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Whether you want to become the finance professional your company can¡¯t live without or advance into the role of travel leader, CFO, or even CEO, you must develop leadership skills and a growth mindset.

Without a doubt, each role requires specific skills and knowledge. But those who lead and get ahead develop such valuable strengths as a commitment to leadership training, professional networking, communication, collaboration, and technological know-how. They have a well-though-out professional development plan and a clear vision of where they and the business should be heading.

One finance leader, commenting on today¡¯s CFO role, makes an observation that can apply at all levels of finance and travel: ¡°They are proactive, embracing and driving transformation, digital and otherwise, and they are resilient, especially in turbulent times,¡± says Stanton Chase¡¯s Cathy Logue, Managing Director, Global Practice Leader, CFO and Financial Executives. In fact, 90% of senior finance leaders agree that their key task is to prepare their business for the unexpected.

Below, we¡¯ll move from the broad to the specifics of leadership development:

• The core leadership skills anyone needs to advance at their organization
• How travel managers can prepare for larger roles
• What¡¯s needed to become a finance leader, CFO, or even CEO

What Leadership Skills Do I Need to Advance in My Career?

Before digging into job-specific strategies, looking at common denominators of leadership development and professional development plans can be helpful.

• Training. From expanding data literacy to understanding artificial intelligence (AI), education is central to getting ahead. Leadership training is key to fueling your personal growth mindset  through books, podcasts, informal training from colleagues or your company, or through structured coursework from schools and professional organizations.
• Collaboration. Once upon a time, employees and leaders could hunker down in their own specialty and that was enough. But in today¡¯s interconnected world of technology, collaborative leadership is one of the leadership skills necessary for success. Make learning to work with others a foundational part of your professional development plan.
• Communication. Developing expertise within a specific area ¨C finance or travel management, for example ¨C is valuable to career growth. But knowledge alone is not sufficient if it cannot be effectively shared with other team members, bosses, boards of directors, and other stakeholders. Work to share your insights and data in approachable, understandable ways. Storytelling is a leadership skill.
• Technological savvy. Systems, processes, and people are closely connected through integration and automation. Team members and leaders should understand things like the importance of clean data and cybersecurity risks and best practices. You don¡¯t need to know the name of every single application programming interface (API) but you should generally know what an API accomplishes.
• Networking. Business networking and professional networking wrap together aspects of everything outlined above. You grow by seeking out others for knowledge and support. It can be a co-worker, department head, C-suite member, or travel or financial professional group. As Chris Arendale, VP of Finance at SAP, attests: ¡°I can¡¯t count how many times I¡¯ve met someone, built a relationship and months or years later, leveraged that relationship to solve a problem, learn something new, or give a member of my staff an opportunity.¡±

How Travel Managers Can Prepare for Larger Roles at Companies

Travel managers¡¯ responsibilities have grown as their organizations and the business travel landscape have evolved. They¡¯re expected to provide insights and ideas that fuel the growth mindset of their companies. They have to prepare for the larger role of leader. And that takes leadership skills.

The challenge is that many travel managers report being ill-equipped: the SAP ÂÜÀòÊÓƵ 6th Annual Global Travel Managers Research Report found that 99% report a disconnect between their expected tasks and the tools, support, and budget to accomplish them, while 33% report being asked to take on a more strategic role without additional training or education.

Certainly, some matters are out of their hands, but travel professionals can guide their personal growth with a leadership development plan. Consider these tips to move from managing to leading.

1. Get the organizational lay of the land by analyzing how your priorities differ from those of the HR, finance, and procurement leaders to which you report. Learn to tell the story of your metrics in ways they care most about, whether it¡¯s traveler safety and satisfaction, forecasting and planning, or just cost (that¡¯d be procurement).  
2. Build data literacy by exploring your data sources and maximizing their value, seeking outside training, and tapping finance, sales, marketing, and other peers to learn how they use data.
3. Use the network you already have. Suppliers, technology providers, travel management companies, and others offer a ready source of expertise, which they often gladly provide because your success means their success. See if they¡¯ll share training resources or refer to other industry experts to help build your leadership skills.
4. Become an internal ¡°consultant¡± by providing collaborative leadership. Other teams might need help honing sustainability metrics or coordinating a sales training, both issues in your wheelhouse. By offering clear recommendations to help solve their problems, both you and they will grow while also paving the way for future knowledge exchanges.
5. Create a travel council of leaders and representatives across your business including IT, HR, regular travelers, and others to gain input, fine-tune your ideas, and build a constituency.

Shifting the Corporate Travel Mindset: From Management to Inspired Leadership

Learn how to move from travel manager to travel leader by honing your growth mindset and using five key leadership strategies to build your skills, profile, and support.

What¡¯s Needed to Become a Finance Leader, CFO, or Even CEO

Before rising to the C-Suite, CFOs often served as controllers or divisional finance VPs. CEOs were presidents, chief operating officers, CFOs, or other C-Suite leaders. Following similar paths, everyday professionals eyeing finance leadership roles must build skills and tech savvy, learn about the company as a whole, network, collaborate, and formulate professional development plans.

The Essential Skills Every Finance Professional Needs Today

Every finance department faces challenges today, including a need for digital transformation, a talent shortage, and often a misalignment of workforce skills and needs. In particular, finance leadership within small businesses is challenged by change and must upskill their finance professionals. And their teams know it, with 54% of finance employees thinking they lack skills future workplaces require and 82% to 87% of employees 58 and younger wanting more tech training from employers.¹

Those are challenging numbers, but for finance professionals wanting to step up to leader, they also highlight opportunities to develop finance leadership skills. Internally or externally, on your own or with managers¡¯ help, finance team members can obtain leadership training and skills by:

• Participating in or helping organize workshops by internal experts or by seeking mentoring from others, with the goal of deepening your finance leadership skills and sharing know-how.
• Taking part in cross-functional collaboration with other departments, which can not only enhance your skillset but also provide you with a broader view of operations.
• Encouraging the company to bring in external consultants and trainers to help close recognized skills gaps, such as use of AI or data analysis.
• Crafting a personal development plan ¨C one aligned with your needs and those of the company, industry, and the overall market ¨C that draws in internal sources but also incorporates outside certifications and education.

What Does it Take to Move from Finance Leader to CFO?

Finance leaders naturally need to be able to count the beans, budget, analyze, report, forecast, and manage cash flow, risk, taxes, and more. Those wanting to become the next CFO, though, must develop leadership skills and a growth mindset that goes beyond the numbers.

¡°Today¡¯s CFOs are forward-thinking. They are embedded in the business, working as key members of the management team, not just supporting the business,¡± says Logue of Stanton Chase.

Today¡¯s CFO must communicate well with others and distill financial topics into simple messages, maintain a focus on sustainability, quickly take in information, and exercise leadership by thoughtfully weighing options and making strategic decisions. To prepare, leadership development steps should include:

• Working with IT leaders to build technological skills such as deepening mastery of data and analytics, identifying processes technology could improve, staying on top of AI and other developments, and learning how to advocate for digital transformation.
• Raising your profile by making clear to others your desire to advance, volunteering to lead a key project, and becoming more active in the business and industry ¨C hosting webinars, sitting on panels, and overall showing your growing expertise.

How Do I Make the Biggest Transition of All ¨C to CEO?

Although more finance leaders are making the transition from CFO to CEO, COOs and presidents are still five times more likely to get the job than CFOs.²

With just one CEO spot atop each organization, CFOs wanting to ascend should work to develop CEO-distinct leadership skills and exhibit a growth mindset as part of a very targeted development plan.

1. Look inward and scrutinize the CEO¡¯s role to determine whether the responsibilities and long hours are for you.
2. Identify gaps in your skills such as risk assessment, collaborative leadership, and communications, because the board and investors will be key audiences.
3. Master functions beyond finance, such as HR, IT, and operations, by seeking assignments in areas your career hasn¡¯t covered and working on key challenges such as the talent shortage.
4. Build a professional support network within and outside of your organization, including peers, coaches, mentors, and professional contacts.
5. Prepare for the CEO selection process by studying what qualities the search team will seek, learning to articulate your vision for the business, and demonstrating you can deal with uncertainty and crisis.

Conclusion

No matter the position you¡¯re aspiring to in travel, finance, or the C-Suite, the professional development plan you craft will encompass leadership training, business networking, collaborating, and technological and leadership skills.

You must have a clear vision for your role and for the company. In other words, you must know who you are, what you want, and how to get there. Mindset matters.

¡°You have to shift how you see yourself ¨C how you identify yourself ¨C to thinking of yourself as a leader,¡± says Jennifer Coleman, Senior Leadership Development Consultant for SAP ÂÜÀòÊÓƵ.

1.       ACCA Global Talent Trends 2024

2.       Egon Zehnder