Last year I loved seeing the jacaranda trees starting to bloom late spring and this morning on my dog walk I noticed the lavender coloured flowers starting to appear on the trees.

Summer isn’t far away!

And month end is only a few days away.

Which means right now, somewhere in Sydney and around the world, a finance team is gearing up for the monthly ‘fire drill’.

I know this because whenever I talk to senior leaders, they always tell me that the finance team always messages late at night.

I know exactly what’s happening. That new system that was supposed to replace the old system…somehow compliments it. Reconciliations that are supposed to take hours are taking days. 

Your CFO will probably mention it in Monday’s leadership meeting: “The team are really stepping up to get month end done”.

Here’s what I’ve learned after two decades as a CFO. 

After Hours Emails Aren’t a Sign of Dedication – They’re a Sign of Broken Processes

The organisations that perform the best aren’t the ones where the team are exhausted working long hours to get things done. They are the ones that have automated the routines and reserved their focused attention on the strategic.

What to do this week:

If you’re a leader working with Finance and the CFO says: “the team are really under the pump this week…”

Ask: “What would it take for them to not have to be?”

If you’re in Finance: Track your time this month end. Every manual reconciliation. Every process workaround. Every preventable error. Then book 30 minutes after month end with the team and show them the cost of “business as usual” – and ask what could be done with the time they’d save?

One question to ask: “If we Could eliminate one recurring monthly task and would free up capacity. Which would it be?”.

Remember sustainable high performance isn’t built on working harder. It’s built on working smarter.

Until next Sunday,

Matthew

Words I Like: “We can’t solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them” – Albert Einstein

Matthew Needham is an accountant and former CFO who consults and speaks on improving organizational performance. He helps leaders without a finance background confidently engage in financial discussions, enabling better decisions that drive improved performance. For more information, visit matthewneedham.co.