At some point in every Finance Business Partner’s career, the juggling act becomes impossible to ignore.
You’re managing your own finance workload, supporting the business leaders you partner with, and somehow expected to keep an eye on the bigger strategic picture of the organisation.
It’s like trying to balance three spinning plates while someone keeps adding even more plates to spin.
And after 25 years of working in this space I can tell you right now – yep, it’s normal.
It’s not a sign that you’re doing something wrong. It’s a sign you are doing something right. Why else would things keep coming to you. You’ve made it to the point in your career where prioritisation isn’t a skill anymore, it’s the only thing.
I was once given the analogy of white water rafting.
You feel like you are constantly getting hit by rapids, knocking you off course, sometimes out of the boat. Searching for that spot in the river where you can rest.
The truth is, you’ll never get everything done. That bit in the river doesn’t exist.
You can stop pretending that one day you’ll catch up, that magical day when your to-do list is empty, your inbox is cleared, and you finally have time for “strategic work.”
That day doesn’t exist. The to-do list will always have something on it.
And that’s fine, because your job isn’t to finish the list.
Your job is to decide what on that list deserves your attention. Today
And the thing distracting most from focusing on that is their email.
When I work with FBPs, I see this pattern:
– Email received requesting something that is urgent
– Drop what they are doing to respond to it
– Prioritising the urgent over the important.
Which seems like a reasonable thing to do if you are “servicing” other functions in the organisation and partnering them
The problem is it conditions the rest of the organisation to continue to behave like that.
They know the best way to get your attention and get you to do something is to email you.
Because when they do you respond.
They know if they email you, you will do the work. Usually turned around with promptness
The problem is there is no interaction there between you and the other party to determine
a) How urgent is this exactly, when is it really needed by
b) How important is this. Should I be prioritising it? What’s the context?
c) Do you want detail or high level. Finance defaults to detail where high level was directionally ok.
The easiest way to break this – ignore your emails.
At least the first one you receive.
If you do that you will be amazed at how quickly the emails you receive reduce.
Now you have a group of stakeholders you are conditioning differently.
They now know that if they email you, instead of an instant response, they probably won’t get a response.
And if they know they probably won’t get a response what will they do
One of two things.
If its not really really important, they will do nothing
If it is really really important they will come and see you directly.
From that you can ask them some questions. Specifically around context, how important this is from the organisations perspective and the deadline for it.
After which you can control the timing of when you will work on it for them.
Whether you might delegate it to someone else.
Whether it is done today or its just not important enough so can wait until next week.
Think about it, do the people above you in different departments answer your emails when you email them.
Likely not.
I once worked with a GM who after four weeks in the company had 1,247 unread emails.
I said “Don’t you clear these?” and he said “No I don’t even read most of them, if its important they will call me”
Then he showed me a text from his boss earlier that day that read “can you give me a call its urgent”
I asked “what was so urgent” and he said he didn’t know. He hadn’t text him back yet.
With a smirk he said “If it was that important he would call me, he has his phone in his hand, if he can’t be bothered calling me then it mustn’t be that important”
How refreshing I thought. Risky but refrehsing
So I started to behave the same way.
And condition my stakeholders the same way.
If it was important call me or talk to me. I will give you my undivided attention if you do.
If you email me, I likely wont even respond.
And if they came to me and said did you get my email I would say – no I don’t read all my emails (you probably had read it but if you mark it is unread you can show them, “see look I haven’t read it yet”).
And when they knew that, they then knew what to do.
Paradoxially I became even more valuable to them. The discussion was often what they needed not the work.
And I was invited into the discussions that mattered. The informal ones in the hallways where decisions are actually made and ideas are developed.
Not the formal meetings where those things are simply ratified later.
Now there is one caveat to this. If your boss or your bosses boss emails you, you probably want to at least look at it before ignoring it and marking it unread.
But still judge the importance of it before you turn to the urgency of it.
The best FBPs work on the things that are important. Not the things that are urgent.
If its not important you will likely get an email.
If it is important you will likely get a visit.
Focus on the visits not the emails.