How to add value when your business partners know more than you
“In a growth mindset, challenges are exciting rather than threatening. So rather than thinking, oh, I’m going to reveal my weaknesses, you say, wow, here’s a chance to grow.”
Dr. Carol Dweck
As FP&A professionals, it’s our job to partner with colleagues from different functions and to help them make better investment decisions. For instance, we may be working with the marketing team on how to improve return of investment of our digital marketing efforts or partner with the R&D team on how to bring a new innovation to market as efficiently as possible. In most situations, we have less in-depth knowledge about the intricate details of the subject matter. And that’s ok, in fact, it’s by design. FP&A professionals are generalists, working at a higher-level of abstraction across teams to discover risks and opportunities that can’t easily be found by those operating in silos.
At the same time, we can and should do more than listen when we are part of discussions about making business decisions. Fortunately, there is a framework that enables us to add value when we know less than our business partners. That framework is called coaching.
What is coaching?
Coaching in business mostly comes down to asking the right questions. Questions that help your colleagues understand which aspects of a problem they need to consider more deeply, from which angle and with which resources. Coaching is a leadership technique that empowers others to come to their own conclusions.
An excellent framework for coaching that stood the test of time: GROW
The GROW framework is a great way to structure your coaching conversations.
G oal
R eality
O ptions
W hat’s next
Goal - what does the coachee need to accomplish? We sometimes get so caught up in the details of an issue, that we lose track of the objective, what actually needs to be accomplished. Too often, people think they know what the cause of a problem is when it’s actually just a downstream repercussion. For example, the report is not delayed because the general ledger system was down. The root cause is the general ledger system was down because too many people entered complex queries at the same time. Once the cause is clear, the discussion can focus on the goal of limiting the risk of it happening again.
Reality - where are we now? Which approaches have already been tried? Why did they fail? Which roadblocks have already been resolved, which are still left? What could be the root causes of the roadblocks?
Options - what could we try to solve the remaining issues? What resources are needed? Who might be able to help? At this stage, it’s important to try to come up with more than one possible solution.
This approach encourages creative out-of-the-box thinking. Too often, people move to the implementation phase with the first solution that comes to mind, ignoring possibilities to approach the issue from a different angle. Next time you notice yourself rushing to implement an idea, pause and generate more options together with your team.
What's next - agree together on how to break up the tasks into smaller, manageable intermediate packets. Decide on a timeline and what the immediate next step is. Large projects can be intimidating unless they are broken down into easily actionable steps.
Open-ended versus closed questions
Being successful at coaching comes down to asking the right kinds of questions - especially the open kind. There are closed questions, such as “At what time does the meeting start?” or “Do you know what to do next?” they are closed because they either have a yes or no response, or the answer is a simple data point.
An example of an open-ended question would be “How did you already approach the problem?” or “What is holding you back?”. You should use open-ended questions as much as possible because that way you encourage your coachee to think more deeply and discover new ways to approach the topic.
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