Should I Be A Finance Leader Or A Specialist?
Anders Liu-Lindberg
Leading advisor to senior Finance and FP&A leaders on creating impact through business partnering | Interim | VP Finance | Business Finance
It’s the age-old career question of whether to choose a generalist/managerial path or a specialist path. In the past, the road of specialist was not too attractive as to many people it limited how far they could advance in their careers. Also in Finance, everything led to a managerial track as you gained seniority. Today it’s somewhat different as organizations are getting flatter and highly specialized functions have emerged such as Advanced Analytics in addition to classic yet ever so complicated functions of Tax or M&A. The demands on the finance leaders have also increased significantly not least on the CFO which in turn has ripple effects down the managerial layers. Finance leaders simply need a lot broader skillset today which naturally increases complexity. All this have implications for your career choices which we will now dive further into.
It all starts with answering some key questions and then a choice
Career management in most companies today is up to the individual employee supported by her immediate manager. It’s a lot more about what you want yourself vs. what your company thinks is best for you. If you’re placed in a job that doesn’t align with your purpose then most likely you will be unhappy and perform far from your best. Hence when it comes to choosing between being a leader or a specialist you first and foremost need to ask yourself what it is you want? You can now earn the same income by being a data scientist or M&A advisor as you can being a finance manager or even a finance director. Therefore, the leader track is no longer a forced first choice for career advancement. Here are some of the considerations to think about when making this fundamental career choice.
- Leader: Do you enjoy helping other people succeed in their life and careers? Do you value the opportunity to develop people for a shorter period of time only to see them move on to bigger and better things? Can you cope with an increased demand to know a lot of topics within Finance and how they affect the strategic agenda? Last but not least, does leading others and getting results through others make your happy?
- Specialist: Do enjoy being the best in your field? Do value spending a lot of time digging into one particular topic? Can you accept that you might have a limited view of what’s going on in the company overall and even within the finance function? Last but not least, does the thought of sticking to the same field for most of your career make you happy?
When you have answered these key questions you can start to zoom in on making the choice. Remember, if you’re not honest with yourself when answering these questions you might end up in an unhappy career situation.
How does it look from the company’s perspective?
Essentially companies want happy employees that come to work every day giving it their best. An often cited Gallup study [link] reveals a completely different picture though that most people show up to work unhappy. There are many reasons for this but in my opinion, it essentially boils down to specialists and leaders having made wrong choices in their careers affecting everyone around them. If you’re not happy you could easily become a negative or even toxic person. We know it takes 17 positive people to overcome ONE toxic person [link] hence wrong career choices of individuals can easily pull down the overall performance of a team or even the whole company. Therefore, it makes perfect sense that companies help employees make the right choices between a leadership or a specialist track. That also means companies should step in and guide people who are about to make a wrong choice because they don’t fully understand their preferences. You might think you should be a manager but actually, you’re better suited in a specialist role. Or the specialist that does a great job in her own role and the company wrongly sees this as an opportunity to promote her into a leadership role without asking the specialist if (s)he truly values leadership over the specialist role. There are many such examples of wrong choices and wrong guidance by companies. This is just as true for finance roles as it is for all other roles.
So in summary, the paths of generalist vs. specialist have become more even now and it’s looking more like a choice that comes down to preferences. Finance directors and data scientists alike can earn the same amount of money and both can truly make an impact on company performance. Have you realized this new paradigm yet or are you still stuck in the old “leadership is the only road to glory†thinking? I would love to hear about some of the choices you have made in your career and what considerations led to those choices. As always like, comment and share and we’ll get this discussion started!
This was the fifth installment and you can read the previous ones below. You can also follow me on Twitter for more insights on current developments in the finance function.
The New Career Path For Finance Professionals
How To Learn Basic Finance And Accounting?
Financial Analysts Should Embrace Big Data
How Finance People Can Learn About Business
I also encourage you to take a tour of my old posts on finance transformation and not least “Introducing The Finance Transformation Nine Box†which is really the starting point for the transformation. Last but not least, you should join my Finance Business Partner Forum where we will continue to discuss this topic.
Financial Analyst vs. Finance Business Partner
You’re A Finance Business Partner, Now What?
Case Study: Becoming A Finance Business Partner
Why We Need Business Partnering Transformation
How Finance Can Help When Business Is Bad
How Finance Can Become An Analytics Powerhouse
How Finance Business Partners Improve Company Performance
There Is A New Kind Of CFO Needed In Town
Anders Liu-Lindberg is the Head of Global Finance PMO for Maersk Transport & Logistics and is working with the transformation of Finance and business on a daily basis. I have participated in several transformation processes such as a (business) finance transformation at Maersk Line, going Beyond Budgeting at Maersk Drilling and transformed a finance team from Bean-counters to Business Partners. I would love the chance to collaborate with you on your own transformation processes to help you stay out of disruption. Don’t be shy! Let’s get in touch and start helping each other.
Independent Finance Professional
7yI believe that the above mentioned choice could be also quite situational. And, IMHO, not possible at the early career stages, unless the personal preferences are quite clear from the very beginning, which might not be the most frequent occurrence. The broader field of speciality could be equally interesting for own professional development as leadership position. And, the views could evolve with age and progressing either way through career.
🖩📈💶CFO, Controller, Modeller, Analyst. Creating value through Analytics, Financial modelling, Planning, Control, Capital management
7yVery interesting insights, and food for thought.
Facilitator/Trainer/Mentor of strategic and operational resilience in surface water and drainage
7yPersonally I have undertaken, and would recommend, the career path that commences with leadership and then jump ship (Branch in Adrians analogy) when the time is right. Specialism can be a very wide and very deep (working Capital in my case) so one needs that understanding of the 'conflicts' etc in the wider enterprise and which you have gleaned as a leader in a previous life.
Analyst, improvement-activist, data-protection and governance wonk, mentor and student.
7yThis time, Anders, I "mostly" agree :-) In my experience there are two major branches in the decision-tree. One is either to base a career on a generalist approach, keeping an interlocked understanding of all the themes cross-cutting high-performing entities, or to go for a deeper specialism which brings a competitive USP but runs the risk of losing its sparkle after the first decade or so and of perhaps becoming slowly (or quickly!) irrelevant in a changing business market. The other branch is the one with varying levels of seniority of decision-making and responsibility for the work of others - I don't like the term "leadership" because first, if everyone's a leader then who are the followers?, and, second, you don't necessarily have to be a "leader" to be in a position of strong corporate strategic influence. And it's worth remembering that it's possible to jump from branch to branch as people's careers and interests develop and change. (Not always easy, but possible!)
ACCA Finalist | Aspiring Valuations & Transactions Analyst | LLB Graduate with Proven Legal, Financial, and Advisory Experience
7yExcellent Article . Thank for sharing ðŸ˜