In our quest for efficiency, are we losing compassion?
Financial Management (FM) magazine
Release Date: 07/23/2025
Leadership traits that help finance teams thrive
Financial Management (FM) magazine
Leadership coach and mentor Sue Milne, FCMA, CGMA, describes key strategic and interpersonal skills that can help finance professionals keep pace with evolving business expectations, along with key questions that can help them grow as leaders. Milne also shares essential attributes for managing finance teams today, how leaders can maintain awareness of potential blind spots, and what core values contribute to inspirational leadership. What you’ll learn from this episode: What inspired Milne’s career transition. How to build better relationships with stakeholders. Key skills...
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‘Own your results’: Building accountability as a CFO
Financial Management (FM) magazine
Eric R. Alexander, CPA, president of advisory service company Six Arrows Consulting, discusses the lessons he’s learned throughout his career in finance and what being a finance leader means for him, and other insights from his upcoming book, Stewardship Leadership for Stinkin’ Accountants: Serving as the CFO. He shares key strategies for developing as a stewardship leader, including how he holds himself accountable, how he views his role as a trusted adviser for organisations, and the steps he has taken to improve in the relational and people aspects of the finance function. “I've been...
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June FM: AI presentations, anti-fraud culture, Rise2040
Financial Management (FM) magazine
In this podcast episode, FM editor-in-chief Oliver Rowe summarises the content in the June edition of the magazine. Rowe details an article on using artificial intelligence tools to bolster presentations and introduces a new, recurring column on global advocacy. He also highlights several other articles in the edition. FM’s (member login required). Also, access . What you’ll learn from this episode: Highlights of an article about what AI tools can do to improve business presentations. Details of a new, recurring column on global advocacy, which for this edition includes a focus on...
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People power keeps productivity growing with AI
Financial Management (FM) magazine
Irena Teneva, an associate technical director at the Association of International Certified Professional Accountants, joins the FM podcast to share insights gathered from a new AICPA and CIMA report, Future Ready Finance: Productivity at the Human-Technology Crossroads. Teneva illustrates the types of tasks experiencing clear efficiency gains from artificial intelligence (AI) adoption, where finance leaders are more cautious about implementation, and steps those leaders are taking to expand how tools can be used. Teneva also highlights why productivity still hinges on finance talent, priority...
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Pitch perfect: Team sport helps finance students stand out
Financial Management (FM) magazine
Claire DuRose, lead manager–UK Student Recruitment for the Association of International Certified Professional Accountants, and Vince Mayne, CEO of England Touch rugby, joined the FM podcast to explain the benefits of participating in team sport for students, specifically how team sport can grow skills and increase employability for finance graduates. They discuss the ways team sport can prepare management accounting students for challenging environments at work, build deeper professional relationships, and help them through the interview process. DuRose and Mayne also highlight...
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Future of finance: An evolving, people-driven transformation
Financial Management (FM) magazine
The latest Future of Finance research from the Association of International Certified Professional Accountants reveals several key focus areas for finance and business leaders. , FCMA, CGMA, the Association’s associate technical director, joined the FM podcast to discuss survey results, highlighting leaders’ top transformation strategies, barriers facing organisations looking to upskill talent, and notable areas of progress in finance teams since a previous survey on the topic six years earlier. McCaffry also explains the interplay between people and process and one key preference...
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Reframing retirement: A 4-part formula for relevance after work
Financial Management (FM) magazine
Anthony Boateng, FCMA, CGMA, Npontu Technologies’ chair, explores why retirement planning is about much more than saving money and illustrates the nonfinancial ways that professionals can invest in themselves to prepare for and maintain a sustainable and fulfilling retirement. Boateng introduces his model for retirement planning, including four main areas he considers essential for growth and relevance into retirement years. He also suggests several strategies for optimising networking and building deeper relationships, and he explains why a sharp mind matters the closer we get...
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April FM: Assessing your worth, board recruitment, and AI governance
Financial Management (FM) magazine
FM editor-in-chief Oliver Rowe details the content in the April digital edition of FM. He begins with an article on setting up an AI governance policy and another on the mistakes companies make related to AI policies. This episode also summarises articles on how to use salary benchmarking sites and other resources to determine what you’re worth and on ensuring a board’s capability meets the organisation’s business needs. The conversation closes with an explanation of how members can access the as well as the . What you’ll learn from this episode: Details on...
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5 types of imposter syndrome and strategies to manage self-doubt
Financial Management (FM) magazine
Leadership coach and diversity, equity, and inclusion professional returns to the FM podcast to explain the intricacies of imposter syndrome, ways it can manifest itself at work, and the internal and external systems that can help professionals manage self-doubt. Turner shares individual and cultural strategies that professionals and leaders can adopt to combat negative self-talk, broaden perspectives, and lean into a people-centric approach that emphasises learning and development. “As managers, it's really important we embrace the learning curve and support our colleagues to do that...
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Go your own way: Transforming beliefs into breakthroughs
Financial Management (FM) magazine
Leena Dattani, FCMA, CGMA, discusses how limiting beliefs affected her professional growth, the small steps she takes to overcome them, and the realisation that changed her idea of what it means to be a leader. “I had a vision that in order to be a great leader, you have to be loud,” Dattani said. “I think because I felt that that needed to be the case, I was almost imitating what I thought a leader should be rather than being myself.” Dattani also discusses how one organisation achieved the buy-in to improve gender equity, some ways women can start to back themselves...
info_outlineJamie Gruman, Ph.D., professor of organisational behaviour at the University of Guelph in Canada, discusses some of the ways technology is distancing us from other people and how this can harm employees.
Gruman explains why this era of urgency and efficiency, aided by technological advancements, threatens to further dehumanise and objectify workforces and describes ways this is happening in businesses.
He talks about the research he and Alan Saks, Ph.D., professor of organisational behaviour and human resources management at the University of Toronto Scarborough), have done. That research concludes that work cultures focused on care are necessary for good management and satisfied employees. Gruman also highlights one commonly held “naive belief” preventing the development of more compassionate practices in the workplace.
What you’ll learn from this episode:
§ Different ways technology can dehumanise and objectify employees at work.
§ Why creating a caring work environment should be simple.
§ One shared falsehood that stops organisations from implementing caring cultures.
§ The role of leadership in demonstrating and rewarding care.
§ The interplay between work culture and employees’ relationship with technology.
§ How employees are resisting algorithms that threaten their autonomy.