AVUNCULAR ADVICE AND A GO-TO-JAIL CLAUSE

In my last piece, I meandered through a specific time in my career, when I helped, in a very small way, to move federal public accounting in Canada from the dark ages of Modified Accrual Accounting to Full Accrual Accounting. One brief reference to a bit of direction I received during that period has been sticking with me ever since I submitted that last offering to the wonderful folks at RPA Magazine.

The bit that has been picking at me was a rather ominous threat from my then Deputy Minister: there would be dire consequences for me, and others, if my implementation of full accrual accounting meant he now had to immerse himself in a whole new skillset — maybe even learn a new language… accounteese!

This got me thinking, always a dangerous thing, as my former colleagues, friends and family are quick, but quite right, to point out. My thoughts turned to that recurring theme of what exactly is the role of a financial officer in the Government of Canada, at every level from junior officer to CFO. The thought rapidly expanded to what is the role of any accountant in any organization, and whether the private and public sectors are really that different in this regard. Does size matter? My brain started to spin at very high revs indeed.

So I did what I always do in these situations: I sat on it and mulled it over, for quite a while. I also went back into my past and dredged up all the friendly (and not so friendly) advice I had received over the course of my career, from numerous sources, some good, some otherwise. The result is the following bit of “avuncular advice” that I would offer any accountant looking to find their feet and successfully navigate a career in the financial function.

A couple of points before I start. First, “avuncular advice” is what my late father called it when he sat someone down and offered his view on something. He was an avid debater and Scrabble player, and also the longest-serving Secretary of the Treasury Board Secretariat of Canada, so his “advice” carried some weight. Second, I did not say navigate a career in accounting, but one in the financial function — I view the latter as a much vaster and more complete field of activity, offering more opportunity to meet a broader range of career aspirations.

Did you know that the Financial Administration Act of Canada once had a specific clause targeting all finance officers, putting criminal sanctions on them for dereliction of duty involving public finances or, more notably, for failing to report breaches of prescribed financial management rules and practices that became known to them? We finance officers called this the “Go to Jail Clause.” Nothing focuses the mind of a finance officer like the thought of going to prison for someone else’s misdeeds. You can imagine how that shapes someone’s thinking and behaviour, especially in a low-risk-tolerance environment like the federal government.

“Nothing focuses the mind of a finance officer like the thought of going to prison for someone else’s misdeeds.”

— ON THE FAA’S FORMER “GO TO JAIL CLAUSE”

Anyway, here are my humble offerings. They play out somewhat differently across sectors and sizes of organization, but in the final analysis, they ring true in all of them, in my experience.

1. The Trains Have to Run on Time

Organizational management expects accounting professionals to know what they’re doing when it comes to day-to-day operations, period roll-ups and reports. That’s why they hired you, and why they pay you the big bucks. They do not want to be dragged into minute details, and certainly don’t want to learn our language to any great extent. I have seen many finance people make this mistake. They often don’t get asked back to meetings with the business operators.

2. Keep Me Out of Jail

When management can sleep well at night because the trains are running on time, they want the further assurance that their finance people are on top of things, and that if anything untoward occurs, they will address or escalate it with professionalism, tact and firmness.

These first two sit at the bottom of a Maslovian pyramid, the foundation, if you will.

3. Be One of Us

To fulfill your role successfully, you need a good grounding in what your organization’s core business is all about: a functional understanding of its core activities, drivers, risks, strategies and opportunities. That means going out there, observing and asking questions. It also means building solid relationships with people outside your finance world. Most people are happy to tell you what they do and why it matters. Don’t be shy there is almost no such thing as a stupid question.

4. Tell Me a Story

Building on the foundation in elements one and two, and framed by a good grasp of your organization, management wants you to make sense of the numbers in a way they can understand, tied to key organizational plans and metrics. One of my former bosses would say, “speak to me like I am a five-year-old.” Another used to ask, “why do I care about that?” whenever I spoke about our numbers or changes to them. Anticipate the questions and have readily accessible answers.

5. Don’t Become Indispensable (or Get Hit by a Bus)

You are responsible for building and growing your team so it is as strong as possible and can function well after you move on to bigger or better things. That means a diversity of strengths, abilities and preferences a hockey team of only goalies is guaranteed never to win a game. In smaller organizations, it can also mean having alternative outside sources of support identified and queued up to help if necessary.

6. Life Is Short, Enjoy the Ride!

One of the biggest knocks against finance professionals is that we take everything so seriously and are all about the rules. What we do is serious stuff, and we do have some red lines we cannot cross, but we can still carry out our role with humour and empathy, without taking ourselves too seriously. You’d be amazed how far that attitude will take you.

That’s all my (re)tired brain came up with on the subject. As I usually say when I offer advice, this is food for thought, and certainly open to welcomed debate and push-back I always love a good clash of ideas! As one of my great former bosses would say: “Thus endeth the lesson!”

Until next time.