Streamlining Development: Making Time for Your Team

As a manager within the Accounting and Finance sector, the workload can often feel overwhelming.? You find yourself in a blur of monthly financial closes, budget reviews/forecasting, ERP upgrades and implementations, and managing internal controls.? During that whirlwind, is the underlying need to develop and mentor your team.? When the annual review reminder shows up for your team members, it’s not uncommon to wonder where the time went, and feel guilty over missed opportunities for development.

You are not alone in this situation!?

We often feel that developing someone on our team requires our direct time (which we don’t have due to pressing work requirements).?

To address this, consider some alternative tailored approaches to develop your team members:

Online Learning

There are multiple online webinars available that cover accounting and finance, soft skills, and industry information.? The ideal situation is to have the person attend the online seminar or class and then present their synopsis to you and/or the team.?

Project Involvement

When a work project comes up that would provide a learning experience for one of your team members, include them.? For instance, if you are on an ERP implementation team, have them sit in on a particular meeting or have them map out some of the internal processes for your review.

Team Presentations

This is a terrific way to have an individual on your team research topic and give a presentation to the team.? They will hone their presentation skills and you may uncover some insight from the team because you are attending and not presenting.

Peer Training

Empower a team member to train someone else on the team.? This helps to mentor them into a management role and enforces their knowledge base.? This is particularly helpful when you are onboarding or getting ready for a procedure or system change.

Other Departments

Cross-functional collaboration is key in any company.? Facilitate collaboration with another department to streamline a process. ?It can be helpful to bridge the revenue process with the sales team or work with human resources regarding benefit accruals.

Association Meeting

Another way to develop a team member is to have them attend an association meeting.? It is amazing how invested someone becomes in the bigger picture of what is happening in your industry.? In addition, it’s a wonderful way for them to network on behalf of the company.

By reframing team development as an activity-focused endeavor rather than a time-intensive one, you can effectively nurture growth within your team while managing your workload more efficiently.

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