From influencing to impact - the hardest part of Finance
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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This series has focused on decision-making. Over the course of the last few articles, we've looked at the new skills required in order for Finance professionals to fulfill their potential as creators of value within their organizations, moving from a supporting role to that of a facilitator.
We've looked at some practical ways Finance professionals can encourage better decision-making, and explored the new imperative to influence real-world outcomes in collaboration with our stakeholders.
But decisions don't necessarily mean action. How many times have you sat in a meeting during which key decisions are made, only to find out later that they were never acted upon? It's one of the most common and most damaging time-drains in any organization, and it's one that Finance has a responsibility to bring to an end.
Talk is cheap
As we've seen throughout these articles, Finance should be a visible and proactive presence throughout the decision-making process.
But until now we've been focusing on the decisions themselves, and the actions we need to take in order to ensure they are the right ones. Just as important, though, is ensuring that those decisions are followed through.
This can be the hardest element of business partnering, particularly for Finance professionals who are not used to close cross-functional collaboration. It involves being a challenger - something that might be unexpected for other stakeholders, and something that doesn't come naturally to some Finance workers.
But it is a crucial priority and one against which our success as business partners will be judged. It's not enough to facilitate better decisions or even to make them ourselves. In addition, we need to act on them.
Documentation and tracking
It's important to document the decisions that are taken and that fall within your purview. There should be clearly codified records of what is going to be undertaken, the rationale behind it, the stakeholders involved, the concrete action points and people to whom they are assigned, and so on.
Business partners also have a responsibility to track progress and development. Again, this is likely to require you to challenge other stakeholders in some way, especially when they have not fulfilled their own responsibilities according to what has been agreed. Strong interpersonal skills, and in particular a collegiate and amiable personal outlook, are vital here.
Get the results - then start again
If you are able to follow the decisions all the way through to execution, you will eventually see the results.
Of course, they may or may not be the results you were hoping for or expecting. Alternatively, they may be precisely what you had predicted. In which case, congratulations!
Regardless of the outcome, though, every decision made in a business context should be seen as iterative. We don't make decisions and act upon them in order to reach some final destination. Instead, we make decisions, document our progress, and assess the outcomes - all in order to help us make even better decisions next time.
In the final part of this series, we're going to break down the decision-making process and look at some practical ways that business partners can fulfill their roles as facilitators. Make sure you subscribe to receive it and catch up on the previous articles here.
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This was the fourth article in my new series "The ultimate guide to decision-making for Finance professionals". You can read the previous article(s) in the series below.
You can read all articles in my latest series "The Mindset For The Future of Finance" below.
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If you want to learn more about one of the key roles of the future "finance business partner" you can check out my recent series "The personality of a business partner" below.
If you want to become a better business partner, consider taking our online course "Business Partnering Explained - Value Creation Unlocked" to get a better handle on the role. It's accredited for 5.5 CPD hours.
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.
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 on 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 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 60.000+ followers and 140.000+ subscribers to my blog. Recently I became an advisory board member at Born Capital to help identify and grow the next big thing in #CFOTech.
Clear financial guidance for Attorneys & Small Business Owners 📶
3yGreat article, Anders.