Advanced Controller and CFO Skills

• Chapter 0 - Overview
  • Course Objectives
  • Workshop Roles
  • Advanced Critical Skills
    • Specific Best Practices
• Chapter 1 - Step 1: Improve Your Change Leader Effectiveness by Looking Ahead
  • Learning Objectives
  • The Rapidly Changing World of the Accounting Leader
    • Listen to the Experts
    • The Pain in Internal Accounting Today
    • The Solution to These Pains and the Change
  • The Rapidly Changing World of the Accounting Leader
    • Viewpoint #1
    • Viewpoint #2
  • Leader of the Accounting Team in 2010
    • Developing a Vision for the Future
    • Managing the Information Flow
    • Moving Away from Transactions
    • Treasury Will Take Priority
    • Concern about Global Markets
    • Becoming the Process Owner
    • Part of the Team – But Apart
    • Chief Planning Officer
    • Strategic Changes to the Finance Role
    • The Importance of Communication
  • Questions and Application Steps
• Chapter 2 - Step 2: Become an Effective Coach
  • Learning Objectives
  • Coaching in a Nutshell
  • Coaching at the Individual Level
    • The Skill of Coaching
    • Accountability Factor in Coaching
    • Coach's Specific Skills
    • Coaching Skills Defined
  • Coaching at the Organizational Level
    • Teaching and Training
    • Counseling
    • Guiding
    • Learning
    • Sharing
    • Questioning
    • Relating
    • Listening
    • Intuitiveness
    • Creativity
  • Best Practice: Controller's Position Description
    • Elements of the Position Description
    • Expected Results
    • Impact on the Organization
    • Authority Levels
    • Special Difficulties
    • Interpersonal Relationships
    • Benefits of Using a Position Description
    • Tips on Making the Position Description Effective
    • Position Description Example for a General Accounting Assistant
    • Position Description for a Part-Time Controller
  • Questions and Application Steps
• Chapter 3 - Step 3: Improve the Organization's Performance through Coaching
  • Learning Objectives
  • Measure What is Important
  • Case Study #1: Kandu Condo Managers
  • Best Practice: Use Performance Metrics to Drive Change
    • Performance Metrics Defined
    • In the End
  • Best Practice: Report Faster, Better, and on Target
    • Summary
    • Drivers of an "Information Business"
    • How to Get Your Reports Out Faster
    • In the End
  • Best Practice: Make Your Mission and Strategies Measurable
    • Summary
    • How to Make Your Mission Measurable
    • Case Study #2: Wally's Electrical Supply
    • Wally's Current Mission and Strategies
    • Wally's Strategy Measurements
    • Your Recommended Improvement
    • Wally's Mission and Strategies v2
    • In the End
  • More Details on this Best Practice
    • Performance Feedback Principles 1 through 13
    • Additional Tool – Prioritization Mapping
  • Best Practice: Find and Measure Your Critical Success Factors
    • Summary
    • What Organizational Alignment Looks Like
    • The Connection Process
    • Case Study #3: Raelco's Connection Process
    • How to Ensure Employees Stay Focused
    • In the End
  • More Details of this Best Practice
    • Performance Measuring Principles 2 through 11
    • Making Performance Measures and the Critical Success Factor Work
  • Best Practice: Use the Balanced Method for Providing Feedback
    • Summary
    • How the Balanced Scorecard Works
    • How to Use the Balanced Scorecard in Your Feedback Reports
    • Balanced Scorecard Nuts and Bolts
    • Goals of the Balanced Scorecard
    • Minimum Requirements for a Scorecard
    • In the End
  • More Details on this Best Practice
    • Integration of Individual Scorecards
    • Additional Scorecard Perspectives
    • Accounting Software Uses the Balanced Approach
    • Performance Scorecard Principles 1 through 9
    • Performance Scorecard Principles 10 through 20
  • Best Practice: Measure People's Effectiveness and Productivity
    • Summary
    • How to Use Performance Metrics in Employee Performance
    • Classes of Employee Performance Measures
    • Key Driver of Performance Excellence
    • Link between Performance and Knowledge
    • Case Study #4: Raelco Service Center
    • Employee Performance Principles 2 through 12
    • In the End
  • More Details on This Best Practice
    • Performance Problems Addressed with Performance Metrics
    • Signs of Declining Employee Performance
    • 10 1/2 Common Mistakes of Employee Performance Measuring
    • Specific Employee Productivity Measures for Finance
  • Questions and Application Steps
    • Reporting Faster Better and on Target
    • Make the Mission and Strategies Measurable
    • Find and Measure the Critical Success Factors
    • Use the Balanced Method for Providing Feedback
    • Measure People's Effectiveness and Productivity
• Chapter 4 - Step 4: Improve Your Team's Performance through Coaching
  • Learning Objectives
  • The Value of Teaming
  • Case Study #5: Pas de Buk, Limited
  • About Your Friend Rhonda
  • Excerpt from Rhonda's Position Description
  • Best Practice: Instill Employee Accountability
    • What Accountability Is and Is Not
    • Where Accountability Fits In
    • Path of Least Resistance Principle
    • Why Accountability Works to Make Everyone Successful
    • 10 1/2 Rules of Accountability
    • How Leaders Improve Accountability
    • Best Practice Tools for Strengthening Accountability
    • Accountability Principles 1 through 15
    • In the End
  • Best Practice: Inspire Your Employees to New Heights with Rewards and Recognition
    • Rewards and Recognition for Team Members
    • How Leaders Create Team Recognition
    • In the End
  • Best Practice: Inspire Your Employees to New Heights Using Feedback
    • What Feedback Is and Is Not
    • When and Where to Use Feedback
    • The Four Types of Feedback
    • 10 1/2 Rules for Performance Improving Feedback
    • In the End
  • Best Practice: Foster and Support a Teaming Culture
    • The Teaming Culture
    • Team Decisions Made by Consensus
    • How to Create a Strong Team
  • Best Practice: Culture Statement
  • Best Practice: Behavior Standards
    • 10 1/2 Rules about Building Effective Teams
    • In the End
  • Best Practice: Create Opportunities for Your Team
    • What Delegation Is and Is Not
    • Why Creating Opportunities Works to Build a More Effective Team
  • Apply Your Learning: What Is the Truth?
  • Best Practice: Service Standards
    • How Leaders Create Opportunities
    • 10 1/2 Rules for Creating Opportunities for Others
    • In the End
  • Questions and Application Steps
    • Instill Employee Accountability
    • Inspire Employees with Rewards and Recognition
    • Inspire Employees Using Feedback
    • Foster and Support a Teaming Culture
    • Create Opportunities for Your Team
• Chapter 5 - Step 5: Improve Your Change Agent Skills through Self-Coaching
  • Learning Objectives
  • The Need for Self-Coaching
  • Case Study #6: Chaos, LLC
  • Best Practice: Assess Your Change Agent Skills Gap
    • Change Agent's Skills Explained
  • Best Practice: Gap Analysis
    • Steps for Preparing a Gap Analysis
    • In the End
  • Best Practice: Execute Consistently to Meet Your Goals
    • Actions
    • Feedback
    • Goals
    • Measurable Results
    • Reality
    • Resources
    • Rewards
    • Strategic Goals
    • Strategy
    • Tactics
    • Impacts on Goal Execution
    • Feedback on Your Strategies and Goal
    • In the End
  • Best Practice: Formalized Action Plan
    • Making Progress with an Action Plan
  • Best Practice: Action Plan Reporting and Accountability
    • In the End
  • Best Practice: Take More Risks
    • Risk Management Principles 1 and 2
    • Personal Risks
    • The Uncertainty Domino
    • Motivation behind Avoiding Risk
    • The Mindset of the Risk-Taking Entrepreneur
    • The Mindset of the Risk-Averse Person
    • Back to Us
    • In the End
    • A 10 1/2 Step Plan to Build Your Self-Confidence for Risking
    • 10 1/2 Rules of Creative Risk-Taking
  • Questions and Application Steps
• Chapter 6 - Step 6: Grow Your Skills as a Key Financial Strategist
  • Learning Objectives
  • Self-Development or Growing Out of Your Job
  • Best Practice: Solution Creator
    • How to Be an Effective Problem Solver
    • How to Get People to Trust in You
  • Best Practice: Probing Questions
    • How to Get to the Real Problem While Building Trust
    • How to Get to the "Real" Cause of an Issue or Problem
    • #1 Big Mistake of the KFS
    • #2 Big Mistake of the KFS
  • Best Practice: Problem Restatement
    • How to Use Problem Restatement
    • In the End
  • Questions and Application Steps
• Chapter 7 - Step 6 1/2: Improve by Making a Commitment
  • Learning Objectives
  • Growing Pains
  • Controller Workload Killers
  • Five Accounting Leader Realities
  • Significant Trends in Accounting Impacting the Controller
  • Strategies for Coping with the Pain of These Changes
  • Best Practice Tool – Instilling a Personal Commitment
  • Best Practice Tool – Instilling a Personal Commitment
  • Best Practice Tool – Instill Continuous Improvement
    • Steps of the Plus/Delta
  • Controller's Resources List
  • Questions and Application Steps
• Chapter 8 - Latest Developments

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Chapter 1 - Step 1: Improve Your Change Leader Effectiveness by Looking Ahead

"The pain of change comes from within – your need to face your own ego and self-imposed limitations!" - Ron Rael, CPA and Leadership Coach

Learning Objectives

In our role as the head of the accounting function, we often are so focused on our to-do lists, tasks, and deadlines that we fail to take the time to look at the Big Picture. This first step is designed to give you a global view of where the role of the CFO, and by extension, the Controller is heading. You will quickly discover that the role we play must change or we will be left behind. The reasons for this are many and mostly because we are now in the global economy where speed, flexibility, and innovation are the coin of the realm.

After completing this chapter you should be able to

• Redefine the role you must play to benefit your employer.

• See our evolving profession through the eyes of some very accomplished CFOs.

• Find some critical skills that we will need to be effective by the year 2010.

• Find some key attitudes that will benefit us to be ready for the year 2010.

• With your peers, hone in on what are the most important changes in accounting that we must begin to address today.

The Rapidly Changing World of the Accounting Leader

Whether we like it or not, the profession that we work for is changing rapidly and significantly. What will this mean for you? This will depend on how you view your role and what the organization needs you to do. Despite that, there are some clear indications that the role of the Controller will change, because the CFO's role is changing as well.

Included in this chapter is a summary of some recent thoughts about the role of the CFO in the year 2010. We are focusing on the CFO for three reasons: first, in smaller organizations the Controller serves in the capacity of the CFO; second, many Controllers report to a CFO in larger organizations; and third, if you wish to grow out of your job, the logical place to move is into the seat of the CFO.

The essence of the significant changes predicted is that the role of the CFO in the year 2010 would be shaped by their position on a global corporate stage. Here are some experts' thoughts on the CFO evolution.

Listen to the Experts

John Connors is the CFO of Microsoft. "People will have access to information in a way that they never had in the past," he said in a recent interview, "which means the premium on communicating financial information will be enormous."

Jan Hommen is the global CFO of the electronic giant Philips. "The speed at which you will have to do things will be mind-boggling," he warns us.

Norman Lyle, Group Finance Director of Jardine Matheson in Hong Kong, summed up the way CFOs will change. "The CFO," he said, "needs to guard the information. The CFO is now often seen as the automatic deputy CEO and is the person who deals with the outside world. The CFO will need the courage and conviction to stand up to their business colleagues."

John Schmoll, CFO of Coles Myer, Australia's largest retail group, thought the CFOs by the year 2010 "will have to be experts at interpreting the information and communicating it to the organization."

Excerpts from CFO 2010: The CFO and the Role of Information by Robert Bruce.

The Pain in Internal Accounting Today

These are four significant realities that are impacting the internal accounting function today and most significantly affecting the responsibilities and duties of the Controller. These will be covered in more detail in Chapter 7.

1. Accounting will always be thought of as a necessary evil (until we prove that it is a core function that adds measurable profits).

2. Accounting departments will be smaller and smaller as executives strive to lower the costs of doing business.

3. The Controller's job description will continue to be "all responsibilities not assigned to others!"

4. The Controller's team spends far too much time doing meaningless work – processing transactions – and not enough time adding value. This is why accountants are viewed as a commodity subject to the desire for executives to pay the lowest price possible for accounting.

The Solution to These Pains and the Change

Controllers need to redefine their role and become the

Key Financial Strategist

This title describes what the Controller needs to be.

Key

Refers to the fact that you must always take the lead and use your power and influence for good.

Financial

We are still the financial watchdog of the organization.

Strategist

We have to constantly think globally and stay three steps ahead.

I strongly urge you to go back and redefine your formal job description and put this title in it. This will remind you how you can best serve as the financial-minded change agent and conscience in the organization that you work for.

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