Anyone who wants to make it to the top of the treasury profession will need technical expertise in a wide range of areas. Depending on the nature of their organisation and sector, as well as the size of their treasury, this expertise is likely to include knowledge of cash management, corporate finance, hedging strategies and investment, plus familiarity with tax and accounting. Professional qualifications – such as the Association of Corporate Treasurers’ (ACT’s) Diploma in Treasury Management (AMCT) – provide a strong foundation for developing this expertise, combined with practical experience in the workplace.
Becoming a technically competent treasury professional requires a huge amount of time and effort. Nevertheless, it’s arguably still the easy stage of the journey towards becoming a treasury leader. What can be much harder is career management – knowing what opportunities to seize and when – and building the interpersonal skills and professional network that underpin long-term success.
Many treasurers aspire to become group treasurer one day. Others may have greater ambitions – perhaps they have the CFO or even the CEO role on their radar. And that’s not unrealistic. Plenty of CFOs were once corporate treasurers, including Adrian Marsh, CFO of packaging company DS Smith, and Lucie Harwood, CFO of technology company Abundia Global Impact Group. Ronan Dunne, now chairman of Six Nations Rugby, spent his early career in treasury, before rising up the ranks of telecommunications company Telefónica UK to become CFO and CEO. He later moved to US-based Verizon, where he spent five-and-a-half years as CEO of its consumer group.
Regardless of your aspirations, it’s important to understand which skills and experience you will need to achieve your goal and have a plan for getting them. Experts often advise getting a broad base of experience, especially early in your career. This doesn’t necessarily mean that you regularly need to move organisations, but it might mean getting involved with new projects – both inside and outside of treasury – and taking secondments to other departments.
Strategic initiatives, such as acquisitions and transformation programmes, can provide opportunities for you to broaden your skill set within the context of your organisation. Meanwhile, the implementation of a treasury management system can be a platform for collaborating with the IT team.
A stint overseas could help to enhance your understanding of the organisation’s operations in other markets. Try to learn as much as you can from the projects you’re involved with by asking questions, listening to other members of the team and challenging yourself in terms of the responsibilities and tasks you take on.
When weighing up a potential new role, don’t be seduced by impressive-sounding job titles
Of course, it’s not always possible to grow within your present organisation. Sometimes it will be necessary to move if you want to further yourself. When weighing up a potential new role, don’t be seduced by impressive-sounding job titles, however. Instead, make sure you really understand what’s involved with the potential new role. The prospect of being deputy treasurer might seem appealing, but will it equip you with the necessary commercial, finance and leadership skills to progress in the long term?
Also, don’t forget the importance of CPD to your career. By attending courses and reading widely, you will stay up to date on the latest developments in treasury and beyond. Studying for an advanced qualification, like the ACT’s Advanced Diploma in Treasury Management, can help you to develop the strategic thinking skills that will take you to the highest levels in treasury. It can also enable you to feel more confident about interacting with important organisational stakeholders, including senior management, banks, credit rating agencies and investors.
Clearly, being a treasury leader requires leadership and management skills. You will need to manage and motivate others to give their best so that the business can achieve its objectives. This will only be possible if you are skilled in areas such as collaboration, communication, influencing, listening, presentation, project management, teamwork and time management. See The Business of Treasury report in The Treasurer, Issue 2, page 32.
Some of these skills are likely to come naturally to you; others less so. Fortunately, just like technical skills, you can learn these vital leadership and management skills through development programmes and practise them in the workplace.
Today there is an expectation that leaders will be empathetic and inclusive, as well as genuine proponents of diverse thinking. Make sure you understand the value of diversity and know how to detect and combat unconscious bias. To encourage people to bring forth their best ideas, it’s vital to create a psychologically safe environment that supports open debate.
You may want to learn how to be a coach, mentor and sponsor to the people within your team in order to inspire the next generation of treasury talent. Self-awareness underpins good leadership, so keep reflecting on your leadership practice as you advance up the career ladder.
Treasury is known for being a demanding profession, which is associated with long working hours. For that reason, physical and mental wellbeing is another priority, especially given the rise of hybrid working practices that have often increased the amount of time that treasurers spend at their desks. Burnout is a very real problem for treasurers, as well as other finance professionals. In fact, a study by digital accountancy platform LemonEdge found that nearly a quarter (23%) of financial service workers are concerned about their health or mental health.
As a leader, it’s your job not only to look out for any signs that your team members may be struggling, but also to keep yourself as fit and well as possible. That’s why it’s important to eat healthily, get enough sleep and exercise, take breaks, avoid working weekends and switch off your email when you’re on holiday.
Treasury might be a highly technical function, but ultimately it is also a relationship business. So, your success as a treasury leader will depend not only on how well you lead the treasury team, but also on the quality of the relationships you build with your peers in other functions and organisations, as well as your key banking partners. Keep networking throughout your career, both formally and informally, including on social media and at industry events.
There’s no exact blueprint for success as a treasury leader. Every treasurer who makes it to the top will have taken a slightly different route to get there. But if you can effectively combine technical expertise, planning, networking and leadership skills, you have the foundation for the best possible treasury career – and the kind of career that will work for you.
The ACT offers treasury and cash management qualifications, as well as training. Find out more at learning.treasurers.org
Sally Percy is author of Reach the Top in Finance: The Ambitious Accountant’s Guide to Career Success, a leadership contributor to Forbes and former editor of The Treasurer
This article was taken from Issue 3, 2022 of The Treasurer magazine. For more great insights, log in to view the full issue or sign up for eAffiliate membership
