After studying economics in college, I began my career as a fixed income trader managing government bonds in pension funds and developing cash management products for corporate clients. I then moved to a treasury consultancy working as a financial markets economist where I provided forecasts on financial market rates. Through my interaction with treasury professionals, I began to appreciate the difference between a market view and a real outcome and the importance of risk management to ensure that any deviation between my excellent forecasts and reality was mitigated. I moved seamlessly into treasury consulting and began helping to develop strategies and policies while sitting the ACT exams to hone my skills. Over my career, I have found my economics background has tended to differentiate me from my colleagues, who I have found come predominately from finance or accounting backgrounds. I find that my macroeconomics background helps me to look at the bigger more strategic picture and to try to determine the implications or knock-on impact of various different scenarios which informs my overall risk appetite. I have found that these skills have helped me adopt more strategic approaches to issues.
My most exciting role to date has been managing a liquidity portfolio through the recent global financial crisis. All of the hard work put into the defining the investment policy and strategy and setting the risk management parameters proved that our processes were very robust, and we avoided a lot of the issues that many other portfolios suffered from. Internally the success of this project was recognised at Board level as they did not have to devote much time to monitoring our portfolio, in contrast to many other organisations.
When the ACT set up its mentoring programme I was at a stage in my career where I wanted to help develop other professionals. My own team was quite small at the time and we already worked very closely together in a very collegiate atmosphere which had a natural organic mentoring environment. I felt that I would like to give the benefit of my skills and experience to someone in the profession who did not have this type of support in their own organisation.
I think it is important to be positive and enthusiastic about the topic. I also feel that it is very important to listen and understand where the mentee is in terms of their career and professional development. It is also critical, as a mentor, to recognise your own weaknesses and where you may not be able to provide assistance and can instead point the mentee in the right direction.
I believe that for the relationship to be successful that the initial parameters of what is expected, from both parties, is agreed at the beginning. I also think that a degree of flexibility is also important. I defined my role as one of providing guidance and direction and not one of giving solutions. I believe that my role is to transfer the skills I have acquired over many years in developing strategies and solutions while that of mentee is to take the benefit of my experience while developing their own solutions and strategies. As time goes by the mentee should grow in confidence and knowledge.
I think it has been a positive experience and gives the mentee an additional degree of confidence that they are not facing the world alone, in relation to technical or career issues. If they come across an issue they can Dial M for Mentor and get support and guidance from a neutral and sympathetic source.
Just do it! It is incredibly rewarding to know that you are helping someone progressing in their treasury career. There is also the added benefit of challenging yourself to think about issues that are different to the ones you encounter on a daily basis which also helps you to recognise the wide skill set that you have actually acquired!
One of my first managers told me that if I don’t understand exactly what is involved in the daily work of a team member then it may be difficult to manage them. I have found that this approach works very well and that if you understand the world from someone else’s perspective then it is easier to communicate and motivate them and to get them participate and contribute in a more meaningful way.
I really don’t have a career or business hero but tend to admire individuals who try to push themselves to their limit, while pursuing their view of what is right and being mindful of the people around them.
“Why the West Rules - For Now” by Ian Morris who presents an alternative view of world history starting 15,000 years ago and tracing the progress of West and East, a weighty but fascinating read.