How to take a leap into the unknown

By Ann McFadyen and Brendan McCarron

1 February 2011

Public sector finance chiefs should not be merely coping with change but mastering it – and that means learning new skills very quickly. Ann McFadyen and Brendan McCarron explain

Being on top of change means learning at a faster rate than our environment is changing. This is the lesson of the past million odd years that has made humans the top species.

And this is the lesson that public sector leaders must apply in the forthcoming restructuring of services. They will need to learn new skills for challenging times.

In this, finance leaders have a unique position. As they have no departmental interest, they can take a truly strategic, long-term view of what is best for the people they serve. This privileged position means that finance leaders must be able to rise to the challenge and use their existing skill sets in new ways to influence the strategic direction of their organisations.

Below are ten things that financial leaders can do to better equip themselves for the future.

1.    Work out what does it for you

Learning is so much part of being human that we take it for granted. But when you think about the best way you learn, it is likely to be when you have a chance to reflect on something that you have either done yourself, been told about or seen happen. So force some reflection time in your diary, even if it is on your journey to work. ‘Replay’ events to identify the specific lessons you can apply on the job. Then try the lessons out and repeat the cycle – hey presto! – you will have improved your learning.

2.    Phone a friend

Find one or two people to talk things over with and you will probably end up helping each other. The main thing is to talk about work-related problems with people who are not at your work. What you are really after is to get someone else’s perspective on your issue rather than specific advice. Seeing a problem through someone else’s eyes can give you fresh insights.

3.    Ask good questions

While giving good answers is what finance professionals are trained to do, asking good questions is what finance leaders learn to do. The idea is not to catch people out with clever questions but to get better thinking by asking encouraging questions. Better thinking should in turn lead to better decision-making and better outcomes. Constructing questions that get useful answers without alienating the people answering them will make you a better leader and stop you from leaping to conclusions – in other words, it is another way of becoming more reflective.

4.    Volunteer to help develop someone else

There is nothing that makes you learn faster than having to teach someone who needs your help. Developing someone else also gives you yet another perspective on your own issues. Take a structured approach, be properly prepared and avoid letting the person down by, for example, skipping promised meetings.

5.    Get involved in areas outside finance in your organisation

Taking part in projects, improvement initiatives and policy-making teams helps people think beyond their specialisms. They are also the play areas of leaders and the breeding grounds for future leaders. Be there. Take every opportunity to get involved and contribute in areas that stretch your knowledge and add to your skills set. And then apply the ideas from point one – reflect, learn and apply.

6.    Get involved in finance outside your organisation

Professional networks are good ways to meet other people, share ideas and learn from each other. The first thing you are likely to learn from them is that someone, somewhere has the same problems as you and might have some useful insights.

7.    Read up on your subject – leadership and management

We all expect medical doctors to have kept up to date since they left medical school and yet a leader or manager might have last read a management book when they were training in 1995, and then only because it was required reading. Do some research among your colleagues, friendly academics or CIPFA. Get their recommendations and keep up to date. But don’t slavishly follow every new trend, try to think how the ideas you read about could apply in your organisation and to your problems. Use them to gain new insights into you and your work.

8.    Seek out the right kind of feedback

Appraisal systems andone-to-ones with the boss have their place but the people who really know you are your peers and those who work for you. If you want to know if what you have learned and applied is working, use every opportunity to ask people. After you present reports, chair meetings, brief colleagues and indeed, give feedback, ask people if they think you were effective or not. Ask for specific examples of the behaviours that worked/did not work. Don’t argue, take the feedback away with you and reflect on it.

9.    Make learning a habit

A habit is a set of behaviours you acquire through repetition and then go on to consistently exhibit. You can get into a habit of not learning in many ways. So make learning an explicit part of your work routine. Decide on a system of learning that works for you and repeat it until it becomes second nature.

10.    Learn from how you learn away from work

If you find it hard to think through how you learn at work, think about how you learn away from work. What you read, what you watch, how you spend free time and the conversations you have with friends are all fertile ground for thinking about your own learning.

Ann McFadyen is head of training and development at CIPFA Business Services, and Brendan McCarron is performance adviser. CIPFA runs various leadership courses, including ‘Leading change’, and the CIPFA Leadership Academy programme