Why the world needs another article on management styles

An article about leadership or management styles is probably the one topic that you can find on LinkedIn ten a penny. So you may rightly ask why and how another article could bring anything new to the table?

Well, I think that you can add another perspective if you bring in a CFO point of view. People tend to believe that there must be a conflict in this role between handling hard numbers and having a careful view on the financials on the one hand and soft metrics like being a supporter of an innovative and dynamic workforce on the other hand. Is that really mutually exclusive?

Indeed, leading a finance organization is now more complex than ever, especially in the media industry, where success is mainly built on people instead of plants, machinery or patents. But that’s exactly why leadership in this area cannot just be about reporting numbers to the capital market, interfacing with analysts or investors and managing the finances. It is also about designing the mindset around how the finance organization can succeed and efficiently support daily business operations as well as the overall company strategy.

In this context, a CFO has the role to provide the right context for where the business is going as well as why and how is it going to get there. The “where” and “why” are focusing on making the finance organization a strategic think tank that enables the business to create value while at the same time being the driving force on financial steering, processes and governance.

This brings us to the “how”. In the ProSiebenSat.1 case, thus in a fast-changing media and e-commerce environment, there are two aspects of modern leadership that are the most important for a finance organization in my point of view: You need to develop the best possible conditions for innovation and networking to be able to foster new business initiatives. And you need to continue meeting the high governance and steering requirements to provide a further professionalization of the organization.

Again, this seems to create a conflict in itself. But in order to balance between these two roles, I have found that it is best to focus on the organization, processes and teams by creating an environment with guiding priciples that serve as an orientation for all colleagues. I now would like to share the first four of eight guidelines that we have established within the ProSiebenSat.1 CFO board area for our daily work.

1. Embrace your internal and external customers: The primary customers of the finance team are the colleagues within the organization. Our goal is to deliver a best-in-class finance experience for them while striving to be guiding experts and a top-notch service center.
2. Challenge the status quo: As a finance team, we are always trying to find ways to eliminate repetitive tasks and cumbersome workarounds freeing up resources to support strategic initiatives within the company. In case elimination is not an option, it is crucial trying to introduce an automatization process. If tech capacities are a constraint in this matter, consider outsourcing under the close supervision of a central finance expert.
3. Make speed and simplicity your friends: Today’s success greatly depends on the capacity to innovate quickly. Thus, we aim to work at the beginning with simple pilots in order to collect crucial feedback early on. Sometimes even a basic solution might turn out to be sufficient so one can move on to new challenges. While working on fundamental things, make sure to involve all relevant stakeholders – don’t hide in the ivory tower.
4. Delegate and empower your environment: Everybody takes care of everything – this cannot work out in the long run. Hence, a mutual understanding is needed that tasks and ownership need to be divided distinctly within the team and between the colleagues. Share responsibilities – but make sure that the overall outcome is not at risk. Delegation does not mean that one is not in charge anymore. People will make errors – but leaders need to perceive this as an enhanced learning process.

Next time, I will share number 5 to 8 with you. But in the meantime, I am looking forward to getting into discussions how you perceive this supposed conflict of roles and how you handle it.