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.
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Remote Boss: CFOs & Controllers’ Dream
Don't get me wrong, I don't like global generalizations. There is nothing wrong with logical patterns and trends, but it doesn't mean that they encompass ALL people and ALL situations. So, when I talk about, for example, entrepreneurs or financial execs in general terms I don't mean "every single one." I mean, the majority of the group. The majority of entrepreneurs are brilliant, but some of them are just lucky. The majority of small business CFO's are pedants, but some of them are slobs, and so on.
There are entrepreneurs who are very conscious of their breed's tendencies to squash and frustrate their subordinate execs. They go out of the way to engage in counter-measures and employ the best of managerial techniques. Therefore, there are CFO's out there who truly enjoy constant interactions with their CEO's. Throughout my career I myself have experienced long stretches of time when my boss's personal traveling seemed like a disruption in the work flow, occasional frustration notwithstanding.
However, even those who enjoy the most amicable of relationships, cannot deny that they feel more relaxed and efficient, less frustrated doing their jobs, when the bosses are away, or when financial execs are traveling on business themselves.
Thus, my correspondent J. has the best job in the world. It was not set out to be such a fortunate arrangement, but various factors played their roles in shaping the way things are right now. J, who is an asset-based finance specialist, works by herself on the East Coast, running all operational and administrative functions of a small but very profitable private equity fund, while the founding partners are based on the West Coast.
On an average day J. is in the office by herself, doing her job in completely undisturbed environment. And she is one of the most balanced and upbeat persons I've ever met altogether, let alone the financial professionals.
She speaks to one of the partners only on the rarest occasions, when there is something wrong with one or another investment. The other partner is more hands on: he is responsible for due diligence process of all portfolio prospects. He also comes to the East Coast office once a quarter when their lender's audit is finalized to have a wrap-up lunch with J. and the lender's representative.
A perfect dream set up. How do I know? Because J. is never frustrated with her bosses. I tell her, "It would not be the same, if they were here in the same office with you." And she agrees – it wouldn't.
A Canadian Blogger Jailed in Iran
Even though the topic of this AOL News Article Iran's 'Blogfather' Sentenced to Long Prison Term is not related to the topics of CFOs and Controllers' frustrations, it is related to the freedom of expression issues that concern all of us. That is why it should have its place in the spotlight here.
I don't want to diminish the severity of the sentence and the horror of what Mr. Derakhshan is going through in Iran as the result of expressing his thoughts and opinions in cyberspace. However, essentially everyone who publishes honest and edgy, or even boring and banal, material on internet are exposed to unpredictable consequences.
In one article, or post, or conversation after another, we are warned that prospective and current employers are searching internet for possible controversial material on you. So do the political opponents, educational institutions, investors, country clubs, religious congregations, etc, etc. Here is a typical example of such warning provided by the CEO of TheLadders.com Marc Cenedella in his new book "You're Better Than Your Job Search": In a Google World, Prepare to Be Investigated. Jail sentences in foreign countries are extreme and rare incidents, but we do learn that people get fired, rejected and harassed because they express themselves.
That is the reason so many bloggers are writing under noms de plume. That is the reason so many people who have something to say don't write at all. That is the reason I guarantee 100% anonymity to anyone who shares their professional experiences with me.
And it does not apply just to cyberspace. One of my future planned posts will address my favorite topic – something I call the Bill of Rights in the Workplace. There is a reason the new great American masterpiece from Jonathan Franzen is called "Freedom." Obviously, it is a concern.
And of course, I disagree with Mr. Derakhshan's politics. Moreover, I am a life-time student of World History and it seems inconceivable to me that any private citizen without diplomatic immunity would actually accept an invitation from any organization sponsored by an authoritarian government. History is full of actual repatriation incidents that sound like horror stories: China, Russia, etc.
Nevertheless, my disagreement with his ideas, does not mean that I will not support this writer's freedom of expressing them with all my heart. It's like what Voltaire said, "I may disagree with what you have to say, but I shall defend to the death your right to say it."
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.
Further Scientific Evidence of the Entrepreneurial Bug
Over a month ago, in my post Your Boss: Value & Madness of an Entrepreneur I wrote about quirkiness and impatience of people who have brilliance to come up with original start-up ideas and guts to build a company from scratch – people who provide us, CFO's and Controllers, with new job opportunities beyond "Big Business."
I also discussed how their peculiar and difficult qualities are the main source of our frustrations. I called the sum of these character traits the Entrepreneurial Bug.
As if to support my point of view, September 18th issue of New York Times featured this article in their Business Day section – Just Manic Enough: Seeking Perfect Entrepreneurs by David Segal. I highly recommend that everyone interested in the subject of entrepreneurship, start-ups and venture capital investment should read it.
Of course, my own primary interest was the excursion into psychology of the indicators so characteristic of our bosses difficult behavior. Needless to say, the article confirms that not every subject is afflicted with the entire spectrum of symptoms and displays them with the same intensity. Nevertheless, the author clearly states that only "a thin line separates" an entrepreneur from a psychiatric candidate with a hypomanic syndrome.
One of the article's subjects, Seth Priebatsch, echoes my post from 08/19/2010, when he "describes anything that distracts him… even for minutes, as 'evil.'" No surprise here – I've heard this before many-many times from various CEO's. The difficulties of working with people like that on daily basis, especially for CFO's and Controllers, whose job is to keep businesses in order and under control, is basically one of the main themes of this blog.
Mr. Segal goes out of his way explaining that the degree of craziness is what matters: some Venture Capital firms give personality tests to their prospects in order to determine if they are not completely bonkers. But I couldn't help myself thinking that these tests may be also designed to weed out people who are not crazy enough to be satisfactory material for future transition from idea generators into screw tighteners.
Strangely enough, the New York Times' confirmation that my extrapolation of personal experience dealing with business owners to the rest of the entrepreneurial world is completely justified, did not bring any intellectual satisfaction. It's kind of discouraging that if you choose to build your career in dynamic growing businesses, you will always have to deal with bosses who cannot help themselves not to be assholes.
The Frustrated CFO 