Finance professionals: develop the skills needed in the future workplace

My guess is, that if you are reading this, we share a desire to stay relevant by continuing to be a valuable asset in both the workplace of today as well as the future. Reaching this objective requires the anticipation of what relevance entails in the future as opposed to today.

Many finance professionals have realized that staying relevant entails moving from merely controlling the business to actively enabling, changing, and improving the business, i.e., moving from bean counter to business partner. However, what this transition requires in terms of competency development seems to be more difficult to pinpoint. Specifically, two questions arise in this context:

1. What skills must we possess to succeed in the future?
2. Where is the competency gap as opposed to today?

Insights from a recent survey by McKinsey & Company lets us start answering these questions. The survey called "Defining the skills citizens will need in the future world of work" covered 18,000 people in 15 countries and identified 56 foundational skills that will help citizens thrive in the future of work. These 56 foundational skills were then grouped into 13 skill groups across four overarching competency themes as shown below.

See complete descriptions of the underlying 56 foundational skills in the appendix at the end of this article.

Additionally, the survey showed that these foundational skills will benefit all citizens and further showed that higher proficiency in them is already associated with a higher likelihood of employment, higher incomes, and job satisfaction.

What skills must we possess to succeed in the future?

Despite the skills from the survey not being aimed specifically at finance professionals, we can benefit from the insights, nonetheless. Looking at the competency model outlined above, we can start identifying skills that might help us succeed in the future.

While the traditional roles aimed at controlling the business rely heavily on cognitive skills such as “Logical reasoning”, “Structured problem solving”, and other analytical competencies, this is not enough to succeed as a business enabler or finance business partner in the future. To succeed in the role as finance business partner, more interpersonal skills must come into play, e.g., the ability to develop relationships through “Empathy”, “Humility”, “Sociability”, and “Inspiring trust”. Furthermore, to create true impact for the company – a key objective of the finance business partner – one must be able to exercise self-leadership incl. “Driving change and innovation” and “Coping with uncertainty”.

Conclusively, to stay relevant, we must consider a wider competency model than the one we have relied upon in classic roles as accountants, business- or financial controllers.

Where is the competency gap as opposed to today?

The McKinsey & Company survey found that those with higher levels of education are better prepared for changes in the workplace, as the average skill proficiency was higher amongst people with a university degree. This is good news for finance professionals, as most tend to be well-educated.

However, the survey also found that higher education does not correlate with higher proficiency across all 56 skills. That is, “for many [skills] within the self-leadership and interpersonal categories, such as ‘Self-confidence’, ‘Coping with uncertainty’, ‘Courage and risk-taking’, ‘Empathy’, ‘Coaching’, and ‘Resolving conflicts’, there is no such association.”.

This could indicate that we as finance professionals might – despite our educations – be prone to a competency gap related to these softer skills. This is also supported by other research showing that soft skills dominate the top 5 qualities and experiences deemed necessary to transition into the CFO role.

Consequently, to close the competency gap and move towards becoming fit for the future, we should design learning and development activities to nurture the softer skills associated with the interpersonal and self-leadership competency groups.?

“Given the weak correlation between proficiency in self-leadership and interpersonal [skills] and higher levels of education, a strong curricula focus on these soft skills may be appropriate.”

Conclusion

• The competency model that will allow finance professionals to succeed in the future is broader than, and quite different from the skills we have relied upon in the past.
• Finance professionals must focus on developing self-leadership and interpersonal skills to close the competency gap. That is, there is no need for another analytics course but rather deliberate training program aimed at strengthening EQ-related skills.?

Appendix: Overview of the 56 foundational skills

Source: McKinsey & Company