The Real Challenge is Only Just Beginning

The role of Mentorship in Finance & Accountancy: How to find and be a mentor

I suspect Mentoring has always been around but the last decade or so has seen it rise to considerable prominence...Its value is probably greater now than it was throughout our history, or at least modern history.I have been exposed to mentoring and mentorship from every angle having proactively sought out my own mentors in the past and in time taken on the role of mentor to others. In my dual roles as a partner within The CFO Partnership and a board director of Sharp Consultancy for over a quarter of a century I have experienced it through osmosis and experience. Mentoring is something very close to my heart.Hopefully in this article I can explain why you should seek out a mentor for yourself, why your skills could make you a great mentor for others, how much satisfaction you might gain from mentoring others and one or two points on what makes a great mentor. Mentoring in Finance:Whilst mentoring can be beneficial in every type of employment and indeed, every walk of life, I believe it has particular relevance in the accountancy and finance sector.Accountants need to develop their management and leadership skills as they progress just like anyone else. They need to develop their self-knowledge and self-awareness like anyone else. They are, however, more exposed to issues regarding ethics and integrity than many other roles/industries. There can be and often is pressure for the results to be better than they are, perhaps to secure further lending or investment, please the boss, even keep their job. More than a few accountants have found themselves at His Majesty’s pleasure having done something they wouldn’t normally have done but have been pressured into. The finance leader (usually Finance Director or CFO) is the key sounding board for the owners/stakeholders; they are often the conscience of the owners. They probably need the ability to say ‘no’ more than other board members – and say yes and encourage. Whilst not responsible for operations, marketing, HR, IT (sometimes they are) and so on they transcend all those areas. They make a mistake – everything can go South very quickly.It is in part for the above reasons that the value of a mentor, someone who can be an independent sounding board, can question you and listen to you, offer opinions and advice is invaluable.Frequently a mentor helps you reach your decision and gives you the confidence to fulfil your plan. They help set challenges into perspective. They ask questions you haven’t thought of and allow you to see things through another person’s experiences. They are calming influencers and confidence builders. As a younger man early in my career I was told the best way of developing fast was to be a sponge, to absorb the greatest attributes of those around me and above me; to become an amalgamation of the best traits of those people. The challenge in accountancy and finance is you can easily find yourself at a relatively young (and hence relatively inexperienced) age in a fairly senior role with perhaps only one or two more senior finance people above you. Even if they are good, it is a very shallow talent pool to learn from. A mentor therefore can help you ‘mentally mature’, hone your decision making, cope with daily stresses, deal with difficult situations, improve as a manager or leader, manage upwards, improve your profile and credibility and build your own personal brand – in effect be the best version of yourself.However, it is worth noting what a mentor is NOT. They are not there to tell you what to do. They are not there to make decisions for you. They are not there to do your job for you. If that is what you are looking for then a mentor is not the solution.Why I became a Mentor:It was a very easy decision for me. By nature, I love helping others (it’s why I’ve loved recruitment for nearly 30 years) and I benefitted so much from formal and informal mentors myself.As an aside, a formal mentor is someone who takes responsibility for mentoring you. Informal mentors are people you surround yourself with who you know you can learn so much from just by being associated with them. There are dozens if not hundreds of people I would class as informal mentors to me; people who probably believe that I have helped them and probably don’t realise just how much they have helped me. Osmosis again!Mentoring someone is surprisingly two-way. You are there to benefit them, but you often benefit from the dynamic yourself. Mentees frequently inspire you to think differently in the same way you hope to inspire them. If you like helping people, then few things are as satisfying as being a mentor. When your mentee has a huge challenge and they are lost at sea, helping them find their way of navigating those choppy waters is one of the most satisfying things you can do. They feel fulfilled. You feel fulfilled.Finding a Mentor:It would be very difficult to try and find a random person to be your mentor. Chances are it will be someone you know well enough to admire and respect. Possibly a colleague, a customer, a supplier, a relative or a friend.You probably need to know them in advance to be sure you’d feel comfortable opening up to them; and be sure they would operate in the strictest of confidence.My first mentor was one of my customers. He was (is) a chartered accountant and at the time had been a partner in private equity for many years. He was inspirational, knowledgeable, vastly experienced in business and because of his private equity experience, had dealt with every size and type of business and every type of management team. I was very nervous asking him, but I plucked up the courage and was surprised by how flattered and delighted he was to be asked.Pick a mentor who might have enjoyed the career and experiences that you hope to achieve yourself. Luckily in finance it’s likely that you have already been exposed to such people.Identify who you’d want and simply ask them in a manner that shows how much you respect them. Give them a very easy way out so they don’t feel trapped in to agreeing ‘I know how very busy you are so there’s absolutely no problem at all if you haven’t got the time or for that matter, if being a mentor just doesn’t appeal to you’.How to be a good mentor:I suspect this is the one area I am least qualified to speak with authority on. I hope I’m a decent mentor, but would I be told if I wasn’t?There are some very sensible things that you can do or avoid doing though:Do ask what they want to get out of the meetingsDo ask what they don’t want to cover Do ask lots of questions; questions where the mentee presents the potential answers.Do explore reasoning; ‘Why’ is not an aggressive questionDo give ideas if requested toDo listenDon’t tellDon’t do it for themDo agree what actions they want to deliver before the next meeting (if that’s something they want you to do)Don’t berate them if they haven’t done what they said they were going to do – you aren’t their managerDon’t be emotional. Be factual. The regularity of the meetings is entirely up to the mentee. I always liked 1 hour every 2-3 months but that’s me. Final Thoughts:Finance is a multifaceted, technical, regulated and challenging discipline. It has huge risks if mistakes are made and can have more ethical/integrity dilemmas than many jobs. Having a mentor in finance can therefore have huge benefits.From a career development perspective, they can make all the difference. Therefore:Decide on what kind of support and advice you would like.Decide what you are trying to achieve in your business and your career.Figure out what kind of prson might have the experience that would be valuable.Do you know anyone like that?Don’t be shy, ask them. Ask them the way I mentioned earlier, and they’ll be flattered (and more likely to say yes).A dog may be for life, but a Mentor doesn’t have to be. If it isn’t working (they all lose their benefit over time) move on to another.Consider doing the same for someone else and mentoring them.

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As we move towards Step 4 in the Government’s Roadmap to easing lockdown, businesses are looking at how they best navigate the coming months – and even years – as they consider what the new normal will be in terms of their day-to-day operations.

Whilst there is still, inevitably, much uncertainty about what the future holds – not least about whether restrictions will indeed be eased further in the next few weeks – organisations throughout the region will have, for some time now, been planning how they will move forward. Particular attention will be given to how they will look to manage their employees and the fine balance that needs to be bridged between continuing to work from home and a return to pre-COVID operations.

For some, ourselves included, the return to offices and workplaces began last summer when restrictions initially started to ease but for many, perhaps due to circumstances surrounding the nature of the business or a desire to wait for more certainty before making a commitment, it is only now that firmer decisions are being taken about what the way forward will look like.

In some ways, whilst hugely disruptive, and for some hugely devasting, the short, sharp shock of the country being forced into lockdown in March 2020 was an easier situation for employers to handle than the one currently being faced. There was no choice. The situation was at least clear; businesses had to do whatever was needed to get their teams set up and running from home as quickly and as efficiently as they possibly could. And whilst the optimists amongst us possibly viewed it as a temporary situation lasting (hopefully) a matter of weeks – at worst months – even the most pessimistic were unlikely to have envisaged that we would still be conducting meetings via Zoom or Teams and may not have seen colleagues in person in well over a year (or at all if they started a new role!).

The question of ‘what happens next?’ is not one which there is a universal answer with different approaches being considered and for some, decisions not being taken until well into 2022. Working from home has, in the most part, been quite successful; and even for those businesses for whom pre-COVID it would not have even been on the table for discussion, naturally the questions are now being asked – do we even need to return to the office at all?

Employers are faced with several potentially tricky dilemmas. Some employees may be desperate for a return to normal workplace life, others may have grown accustomed to the flexibility and more relaxed work life balance of being based at home. Some industries – such as manufacturing - may have to also consider how they handle situations where some roles are clearly defined as workplace-based versus those where they could be done remotely. Do they take a one-size-fits-all approach or do they try and meet the needs of their employees on an individual basis and if so, where do the compromises need to take place and how do you build unity and inclusion?

In the most part, there has been a collective ‘get through it the best we can’ spirit from both employers and employees. However, a more permanent shift will throw open several other considerations including the provision of suitable equipment, health and safety reviews and security measures to protect sensitive information.

From a recruitment perspective, the decisions that are made now could have a significant impact on a company’s ability to attract and retain talent moving forward. Those that feel unhappy with the outcome – whether that is a return to the office or continuing to work from home – may find it is the push that they need to look for an alternative role. And given that all businesses, even those of similar sizes, in the same sectors, even direct competitors, will all potentially be putting in place slightly different arrangements, factors which may previously have not even been part of the decision-making process could now the very thing which tips the balance in favour of one job offer over another.

There is also potential to muddy the waters when it comes to identifying what the ideal candidate looks like when briefing a new recruitment assignment. Previously simple criteria such as ‘a commute of no more than an hour’ suddenly no longer matters when everybody in the organisation is home-based, potentially opening up a much larger pool of candidates from which to draw from. However, this does not necessarily make the process any easier and without real clarity from the outset, it will likely, lead to a blurring of lines as a more varied range of decision-making factors come into play.

Employees also have questions that they need to ask themselves. Creating a makeshift work area within the family home on a temporary basis is one thing – but if the arrangement becomes more permanent, what do they need to have in place? Is there the space available to create a dedicated workspace on a long-term basis? There will also undoubtedly be less ‘turning a blind eye’ to a colleague’s poor wi-fi connection as employers, team members, clients and customers become less forgiving than they were towards those ‘making the best of it’ in difficult circumstances.

In addition, they need to look at how their career prospects may potentially be affected. Do they possess the necessarily skills to effectively manage their teams remotely on a longer-term basis? How to do they motivate and inspire when they may work alongside some team members day-to-day whilst others are based at home? Ensuring a consistency of message across a more disparate team or organisation will be a new test of leadership for many and one which will require those looking to make the step up into a more senior role or move roles to have a robust, yet flexible, approach to making it a success.

Unlike the initial plunge into lockdown, the emergence will not be done overnight. It could be many months, if not years, before we can fully regain a sense of normality. I am often asked if I expect that we will all eventually return to a more traditional Monday to Friday 9-5 office-based culture; my reply is always the same “certainly not any time soon”. Indeed, the coming months and possibly years, will most likely see businesses try and piece together the different steps, as if they are trying to master some tricky choreography, as they attempt to settle on the ideal solution.

During the first lockdown I heard a phrase which has stayed with me during these times; we might all be in the same boat but we are not sailing the same sea. That certainly rang true however now it is not just the sea that is different, the boats are too.

Sharp Consultancy specialises in the recruitment and executive search of finance and accountancy professionals. With offices in Leeds and Sheffield our highly experienced team of consultants recruit for temporary, interim and permanent roles across the full spectrum of positions throughout Yorkshire and beyond. CONTACT US today and speak to a member of our team about your recruitment needs or next career move.

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