Background: I work in corporate strategy/finance at a PortCo where I am the second or third longest tenured employee due to natural attrition, changing of leadership, and most notably a RIF. It's been about a year since the RIF occurred and morale has still not recovered. Unfortunately, our very social and young CEO left around the same time the layoffs happened, but for unrelated reasons (got the opportunity of a lifetime, and that's saying a lot for him cause he's had some sweet gigs), and people have conflated the two events and let that increase the perceived impact of the restructuring exponentially.
I'm fortunate to be very close with our leadership team and get a ton of exposure to our board. I was the first strategy/finance hire reporting to the CFO a handful of years ago and have seen the company grow tremendously + receive multiple investments in the company. In the last year I transitioned from having my core work in our finance function (e.g., board prep, strategy, FP&A, treasury) to a purely strategic role where I am helping to drive change across the organization.
Question: How can I develop more patience with non-finance groups? It's totally fine if you don't have the excel skills or business acumen as long as you're willing to try and learn, but what I have found is that people outside of the finance world just don't have a desire to problem solve. It feels like they'd rather complain about the issue or say that the process is manual than to muscle through it (i.e., one foot in front of the other mentality).
This puts me in a pickle because we are still in a high-growth stage with a ton of pressure from our board/backers to get back on the right track. I am happy to walk someone through an exercise 1, 2, or 3 times but after that it feels like either a) you are incredibly incompetent or b) you just don't care and more than likely it's the latter because it isn't rocket science.
The CFO is incredibly results driven and given the culture issue mentioned above he has taken a step back in terms of expectations which is tough because I'd normally lean on him to help push my agenda when I lack traction. He has given me feedback that I need to be more aware of how people may perceive what I say (i.e., don't get frustrated when people don't understand a concept)... my response to him is that my behavior isn't a lack of awareness but more a general sense apathy towards their feelings that spurs from my counterparts willingness to try.
To put it simply... how do you develop patience with people who are unwilling to try or just don't care? Especially in an environment that is so dependent on results but without the option to change the staff/resource.
Ah, the age-old challenge of fostering patience and understanding in a high-pressure environment. It's a tough one, but not impossible. Here are a few tips based on the most helpful WSO content:
Empathy is key: Try to understand where your colleagues are coming from. They might be dealing with their own pressures and challenges that you're not aware of. This doesn't excuse a lack of effort, but it can help you approach the situation with more patience.
Clear communication: Make sure your expectations are clear. If you need someone to step up their game, tell them directly but respectfully. Be specific about what you need from them and why it's important.
Offer support: If someone is struggling, offer to help them out. This could be in the form of training, resources, or just a listening ear. Sometimes, people are more willing to try when they feel supported.
Positive reinforcement: When you see someone making an effort or improving, acknowledge it. Positive reinforcement can be a powerful motivator.
Take a breather: If you're feeling frustrated, take a moment to step back and cool down. It's hard to be patient when you're feeling stressed or annoyed.
Seek advice: If you're really struggling, don't hesitate to seek advice from others. This could be a mentor, a trusted colleague, or even a professional coach.
Remember, change takes time. It's frustrating when people don't seem to care or try, but with patience and persistence, you can help foster a more positive and productive environment. Keep swinging, champ!
Sources: Overcoming the Learning Curve without being Annoying, Finance Culture - Personalities, Learning curve in development, How many of you actually plan on going independent?
I feel the same way about staff at my portco. I also report to the CFO but am FP&A and Treasury instead of strategy. Even to establish better processes/controls is like pulling teeth let alone growth/change initiatives. Luckily our ops and commercial groups have a couple of great, motivated people to grow our business. Besides the CFO and I, our accounting group is extremely resistant to change or even finding ways to streamline processes. Unfortunately, I've just lowered my expectations/hopes of other staff taking initiatives to them just doing their job, as is, correctly and timely. This post probably isn't helpful, but you're not alone.
I appreciate the response, hang in there. My hope is that the next year or two are better and that I can get a single rockstar in every department. Luckily our VP of FP&A is really awesome so I've got that support.
Your workforce may not care because they don’t see the value of whatever you are trying to teach. And even if they do, the outcome may not be aligned to their motivations.
On understanding value, people have a bare minimum they need to get done and a way of doing that work. You teaching them a new way of doing things could just be a nuisance if they perceive little to no value or if it takes too much effort. Think about business transformation like sales. Whatever solution you are proposing needs to be significantly better than the current one and needs to be easy to utilize in order for your “sale” to be successful. If your solution is much better but it’s not easy to use from the lens of your “customer”, then you need to understand your “customer” better. I’m guessing your processes involve Excel, data processing, or visualization. People outside of finance and technical functions like analytics or data science are generally intimidated by all three aforementioned topics.
A broad “customer” education may be needed to get people more comfortable with all three topics - think an Excel workshop or training that forces them to learn via doing analytics, data transformation, and visualization themselves - not you walking through what needs to be done. If you do this successfully, they’ll definitely have a better capacity and receptiveness to whatever you are trying to teach. You might even find people coming up with ways to do things in a more efficient and robust way on their own.
On motivation, if there are ways of doing things more efficiently, why would people be incentivized to execute if there was a recent RIF? What do they have to gain by being more efficient? The person getting credit for efficiency would ultimately be you as they didn’t find solutions on their own, and they would likely not be recognized for their contributions. This topic is beyond your sole scope. Better processes needs to be a corporate initiative if it isn’t already but additionally people need to feel safe in that they are not going to collectively be working towards another RIF. Moreover, a recognition system for contributions needs to be in place as well as demonstrated rewards. With regard to rewards for value-add work, it could be higher bonuses or higher level, more creative work with more leadership visibility. Your people need to feel empowered and safe.
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