(CLP) Programs

Appleton Greene corporate training programs are all process-driven. They are used as vehicles to implement tangible business processes within clients’ organizations, together with training, support and facilitation during the use of these processes. Corporate training programs are therefore implemented over a sustainable period of time, that is to say, between 1 year (incorporating 12 monthly workshops), and 4 years (incorporating 48 monthly workshops). Your program information guide will specify how long each program takes to complete. Each monthly workshop takes 6 hours to implement and can be undertaken either on the client’s premises, an Appleton Greene serviced office, or online via the internet. This enables clients to implement each part of their business process, before moving onto the next stage of the program and enables employees to plan their study time around their current work commitments. The result is far greater program benefit, over a more sustainable period of time and a significantly improved return on investment.

Appleton Greene uses standard and bespoke corporate training programs as vessels to transfer business process improvement knowledge into the heart of our clients’ organizations. Each individual program focuses upon the implementation of a specific business process, which enables clients to easily quantify their return on investment. There are hundreds of established Appleton Greene corporate training products now available to clients within customer services, e-business, finance, globalization, human resources, information technology, legal, management, marketing and production. It does not matter whether a client’s employees are located within one office, or an unlimited number of international offices, we can still bring them together to learn and implement specific business processes collectively. Our approach to global localization enables us to provide clients with a truly international service with that all important personal touch. Appleton Greene corporate training programs can be provided virtually or locally and they are all unique in that they individually focus upon a specific business function. All (CLP) programs are implemented over a sustainable period of time, usually between 1-4 years, incorporating 12-48 monthly workshops and professional support is consistently provided during this time by qualified learning providers and where appropriate, by Accredited Consultants.

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Executive summary

Financial Leadership

The average tenure of a CFO has dropped from five to three years in the last five years. There are two significant reasons for the shorter tenure of CFOs. First, the tenure for CEOs has also shortened and frequently a new CEO will look to a CFO of their choosing. A second factor is the companies looking for a certain CFO type based on their business situation. When the situation changes, there is a desire to change the CFO to meet the new situation. If the strategy is growth, you need a growth strategy, if you need to contain cost, you need a cost cutting CFO.

The change in financial leadership is disruptive to the organization. A new CFO will need to develop an understanding of the organization and build relationships with key employees and stakeholders. The change also has consequences for the finance team. Will other key financial roles see changes? Will the team be asked to take on new responsibilities or see changes in their role? The new CFO will need to manage the changes and clearly communicate expectations if he/she is to be successful.

The challenge is to build a finance team that has the resiliency to adapt to the changing business environment. This starts with financial leaders that are capable of a full range of financial skills and leadership traits. A CFO is only as good as the team supporting him / her. A team possessing a full range of skills will allow the CFO to pivot and adapt as the needs of the business change.

The financial leadership also needs to recruit finance team members that have the competencies to be successful. The days of having accounts that just process transactions in accordance with policy is fading quickly. Employees in finance are expected to demonstrate to have a broader understanding of their impact on the company and how they fit into the larger organization. While the role of finance continues to evolve, we will continue to see technology automate low value tasks. Roles will shift from producing data to managing exceptions and interpreting data. This program has developed to help build effective and resilient financial leadership along with a strong supporting team.

Financial Leadership will introduce 4 essential competencies that all finance team members must have to be successful. The first competency is Catalyst, the ability to see what and how it needs to be done to meet the company’s goals. The second competency is Reporting, which is reporting on the activities of the organization while preserving the assets with control. The third competency is Balance, the ability to balance different activities and requirements to fulfill the needs of customers. The final competency is The Curve. The Curve is the ability to use the company objectives to navigate uncertainty.

Having a basic mastery of all 4 traits allows the members of the finance team to adapt to the changing requirements place on the finance team. These traits allow an employee to go beyond the standard transactional compliance that is too often associated with finance. Employees that have these competencies are capable of success in the changing world we live in. They have the ability to learn and adapt as the need arises.

We will take each competency and develop performance criteria for level in the organization. Based on the performance criteria we establish we will conduct an assessment of all existing employees. The assessment will provide a baseline of the team’s overall ability and resiliency. We will discuss how to integrate the four competencies into the company performance management system.

Next, we will want to utilize the data from the employee assessments to build an employee profile that can be used to aid in the recruitment and selection of new employees. Having example of employees that demonstrate the desired competencies will help to set a benchmark for the recruiting process and prove the need to have the critical competencies.

After the introduction of the 4 competencies, the next phase will be the leadership traits that need to be developed in the financial leadership team. There are 4 leadership traits that provide the tools for financial leaders to effectively lead. These traits will not only help them effectively lead the finance team through changing business needs and conditions, but will also allow the financial leadership of the organization to maintain the confidence of the CEO, their peers, and the Board.

The first leadership trait is Servant Leadership. We will define this as a leadership style that cares about the wellbeing of employees, communicates in an honest and transparent manner. Individuals with this trait seek to employer employees to grow with the company and express ideas, status in the organization is irrelevant. The second leadership trait is being a Connector. A connector has the ability to connect people, processes and events together to enable execution of the company strategy. Further, a connector can distill complexity and communicate simplicity. The third leadership trait is Challenger. An effective Challenger is a leader that is willing to start the tough conversations, anticipates objections, challenges the status quo focusing on the process and data. A Challenger has the ability to work cross functionally to achieve buy in on change (not consensus) and seeks methods to measure success. A Challenger will do this with well-grounded confidence, conviction, and composure. The last leadership trait is Business Advocate. A business advocate is a results driven leader that drives accountability by numerating the strategic goals of the company and works to drive accountability by measuring performance of the business strategies. A Business Advocate works cross functionally to ensure strategies vital to the organization’s long term success are being implemented.

The ability to pivot and use different elements of the traits and tactics discussed as this is essential to building resilient financial leadership. We will also look at each leadership trait and develop different levels of mastery so we can properly assess the current leadership and look for development opportunities. Strategies to use the 4 leadership traits in vetting internal employees for promotion and recruiting employees will also be discussed.

This program deals with a process that is focused on the employees and people of a company. In order to be successful at implementing change involving human processes there is a need for open communication, transparency and the ability to adjust to human elements. The program will discuss strategies to measure and monitor progress, communication strategies and tools.

The program will help to develop processes and tools to measure and monitor the progress of the implementation. The first set of tools that will be developed will be quantitative and qualitative tools to manage the process. Qualitative tools will allow the company to monitor progress in implementing the program and will allow for adjustments to be made as time progresses. The quantitative tools will be numerically driven KPIs to keep score of the progress. While these are processes and changes involving people, numerical driven data will be important to in communicating the progress. Numerical data will allow for employees and stakeholders to understand that there is a score, and that progress is being made. A numerical KPI will allow for the improvement and progress to be measured in a tangible manner and not subject to mere commentary that things are ‘moving in the right direction’.

Tools to aid in the communication will also be discussed and developed. One of the most important communication tools will be the matrix of expectations that will be developed in the first module. The matrix will aid in the communication to employees and even show how expectations change as your role progresses in company. Integrating the competencies and leadership traits into the existing corporate processes are also critical. The matrix and integration into company people management processes will provide a framework for self-development. For many employees, especially those that are earlier in their career, having a roadmap of skills that need to be developed to advance is important.

Once the tools are in place, we will discuss implementation strategy. The program will recommend a cascading implementation where the leadership of the finance team is evaluated and works with competencies and leadership traits. Successful implementation will require the financial leaders of the company to feel confident with the program and have the ability to implement it within their teams. If the company does not have the right leadership in place, the program will struggle to find success until the right leadership is in place.

The cascading implementation also allows for the refinement of the documents (mainly the matrix) and the integration into the existing processes. It also allows for the company to integrate into their recruiting process by using the desired traits as a basis for creating the right employee profile for screening candidates.

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Curriculum

Financial Leadership – Part 1- Year 1

1. Part 1 Month 1 Model Overview
2. Part 1 Month 2 Catalyst
3. Part 1 Month 3 Reporting
4. Part 1 Month 4 Balance
5. Part 1 Month 5 The Curve
6. Part 1 Month 6 Competency Assessment
7. Part 1 Month 7 Servant Leadership
8. Part 1 Month 8 Connector
9. Part 1 Month 9 Challenger
10. Part 1 Month 10 Business Advocate
11. Part 1 Month 11 Leadership Assessment
12. Part 1 Month 12 Implementation Strategies

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Program Objectives

The following list represents the Key Program Objectives (KPO) for the Appleton Greene Financial Leadership corporate training program.

Financial Leadership – Part 1- Year 1

1. Part 1 Month 1 Model Overview – Module 1 is designed for the leadership of the organization to prepare and plan for the implementation of the Financial Leadership Program. It should be attended by the Business Leader / Owner and the CFO / Financial Leader for the business. In larger organizations, the head of human resources and possibly a few of the key financial leaders that report into the CFO. The preparation part of the module will include developing a basic understanding of the model. Once there is an understanding of the basics of the model and review the current finance team. It will be important to calibrate expectations on where the current team is today. Depending on the dynamics and size of the organization, a survey can also be sent to stakeholders. We will discuss how to identify any possible integration or people issues that will require further discussion in the more detailed modules. The planning part of the module will look to build the matrix of competency for the four competencies and the four leadership traits. This will be used to set expectations. We will also discuss the details around who should attend which modules and make sure the key resources have sufficient bandwidth to participate. Finally, we will review the existing corporate processes. This will include a review of the performance management systems, corporate values and recruiting processes. We will be looking for possibly integration issues as the Financial Leadership program requires integration and support from these processes. We will look for any possible integration issues that we will be looking for the team to resolve in future modules.
2. Part 1 Month 2 Catalyst – Module 2 should be attended by the CFO / Financial leader and the key financial managers / leaders that are a part of his / her team. The participants in the module will be discussed as part Module 1 to make sure the correct team is in the room and the group dynamics are what is needed. The financial competencies in the Financial Leadership Model are relevant to all employees working in finance. It is important that all financial managers and supervisors have a firm grasp of the competency prior to implementation to the full team. The module has three primary goals. The first goal is to develop an understanding of the competency and its importance to the finance function. We will discuss the building blocks of Catalyst. There are three building blocks of Catalyst are Curiosity, Influence, and Initiative. We will discuss each of the building blocks and how they relate to the overall competency. The second goal was is to understand and review the competency requirements for different levels in the organization and finalize a matrix to communicate the competency through the finance team. The matrix will show the expectations regarding this competency for different roles in the company. We will validate the matrix for the Catalyst competency. Finally, we will discuss the process for using the matrix to assess employees in the competency. The goal will be for the participants to become comfortable recognizing the competency. This will give the participants to opportunity to prepare for the assessment in Module 6.
3. Part 1 Month 3 Reporting – Module 3 should be attended by the CFO / Financial leader and the key financial managers / leaders that are a part of his / her team. The participants in the module will be discussed as part Module 1 to make sure the correct team is in the room and the group dynamics are what is needed. The financial competencies in the Financial Leadership Model are relevant to all employees working in finance. It is important that all financial managers and supervisors have a firm grasp of the competency prior to implementation to the full team. The module has three primary goals. The first goal is to develop an understanding of the competency and its importance to the finance function. We will discuss the building blocks of Reporting. There are three building blocks of Reporting are Accuracy, Stewardship and Understanding the Audience. We will discuss each of the building blocks and how they relate to the overall competency. The second goal was is to understand and review the competency requirements for different levels in the organization and finalize a matrix to communicate the competency through the finance team. The matrix will show the expectations regarding this competency for different roles in the company. We will validate the matrix for the Reporting competency. Finally, we will discuss the process for using the matrix to assess employees in the competency. The goal will be for the participants to become comfortable recognizing the competency. This will give the participants to opportunity to prepare for the assessment in Module 6.
4. Part 1 Month 4 Balance – Module 4 should be attended by the CFO / Financial leader and the key financial managers / leaders that are a part of his / her team. The participants in the module will be discussed as part Module 1 to make sure the correct team is in the room and the group dynamics are what is needed. The financial competencies in the Financial Leadership Model are relevant to all employees working in finance. It is important that all financial managers and supervisors have a firm grasp of the competency prior to implementation to the full team. The module has three primary goals. The first goal is to develop an understanding of the competency and its importance to the finance function. We will discuss the building blocks of Balance. There are three building blocks of Balance are Flexibility, Courage and Awareness. We will discuss each of the building blocks and how they relate to the overall competency. The second goal was is to understand and review the competency requirements for different levels in the organization and finalize a matrix to communicate the competency through the finance team. The matrix will show the expectations regarding this competency for different roles in the company. We will validate the matrix for the Balance competency. Finally, we will discuss the process for using the matrix to assess employees in the competency. The goal will be for the participants to become comfortable recognizing the competency. This will give the participants to opportunity to prepare for the assessment in Module 6.
5. Part 1 Month 5 The Curve – Module 5 should be attended by the CFO / Financial leader and the key financial managers / leaders that are a part of his / her team. The participants in the module will be discussed as part Module 1 to make sure the correct team is in the room and the group dynamics are what is needed. The financial competenc