I've delivered two Finance Leadership workshops over the last 2 months and met quite a few of you afterwards and there have been some common "ah-ha" moments that have come from these conversations, which is great.

I thought I would go through those here.

Reserving that time in your diary for planning, not just fire-fighting

I think working in a fast growth business or start-up in particular, you can spend so much time fire-fighting.  

Things grow very quickly (I have a client who landed a Commercial deal and their revenue as quadrupled (as in 4x) month on month!) and therefore things tend to break (a lot!) and take up a lot of your time.

The only way I have been able to manage this is to reserve a recurring meeting in my diary that is set aside for thinking and planning only.  Friday afternoons work for me, as not many people want to have a meeting during this time.

If your diary is completely full for the next two weeks, start your recurring meeting in 3 or 4 weeks from now, so that's locked in.

There is always a lot of planning to do (which I do go through a lot in the course), but even working out ways to mitigate risk or improve processes is a great start.  

So get that recurring meeting in your diary if you haven't already.

Finding your voice during meetings

I know I was very guilty of this earlier in my career.  I don't know how many meetings I attended and would only speak when asked a finance question but never asked any questions or gave my opinion unless it was very specifically finance related.

Finance teams have so much knowledge and sometimes don't even know it.  

Most departments aren't support functions and so they don't get that overview of what is going on around the business and how each department interlinks.  

But you and your team do and that is a valuable insight that your colleagues are interested in hearing about. 

You have knowledge that needs to be shared and questions that need to be asked - so try to find your voice!

Spending more time with colleagues who are outside the finance department than in

When working in more junior roles or as a finance manager you don't spend too much time outside the finance department, unless you're chasing for expense claims, signatures or invoices.

When you're in a leadership role, you often spend much more time outside the finance team.

So relationship building with the other leaders around the business is incredibly important.

And you need to take this on as a task.  You should form those relationships, as honestly, you need and will rely on these more than the other leaders will to start with.  However, once you have established how much value you can add, they will need you just as much.

So take that on as a first step - get to know your colleagues / leaders / stakeholders / c-suite team well.

If you need support and mentoring to improve your Finance Leadership skills, here are four ways I can help...

1. Get your FREE Guide: Stepping into the role of Finance Director or CFO
2. Follow me and let me know what challenges you are having right now.
3. Register for the mini-course, Upgrade your Management Accounts and get noticed by the business 
4. Work with me in the new / aspiring FD course and includes Q&A sessions where we can discuss all of your questions and how to apply your learnings to your current role.