The challenging life of an FP&A leader
Anders Liu-Lindberg
Leading advisor to senior Finance and FP&A leaders on creating impact through business partnering | Interim | VP Finance | Business Finance
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From the board to business operations leaders, finance peers, and the FP&A team, the FP&A leader has a vast stakeholder landscape. This is the greatest challenge of the role but also presents a huge opportunity to make an impact in the business.
From an entry-level financial analyst position, the FP&A professional gathers experience to eventually blossom into a leadership role. Although there are plenty of technical skills to be gained along the way, the critical requirement is the ability to manage a variety of key relationships, each in the most appropriate way.
To succeed in the FP&A leadership role, the finance professional must have mature business partnering and leadership skills to draw upon. The gathering, interpreting, and packaging of data into strategic decision-making information require partnering across the whole business, from operational units at the coal face to the board, and leadership within the FP&A team.
Influence on the strategy of the business, like respect, must be earned, and partnering is the route to success. What are the key elements of business partnering and leadership that distinguish the best FP&A leaders?
Best practice for success
Relationship building is at the core of business partnering and leadership, but every relationship is different and each is as vital as the next. Whether dealing with an operations manager in a small division, a senior member of the board, or a junior financial analyst starting out on their FP&A career, the relationship must add value to both parties.
The FP&A function has risen to the challenge of keeping abreast of regular tasks while also responding rapidly and intelligently to business changes. There is a good chance too that the FP&A team itself will be in a constant state of improvement and transformation. It is the role of the leader to develop and sustain a positive culture, and to support colleagues as they grow in their role and adapt to change.
Partnering with operating units and other functions within the business means building mutual trust and respect with non-financial peers. Managers who trust FP&A to fight their corner for resources or support changes in processes will in turn be open about their weaknesses and strengths, and about the opportunities and threats that they perceive. In turn, this gives FP&A richer data for decision-making, helping the board to make better decisions with support from every part of the organization.
Partnering with the board and the CFO is yet another relationship of trust in FP&As business projections and reporting so that strategic decisions are executed with confidence and external stakeholders can be satisfied. FP&A has a significant influence on the success of the business, and the greatest challenge and opportunity for the FP&A leader is to be effective in business partnering.
Challenge and reward
All of the FP&A professionals we speak to relish the challenge of business partnering and the variety that the leadership role affords. The perspective that an FP&A leader develops on the whole business is second to none, and with strong business partner relationships, the impact and influence that they can have on the strategic direction and success of the business is second to none.
Putting the effort into developing strong partnering and leadership skills takes the FP&A leader to another level. These are things that can be developed over the course of a successful career to grasp the opportunities that are offered.
What has been your best experience of building those crucial relationships in your FP&A career? We would love to hear about the challenges you have overcome in the comments below.
This was the fifth article in my latest series "Charting the course of a successful FP&A career". You can read the previous article(s) below.
While you await future articles you can read my latest series "Planning (as we know it) is dead!" below.
Recommended by LinkedIn
You can read a lot more articles about FP&A, Business Partnering, and Finance Transformation below. It all start's with “Introducing The Finance Transformation Nine Box” where you set the ambition for your transformation. You should join the Finance Business Partner Forum, which is part of the Business Partnering Institute's online community.
The secret sauce of FP&A transformation (the last article in the series "FP&A Transformation Talks")
How Finance should use its seat at the table (the last article in the series "The Unfair Advantage of Finance")
The ultimate guide to decision-making for finance professionals (the last article in a series about the decision-making process and how Finance should impact it).
The Mindset Change Checklist For Finance Professionals (the last article in a series about the mindset change that finance and accounting professionals should make to become business partners)
It's Time To Decide If You Want To Be A Business Partner (the last article in a series about the personality traits of business partners)
All Successful Business Partners Are "Leaders" (the last article in the series about our new capability model)
Should We Keep Talking About Business Partnering? (part of a 17-article series where we deep-dive into the WHY, WHAT, and HOW of business partnering by putting it on a formula)
Everyone Can Adopt A Business Partnering Mindset (part of a six-article series about FP&A Business Partnering)
From Business Partner To Working Within The Business (part of an article series where I interview finance professionals about their careers in FP&A and Business Partnering)
Is Your Product Optimized For Value Creation? (part of a toolbox series where we look at what tools FP&A professionals should leverage to drive value creation)
How Business Partners Turn Analysis To Insight (part of case study series where I interview business partners about how they drive value creation using real cases)
Anders Liu-Lindberg is the co-founder and a partner at the Business Partnering Institute and the owner of the largest group dedicated to Finance Business Partnering on LinkedIn with more than 10,000 members. I have ten years of experience as a business partner at the global transport and logistics company Maersk. I am the co-author of the book “Create Value as a Finance Business Partner” and a long-time Finance Blogger on LinkedIn with 85,000+ followers and 155,000+ subscribers to my blog. I am also an advisory board member at Born Capital where I help identify and grow the next big thing in #CFOTech.
Finance Business Partner | Writer | Geek
2yGreat article Anders! 'Seek first to understand, then to be understood' (Covey), is a great way of getting to know the personalities that we work with so that we can influence them.
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2yFor me, one of the key elements is the mindset shift for both FP&A leaders and their stakeholders. The title business partner doesn't make us one. There is a lot of learning and hard work with stakeholders behind to gain trust and move from the image of a support function to a proactive partner.