Category: Subordinates

The Best Boss in Cinematic History


Ever since I started this blog, I have been searching my memory for a movie character who would exemplify the "ideal boss."  And I don't mean just some harmless person who stays out of your way.  Those are not good bosses – they don't bother you, but they don't improve your professional status either.  I mean a really-really good boss: someone who pays attention to his employees' progress, to their state of mind; someone who facilitates utilization of employees' potentials to the fullest; someone who goes out of his way for the sake of his subordinates' job satisfaction.

I know it is a mythical creature of Gandalf and Dumbledore proportions.  That's why I wasn't looking for real-life examples.  I have never met such a boss.  And even though I try very hard to be a decent manager myself, my professional existence is too erratic for following through with all good intentions.  Moviemakers, on the other hand, are in the business of creating larger-than-life characters that don't necessarily reflect reality, but provide for highly engaging and, in some rare cases, intellectually impactful experiences.  Look, Francis Ford Coppola and Mario Puzo gave us a myth of a person for whom honor, love for his wife and children, and fairness were the most important things in life – Vito Corleone.  Do people like that exist in real life?  Of course, not.

I love and know Cinema.  My tastes are very eclectic.  I don't go for the mainstream adventure crap of the Clash of the Titans type.  But, from Federico Fellini's Casanova to Mike Judge's Idiocracy, from Lars Von Trier's Dogville to Guy Ritchie's Snatch, if it's anywhere between good and brilliant, I saw it.  There are American and foreign directors whose filmography I can recite by heart.  I go to festivals and have an IFC membership.  Surely, I thought, I can come up with a character that fits my description of an ideal boss.

Alas, it was not easy and took me several months of periodic pondering.  But last week, it finally hit me.  Eurika!  I found him!  It's the San Franciso Police Department captain in So I Married an Axe Murderer wonderfully portrayed by the great Alan Arkin.  This guy not only notices that something is wrong with his employee, Charlie's friend, officer Tony Giardino (Anthony LaPaglia), but he actually listens to his complains.  Moreover, for the sake of raising his employee's morale, he goes out of his way and indulges Tony's fantasy.

Just watch (by the way, I am very grateful to whoever smoothly compiled this video, which actually consists of three separate clips from different parts of the movie).



 

Do bosses like that exist in real life?  No, but it's fun to watch and dream. 

   

Cautionary Tale About Artificial Intelligence Progress


Don't you worry, dear readers, I am not planning on retelling "The Terminator" plot.  As the matter of fact, the two technological developments I want to discuss are related to the CFOs' and Controllers' supervisory responsibilities.  On the surface (!), they seem to serve a good purpose and could be attractive solutions to some of our common problems.

Every exec with subordinates communicating with financial institutions, investors, key vendors and customers, is vulnerable to their emotional whims, diplomatic abilities and verbal skills.  This is especially true with out favorite mode of communication – emails, which remove the recipients' faces and voices thus making the expression of aggression easier.

I have a list of actual stories to be told about relationship damage caused by employees' spiteful writing.  And it is not like I don't employ prevention strategies.   I give training talks.  I impose a sense of supervision by requesting to be copied on all important communications.  I even write Post-Its and stick them on the worst offenders' monitors, "Please re-read ALL your emails three times before sending them out."  Still, once in a while something happens that requires damage control.

Lo and behold!  In NY Times Year in Ideas I read about ToneCheck – "an e-mail outbox filter that works as a sort of emotional spell-check, offers typists a chance to reconsider their words before" sending their missive.  I watch the cute animated video attached and my first reaction is like "Finally!!! Hooray!!!" 

Then I read further and I forget that I am a CFO with unruly subordinates who require monitoring.  I remember that I am a Person and that Freedom of Speech is an important issue for me.  Yeah, it's useful in the office environment, but this dangerous program has a capacity to be tuned to ANY CONTENT.  I imagine it being installed without my knowledge by my ISP and checking my personal emails for "inappropriate" content as defined by… whoever has the power to do so.  How do you feel about it now?

Here is another common problem and even scarier solution for it.  How many times we catch our employees attending to their personal business or even playing online games during working hours?  We wonder about the hours they waste the costs of it.  Frustrated, we think we should like to watch them.  So, here you go Computers That See You and Keep Watch Over You.  This "wonderful" program sees you and analyzes your facial expressions.  And it can be installed on your personal computer without your knowing it. 

You know what?  I don't want these "solutions." Not even in my office.  Let me work harder with my employees on their work attitude, verbal skills and aggression management.  If boycotting these products means that we can keep them away from invading our personal privacy, then be it.  I hope you click on the links, read about it and agree.    

It's like what Benjamin Franklin said,"Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety."

CFO Folklore: My “Favorite” Questions


Ah, the Holidays!  They put you in the mood for remembrance.  Families get together and stories of past times and lives start pouring out.  My grandfather was a brilliant man of the WWII generation.  He died when I was a baby.  Hence, I cannot remember this myself, but I've been told quite few times about his main pet peeve: he couldn't stand what he called "idiotic" questions.   Apparently, I've inherited this familial trait.

His being the times way before the political correctness permanently  stifled us, he had the luxury to call things as he saw them.  Nowadays, I use more neutral words.  I call them nonsensical questions.  I even trained myself to ignore stand alone occurrences.  However, there are two questions that pervade my professional life.  As all pet peeves do, they cause undue frustration.

The first question is consistently asked by my subordinates and peers.  You see, unless I attend to a confidential business matter, I always keep my office door opened.  I believe it is good for employees' morale to see a CFO working as hard as I do. 

So, these people see me all day long attending to my scheduled tasks, addressing issues, solving problems.  I am consumed by work.  Yet, EVERY TIME one of them needs me and comes to my door, they ask me THE SAME question, "Are you busy right now?"  In response I want to scream, "Of course, I am busy.  Can't you see?" 

It doesn't mean that I am not available to discuss their problem if it is of higher priority, or scheduling them for a later time slot if it can wait.  But why do they have to ask that question?  At staff meetings, I teach them to approach this situation in a more sensible manner: come, don't ask the damn question, instead state your issue and let me decide if it requires immediate attention.  Some learn, but the rest just cannot help themselves.

The second question is similar but essentially different in its nature.  It's usually asked by the boss.  And, as we already discussed, there is nothing you can do, but to bite your tongue.  He has something on his mind, so he comes to your office.  Here it comes, "What are you doing right now?" 

The involuntary first reaction is, "What do you think?  I am doing nothing.  Just sitting here enjoying myself."  But he does not imply you are not working.  This is how their minds work: whatever is on his mind is the most important thing to him right now and in his opinion should be to you as well (even though you don't even know yet what it is).  This attitude renders your current preoccupation irrelevant.  Now, it is up to you to navigate the situation properly into the safe harbor.  Over the years, I've developed an arsenal of methods.  I am sure you have too, but if you need my help, please, don't hesitate to email.

Sloppy Accountant Steals From Lorne Michaels and Tina Fey


American+Museum+Natural+History+Hosts+Museum+MhOXuAo6hyZl Well, technically he stole from NBC Universal who bankrolls the production of 30 Rock, but Lorne Michaels and Tina Fey helm the show.  I guess, if it has something to do with the creator of Saturday Night Live and the show's former Head Writer, even the embezzlement case must have a bizarre skit flavor.

The media-released facts of this "grand" scam, which yielded the schmuck, formerly employed as an "accountant" on the show, a $13.6K "fortune" in stolen funds, are sketchy (pun is always intended), so I will have to apply my financial forensic expertise and speculate about some of the details. 

The way I see it, he caught on the fact that when expense reports/envelopes are submitted for reimbursement, nobody checks the actual receipts inside.  It is also possible that he was the very person responsible for checking them.  Either way, there were obvious holes in this internal control plot.  So, he decided to pad a few envelopes with fictional expenses, personal use of the business credit card and even altered receipts.  On top of that, he did it stupidly and sloppily: used whiteout to falsify the receipts, faked the NBC Comptroller's initials.  He thought nobody would ever notice. As far as he could see, from his limited to one season and inexperienced point of view (how do these people get employed?), nobody was looking.

Nobody in accounting management did!  Judging by the timing of his employment and arrest, it seems the independent auditors were the ones who discovered the receipts with the whiteout!!!  In a business with big-shot executive producers charging all kinds of perks (limos, flowers and whatnot) to corporate credit cards, the reconciliation of expense accounts is a sensitive area.  That's where diligent auditors would look.  And the SLOPPY WHITEOUT – how can anyone possibly miss that?

So, now he is facing up to 7 years in jail.  That's a year for every $2,000 he stole.  Pretty severe.  However, The Frustrated CFO is the most curious about the consequences of this ordeal for the NBC's Comptroller.   In my book she is ultimately responsible for the lack of proper internal control procedures and the inadequacy of the budget variance analysis.  If those functions were correctly established and executed, this small-time offense, blown out-of-proportion by its show-biz relation, would never have occurred in the first place.  Both her and the arrested one are sorry excuses for accountants.        

What was the perp's self-justification?  Did he think that "it was not fair" for Tina Fey to spend $200 a day in limo charges?  IMDb Pro reports her current 30 Rock salary at $300,000 per episode.  That must've killed him.

However, we are accountants, so let's count.  The show reportedly has 6 million viewers.  That's only in the US and doesn't count reruns or DVD sales. So, on the evening of each episode's airing Tina Fey makes 6 million people laugh and forget their worries.  (Please, appreciate my objectivity here as I personally don't find Tina Fey's comedy funny, intelligent or entertaining.)  And for that she gets paid 5 cents per person.   I think that's reasonable.  Who did that "accountant" make happy?

New CFO, Same Staff: Inheritance Problems


Ok, let's leave our bosses alone for the time being.  Let's talk about us as bosses.  In our multi-functional lives as CFOs and Controllers we frequently end up with more direct reports than CEOs/owners.  There are accounting managers, finance directors, budget and analysis groups leaders, PR, AP, AR, IT, and so on.

Let's say you are making a career move and just accepted a position with XYZ, Inc., replacing a departing CFO.  In a dreamy corporate fairy tale you should be able to do what our newly elected presidents do – form your own cabinet and move in with your faithful acolytes. In real life… you inherit somebody else's staff.  Moreover, you have to quickly immerse and keep the business going.

The subsequent events can play themselves out in three possible scenarios:

1.  Without giving the existing operations a real dissection under a microscope, you simply learn how everything functioned under your predecessor, decide not to change anything even if you find the old ways inadequate or wrong, and continue in the same fashion.  The effect: good for the staff – no changes, no new things to learn, no old habits to break; bad for the company, your employers and ultimately yourself – inheriting diseases without attempting to treat them will assure your failure.

2.  If you are a responsible and knowledgeable person with an impressive background and enthusiasm for your new job, you will study all aspects of functions under your control, diligently, but without prejudice; find errors, shortcomings and blind spots; apply your expertise, and develop improvements and innovations plan.  And then you will face incredible resistance from your inherited staff.  It is very natural: humans are resentful of changes.  They will give you very hard time, no help and mountains of frustrations.  Just because you are great at finance and accounting, it does not mean that you are good at managing and educating people.  If you don't have patience and sufficient skills to overcome the resistance in a positive way, you will end up firing a third of the stuff and another third will leave on their own.  The rest will stay, but you will never gain their trust and support.  The worst part – by replacing former employees with new ones, you will loose the continuity of the departmental knowledge.  

3.  Under the best case scenario, your professional and managerial skills are equal.  While you sifting through processes, functions, policies and procedures, you must study the people.  What motivates them? Do they know their jobs well? Are their duties properly matched with their abilities?  Psycho-profiling is one of the most important managerial skills.  Try to discern the personality traits of your employees.  The personnel strategy should be part of your improvement plan.  Find people who are interested in positive progress, explain to them how the new developments will benefit them, show them the big picture (for more on this subject see my post Big Picture and Staff Training) and make them your agents of change.  Then you can claim the successful transition.