How to effectively manage your finance employees

While there is no prescriptive way to effectively manage employees, there are a number of characteristics that effective team leaders have in common.
Below are a few initiatives that have been proven effective for finance managers to adopt in order to successfully manage their finance team.

Adopt a people-focused culture

Some of the world’s most successful organizations share a similar outlook when it comes to their employees - they attribute a great deal of their business’ success to their people. By treating their employees as the most valuable asset of the company, these businesses have increased their value and achieved noteworthy results.
"If your employees feel that they play an integral role in the company’s growth and success, they are more likely to perform at a higher level and to be more loyal to the organization than those who feel their work is less significant." - Nick Louca, Associate Director.

Practice what you preach

It may seem to be a very simple rule, but surprisingly it is not always an easy one to follow. Discrepancies between what is said and what is practiced are common among many managerial positions. For example, if you stress a “promote-from-within” culture but continuously recruit from outside your finance team to fill the senior level positions, your employees will eventually lose faith in your leadership. Regular self-assessment is a good way to keep you on track. This can also help you develop certain guiding principles in your leadership duties.

Be a leader, not a manager

A people-focused culture is proven to boost morale among employees and inspire them to not only achieve but exceed their targets.

The difference between acting as a manager and acting as a leader in your organization could cost you more than you think. Managing implies suppressing or controlling employees, whereas leading refers to guiding and pushing them to grow. Leading your finance team entails more than just issuing orders. Being a true leader involves instilling enthusiasm and inspiration in your team to execute their daily tasks.
Nick Louca continues: "A great finance business leader motivates team members to perform at their highest capacity and has the ability to successfully communicate with them in order to drive the team’s improvement and therefore success."

Stretch and challenge

Challenge your employees by setting high performance standards, encouraging them to achieve seemingly impossible targets. By ensuring that everyone is striving to meet these expectations, you are engendering enthusiasm among your team members and generating a competitive spirit within the company. When a company involves its employees to make such lofty targets a reality, they get excited about the work and strive even harder to achieve these goals by maximizing their own capabilities. In the process, they may even surpass their previous performance levels and achieve more than they originally thought possible.


Source:  www.robertwalters-usa.com