'What you learn on... Commercial skills courses'

Course speaker: George Fildes, FCMA, CGMA, MBA, FCIM, is managing director of Qualitas Training & Consultancy. He specialises in commercial and financial training. With more than 25 years in general management, Fildes’ experience spans business management, logistics, customer operations and financial management

This course is designed to help delegates along the journey to becoming a business partner. It’s focused on interpersonal as opposed to technical skills; we assume that delegates already have the latter.

We do, however, spend a portion of the day examining risk management and risk modelling – because to be an effective business partner you also need to be an effective custodian of risk.

The course is aimed at people in finance at all levels – and that’s exactly who we attract. For example, there are finance directors, finance administrators and finance graduates in many of our sessions.

This mix of people is an asset, as it enables us to draw on a wide range of experiences and perspectives.

Some delegates are already along the road to becoming a business partner; for others, it’s a step they have yet to take, but they already recognise that life as a management accountant is about more than merely understanding accounting standards.

The course comprises a number of sections. The first explores business partnering in the context of the roles that various people play; and the research available that offers insight into what does and doesn’t work in a business partnering process.

We ask delegates to consider questions, such as “What is the ROI for your finance department?”; “What keeps your CEO awake at night?”; and “Do your finance KPIs line up with your CEO’s KPIs?”

We also ask delegates to come up with their own definitions of a business partner in the context of people both inside and outside the finance department.

BEHAVIOURAL STYLE GRID

The next session focuses on behavioural skills. I start by emphasising that business partners are individuals, each of whom is “wired” differently.

I then use a number of tools – some quite well known and others developed myself – to establish what type of personality delegates have. In order to do this, I use a variation on the established “Insights” model, which I have tailored to suit people working in the finance department.

We then drill down into establishing delegates’ “DiSC profile” – whether they are “dominant”, “influential”, “compliant” or “steady”.

Once this process is complete, we explore how people of different types behave in a team – and what makes a winning team. I use the work of Belbin here.

THE T-SHAPED ACCOUNTANT

The goal of all of this is to help delegates understand how they can connect with partners across the business – and how they can look at issues from their partners’ perspectives, as well as their own. After lunch, we discuss financial risk modelling – providing examples of some of the models and tools available.

This is followed by a session on presentation skills. Here, I use a lot of the material from my CIMA course “Finance for non-financial mangers”, which is designed to make financial issues as clear as possible to people from other parts of the business.

If you want to become an effective business partner, you have to present compellingly, and with impact. The final session comprises an intense and interactive two-hour business game, in which delegates have the chance to see themselves and others in their true light.

This game enables delegates to simulate what life is like back in their finance function.

Visit www.cimamaster courses.com for more details about this and all CIMA Mastercourses.