Leadership coach and adviser René Carayol MBE said there was a time when people worked for a leader but nowadays leaders have to work for the people.

Good leadership is about creating trust and an environment where everyone feels included, especially during times of change.

With the current political and social economic climate being subject to change, uncertainty has become the new ‘norm,’ according to Andy Young, managing director of Accenture. Speaking at the CIPD’s Festival of Work conference in London earlier this month, Andy Young said: “Don’t think about uncertainty as a problem. See it as the new condition.”

So how can business leaders lead through times of uncertainty and help create trust?

Acknowledge it

Peter Done, managing director of global HR consultancy, Peninsula, says: “The main cause of current concern is Brexit. With no confirmed plans for the future of trade, movement of goods and security, UK businesses are struggling to create future business strategies. Uncertain company plans can foster an internal culture of unease and anxiety, especially for employees.”

Acknowledging and owning up to this uncertainty will help create a trusting and loyal culture, says Done.

Keep communication channels open

When leaders are unsure about the future, the easy route is to clam up to avoid being seen as weak or out-of-control in front of staff, Done says, but this usually has the opposite effect. “A lack of information can lead to gossip, negativity and panic becoming rife”.

Keeping communication channels open and actively speaking to staff will provide them with short-term reassurance and keep them on the right track,’ he notes. 

Have a support plan in place

Susy Roberts, founder of people development consultancy Hunter Roberts, says managers all too often focus on trying to anticipate how people will reach rather than the support they will need during times of change.

“An effective change management strategy should focus on anticipating the support that will be needed for any change, not the reaction to a specific announcement,” she notes. “A set of questions should be developed that can be applied to any set of circumstances: what form should support take and how long should it be in place? Will external resources be required? Be objective, not subjective.”

Set regular reviews

Marketing specialist Gemma Angharad says: “In order to stay close to your team during change and ensure all issues with uncertainty are dealt with, you must set regular milestones or review periods to assess the success of the change implementation so far. This is integral to the successful outcome of any change management project you have to take everyone with you on the journey with accountability, communication and consistency.”

Lead by example and work as a team

“Your team will take a cue from you as their leader,” says Mary MacRory FCCA. “So lead with integrity and truth. Be calm, relaxed and optimistic. Always stay engaged with your team and ensure that the culture is one of teamwork (rather than conflict) and that the workplace is positive.

If this sort of culture is in place, then this will reduce the stress caused when uncertainty is thrown into the mix.” It’s better to have a customer-focused culture than a performance-driven one, she adds.

Focus on the small wins

“Most businesses rely on a rigid plan for growth. But leaders who switch their focus to achieving short-term goals will often experience positive change, even in difficult times,” says Done.

“By focusing on small wins, the business will continue to move forward at a steady, consistent rate during an uncertain period. Once the uncertainty is over, the company is in a better position to flourish.” Leaders who continue to celebrate success during times of uncertainty, however small, will find a more loyal and engaged workforce, he adds.

Stay strong and stable

When the future is unclear, effective leaders need to retain their employees’ confidence by maintaining stability. “A lack of effective leadership can lead to a lack of confidence in the business itself,” says Done. “Staff might decide to flee a sinking ship. Remaining strong and stable and avoiding knee-jerk changes to leadership style is key.

If tasks are usually delegated to others, maintain this and where staff are consulted on project plans, continue asking for and listening to their ideas. You don’t want staff to suddenly find that they are being aggressively micro-managed and unable to participate in workplace decisions.” 

In summary

Being a leader during times of uncertainty and change is not always easy but remaining calm, communicating clearly and often and celebrating small victories along the way should help. Having a support plan in place and regular reviews should also help.

For more on the future of accountancy:

• How Brexit will affect accountants

• The future of accountancy – managing the changes

Georgina Pluck FMAAT, is a qualified accountant in AAT and ACCA. She has always been ambitious but credits the support she received from mentoring for getting her where she wanted to be.

Last year, at the age of 29, she got her first number one role as Head of Finance at Europlaz Technologies. Here we speak to Georgina about how mentoring has helped her excel in her career.

How did you get into accounting?

I’ve been in accounting since I left school about 14 years ago. I’d wanted to be a lawyer but hated A-Level Law so found a job in London as an office administrator. The job involved some invoicing and making supplier payments which I enjoyed so I took myself to AAT evening classes.

I’m now Head of Finance and sit on the Board at Europlaz Technologies but I’ve worked across lots of different industries – manufacturing, dental, retail, aerospace, logistics. I think exposure to different industries really helps you to grow.

Have you faced any challenges getting to where you are now?

I’ve found that my age has been a challenge as I’ve been relatively young in senior positions. People don’t always trust in your ability and this can also affect your confidence. You might know the right answer but don’t always feel that you can speak up.

I’ve also found in previous jobs that managers can be insecure about their own positions and if you’re hungry for more work they don’t always want to progress you. Working hard isn’t enough, you also have to be really interested in what you do.

How did getting a mentor come about?

It came about quite naturally, I didn’t actually go out and look for a mentor. A previous manager, Richard, recruited me and through the course of working together, he noticed that I was inquisitive and keen to learn about things outside of my job role that made up the bigger picture.

He went above and beyond to set aside the time to support me. He saw things in me that I couldn’t see and he benefited from helping to develop me too so it became a two-way thing.

How long have you been meeting with your mentor?

It’s been about four years. He helped me with the interview for my current job which involved lots of things including a presentation to the Board. I practised it with him and he guided me and listened to what I was trying to deliver for the interview.

Can you tell us about the mentoring process?

It started off just with me asking questions and then we set some time aside for me to learn about other aspects of the business. We got on well as friends so it became a friendship as well as a mentorship.

We’d go for dinner once a month and talk about business and my career aspirations as I was always planning my next step. I’d ask him about how he’d got to where he was and realised that all the things I felt insecure about, he’d been through too and they were normal.

How has mentoring helped you progress professionally?

I couldn’t have got as far as I have, as quickly, without mentoring. The support I have been given has massively helped my confidence. I call him my ‘Career Angel’.

I can now phone him with any queries I have. This is particularly important in a number one role where you don’t have anyone else at your level and sometimes you need to debate items so I’ll call him for a debate!

Because of the experience that I‘ve had, in turn, it’s made me a good mentor and I’ll do it for my team if they want it. Mentoring can create a spark in people that wasn’t there before.

What advice would you give somebody thinking about getting a mentor? 

It is definitely 100% worth it but you’ve both got to have the time to invest in the mentorship. Choose your mentor wisely, they don’t need to be from your industry – it can actually be good to have someone giving a different perspective.

Maybe you’ve already got a great relationship with somebody and you just need to formalise it and ask them to be your mentor. It’s good if you’re close to someone as you need to have an open and honest relationship where they can critique you.

If you don’t have someone in mind, attending networking events are really important for meeting new people. I’m still not 100% confident going to them but I push myself to go and start conversations.

In summary

Having a mentor is an excellent way to gain perspective on your career and to help you to achieve your potential. As well as developing specific skills it will improve confidence and will make you accountable.

Whatever your level or position, you should also consider offering your services as a mentor which will help to develop and inspire you, as well as your mentee.

Read more about mentoring here:

• Why we need mentoring to happen
• Meet the mentor: Helen Weir, previous CFO of M&S

Done in the right way, mentoring can be immensely valuable for accountants, but AAT research shows that mentoring within the finance industry is low.

In a recent survey carried out among members, we found that only 45% of AAT respondents have received mentoring.

This is the joint lowest (along with those working in the charity sector) in industry sectors. By contrast, 64% have been mentored in the wider finance and accounting industry.

By not mentoring young accountants, we our missing out on a huge opportunity for upskilling. And so as part of our AATPowerUp campaign, we’re focusing on how we can help to make mentoring happen.

Mentoring in a changing world

For our report Mentoring and Accountancy: Why be a mentor? we spoke with over 200 members, along with the wider finance and accounting industry and employees across a variety of other industries, in order to benchmark their current ability to benefit from a mentoring scheme.

At AAT, we know that in order to remain topical and current for their business and clients, an accountant will need to undertake regular retraining throughout their career – not least to keep on top of advisory and consultancy skills.

And within this, having a mentor can help employees focus on the areas they most need to improve; while being a mentor gives experienced workers a wider perspective of the workplace, and the opportunity to give something back.

The appetite for mentoring is strong

Despite the current lack of opportunity, many AAT members would relish the chance to meet with someone more senior.

Nearly two in five AAT professionals (37%) want the organisation where they currently work to implement a mentoring programme, which compares favourably with other industries and indeed beats the 32% across the wider accountancy and finance industry, our research found.

Of those who had been mentored, 89% said it was a valuable experience. They said it helped with confidence, new skills, a professional sounding-board and helped them set goals.

How can we foster mentoring in the workplace?

“Companies may be short on mentors simply because people underestimate themselves,” says Wendy Rowe, Director Tax & Accounting, Wolters Kluwer UK.

“One of the biggest mistakes I see many people make in both IT and Finance is that they underestimate the true value of their skills within the business, assuming perhaps that they don’t have the experience to be a solid mentor” says Wendy.

To ensure that mentoring is an essential part of a successful work culture, we need to nurture people’s ability to lead right from the start and showcase the specific strengths and skills that they have.

Liz Sebag-Montefiore, Director and Co-Founder of 10Eighty, specialists in career management, says building a coaching and mentoring capability helps to identify new talent and retain key people for longer.

Melissa Sergeant, managing director of Bishopsgate Financial and a coach and consultant to the banking sector, says mentoring and coaching are both aiming at helping someone improve their performance and achieve goals, but the difference is usually in the approach and methods used.

“Mentors provide guidance and sometimes opinions and options to the mentee, whereas coaches ask probing questions so the coachee identifies solutions for themselves,” says Melissa.

The benefits the individual and the company

“Mentoring is a fantastic way for individuals to learn, grow and develop in their career, both as a mentor and mentee,” says Ed Johnson, Co-Founder and CEO of PushFar, the mentoring organisation.

“It could be that mentoring helps to support specific workplace challenges or looks at the longer-term career progression of an individual but either way, having the support of a mentor who is usually more experienced and has been in similar situations previously can be an invaluable resource.”

He says that for organisations and companies, running mentoring schemes has several benefits:

• employee retention rates increases
• employee engagement and empowerment increases
• there is cost-effective internal learning and development
• there is a clearer understanding of wider-organisational and departmental function when mentoring is offered across several departments

What works and what doesn’t

Pairing up individuals is often not the way to go and you are likely to find that employees don’t feel they are happy with their ‘matched’ mentor or mentee, says Ed Johnson.

“Let individuals pick and choose from several different relevant mentor matches,” he says. “Offering flexibility around mentoring, by allowing individuals to, within reason, set their expectations and agendas for mentoring, works really well.”

Establishing common ground, a joint interest, a sharing of experience is key, but so too is chemistry, says leading business expert Erica Wolfe-Murray. “You do need to have a meeting of minds, an excitement about where the process can lead, the opportunities it can bring about for both participants.”

Regular checking how each mentorship is working against its objectives is important, but it needs to be allowed to take different routes too.

Key takeaway

A true mentor will act as a strong role model to help those around them fulfil their potential. They help you avoid complacency, set career goals and can both inspire and motivate you to success. Mentoring schemes can offer support to employees in both their personal and professional lives.

They can also lead employees to improve not only their business skills but upskill in other areas – not least in communication through regular meetings. The mentor themselves benefit from the new ideas and energy a less-experienced worker might bring, and therefore schemes can contribute to combatting skills shortages.

In summary

Mentoring is mutually beneficial, helping to upskill and give new knowledge to mentor and mentee alike. With accountancy rapidly moving away from one reacting to data-inputted figures to one that is advising in real time, those working in the industry will need to ensure their advisory, communicative and analytical skills evolve accordingly.

Learning to become a good mentor allows professionals to share their skills and insight with others, become better leaders, and create a legacy through influencing the leaders of tomorrow.

More information

The #AATPowerUp programme aims to equip employers and finance teams in the areas of leadership and management; digital skills and communication. Visit AATPowerUp for inspiring articles to help you and your business succeed in the modern workplace – next up, how to become a great mentor.

Click here for our whitepaper: Mentoring and Accountancy: Why be a mentor?