of traditional training. 

It was deemed that an 'on paper ideal' candidate would have experience from both within and outside the H E sector. The key factor though is to have breadth of experience, knowledge across your function, Higher Education, and the sector, as a minimum. Making a sideways move can have long-term benefits and should be considered just as much as a move upwards. Purely linear career development can have its challenges and limits crucial breadth of knowledge and experience.

In the last few years, BUFDG and our professional services partners have seen the benefits of this breadth of knowledge being taken beyond finance. We are increasing the events we provide to help join up professional services. For an aspiring finance leader to have more insight into estates, planning, IT and HR for example, will be hugely beneficial not just to an individual but to H E, which is why we are making it part of our work at BUFDG and Professional H E Services. 

One of the biggest challenges is a lack of experience of working with and influencing the board, and it was acknowledged during the review that this can be incredibly difficult with a Finance Director or Chief Financial Officer in place (after all, that is what they are there for!). To be considered as a finance leader you need to find ways to interact with this audience and show experience in this. Contact your current finance leader to see how you can work together on this or seek support from a mentor. 

Development needs to be self-driven, using a pick and mix approach tailored for you. It is important to identify your individual position, and where you aspire to be, and then identify the potential skills or experience gaps within this. You can then plot your individual development plan. As a guide, any development should be based on the principle of 70/20/10:

70% of your learning should be hands-on experience (landing the project, working with stakeholders, presenting, or engaging with the board); 

20% should be learning through others who have been there or those who have a different view, mentors, line managers, and other senior leaders (such as through Deputy FD meetings), and leaders of other professional service functions; and

10% should come from the traditional learning routes such as face-to-face training courses, workshops, or e-learning for example.