1. Becoming a Strategic Partner: Key Leadership Competencies

2. Gain an understanding of these essential new skill sets
Objectives:
Understand what it takes to meet the emerging expectations of the FMA role
Gain an understanding of these essential new skill sets
Learn how to establish a framework of personal action plans to foster the skills
Outline:
Overview of FI Competencies
Building Competencies
Becoming a strategic partner
Objectives & Outline
Overview of Competencies
Building Competencies
Becoming a strategic partner

3. Overview of Competencies
There are functional and behavioural competencies that FIs must employ in tandem; leadership competencies require a foundation of functional competencies:
FI Functional Competencies:
Accounting Operations
Planning and Resource Mgmt.
Financial Policy
Financial Systems
Behavioural Competencies:
General
Communications
Risk Management
Negotiation/Persuasion
Leadership
Values and Ethics
Strategic Thinking: Analysis
Strategic Thinking: Ideas
Engagement
Management Excellence: Action
Management Excellence: People
Management Excellence: Finance
Objectives & Outline
Overview of Competencies
Building Competencies
Becoming a strategic partner

4. Building Competencies
Education: provides the foundation to build competencies for any functional domain and for the finance function a professional accounting designation is ideal but not an absolute requirement
Experience: depth and breadth of experience is essential to building strong competencies
Continuous Training: is essential to keeping your competencies strong and current (aligned to priorities)
Objectives & Outline
Overview of Competencies
Building Competencies
Becoming a strategic partner

5. Building Competencies: Experience
Your experience should have an appropriate balance of depth and breadth:
Depth: working in one functional finance area in one organization will build expertise in that functional area for that organization but it could inhibit behavioural competency building
Breadth: working in many functional areas across many organizations can expose you to wide variety of issues, best practices and people that can strengthen your behavioural competencies but it could also limit your functional expertise
Depth
Breadth
Varying Organizations (size & functions)
Many Organizations
Many Functional Areas
One Organization
One Functional Area
Objectives & Outline
Overview of Competencies
Building Competencies
Becoming a strategic partner

6. Building Competencies: Continuous training
Building Relevant Competencies through training and professional development plans:
Know yourself
Know your current environment
Yourself:
Know your strengths and weaknesses; self assess against competencies
Use Performance Management Plans to seek two-way feedback (i.e. manager and employee feedback)
Outline your career goals (i.e. talent management questionnaire)
Source documents such as work descriptions or succession plans, if available, to identify competencies related to goal positions
Environment:
What is the Government of Canada’s long term vision and current priorities?
How does your department contribute to this long term vision and current priorities?
How do you contribute to these priorities through your current roles and responsibilities?
Identify competencies you will need to contribute or the skills you need to strengthen the required competencies
Objectives & Outline
Overview of Competencies
Building Competencies
Becoming a strategic partner

7. Becoming a strategic partner
Why is there a need to become a strategic partner?
How can we transform towards becoming strategic partners?
What are the competencies that strengthen us as strategic partners?
What are the challenges to our own transformation?
Objectives & Outline
Overview of Competencies
Building Competencies
Becoming a strategic partner

8. Becoming a strategic partner: Why?
The Government of Canada’s Vision: Blueprint 2020
An open and networked environment that engages citizens and partners for the public good
A whole-of-government approach that enhances service delivery and value for money
A modern workplace that makes smart use of new technologies to improve networking, access to data and customer service
A capable, confident and high-performing workforce that embraces new ways of working and mobilizing the diversity of talent to serve the country’s evolving needs
The result of this long term vision is transformation and with this comes:
Increased partnerships (i.e. SSC)
Increased organizational complexity
Communication Challenges; Lack of common language
Expanded mandates with fewer resources (Operating Budget freeze; SR and DRAP reviews)
Decreased employee and stakeholder trust
Talent or competency challenges
The above list increases the pressure on the Finance Function to make a role change from Transaction/Compliance manager to Strategic Business Partner. In other words the Finance Function must transform in order to support government-wide transformation.
Objectives & Outline
Overview of Competencies
Building Competencies
Becoming a strategic partner

9. Becoming a strategic partner: How?
Must haves to move to the next Stage in the transformation
Transaction Manager
Focused on tactical execution
Operates in isolation
Limited by resources
Process Manager
Delivers strong fundamental business support
Standardizes processes
Strives for efficient, proactive operations
Business Partner
Focusing on streamlining day-to-day operations
Focuses on improving operations and providing client value for their money
Catalyst & Strategic Partner
Advises on strategic decision making
Routinely evaluates risk-adjusted returns for proposed initiatives
Stimulates behaviour to achieve strategic and financial objectives
Standard Business Processes
Harmonize and modernization
Systems
Establish risk-based approach to business controls
Integrate performance dashboards
Drive Dynamic Strategy Management and Planning
Implement business driven risk management
Develop Talent to meet Business needs
Objectives & Outline
Overview of Competencies
Building Competencies
Becoming a strategic partner

10. Becoming a strategic partner: What Competencies?
Skills or knowledge to bolster Functional Competencies as a result of the vision and its transformational impacts:
Change Management
Performance Management
Risk Management
Investment Management
Project Management
Costing Expertise (i.e. TBS Centre of Expertise for Costing)
CFO attestation
Examples of skill that are important in this environment to strengthen your Behavioural Leadership competencies:
Values and Ethics: Fosters a climate of transparency, trust, and respect within the unit and in partnerships
Strategic Thinking (analysis): Identifies interdependencies across unit projects
Strategic Thinking (ideas): Leverages experimentation, constructive questioning or innovation
Engagement: Creates and collaborates with strategic alliances
Action Management Excellence: Maintains composure in demanding or stressful situations
Action Management Excellence: Identifies and integrates key information to report on results or performance
People Management Excellence: Coaches, challenges, and provides opportunities for growth
People Management Excellence : Develops and supports career plans and learning opportunities
People Management Excellence: Develops HR strategy for unit succession planning
Financial Management Excellence: Implements strategies to achieve operational efficiencies and value for money
Objectives & Outline
Overview of Competencies
Building Competencies
Becoming a strategic partner

11. Becoming a strategic partner: Challenges
Multiple and unaligned Finance agendas
No single version of the truth
Too much time on gathering & reconciliation
Inadequate management into available for decision making
Communication to stakeholders constrained
Working as individual not as a team
Lack of relevant skills
Ineffective communications
Low morale and motivation
Poor Talent Management
Inadequate succession plans
Autonomous and unaligned functions
Unclear R&R & accountabilities leading to duplication
Shadow finance functions
Limited mobility of Finance Leaders
Minimal or lack of Finance governance structures
Finance Function
Performance Measure
Organizational Structure
Technology
Reporting
Funding and Costing
People & Culture
Poor integration between program systems and financial systems
Unreliable costing
Lack of or lack of understanding of processes or systems to access internal or external funds.
Multiple consolidation layers
Multiple systems and black books
Manual Interfaces leading to unreliable data
High reliance on end user computing
Inconsistent reference data
Inconsistent policies/procedures and controls
Significant reconciliation issues/errors
Late entries, adjustments and/or period close-outs
Close process
Budgeting, Planning and Forecasting are ineffective and/or inefficient
Objectives & Outline
Overview of Competencies
Building Competencies
Becoming a strategic partner