How have senior roles changed in the last 5 years? It will be no surprise to you I’m sure to hear that the role of the treasurer has changed significantly in the last 5 years. The profile of treasury and the visibility of the treasurer has also grown in the last few years – fuelled by the changes in the economy and the need for greater financial understanding and transparency.
Alex Hyde from Brewer Morris kicked off the treasury careers evening for senior members on Thursday, 21 April, by looking at the trends in the current market and changes to senior roles over the last few years. What has been happening with key roles:
- Managerial roles have become more specialised and recruiters are increasingly looking for people who already have these skills and can hit the ground running.
- Strategic roles have become broader – applicants should have a wider understanding of all the aspects within the business. This can be difficult to show when you are a specialist.
There are a few market trends coming out...
There is a greater emphasis on leadership skills
In particular, very senior roles need to be filled by managers who can show empathy, illustrate how they can engage with different people, understand ethics, CSR and transparency. These ‘soft skills’ are in huge demand.
Individuals who can show they can work with other teams, in particular IT, are highly sought after
This shows they go ‘beyond treasury’ and can interact with other key areas within the business. It is rare to see people who have IT and leadership skills and with the increasing use of technology in treasury – eg in payment services – individuals who hold these skills will be in demand.
What advice is there if you are looking for a new team member?
Alex feels looking for a new team member actually provides a great opportunity to think about the whole team structure – what skills do you have in the team, what career progression do you have in the team etc – and then develop a well thought through vacancy. It is also key to look at the new position and how you consider it working in the short and medium term – what would be the new candidates’ career progression be? And taking the easiest option doesn’t always yield the best results - sometimes taking someone who would need to learn part of the role is better than taking someone who can just do the role straight away.
What advice is there if you are a candidate?
His advice for candidates is to do more. Take on new projects, even if they don’t look interesting, expand your network, show that you have other skills, develop your knowledge – this will help you to stand out.
Alex’s presentation was followed by a lively panel discussion on how to use treasury skills to get broader, and more senior roles. All agreed that the disciplines picked up while working in treasury were key to a successful career. In particular, key skills gained were:
- The ability to explain complex transactions in a way that people working outside the area could understand.
- Knowing how to write well – and especially in a succinct format. You need to be able to get to the point quickly.
- Confidence and communication with senior people. Knowing what the board cares about and being able to provide them with what they need to know in a confident manner is critical.
- Keep stuff big enough. Senior people don’t want to know about every little detail – they want to know what will make the company fall over.
Treasurers are often the solution providers.
What type of personality do you need in order to succeed?
First and foremost it’s a challenging mind – you want to be inquisitive, challenge the status quo, want to understand how and why things work the way they do. You need to be flexible – admit when you are wrong, don’t be too defensive, be prepared to take others’ opinions and advice. And one final piece of advice is to be sympathetic – be challenging but not too challenging!
Treasury and beyond
The panel looked at how to make the move out of treasury. The key theme was to add value beyond being a technical treasurer. This can happen through acquiring knowledge of the wider business – not only goes this enable you to understand how the whole business works and what the board thinks is key but it also provides useful networking opportunities. Take opportunities as they arise – take secondments, you can always go back! In particular take the random roles that come up as these will often open doors to meet lots of different people you wouldn’t meet otherwise. Don’t be put off if someone says no to you and do keep trying.
In the question and answer session following the discussion, there was a discussion about what is the ideal career. Should you stay in one company or move around? How much should you move around? The best CVs tend to have a good balance of variety - whether that is with lots of companies or various roles within one company. Generally, senior roles want candidates to have moved a bit as staying in one company can lead to a candidate looking ‘institutionalised’.
And what about mentoring – does it work? Should your manager be your mentor? There is value to having a mentor but the chemistry has to work for the relationship to work well. Picking your own mentor is the best way of ensuring that you get the most from a mentoring relationship – and having a good network to choose from is essential.
In addition, most of the panel had formed their own networks, and they went to these if they wanted help with a problem. Most of the panel agreed this form of peer group support was the best way to discuss ideas and get helpful advice.
And finally, the panel ended on this sound piece of advice...
You are in control of your career – if you are not getting the support you need you have the power to change this.
We finished the evening with a presentation from Louis Cooper from the Non-Executive Directors Association (NEDA) on how to prepare for NED roles and how to make the most of being an NED.
The role and perception of the NED has changed a lot in the last few years. Those thinking of becoming a NED were advised to start thinking about how to get there – and the earlier they start planning and joining the ‘talent pool’ the better. NEDs do not have day-to-day roles but help steer the company, ensuring they adhere to appropriate standards of governance. NEDA have developed a life-cycle for NEDs which starts with pre-role planning to understand whether the role is actually right for you, and to ensure that you can make a strong contribution. When you accept a new appointment you should go through an induction period and show you understand the value you can add. As you progress and develop in to an established role you need to ensure you listen carefully, keep up to date and challenge appropriately. And finally you need a succession plan for when you leave.
This was followed by a personal and informative reflection on being a NED by Peter Goshawk. Two key take-homes from Peter’s discussion was that it can be very difficult to get your first NED position – there is a rigorous process to go through and you will need a completely different CV to highlight NED strengths. He re-iterated that the sooner you get in the talent pool the better – and that pre-role planning was essential. The second was to make sure that you leave the executive to do their job and that you look at things from a NED not an ED perspective.
My thanks to all the speakers for their informative comments, to Mitsuibishi for providing the venue and to our supporters Brewer Morris. Do remember to look on the ACT Career hub for eLearning resources on leadership and other non-technical skills, use the Capability Analysis Tool to help understand your teams’ skills, attend our events to build your network and sign up to our mentoring scheme, Mentor Me, if you would like to find a treasury mentor.
