August 24, 2023 • 14 mins
We kick off by shedding light on how cultivating leadership qualities can propel your career ahead while catalyzing remarkable transformations in your team and the broader organization. We delve deep into the strategy of excellence, putting a spotlight on the power of clear communication, high expectations, and accountability. We also underscore the significance of trust, character, integrity, and equality in creating an environment that breeds excellence.
Episode outline:
- What does achieving excellence mean,
- Why developing your leadership will propel your career, and
- How you can make a positive difference around you.
Please connect with me on:
1. Instagram: stephen.mclain
2. Twitter: smclainiii
3. Facebook: stephenmclainconsultant
4. LinkedIn: stephenjmclainiii
For more resources, please visit Finance Leader Academy: financeleaderacademy.com.
- On the website, you can download the Become a Finance Leader Guide. You can use this guide to build your Finance Leadership skills so you can help senior leaders develop and execute the strategy.
- I also offer a course, Advance Your Finance and Accounting Career: Developing a Promotion Strategy that Sets You Apart.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Stephen McLain (00:04):
How does leadership and excellence go
together?
It's important for finance andaccounting professionals to
invest and develop theirleadership skills so they can
influence and build teams whoachieve excellence, which then
helps their organizations toachieve excellence.
What is required is a strategyof excellence, along with a
(00:26):
change in mindset.
Grow your leadership skills soyou are better prepared to help
your teams to improve and strivefor stronger performance.
Excellence rarely happenswithout great leadership.
Please enjoy the episode.
Welcome to the Finance LeaderPodcast, where leadership is
bigger than the numbers.
I am your host, Stephen McLain.
(00:46):
This is the podcast fordeveloping leaders in finance
and accounting.
Please consider following me onTwitter, facebook, instagram
and LinkedIn.
My user names and the links arein this episode's show notes.
This is episode number 110, andI will be talking about using
leadership to lift your team andyour organization to excellence
(01:09):
, and I will highlight thefollowing topics Number 1, what
does achieving excellence mean?
Number 2, why developing yourleadership will propel your
career.
And 3, how you can make apositive difference around you.
General Colin Powell said ifyou are going to achieve
excellence in big things, youdevelop the habit in little
(01:32):
matters.
Excellence is not an exception.
It is a prevailing attitudeToday, wherever you are from a
skills perspective, and nomatter what you have on your
plate today, it is another greatday to learn and to grow.
Learning has no impact if youdon't grow, meaning if we don't
become better today than we wereyesterday.
(01:55):
Then what did you learn?
This is what I expect frommyself and my teammates to be
better today and better tomorrow.
I believe I need to set theexample for learning, growing
and becoming better.
Since I am a leader In financeand accounting, our roles are at
the forefront of strategyexecution and performance.
(02:18):
We know it because we see thenumbers.
We have a critical leadershiprole in bridging gaps between
our KPIs and the strategy.
Business department leaders maynot see what we see because
they only see one side of thenumbers, probably only their
numbers and a few other metricsthey may be interested in, but
(02:38):
sometimes not the entire picture.
This is where we can link whatis missing.
We can bridge the gap ofunderstanding and move our
organization a little closer toexcellence.
Do you believe that you candevelop yourself to be an
effective leader?
I believe you can if you arecommitted to making others
better.
Also, can you bring out thebest in your team?
(03:01):
Can you inspire others tobecome better.
Of course, it begins with hiringteam members who are coachable
and who want to learn.
When we inherit a team, we donot get the luxury of hiring
them, so we have to work withwhat we have.
So it becomes a journey ofdiscovering who we do have.
Learn about each person andwhat motivates them, what are
(03:23):
their goals, what challengesthem and what type of work or
project brings out their best.
Considering the various typesof leadership that we can adopt,
I tend to practice a moreparticipative approach, but it
depends on the situation.
To achieve excellence, you candefinitely be more directive by
saying something like do as Isay and this is how you do it.
(03:46):
Or you can set a vision andinvite people to join you in
achieving that vision.
This, of course, depends on howyou recruit and hire your team.
If you want to be a visionary,you need to onboard team members
who will most likely share yourvision.
I want to deep dive the variousleadership styles in a future
episode.
Now, excellence can sometimes besubjective, but when we see it,
(04:09):
we know it, and when anorganization is poor in
execution, we also know it andfeel it.
An organization whoconsistently is high performance
often has the followingcharacteristics they trust each
other, they treat each otherwith respect and fairness and
dignity, and their communicationis clear and consistent.
They believe in each other andwhere they are going.
(04:31):
How do you begin on the journeyto better team performance?
Seek input from key leaders,try to discover where the
roadblocks are Open and improvecommunication.
Establish clear expectations,set high standards, hold others
accountable and you set the bestexample possible with your own
(04:52):
character, integrity and values.
Now, to help you in yourfinance leadership development
journey, I have a written guidefor you called Become a Finance
Leader.
You can download it for free atthe link in the show notes or
go to financeleaderacademycomand download it there.
This guide will help you withyour mindset and other finance
(05:13):
leadership related topics so youcan help leaders throughout the
organization.
Also this is very importantEnsure you are striving to
accomplish your 2023 goals.
What is your next big careermove?
Please make sure your resume orCV is updated and also your
LinkedIn profile is updated.
(05:33):
Always keep them updated.
And also please clean up yoursocial media so you are sending
out the right messages.
Are you ready for your next bigcareer move?
I believe we want to achieveexcellence, but we sometimes
don't know what it means or howto achieve it, or we deal with
complacency and our comfort zone.
(05:53):
It becomes a subjective goal toachieve.
Because does excellence mean anumber we are working towards or
is it a particular culture thatwe want the team to live by?
When we see it, we know it, andwhen we see a poor performing
organization, we see that too.
But what about performingaverage?
And then we are also on thebrink of poor performance.
(06:15):
What do we do then?
How do we fight going pastaverage and making sure we do
not slip into poor performance.
So how do we do better?
We can start getting movementin the right direction by
setting clear expectations, byholding everyone accountable,
communicating more clearly andby removing barriers or
(06:35):
obstacles that are holdingeveryone back.
Now let's talk about using yourleadership to lift others and
your organization to excellence.
Number one what does achievingexcellence mean?
I talk about achievingexcellence a lot, so I want to
briefly discuss what anorganization looks like that
achieves excellence.
There is a different vibe foran excellent achieving
(06:57):
organization, because you canfeel it and see it.
One thing that is present ismore trust, and trust is built
on character, honesty, integrityand transparency.
Trust is further built onunselfishness and looking out
for others, fairness, equalityand an unbiased approach to
leading your team.
There is no room for narcissismin a trust-built organization
(07:21):
who wants to achieve excellence.
Additionally, organizations whowant to be excellent do the
little things great.
Every task matters, everydetail matters and every action
matters.
Little actions done well buildto greater things being done
well.
And what is your purpose?
What does your company deliverto the market?
(07:43):
Why does it exist?
Who is your customer and whatneeds do you fulfill and can
your customer get anywhere else?
On how you deliver it, does themarket believe in your
organization and its values?
Organizations that practiceexcellence do so often due to
clearer and more consistentcommunication.
(08:03):
Share relevant informationquickly so the people who need
to know can take appropriateaction.
Bridge gaps in understanding.
I believe that as finance andaccounting leaders, we get to
bridge gaps between teams andother leaders where there's a
failure to understand or afailure to move in the same
direction.
Senior leaders must be workingto assure everyone is working in
(08:26):
the same direction once adecision has been made.
This is key to success andexcellence.
Now also be open-minded to newideas and develop a culture of
speaking up when you need to, soyou can eliminate obstacles and
improve communication.
Excellence means you all mustmaster your roles, become the
(08:47):
best at what you do, and to dothat, you must have a culture of
learning and personaldevelopment.
2.
Why developing your leadershipwill propel your career.
I believe that being a leaderwill set you apart from your
finance and accounting peers,who can often be only focused on
becoming the expert on theusual technical skills.
(09:08):
Now, technical skills areimportant, but I want you to go
steps further, to learn how tobring people and ideas together
to develop and execute thestrategy.
Greater possibilities beginwhere learning leadership begins
.
Now let's get out of ourcomfort zone so we see new
things, learn new things and wehave new experiences that lead
(09:29):
us to a better outcome.
If your goal is to become CFOand even CEO, this will require
you to learn leadership and toshift your skills from hard
technical skills to soft skills.
Leaders play umpire in ourdaily business.
Leaders expect results andleaders lay down a foundation of
purpose mission, creating awinning culture and establishing
(09:51):
values to live up to daily.
3.
How you can make a positivedifference around you.
I want you to constantly bebuilding out your leader's
toolbox for key skills andaction.
The first you should be able tolead your team over obstacles
that get in your way and set uppriorities and ensure your team
is trained properly and isfocused on what is important.
(10:14):
The next one is that effectiveleaders know how to achieve a
consensus decision betweenopposing positions and then to
refocus everyone once a decisionis made.
And the third is that all yourteam members should have a
professional individualdevelopment plan and you should
have regular one-on-one sessionsto discuss issues and
(10:34):
professional growth.
And the fourth is thatunderstand your bias so you are
not blinded by it.
Know and control what you areusing to judge others so you
overcome it.
Your bias may be preventing youfrom hiring and developing
incredible people.
Develop a strategy and mindsetof excellence with the people
around you, engage with yourteam always, open better ways
(10:56):
for clear and consistentcommunication and build trust in
everything you do.
And you also have to move onfrom people who undermine what
you are trying to achieve.
You know who they are.
They do not buy in to what youare doing and will probably be
happier somewhere else.
Now, please build out yourleader toolbox, develop a
(11:16):
working strategy of excellenceand mindset and quickly move on
from people who are not fittingin or do not contribute to what
you are trying to achieve.
Achieving excellence is a gameof mindset.
It requires resilience,strength, focus and purpose.
It's an everyday exercise tomotivate your team to be the
best and to defeat complacencyand to overcome obstacles and
(11:40):
barriers.
It is a leader's responsibilityto realign the team from
mediocrity to excellence, do theright things extremely well and
share everyone understands thepriorities and work together to
accomplish common goals.
Now for action.
Today, here are a few areasthat can help you start building
excellence in your daily workroutine Grow your leadership
(12:03):
skills, communicate purpose,build trust in all your actions
and share you.
Make everyone around you betterevery day and set a great
example of character, integrityand values.
This can get you started withbuilding a culture and mindset
of excellence.
Today, I talked about usingleadership to lift your team and
(12:24):
your organization to excellence, and I highlighted the
following points.
Number one what does achievingexcellence mean?
Number two while developingyour leadership will propel your
career.
And three how you can make apositive difference around you.
What does it really mean tobecome excellent in our
organizational performance?
It can be a subjective measurebased on our experience and what
(12:48):
we expect from ourselves andour team.
As a leader, do you feelsatisfied with how you and your
team performed?
Can you do better?
Are you happy with the results?
Do the numbers suggestexcellence or is something
lacking?
When I started in the Army, Ialways performed better when I
(13:08):
was given leadership of a morepoor performing organization.
Improving performance alwaysbegins with understanding the
obstacles and the breakdown incommunication and standards.
How can we do better?
What can we do differently toraise the standards in our
overall performance?
It can often begin with how wetreat our people.
(13:29):
I hope you enjoyed the FinanceLeader podcast.
I am dedicated to helping yougrow your leadership skills, to
change your mindset and toclarify your goals so you
advance your career.
You can find this episodewherever you listen to podcasts.
If this episode helped youtoday, please share and leave a
quick review so that others willfind the podcast Until next
time.
You can check out moreresources at
(13:51):
financeleaderacademycom and signup for my weekly updates so you
don't miss an episode of thepodcast.
And now go lead your team andI'll see you next time.
Thank you.
How does leadership and excellence go
together?
It's important for finance andaccounting professionals to
invest and develop theirleadership skills so they can
influence and build teams whoachieve excellence, which then
helps their organizations toachieve excellence.
What is required is a strategyof excellence, along with a
(00:26):
change in mindset.
Grow your leadership skills soyou are better prepared to help
your teams to improve and strivefor stronger performance.
Excellence rarely happenswithout great leadership.
Please enjoy the episode.
Welcome to the Finance LeaderPodcast, where leadership is
bigger than the numbers.
I am your host, Stephen McLain.
(00:46):
This is the podcast fordeveloping leaders in finance
and accounting.
Please consider following me onTwitter, facebook, instagram
and LinkedIn.
My user names and the links arein this episode's show notes.
This is episode number 110, andI will be talking about using
leadership to lift your team andyour organization to excellence
(01:09):
, and I will highlight thefollowing topics Number 1, what
does achieving excellence mean?
Number 2, why developing yourleadership will propel your
career.
And 3, how you can make apositive difference around you.
General Colin Powell said ifyou are going to achieve
excellence in big things, youdevelop the habit in little
(01:32):
matters.
Excellence is not an exception.
It is a prevailing attitudeToday, wherever you are from a
skills perspective, and nomatter what you have on your
plate today, it is another greatday to learn and to grow.
Learning has no impact if youdon't grow, meaning if we don't
become better today than we wereyesterday.
(01:55):
Then what did you learn?
This is what I expect frommyself and my teammates to be
better today and better tomorrow.
I believe I need to set theexample for learning, growing
and becoming better.
Since I am a leader In financeand accounting, our roles are at
the forefront of strategyexecution and performance.
(02:18):
We know it because we see thenumbers.
We have a critical leadershiprole in bridging gaps between
our KPIs and the strategy.
Business department leaders maynot see what we see because
they only see one side of thenumbers, probably only their
numbers and a few other metricsthey may be interested in, but
(02:38):
sometimes not the entire picture.
This is where we can link whatis missing.
We can bridge the gap ofunderstanding and move our
organization a little closer toexcellence.
Do you believe that you candevelop yourself to be an
effective leader?
I believe you can if you arecommitted to making others
better.
Also, can you bring out thebest in your team?
(03:01):
Can you inspire others tobecome better.
Of course, it begins with hiringteam members who are coachable
and who want to learn.
When we inherit a team, we donot get the luxury of hiring
them, so we have to work withwhat we have.
So it becomes a journey ofdiscovering who we do have.
Learn about each person andwhat motivates them, what are
(03:23):
their goals, what challengesthem and what type of work or
project brings out their best.
Considering the various typesof leadership that we can adopt,
I tend to practice a moreparticipative approach, but it
depends on the situation.
To achieve excellence, you candefinitely be more directive by
saying something like do as Isay and this is how you do it.
(03:46):
Or you can set a vision andinvite people to join you in
achieving that vision.
This, of course, depends on howyou recruit and hire your team.
If you want to be a visionary,you need to onboard team members
who will most likely share yourvision.
I want to deep dive the variousleadership styles in a future
episode.
Now, excellence can sometimes besubjective, but when we see it,
(04:09):
we know it, and when anorganization is poor in
execution, we also know it andfeel it.
An organization whoconsistently is high performance
often has the followingcharacteristics they trust each
other, they treat each otherwith respect and fairness and
dignity, and their communicationis clear and consistent.
They believe in each other andwhere they are going.
(04:31):
How do you begin on the journeyto better team performance?
Seek input from key leaders,try to discover where the
roadblocks are Open and improvecommunication.
Establish clear expectations,set high standards, hold others
accountable and you set the bestexample possible with your own
(04:52):
character, integrity and values.
Now, to help you in yourfinance leadership development
journey, I have a written guidefor you called Become a Finance
Leader.
You can download it for free atthe link in the show notes or
go to financeleaderacademycomand download it there.
This guide will help you withyour mindset and other finance
(05:13):
leadership related topics so youcan help leaders throughout the
organization.
Also this is very importantEnsure you are striving to
accomplish your 2023 goals.
What is your next big careermove?
Please make sure your resume orCV is updated and also your
LinkedIn profile is updated.
(05:33):
Always keep them updated.
And also please clean up yoursocial media so you are sending
out the right messages.
Are you ready for your next bigcareer move?
I believe we want to achieveexcellence, but we sometimes
don't know what it means or howto achieve it, or we deal with
complacency and our comfort zone.
(05:53):
It becomes a subjective goal toachieve.
Because does excellence mean anumber we are working towards or
is it a particular culture thatwe want the team to live by?
When we see it, we know it, andwhen we see a poor performing
organization, we see that too.
But what about performingaverage?
And then we are also on thebrink of poor performance.
(06:15):
What do we do then?
How do we fight going pastaverage and making sure we do
not slip into poor performance.
So how do we do better?
We can start getting movementin the right direction by
setting clear expectations, byholding everyone accountable,
communicating more clearly andby removing barriers or
(06:35):
obstacles that are holdingeveryone back.
Now let's talk about using yourleadership to lift others and
your organization to excellence.
Number one what does achievingexcellence mean?
I talk about achievingexcellence a lot, so I want to
briefly discuss what anorganization looks like that
achieves excellence.
There is a different vibe foran excellent achieving
(06:57):
organization, because you canfeel it and see it.
One thing that is present ismore trust, and trust is built
on character, honesty, integrityand transparency.
Trust is further built onunselfishness and looking out
for others, fairness, equalityand an unbiased approach to
leading your team.
There is no room for narcissismin a trust-built organization
(07:21):
who wants to achieve excellence.
Additionally, organizations whowant to be excellent do the
little things great.
Every task matters, everydetail matters and every action
matters.
Little actions done well buildto greater things being done
well.
And what is your purpose?
What does your company deliverto the market?
(07:43):
Why does it exist?
Who is your customer and whatneeds do you fulfill and can
your customer get anywhere else?
On how you deliver it, does themarket believe in your
organization and its values?
Organizations that practiceexcellence do so often due to
clearer and more consistentcommunication.
(08:03):
Share relevant informationquickly so the people who need
to know can take appropriateaction.
Bridge gaps in understanding.
I believe that as finance andaccounting leaders, we get to
bridge gaps between teams andother leaders where there's a
failure to understand or afailure to move in the same
direction.
Senior leaders must be workingto assure everyone is working in
(08:26):
the same direction once adecision has been made.
This is key to success andexcellence.
Now also be open-minded to newideas and develop a culture of
speaking up when you need to, soyou can eliminate obstacles and
improve communication.
Excellence means you all mustmaster your roles, become the
(08:47):
best at what you do, and to dothat, you must have a culture of
learning and personaldevelopment.
2.
Why developing your leadershipwill propel your career.
I believe that being a leaderwill set you apart from your
finance and accounting peers,who can often be only focused on
becoming the expert on theusual technical skills.
(09:08):
Now, technical skills areimportant, but I want you to go
steps further, to learn how tobring people and ideas together
to develop and execute thestrategy.
Greater possibilities beginwhere learning leadership begins
.
Now let's get out of ourcomfort zone so we see new
things, learn new things and wehave new experiences that lead
(09:29):
us to a better outcome.
If your goal is to become CFOand even CEO, this will require
you to learn leadership and toshift your skills from hard
technical skills to soft skills.
Leaders play umpire in ourdaily business.
Leaders expect results andleaders lay down a foundation of
purpose mission, creating awinning culture and establishing
(09:51):
values to live up to daily.
3.
How you can make a positivedifference around you.
I want you to constantly bebuilding out your leader's
toolbox for key skills andaction.
The first you should be able tolead your team over obstacles
that get in your way and set uppriorities and ensure your team
is trained properly and isfocused on what is important.
(10:14):
The next one is that effectiveleaders know how to achieve a
consensus decision betweenopposing positions and then to
refocus everyone once a decisionis made.
And the third is that all yourteam members should have a
professional individualdevelopment plan and you should
have regular one-on-one sessionsto discuss issues and
(10:34):
professional growth.
And the fourth is thatunderstand your bias so you are
not blinded by it.
Know and control what you areusing to judge others so you
overcome it.
Your bias may be preventing youfrom hiring and developing
incredible people.
Develop a strategy and mindsetof excellence with the people
around you, engage with yourteam always, open better ways
(10:56):
for clear and consistentcommunication and build trust in
everything you do.
And you also have to move onfrom people who undermine what
you are trying to achieve.
You know who they are.
They do not buy in to what youare doing and will probably be
happier somewhere else.
Now, please build out yourleader toolbox, develop a
(11:16):
working strategy of excellenceand mindset and quickly move on
from people who are not fittingin or do not contribute to what
you are trying to achieve.
Achieving excellence is a gameof mindset.
It requires resilience,strength, focus and purpose.
It's an everyday exercise tomotivate your team to be the
best and to defeat complacencyand to overcome obstacles and
(11:40):
barriers.
It is a leader's responsibilityto realign the team from
mediocrity to excellence, do theright things extremely well and
share everyone understands thepriorities and work together to
accomplish common goals.
Now for action.
Today, here are a few areasthat can help you start building
excellence in your daily workroutine Grow your leadership
(12:03):
skills, communicate purpose,build trust in all your actions
and share you.
Make everyone around you betterevery day and set a great
example of character, integrityand values.
This can get you started withbuilding a culture and mindset
of excellence.
Today, I talked about usingleadership to lift your team and
(12:24):
your organization to excellence, and I highlighted the
following points.
Number one what does achievingexcellence mean?
Number two while developingyour leadership will propel your
career.
And three how you can make apositive difference around you.
What does it really mean tobecome excellent in our
organizational performance?
It can be a subjective measurebased on our experience and what
(12:48):
we expect from ourselves andour team.
As a leader, do you feelsatisfied with how you and your
team performed?
Can you do better?
Are you happy with the results?
Do the numbers suggestexcellence or is something
lacking?
When I started in the Army, Ialways performed better when I
(13:08):
was given leadership of a morepoor performing organization.
Improving performance alwaysbegins with understanding the
obstacles and the breakdown incommunication and standards.
How can we do better?
What can we do differently toraise the standards in our
overall performance?
It can often begin with how wetreat our people.
(13:29):
I hope you enjoyed the FinanceLeader podcast.
I am dedicated to helping yougrow your leadership skills, to
change your mindset and toclarify your goals so you
advance your career.
You can find this episodewherever you listen to podcasts.
If this episode helped youtoday, please share and leave a
quick review so that others willfind the podcast Until next
time.
You can check out moreresources at
(13:51):
financeleaderacademycom and signup for my weekly updates so you
don't miss an episode of thepodcast.
And now go lead your team andI'll see you next time.
Thank you.
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