#165 How to Upskill Your Finance Team with Marlo Lyons

Finance teams are changing rapidly. AI and digital transformation are removing many traditional accounting roles, and the modern finance team needs to learn new skills. But how do you upskill your finance team?

Award-winning author, executive coach and HR professional Marlo Lyons joins Kevin Appleby on the GrowCFO Show to specifically answer the question, “How do you upskill your finance team?” Marlo discussed with Kevin how finance leaders can develop talent within their teams. Some of the key points discussed included:

• Developing a workforce plan: This involves forecasting how finance functions and jobs may change with automation/AI, determining the appropriate size of the finance team, and identifying any new skills that will be required.
• Spotting talent: Marlo recommended looking at soft skills like learning agility when evaluating current staff who may be ready for more strategic roles. These types of skills are important for developing leadership potential.
• Using 360 feedback and succession planning: 360s provide insights from colleagues while succession planning involves creating profiles for future roles to determine what skills individuals need to develop to be ready for promotion or new opportunities.
• Aligning values with skills and career path: Understanding one’s values helps identify fulfilling career paths aligned with both individual interests and company needs. This improves engagement and retention.
• Prioritizing learning agility in recruiting: Given talent shortages, companies don’t need to find candidates ticking every box but rather those with the flexibility to learn new skills, especially when onboarding support can be provided.

Marlo Lyons is the author of Wanted – A New Career, which was awarded best self-help book of 2022.

Links

• Marlo Lyons on LinkedIn
• Kevin Appleby on LinkedIn
• GrowCFO Finance Team Skills Assessment
• Wanted -> A New Career: The Definitive Playbook for Transitioning to a New Career or Finding Your Dream Job on Amazon

Timestamps

Introducing Marlo Lyons (0:12)

How to upskill your finance team (1:28)

Workforce planning, talent spotting, and soft skills. (4:54)

Leadership, development programs, and finance team collaboration. (9:45)

Leadership development tools and techniques. (14:09)

Career coaching and identifying values for job satisfaction. (18:17)

Values, culture, and diversity in the workplace. (23:10)

Evaluating talent and workforce planning. (28:24)

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