By Rob Linn
I was working with a CFO who was frustrated with the performance of his Director of Financial Planning and Analysis and asked for my help in figuring out what to do about it. He told me that the person’s experience and qualifications were impeccable and that they had been doing a great job until recently. He was very confused.
I started by asking him what, if anything, had changed recently either with his role or the Director’s role. He thought for a moment and then began to tell me about his 100 person Board of Directors (Yes, you read that right, a 100 member Board!) who were all heavily involved. So involved, in fact, that the Finance department would get 10-15 calls per day from Board members. The CFO usually handled these calls, but for the past several months he had been spending half his time away from the office renegotiating bonds. The responsibility of navigating Board requests had fallen to this Director.
We began to discuss the critical success requirements that someone had to have to handle this responsibility. The CFO identified that the person must have good judgment to answer Board questions and give enough information to please Board members without giving away too much or saying the wrong thing that would either raise inappropriate expectations or create blow back.
I asked him if he believed his Director had those characteristics. Upon reflection, he determined that the Director did not have those skills and it was unfair to put them in a role where they were playing way out of position. There was nothing wrong with their financial planning and analysis skills, they just had too little time to focus on them!
Now what? The CFO could take the Board responsibilities away from the Director, but he was still going to be away a lot and unable to handle the Board questions. We took inventory of the rest of his senior team relative to those success requirements. The Controller was our person! They had the unique mix of skills necessary to deal with the Board in the CFO’s absences. He talked to her about the responsibilities, made some adjustments to her other work load to give her the time necessary to manage the Board and everything fell into place. The Board was happy again, The Director of Financial Planning and Analysis was again a success, and the Controller evolved their value to the organization by using skills they never would have otherwise been able to put into practice.
One of a senior executive’s greatest responsibilities is putting people in positions where they can be highly successful.
This story points out that every organization is unique and so are the job requirements for each position. Most job descriptions end up being relatively generic and lack the very important, specific qualifications a person must have to be successful in that organization. I call these specific qualifications “unique success requirements”. Combined these make up a position’s “Unique Success Profile”.
Most executives put people in roles based on past positions with no context of what they actually did in those positions and whether those experience are relevant to the new position. This is a recipe for dissatisfaction. Or, worse yet, outright failure. Instead ask yourself these questions…what is specifically required here, right now, at this stage of the organization’s development, in this role, working for you to be highly successful? Who is the person best suited to meet those unique requirements?
The Unique Success Profile is a great process not only for hiring, but for making sure you currently have the right people in the right positions. Sometimes we become enamored with people or frustrated with them for the wrong reasons. You don’t have to make that mistake.
One of a senior executive’s greatest responsibilities is putting people in positions where they can be highly successful. Take advantage of the Unique Success Profile process to significantly raise the odds in your favor.
