To help us identify how finance leaders have changed as a result of the pandemic, we interviewed 11 of them from across financial services, gathering their insights and perspectives on how their role and the role of the finance function, more generally, is evolving. With the increasing recognition that finance competencies are crossing boundaries, we are seeing the emergence of the ‘T-Shaped Finance Professional’ with broad, boundary-crossing competencies across the top of the ‘T’ along with the deep technical skills of accounting, auditing, tax and consulting augmented with deeper technology and data analytics skills in the vertical part of the ‘T’.3 To really embed this across their teams, which attributes, mindsets and leadership styles should finance leaders focus on developing?
With less than 20% of the organisational value being shown on the balance sheet,
... human capital is increasingly a source of competitive advantage and profit.
It, therefore, comes as little surprise that human skills were at the fore of our interview discussions. As Gary Bischoping, formerly CFO of Finastra, noted, ‘the currency of effectiveness moving forward is people’. Through our in-depth interviews, we found that
... the attributes and mindsets valued most by finance leaders formed into four distinct but connected traits ...
of the finance leader who has successfully led their teams through the pandemic and beyond. They are each equally valuable, and finance leaders should look to have a combination of all four, dialing them up and down as needed to respond to the myriad challenges they face.
This paper outlines these four key traits, discussing the attributes and mindsets finance leaders need to play a key role in influencing the future of their organisations.
3 The Top 7 Skills for Accounting and Finance in the Age of Automation, T. Hood, Business Learning Institute, Aug. 2020