Most finance leaders love benchmarks in business. From a personal career standpoint, perhaps not as much. That said, knowing how your leadership skills match up against your industry peers is just a valuable as knowing your company’s market share.
The modern financial executive’s role has been rapidly changing over the past three years. And yet, in a recent survey of 1,500 financial executives, Oxford Economics discovered that only a small number considered themselves highly effective in the areas of financial planning, analysis, and risk and compliance, and only 11.5% qualified as leaders. Financial executives, however, are in a unique position to lead. They’re strategic partners to other executives, have access to large amounts of data, and bring a unique perspective to the decision-making process.
Back to benchmarks. Here are six traits successful financial executives have developed to become more effective leaders. Consider your own capabilities as you read about each one.
Trait #1: Having a strong influence beyond the finance function
Gone are the days of finance executives being singularly focused on balance sheets. Today’s leaders make it their business to understand and play an active role in all aspects of their business; from sales to marketing to IT to HR, and more.
Trait #2: Collaborating regularly with business units across the entire company
Effective finance management isn’t the sole responsibility of the finance team. The actions of employees, managers, IT, and HR all impact visibility and control over cashflow. As a result, successful finance leaders champion collaboration with each stakeholder so they too can contribute to the company’s spend management objectives.
Trait #3: Driving strategic growth initiatives
In the Leadership in a New Era report, 47% of finance leaders agreed that their role grew in strategic importance, and 57% said that they will play an even greater role in setting company strategy going forward. To capitalize on that opportunity, the first step for a finance leader is to free themselves from repetitive time-intensive administrative tasks.
Trait #4: Improving efficiency with automation
There are many finance automation solutions available, in particular for invoice and expense management. The challenge for finance executives is to determine which one will best fit their organization’s needs. That said, there are core automation capabilities that every business should have. These include mobile expense receipt and invoice capture, AI-powered data validation, and automated payments.
Trait #5: Being very effective at core finance processes
Yes, the basics still matter, too. As much as they need to be well-versed in the latest finance technologies, successful finance leaders are experts in all core finance functions and processes, including planning, bookkeeping, risk management, and reporting.
Trait #6: Working closely with GRC and being well equipped to handle regulatory change
Rapidly changing and expanding government regulations, increased demands for corporate transparency, and the growth of third-party business relationships all impact a company’s governance, risk management, and compliance (GRC) capabilities. Finance leaders need to be able to guide these finance functions so their company can build greater resilience, agility and momentum for what’s next.
Do you have what it takes to be a successful finance leader?
Download the Oxford Economics report from SAP Concur to gain even more insights on how today’s leading businesses are using finance automation to accelerate business momentum.
