Controllership - Strategic Leadership

Overview: 

Many contemporary controllers feel torn between their multitudes of responsibilities and confused about their distinct roles. This course alleviates much of that anxiety by clarifying these responsibilities and providing an in-depth examination of two roles among the major four of steward, operator, catalyst, and strategist.

As a companion course to Controllership: Operational Management, this course focuses on the roles of catalyst and strategist. In addition, this course provides the opportunity to view the controller as a leader and a key strategic partner within the organization while providing participants with practical tips on how to enhance their leadership and strategic management skills.

During the course, you will reflect on your own competencies as a catalyst and learn strategies for improving your leadership abilities. Effective controllers must possess emotional intelligence and successfully interact with people across the various generations. Accordingly, this course provides tips for working with people of all ages and on how emotional intelligence can play an important role in managing and leading others.

In addition to increasing their knowledge about the catalyst role, you will consider the way in which you can add value as strategic thinkers/leaders in your organizations by understanding and expanding your functionality in this area. Specifically, you will consider your role in developing strategies and governance for the use of data within your organizations. Finally, the course addresses the controller’s role as a change/conflict/crisis manager, which constitutes an area of increasing importance within a changing economic environment.

Course Content:

In this course, you will gain knowledge about the following topics:

• Controller as a leader
• Controller as a strategic manager
• Controller as a change, conflict, and crisis manager

Learning Objectives:

Upon completing this course, you should be able to:

• Identify the type of leader you are or want to become by considering different perspectives on leadership and understand how your leadership style reflects these perspectives
• Describe what emotional intelligence is and how it affects the workplace
• Examine how different generations think, work, and interact and identify strategies to work with people from each of the generations
• Determine what type of strategy is appropriate for the organization you are in and determine how you can play a role in strategy development and implementation
• Understand the controller’s role in change, conflict, and crisis management

Who Will Benefit:  

Finance professionals serving or transitioning to a controller role, including:

• Finance professionals considering a transition to a controllership position
• Practitioners who are new to the position of controller
• Experienced controllers looking for new tools/ideas
• Experienced controllers seeking a refresher on leadership areas