Hit the road Positive leadership for troubled times - ICAEW

More documents

Recommendations

Info

FINANCE & MANAGEMENT How volunteering enriches the finance professional Taking on finance-related voluntary work doesn’t only benefit the organisation concerned. As Paul Chan explains, volunteering can be a good way for finance professionals to develop existing skills and acquire new ones H ow do you develop executive skills when your current position offers few opportunities to operate at that level? Maybe you want to improve your promotion prospects, or feel your current role could benefit from a bigger picture governance perspective. One way to broaden your experience and develop these abilities is to see how others do things (or don’t do things) at that level, then put them into practice. And an effective way to do that is to volunteer for a trustee board or committee role in the ‘third sector’. This term is used to describe organisations that are neither public nor private sector. It includes voluntary and community organisations (both registered charities and other organisations such as associations, self-help groups and community groups), social enterprises, mutuals and co-operatives. Yet another route is to volunteer for roles within professional bodies – for example within one of ICAEW’s committees. These are practical ways to expand your knowledge and to develop essential competencies for your career. BROAD HORIZONS You will invariably be very familiar with your company’s business, structure, people and norms. However, that very familiarity can make it difficult to escape ingrained habits and understand different perspectives. Just as travel broadens the mind, exposure to other organisations broadens your horizons. A trustee or committee member role focuses on the big picture and the organisation’s direction, offering ample opportunity to compare and contrast your prior experience with practices within a different organisation, in such areas as: understanding key issues and challenges the organisation faces that you may not have encountered before, for example fund raising and tendering for government contracts; understanding different organisational cultures and ways of working; applying existing skills to new situations, managing working capital and investment appraisals for example; working within a high-level, multi-disciplinary team, with no functional interests to defend; learning new ‘insights’ – good and bad – from the organisation’s managers or your fellow trustee/committee members; and gaining exposure to legal and financial compliance responsibilities specific to the charity sector. To complement the fresh insights from the expanded experience, a trustee or committee member role also provides the opportunity to further your skills and to put them into practice. DEVELOP YOUR SKILLS Even if your current full-time role calls for strategic thinking, the bulk of your focus will be operational in nature, which affords little opportunity for extended debate at a strategic level. All too often discussions get into the detail very quickly, sometimes even before the strategic goal is clear. However, trustees or committee members have no functional or operational responsibilities, meaning that debate can stay at the strategic level. Furthermore, in a different organisation you’re less likely to have enough specific detailed operational knowledge to be able to get very detailed. So with its main focus on governance and strategy, a trustee/committee role offers the chance to practise useful leadership, strategic thinking and communication skills. CORBIS 26 MAY 2012 FINANCE & MANAGEMENT
VOLUNTEERING LEADING BEYOND AUTHORITY In this sort of role – without budget, department, or resources – you can’t wield power by telling everyone what to do (never an effective approach, anyway, except in emergencies). Instead, skills of persuasion are called for. Influencing decisions, and making sure they are implemented, calls for sensitive probing questions to test and challenge proposals. If reaching a decision is difficult, follow up calls for perseverance. You and your fellow trustees or committee members need to keep the senior management of the organisation accountable by building in periodic progress reporting or, alternatively, by having the self-discipline to follow up yourselves. MOVING FROM OPERATIONAL TO STRATEGIC Having no operational responsibilities or career interest in the organisation clears the way for you to address strategy and governance issues without any organisational baggage. The multi-disciplinary make-up of trustee teams or committees also brings a diverse mix of backgrounds and expertise to bear on the issues. This wide variety of experience and Just as travel broadens the mind, exposure to other organisations broadens your horizons Paul Chan FCA serves on finance, audit and risk committees of a large charity and is also a member of the faculty committee. chanpa@hotmail.com the detachment from day-today operations, makes a valuable forum to express your own analysis of the issue being considered and to listen to alternative perspectives or critiques offered by others. COMMUNICATION Many of your fellow trustees will rely on you to bring financial expertise to the discussion to help them reach a well-thought-through conclusion, collectively. Such situations push you to work on explaining financial concepts in a clear, jargon-free, and to-the-point manner. PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER Meetings have packed and varied agendas so reaching a good decision within the time constraint allocated to the topic isn’t always easy. It means drawing on collective experience, and applying discipline, to identify the core issues quickly and deal with them comprehensively and authoritatively, without getting side-tracked by unimportant details. Precisely the skills you need now and in the future. Of course there is a cost to volunteering – namely, the time spent preparing for and attending meetings. But these are not usually onerous undertakings if you are interested in, or share, the organisation’s goals. Often meetings are scheduled in the evenings to avoid clashing with volunteers’ work commitments. If using recruitment organisations to find your trustee role, you can specify what kind of time commitment you’re prepared to give, types of organisations you are interested in, and even their location. It may also be a route to getting exposure to different industry sectors. There is no more effective way to gain experience or develop skills than by just ‘doing it’. So why not invest a little time in an undertaking that could improve your own prospects, as well as help out a worthwhile organisation? Getting started Further information on volunteering roles and responsibilities can be found at icaew.com/volunteering Volunteering roles are also publicised on icaewjobs.com Charity and Voluntary Sector Group provides technical updates, practice guidance, networking opportunities, and coordinated sector-wide responses to policy and legislative changes. Visit icaew.com/charity Talk Charity is an online community for people working for, volunteering in, or advising charities. Check out icaew.com/ talkcharity FINANCE & MANAGEMENT MAY 2012 27
Page 1 and 2: ISSUE 199 MAY 2012 icaew.com/fmfac
Page 3 and 4: ty with five of your guests. Get a
Page 5 and 6: “STARTING OUT IN A DIFFICULT ENVI
Page 7 and 8: NEWS News on the financial front CO
Page 9: Faculty events EVENTS Strategic dec
Page 12 and 13: FINANCE & MANAGEMENT 10 MAY 2012 FI
Page 14 and 15: FINANCE & MANAGEMENT poor as ever,
Page 16 and 17: FINANCE & MANAGEMENT 14 MAY 2012 FI
Page 18 and 19: FINANCE & MANAGEMENT for certain go
Page 20 and 21: FINANCE & MANAGEMENT When the going
Page 22 and 23: FINANCE & MANAGEMENT both ways’.
Page 24 and 25: FINANCE & MANAGEMENT The way ahead
Page 26 and 27: FINANCE & MANAGEMENT Finance profes
Page 30 and 31: MAY 2012 CORPORATE FINANCIER FINANC
Page 32 and 33: FINANCE & MANAGEMENT FINANCIAL REPO
Page 34 and 35: FINANCE & MANAGEMENT Mission contro
Page 36 and 37: 15-20years years the average strate
Page 38: members only FREE METALLIC PAINT AN

Hit the road Positive leadership for troubled times - ICAEW

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?