To describe the past few months as challenging would be quite an understatement. When we consider the changes that the COVID-19 crisis has brought in terms of the global economy, the labour market, and the way we communicate with colleagues, friends and family, our current situation has touched all aspects of our lives.
For all of us, the crisis has led to rapid, fundamental changes to our working styles and a sudden need for new communication skills, adapted to a virtual work environment.
How do we communicate effectively with colleagues or interviewers when we’re just looking at a screen – sometimes seeing their faces, but sometimes not?
How do we create a rapport and engage with an audience that is on mute and may be distracted by emails, other calls or may be chat messaging while we’re talking to them?
More importantly, especially for younger professionals, how do we stay visible? How do we make sure we stay on track with our career and development goals, and seize career opportunities when they present themselves?
The list of concerns is formidable. Current uncertainty in the global economy; the sustainability and financial performance of specific industries and companies; and the potential impact on employment and constraints in the treasury job market are all worries for many of us, especially for those at the beginning of their careers.
However, young treasury professionals have many assets that will help them weather the storm and emerge as stronger professionals.
In my opinion, some of these assets are inherent to being younger and being at the beginning of a career – a time when academic achievements matter and when there are many career paths to explore and choose from.
However, the other advantage that younger treasurers have today is the sheer number of opportunities to apply their skills to an evolving treasury world and to the benefit of companies labouring under the current crisis.
One of the significant resources that younger treasurers must use to their advantage is Association of Corporate Treasurers qualifications, to make sure they have strong fundamental technical skills. Most corporates see treasury qualifications as a standard requirement and have budget for their teams. The more time passes and the more responsibilities grow within a role, the less time there will be to dedicate to qualifications. All of that makes the early stages of a treasury career the best time to study.
Technical skills must be complemented by the development of soft skills. Some of those are developed in the workplace – but by no means all. There are plenty of opportunities outside of the workplace to practice public speaking and networking, for instance.
When reflecting on career development, I always go back to an article that the former treasurer at BHP shared with me when I was working there.
Making Yourself Indispensable, published in the Harvard Business Review by John H Zenger, Joseph R Folkman and Scott K Edinger in October 2011, talks about the value of cross-training, drawing a parallel between athletic cross-training and personal development.
To become a better leader, they argue, one should focus on developing skills that complement existing strengths.
Doing more of what we already do well will only yield incremental improvement, the authors argue. “To get appreciably better at it, you have to work on complementary skills – what we call non-linear development… To move from good to much better, you need to engage in the business equivalent of cross-training. If you’re technically adept, for instance, delving even more deeply into technical manuals won’t get you nearly as far as honing a complementary skill such as communication, which will make your expertise more apparent and accessible to your coworkers,” they say.
I think this is such an important and powerful tool to think about. This is where there is a real opportunity for younger treasury professionals today to make a difference to their career – particularly when the situation we’re living through brings up such significant challenges.
Treasury, and the wider finance world, is going through major changes and developments. To name a few directly in the treasury sphere: Brexit, benchmark rate transition, ESG, evolving fintech products, Open Banking and PSD2, without mentioning the challenges that COVID-19 is bringing to businesses and related issues such as accessing central bank funding facilities and supporting cash-strapped businesses through effective business partnering.
There is also a wealth of initiatives in the wider finance world, which may apply to shared services centres and finance processes, (such as artificial intelligence and robotics) and to risk and compliance (such as cyber risk) and many other areas.
I see these conditions and initiatives as huge opportunities for younger treasurers to be a part of, and to apply this concept of cross-training; these initiatives may not be directly within their remit, but they constitute a great opportunity to cross-train, and acquire knowledge outside of their current role, and to complement existing skills: technical and personal.
The key is to ask to be part of these initiatives, ask or even propose ways to contribute. They may be small things to start with – helping with a presentation, modelling financial scenarios, gathering and analysis data – but it is a way for younger treasury professionals to prove their worth and to demonstrate that they can add value in areas that matter, and a point of entry for other projects and more responsibilities.
Overall, I think younger treasury professionals have many great opportunities offered to them right now, by exploiting the many initiatives happening in the world of treasury at the moment. To ensure they seized them, I would encourage them to be proactive, open-minded, and articulate why and how they can add value, and how it’s important for their development.
Agnes Favillier is president of the Association of Corporate Treasurers and director of treasury at Sage