One of the best ways to demonstrate active leadership is by effecting coaching.
Leading a successful finance team is about more than just hitting targets; it‘s about coaching and developing your team members and building a cohesive and united team.
Since the pandemic and the subsequent shift to our working ‘norms‘, the skills needed to be an effective leader have changed. Have you recently assessed whether you need to revise or adapt yours?
Covid has heightened the need for leaders to be ‘better‘ if they want to help their finance teams succeed in a changing landscape – today, we look at how you can improve your leadership and coaching skills this year.
1. The Importance of Emotional Intelligence
Emotional intelligence is increasingly becoming an essential part of building a team, and spotting and developing emotional intelligence is a worthwhile skill to develop.
Understanding the need to build your emotional intelligence (E.I.) is critical, too.
Three ways to develop your own E.I. are:
- Practice mindfulness – just 5 minutes out of your day can help you master your emotions; there are plenty of apps to help you too.
- Accept feedback graciously and without becoming defensive – approaching leadership to continuously improve yourself and never believe you are the ‘finished‘ product as a leader
- Have one-on-one‘s with individual team members to get to know them better; this will help you develop empathy and improve your mentoring skills
Next, let‘s look at how to manage the divide between office workers and those working from home.
2. Developing Your Office Versus Home Employees
In many organisations, there is now a divide between office-based and home-based employees.
Have you altered or even addressed the need for different leadership and coaching styles for these very different employee types?
When it comes to home and office working, there are positives and negatives on both sides for employees and employers – some individuals excel at working from home with no distractions. In contrast, others prefer the structure of an office environment.
Are you giving the same supportive feedback to both home and office workers? Take some time to assess which of your employees may need additional coaching, and speak to them about how much or little input they need from you.
Think about whether former office-based employees working from home might feel that their career options are limited. Do you need to talk about career plans for remote team members, and do you have a strategy in place to develop your remote employees?
Have you given all employees the choice to work from home or the office? Failing to offer these options to your team could leave them feeling overlooked.
Office-based employees are more visually present, and this will naturally alter the dynamics you may have with your team. Ensure that all employees know that your leadership is not in favour of or against any one group.
Also, think about how long periods at home might be impacting your company culture.
3. Maintaining a Post-Covid Culture
In many ways, Covid has been the greatest challenge for leaders everywhere.
In a recent Future of Work workshop, Transformation Consultant Marit Janssen noted that for remote leadership, the leader’s key responsibilities have changed. She said, “managing and communicating with your team, but also motivating them and facilitating the collective journey towards the common goal of the company remain the same as they were before, it‘s just the context that has changed“.
The core leadership elements to focus on to keep your team focused and inspired include:
- Maintaining transparency – be aware that you need to be as visible to remote team members as their office-based counterparts; this means checking in more often and working on those relationships
- Create a culture of trust within your team – give your team autonomy, get comfortable with flexible working times and work with employees to create working schedules that work for everyone
- Work on improving communication – communication is vital for effective leadership, and this isn‘t just about sending cohesive emails. Talk to your team about their hopes and plans for the future, foster relationships and always strive to create an environment where team members can talk openly about work – their wins and challenges.
Building Your Finance Team as a Leader
Is it time to take your finance team to the next level? In the wake of Covid, is it time for you to invest in new talent to grow your team?
If you are looking for your next finance professionals to join your organisation, we can help. Get in contact with me today to discuss the individuals you need in your post-Covid finance team to take advantage of new opportunities in the market.
Other finance teams are growing – is it time you grew yours too? We can help find the accounting experts you need; contact me on 01282 930930 or click here to send me an email to find out more about our financial recruitment services.
Thanks
Rachel
About Rebus Financial Recruitment
Rebus Financial Recruitment provides a specialist and focused recruitment service to its customers, which historically range from various organisations, including SME‘s to large PLCs.
We strive to offer both the client and candidate a seamless recruitment experience. Using our expertise, we get to the heart of employer and employee needs, and, in doing so, we match the two perfectly. To find out more, get in contact with one of our team today, or you can call us on 01282 930930.
