Becoming a Strategic Partner: Key
Leadership Competencies
Objectives:
• Understand what it takes to meet the emerging expectations of the
FMA role
• Gain an understanding of these essential new skill sets
• Learn how to establish a framework of personal action plans to foster
the skills
Outline:
• Overview of FI Competencies
• Building Competencies
• Becoming a strategic partner
Objectives &
Outline
Overview of
Competencies
Building
Competencies
Becoming a strategic
partner
2
Overview of Competencies
There are functional and behavioural competencies that FIs must
employ in tandem; leadership competencies require a foundation of
functional competencies:
FI Functional Competencies:
Behavioural Competencies:
1.
2.
3.
4.
General
1. Communications
2. Risk Management
3. Negotiation/Persuasion
Accounting Operations
Planning and Resource Mgmt.
Financial Policy
Financial Systems
Leadership
1. Values and Ethics
2. Strategic Thinking: Analysis
3. Strategic Thinking: Ideas
4. Engagement
5. Management Excellence: Action
6. Management Excellence: People
7. Management Excellence: Finance
Objectives &
Outline
Overview of
Competencies
Building
Competencies
Becoming a strategic
partner
3
Building Competencies
• Education: provides the foundation to build competencies for any
functional domain and for the finance function a professional
accounting designation is ideal but not an absolute requirement
• Experience: depth and breadth of experience is essential to
building strong competencies
• Continuous Training: is essential to keeping your competencies
strong and current (aligned to priorities)
Objectives &
Outline
Overview of
Competencies
Building
Competencies
Becoming a strategic
partner
4
Building Competencies: Experience
Your experience should have an
appropriate balance of depth and
breadth:
Depth
Breadth
Depth: working in one functional
finance area in one organization will
build expertise in that functional area
for that organization but it could inhibit
behavioural competency building
Breadth: working in many functional
areas across many organizations can
expose you to wide variety of issues,
best practices and people that can
strengthen your behavioural
competencies but it could also limit
your functional expertise
Objectives &
Outline
Overview of
Competencies
Building
Competencies
Becoming a strategic
partner
5
Building Competencies: Continuous training
Building Relevant Competencies through training and professional development
plans:
• Know yourself
• Know your current environment
Yourself:
• Know your strengths and weaknesses; self assess against competencies
• Use Performance Management Plans to seek two-way feedback (i.e. manager and
employee feedback)
• Outline your career goals (i.e. talent management questionnaire)
• Source documents such as work descriptions or succession plans, if available, to
identify competencies related to goal positions
Environment:
• What is the Government of Canada’s long term vision and current priorities?
• How does your department contribute to this long term vision and current priorities?
• How do you contribute to these priorities through your current roles and
responsibilities?
• Identify competencies you will need to contribute or the skills you need to strengthen
the required competencies
Objectives &
Outline
Overview of
Competencies
Building
Competencies
Becoming a strategic
partner
6
Becoming a strategic partner
• Why is there a need to become a strategic partner?
• How can we transform towards becoming strategic partners?
• What are the competencies that strengthen us as strategic
partners?
• What are the challenges to our own transformation?
Objectives &
Outline
Overview of
Competencies
Building
Competencies
Becoming a strategic
partner
7
Becoming a strategic partner: Why?
The Government of Canada’s Vision: Blueprint 2020
• An open and networked environment that engages citizens and partners for the public
good
• A whole-of-government approach that enhances service delivery and value for money
• A modern workplace that makes smart use of new technologies to improve
networking, access to data and customer service
• A capable, confident and high-performing workforce that embraces new ways of
working and mobilizing the diversity of talent to serve the country’s evolving needs
The result of this long term vision is transformation and with this comes:
• Increased partnerships (i.e. SSC)
• Increased organizational complexity
• Communication Challenges; Lack of common language
• Expanded mandates with fewer resources (Operating Budget freeze; SR and DRAP reviews)
• Decreased employee and stakeholder trust
• Talent or competency challenges
The above list increases the pressure on the Finance Function to make a role change
from Transaction/Compliance manager to Strategic Business Partner. In other words the
Finance Function must transform in order to support government-wide transformation.
Objectives &
Outline
Overview of
Competencies
Building
Competencies
Becoming a strategic
partner
8
Becoming a strategic partner: How?
•Focused on tactical execution
•Operates in isolation
•Limited by resources
Standard Business Processes
Harmonize and modernization
Systems
Process
Manager
Business
Partner
•Delivers strong fundamental business support
•Standardizes processes
•Strives for efficient, proactive operations
Establish risk-based approach to
business controls
•Focusing on streamlining day-to-day operations
•Focuses on improving operations and providing client
value for their money
Integrate performance
dashboards
Drive Dynamic Strategy
Management and Planning
Catalyst &
Strategic Partner
•Advises on strategic decision making
•Routinely evaluates risk-adjusted returns for proposed
initiatives
•Stimulates behaviour to achieve strategic and financial
objectives
Objectives &
Outline
Overview of
Competencies
Building
Competencies
Develop Talent to meet Business needs
Transaction
Manager
Must haves to move
to the next Stage in
the transformation
Implement business driven risk
management
Becoming a strategic
partner
9
Becoming a strategic partner: What Competencies?
Skills or knowledge to bolster Functional Competencies as a result of the vision and its transformational
impacts:
• Change Management
• Performance Management
• Risk Management
• Investment Management
• Project Management
• Costing Expertise (i.e. TBS Centre of Expertise for Costing)
• CFO attestation
Examples of skill that are important in this environment to strengthen your Behavioural Leadership
competencies:
• Values and Ethics: Fosters a climate of transparency, trust, and respect within the unit and in
partnerships
• Strategic Thinking (analysis): Identifies interdependencies across unit projects
• Strategic Thinking (ideas): Leverages experimentation, constructive questioning or innovation
• Engagement: Creates and collaborates with strategic alliances
• Action Management Excellence: Maintains composure in demanding or stressful situations
• Action Management Excellence: Identifies and integrates key information to report on results or
performance
• People Management Excellence: Coaches, challenges, and provides opportunities for growth
• People Management Excellence : Develops and supports career plans and learning opportunities
• People Management Excellence: Develops HR strategy for unit succession planning
• Financial Management Excellence: Implements strategies to achieve operational efficiencies and
value for money
Objectives &
Outline
Overview of
Competencies
Building
Competencies
Becoming a strategic
partner
10
Becoming a strategic partner: Challenges
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
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Working as individual not as a
team
Lack of relevant skills
Ineffective communications
Low morale and motivation
Poor Talent Management
Inadequate succession plans
Multiple and unaligned Finance
agendas
No single version of the truth
Too much time on gathering &
reconciliation
Inadequate management into
available for decision making
Communication to stakeholders
constrained
•
Autonomous and unaligned
functions
Unclear R&R & accountabilities
leading to duplication
Shadow finance functions
Limited mobility of Finance
Leaders
Minimal or lack of Finance
governance structures
•
•
•
Performance
Measure
•
People &
Culture
Organizational
Structure
Finance Function
•
•
•
Poor integration between
program systems and financial
systems
Unreliable costing
Lack of or lack of understanding
of processes or systems to
access internal or external
funds.
Funding and
Costing
•
•
Reporting
•
•
•
•
•
•
Objectives &
Outline
Technology
•
•
Overview of
Competencies
Multiple consolidation layers
Multiple systems and black
books
Manual Interfaces leading to
unreliable data
High reliance on end user
computing
Inconsistent reference data
Inconsistent policies/procedures and
controls
Significant reconciliation issues/errors
Late entries, adjustments and/or
period close-outs
Close process
Budgeting, Planning and Forecasting
are ineffective and/or inefficient
Building
Competencies
Becoming a strategic
partner
11