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To get ahead in finance, accounting managers must develop the skills of a "consigliere." This is the surprising spin in a new study of upward mobility that the Financial Executives Institute (www.fei.org) has sponsored. Entitled "Leverage Competencies: What You Need to Lead," this study emphasizes that upward mobility today for accounting managers and controllers has little to do with the traditional three Cs-conformance, command, and control. Instead, these traditional financial and technical skills are now the starting point for department heads who will move up, provided they also have the potential to become strategic partners-that is, consiglieres. "These are internal consultants/confidants who partner with the most senior people in the. organization," the report explains.
Fortunately, this partnering skill is a matter of vast experience for many ADMAR readers, since a major component of their jobs is to cultivate good relationships throughout their companies, often with non-accounting colleagues on the same level whose departments contribute information to...