The document emphasizes the importance of personal and personnel professional development, encouraging individuals to align their skills with their career goals and the strategic direction of their organizations. It highlights the necessity of understanding team dynamics and fostering a supportive environment to enhance productivity and morale. Overall, it advocates for honest communication, personal accountability, and recognizing individual motivations to achieve professional success.

1. THE RESOURCE FOR CORPORATE FINANCE, ACCOUNTING AND TREASURY PROFESSIONALS
Successful Personal & Personnel
Professional Development
Ernie Humphrey, CTP

2. General Themes
Personal Development
 Do what you love and love what you do
 Learn to change what you can and accept what
can’t
 Enjoy the journey in reaching your goals and see
each a goal obtained as an achievement and an
opportunity
 Embrace change as it breeds opportunities
 It is not only about what you want to do, it is
about figuring out how to get there,
 Share your career vision up and down
the corporate ladder and within your professional
network
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3. Personal Development
Looking in the Mirror
What is the correlation between your current
skill set and the following:
 The strategic direction of your company
 The skill sets of your direct reports and
your boss
 The skill sets of your professional peers
 The competitive landscape of your
organization’s lines of business
 The current and future state of your chosen
profession
 Where you are in terms of your desired career path
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4. Personal Development
Defining your Skill Set
 Technical Skills
 Interpersonal Skills
 Inside your organization
 Outside of your organization
 Outside of the work environment
 Leadership Skills
 Consensus building
 Teammate Skills
 Playing nice with others
 Facilitating cooperation
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5. Personal Development
Defining your Skill Set- Cont’d
 Analytical skills
 Turning challenges into opportunities
(embracing change)
 “It is not the strongest of the species
that survives, nor the most intelligent,
but the one most responsive to
change”, Charles Darwin
 Thinking “outside the box”
 Thinking “inside the box”
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6. Personal Development
Career Path Self-Assessment
Are you on the right career path?
??Having trouble answering this question??
Consider the Following:
“Your time is limited, so don't waste it living
someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma -
which is living with the results of other people's
thinking. Don't let the noise of other's opinions drown
out your own inner voice. And most important, have
the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They
somehow already know what you truly want to
become. Everything else is secondary.” Steve Jobs
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7. Personnel Professional Development
Setting the Stage for Success
How well do you know your team?
 What makes each person tick?
 Identify factors that affect individual productivity
both positively and negatively.
 What are the short term and long term career
goals of each person?
 What is the level of awareness of the
necessity of ongoing professional
development of each team member?
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8. Personnel Professional Development
Setting the Stage for Success-Cont’d
How well do you know your team?
 What level of personal accountability does
each person take for his or her professional
development?
 What does each team members perceive as
their greatest assets and obstacles to
achieving their desired levels of success?
 What are the actual personal assets and
obstacles to achieving the desired level of
success for each team member?
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9. Personnel Professional Development
Setting the Stage for Success-Cont’d
How well do you know your team?
How well does your team work together?
 Which members of your team work well
together and why?
 Which members of your team do not work
well together and why?
Do the skill sets of your team members
compliment each other and your own skill set?
 Learning is most effective when it is a two
way street.
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10. Personnel Professional Development
Take inventory of the skill set of each team member and
determine how each person’s skill can be enhanced to
improve departmental productivity.
Do this yourself and also ask each employee to do a self
assessment. If they like what they do they will be more
productive.
 Work with employees and establish personal accountability for
professional development.
 Ask your employees what they need to be successful and give
it to them.
 Teach your employees how to build and utilize a professional
network.
 Encourage involvement in professional associations.
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11. Personnel Professional Development
Motivation
You must be able to motivate your employees
thru a myriad of business conditions
 In “good times”, keep pushing, don’t let
people rest on their laurels or let them take
their foot off the accelerator after a
successful project.
 In “tough times”, engage your team before
you see visible signs of anguish and
frustration.
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12. Personnel Professional Development
Motivation- How?
 Create a positive atmosphere and look for
opportunities to recognize success.
 Hold enterprise-wide or cross-functional meetings
that include communication by you and your staff.
 Convey to each staff member the importance of
their individual role in the department’s and your
organization’s success.
 Communicate the tough news such as any
potential layoffs, struggles in sales, etc. Realism
and honesty will be appreciated and may help to
quell rumors that may be circulating.
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13. Personnel Professional Development
Motivation- How?-Cont’d
 Give your staff more exposure to the CFO or
controller and provide them the opportunity to
shine to enhance their individual brand equity
 Encourage community involvement by your team to boost
morale.
 Be flexible, given all that you are asking of your
employees, allow them to work from home or occasionally
leave early for a child’s school or sporting event
 Instill a strong sense of ownership for each team member
for his or her own work and that of colleagues
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14. Personal Development
The Bottom Line
 Do what you love and love what
you do
 Actively manage your career in
conjunction with your personal and
professional skill sets
 Create, maintain, and communicate
your vision for your career
 Recognize the power of self
awareness
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15. Personnel Development
The Bottom Line
 Know what makes each person tick
 Understand and manage the dynamics
of your team
 Ask each person what they need to be
successful and give it to them
 Honest communication mitigates
unproductive behavior
 Establish personal accountability
 Be cognizant of what you are asking of
each team member and actively
manage morale
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