Category: Practical Advice

Time Organization as Anti-Frustration Tool


Business strategy, financial plans, cash flow projections – obvious tasks in any CFO or Controller's routine.  These functions are integral parts of our job descriptions and inability to perform them would simply disqualify us as senior financial professionals.  No matter how sophisticated, at the end of the day they have to do with allocating limited resources over specified periods of time. 

Well, what about our very own personal intellectual resources? Are all of us capable to allocate them in an efficient manner?

Practically every single employer (in subconscious recognition of the responsibilities scroll's heftiness) feels obligated to mention multi-tasking, work-under-pressure, and tight-deadlines in their job ads for financial execs.  And yet, nobody ever asks during interviews about the candidates' actual time-management skills. 

It is very flattering to our professional class that bosses simply assume their present and future CFO's and Controllers to have their own self-organizing tools, but the sad truth is very few of them do.  They consistently spend long hours on a single task, while the day runs away from them leaving huge volume of unattended work behind, which over time may pile up into a mountain.  And it applies to other execs as well, but I don't care about their well-being in the context of this blog. 

To my fellow financial professionals in the small and mid-size companies, however,  I want to say three words: schedules, lists and schedules.  Yes, schedules two times – short-term and long-term.  I have briefly mentioned scheduling before in my post on prioritization (The Importance of Prioritization for CFOs and Controllers), but this topic is never exhausted. 

I want to emphasize that the value of time organization lies not only in the increased professional efficiency but, more importantly, in its ability to reduce job-related frustration and anxiety.  Schedules and lists create a framework for your multi-tasking and provide you with stability of a clear action plan.  They especially help those prone to experience anxiety about forgetting the "back burner" projects. 

Once the need for self-organizing tools is recognized, you will be capable to design your own.  And I believe that it is important for every CFO, Controller, etc. to develop their individual practical schedules and lists based on their actual business circumstances and preferences.

Just as a reference point let me share that, at the very minimum, I usually have the following lists: (1) functional breakdown of departments with tasks assigned to each group/person and their time frames;  (2) a list of mandatory daily functions; (3) a list of periodic reports with fixed dates, responsible parties and intended recipients (weekly, monthly, quarterly, annual); (4) a long-term list with projects that are not crucial to immediate commercial goals, but are necessary to bring the company to the next level, with tentative start dates.

Accordingly, at any given moment I have four schedules: (1) today's schedule, which I usually prepare previous night; (2) current and next weeks outlines; (3) current and next months highlights; (4) tentative 4-month plan.   

I would like to emphasize that FLEXIBILITY is a key: don't let yourself to be trapped into an obsessive rigidity.  Changes and diversions are to be expected and there is no reason to get worked up about them – after all, we live in a very fast-changing business world.

 


 

       

You Are Responsible for Your Own Emotional Control


There are two main reasons for my putting so much emphasis on the management of frustration and stress.  First of all, I consider this skill to be one of CFOs and Controllers' prerequisites for efficient functionality: if you don't get a grip on your own emotions you cannot manage the multitude of your tasks at the level that will satisfy your own high standards.  Secondly, this may be the only responsibility that you cannot delegate.  Whatever method of self-control and frustration release you use, you are the only one who can recognize the symptoms and initiate the process.

And in that respect I am in agreement with the recent article on AOL Health by Stephanie Twelto Jacob with a terribly corny title Happiness Roadblocks and a lot of new-age-y formulas that a sensible reader will be able to weed out easily.  I mean, even if you take Aristotle's thought about path to happiness as your initial thesis, it doesn't mean that you should tailor your entire article to fit the narrow interpretation of its language.

Shortcomings aside, I found four sensible points in this article that match my own concept of psychological self-management and fit perfectly into this blog's discussions of work-related frustration and anxiety.  Here are my interpretations:

1.  Choosing to expect the worst at all times in order to avoid disappointments (the policy I've been employing for years myself – guilty as charged) creates not only psychological, but also, through stress-related chemical reactions, physical effects on us.  Plainly speaking, it keeps our bodies in a constant adrenaline overdrive.

2.  I hear my colleagues talking all the time about someone else working at half the effort for twice as much money, having expense accounts, better insurances, larger bonuses, etc, etc.  Comparing your difficult life to somebody's supposed perfect existence creates unnecessary additional frustration.  Don't contrast and compare.  Most likely these people's lives are not as rosy as you perceive it.  Trust me – life is a difficult exercise for everybody.  More importantly, spending your emotional energy on this imaginary competition is a waste of your own valuable resources.

3.  Accepting the unfairness of life is the best defensive mechanism available to us. When things are not based on equality and justice it does not necessarily mean that you always loose.  My intended audience is supposed to consist of educated people in senior management and executive positions.  In comparison to people with the same intellectual capacity who were not able to go to college and graduate schools and be eligible to work in free-market society, we are not doing that bad even if we didn't have connections or luck to become multi-millionaires.

4.  Stop looking for substitution of contentment.  It is not your boss's, your subordinates', your spouse's, your kid's or your new purchase's job to make you feel better about yourselves.  Nobody but yourself truly knows who you are and what your value is.  It is you who possess that intelligence, that expertise, that volume of knowledge and you know your worthiness.  Be proud of your own achievements.      

Valuable Advice by HR Capitalist


I highly recommend this yesterday's post from HR Capitalist.  His behavioral insights are applicable to everyone in a senior management position, including all CFOs, Controllers and other financial professionals.

Leadership Means You Cut Out the Negative Body Language… 

The Importance of Prioritization for CFOs & Controllers


My very first post CFO's and Controllers' Many Hats  addressed (in two parts, as the matter of fact) the inescapable issue of overwhelming span of functional control tackled by all financial execs.  The issue has been described as a major source of both frustration and pride.

Well, whether you are proud or not of being a natural choice for a million of high-level responsibilities, keeping all balls in the air is a managerial skill mandatory not only for your professional success, but for taming the frustration as well. 

Both mathematical rules of optimization and circus performances teach us that there is a limit to the number of items you can juggle at the same time without dropping them.  This is why Prioritization and Delegation are two most important organizational tools for a Controller or CFO. 

Let me share with you my own Top Three Rules for each of these tools.

Prioritization:

Rule #1.  Assign priority scores to each task.  Let's say, 1 to 10 with one being the lowest.  The highest priority on your list should always be given to the task that in a long run will benefit the bottom line the most.  For example, writing an angry answer to your boss's email asking whether you are busy right now has lower priority (I would say, 2) than looking at your cash position and deciding whether you need to use your credit line or cash availability to finance today's operational expenses (definitely a 10).

Rule #2.  As much as you can, try to block certain time periods with periodic tasks of high priority in advance.  There are such things as SEC reports, monthly budgets, weekly cash flow projections, etc. etc. that occur periodically.  Prevent yourself from cramming at the last moment by assigning priority scores and scheduling these tasks ahead of time.

Rule #3.  If you work in a privately held business (and most small and mid-size companies are) and report directly to the Owner/President/CEO, be ready to push his/hers priority higher up on your list.  I know it sounds almost psychotic, but being flexible when it comes to your boss's requests sometimes can save you the boatload of frustration.  However,  it does not mean that you have to drop everything and attend to his needs.  Many people make that mistake.  Instead, you need to provide him with reasonable time frame and explain why the task at hand is more important for HIS BUSINESS.  I will get back to the issue of flexibility in scheduling discussion.

Delegation:

 Rule #1.  Don't be afraid to delegate important functions to capable subordinates because you are afraid that they will undercut you.  First of all, if you are a good match for your position and do your job to the best of your abilities,  you should be confident.  Secondly, by overwhelming yourself with extra tasks you diminish your own efficiency and undermine yourself.

Rule #2.  NEVER do your subordinate's job because you believe that you can do it faster and better.  This is a bad mistake many of us make.  When we do that, we damage ourselves in two ways: by wasting our own valuable time and by not letting our subordinates to improve and develop.

Rule #3.  Always make time for training and advancement of your subordinates.  By building strong and reliable accounting/finance staff you better your own chances for success .  

Honestly, it took me a while to develop and even longer to start implementing these rules, but I can vouch for their effectiveness. 




The Ethicist Randy Cohen Talks About Your Boss


You worked real hard day in and day out.  You applied yourself to the very best of your abilities.  Finally, you have reached the senior/executive management position.  Now, you are the CFO, the Controller, the Director, "the right hand," "the most important person in the company without the title" – it doesn't matter what they call you: you've achieved it.  And it's irrelevant that the business is small – in this small pond you are a big fish.Does this mean that now you can tell your boss, the owner of the company, to stop watching porn on your computer after work and leave it on overnight?  Even my favorite columnist Randy Cohen, cannot give you a clear answer in his response to one of our peers' query in June 27th New York Times Magazine - The Ethicist: Porn in the Office.He is trying, though: yes, it is not right that the boss doesn't close the browser, that he leaves it for the next user to see, but he doesn't really do anything illegal either, etc, etc, blah, blah, blah… 

The point is that our dear entrepreneurs do not separate themselves from their businesses.  They treat their place of work as their second home: watching porn, meeting with their friends, letting their kids and pets run around.  This could be a $200 million business you helped to build, but THEY REALLY DON'T CARE WHAT ANYBODY THINKS.  It wouldn't even come to their minds to consider the possibility that somebody may be offended, or simply surprised, by the images on the computer screen.  And it is not about porn.  It's one thing today and another tomorrow – the principal (pun is always intended) attitude is always the  same.

And the unfortunate truth is that no matter how important you are to the company, you cannot criticize them, because they will never forget it.  They will hold the grudge forever, because subconsciously they feel that they are untouchable royalty in their little kingdoms and NOBODY dares to point out their shortcomings.  And if you are experienced and shrewd enough, you will not say a boo (neither would I).

So, here you are, frustrated out of your mind by the unbalance between your professional achievements and organizational position on one side and inability to exercise your personal freedom on the other.  All I can advise you to do at this point is to pick your favorite from my list of coping devices listed in One CFO's Personal Tools for Frustration Relief. That's all you can do.