Preface

The Trend

Contractor Nation

DRAMATIC AND PERMANENT MOVE TO CONTRACTING

“The demand for e-consultants is staggering. Technology consultants are commanding very large dollars.”

Business Finance Magazine

An estimated 30 million Americans are now working as part-time contractors, according to the Seattle Times (November 21, 2010). Each day, more of the work that gets done in business and other areas is being accomplished by employees who are contractors paid by the hour or project instead of regular full-time employees with a reliable paycheck.

Executives and professionals now make up around 10 percent of the temporary workforce.

HISTORY OF THE HIRED GUN ROLE

The bell curve in figure 1 demonstrates the demand for contract controllers and financial executives.

The position started to take shape in the early 1980s. By 1992, the demand for that role had grown tremendously in just 10 years. From 1990 to today the market has again expanded exponentially.

No one can say exactly how high the curve will go, but I suspect that there will always be a demand for the contract financial executive.

The good news for you is that if you are considering this as a career choice there is unlimited potential.

The good news for you if you are already serving as a hired gun is that there will always be a need for your services.

Figure 1: Demand for Contract Controllers

Objectives

You have the opportunity to provide top quality services at affordable prices without the human resource issues involved with having employees.

This fast-growing trend in business—requesting the services of a Financial Executive who is not a permanent part of the organization—means that for a variety of reasons, some companies are opting to

• Employ a person who works less than full-time.

• Staff a major project with temporary employees.

• Contract with an employee from their CPA advisory firm.

• Contract with a highly experienced Controller or CFO for an indefinite but short-term period of time.

This trend raises many questions, problems, and opportunities.

This book is designed to provide answers and guidance to many of the questions raised with this novel situation. Despite the unique need for Controllers, there is not much practical information on the subject.

After reading this book you should be able to

• Apply the special skills required of the part-time and contract Controller.

• Understand the role the contract Controller plays.

• Weigh the positives and negatives of being a part-time and contract Controller.

• Know how to be a very effective contract Controller.

• Discuss issues related to the elusive contract executive position.

• Develop a Position Description for a contract financial executive.

• Generate ideas on how to market yourself as a part-time or contract Controller.

• Design a tailored action plan for your specific needs.

• List your own ideas and contributions.

• Put this information to good use in your own career.

This book is designed for CFOs, Controllers, and anyone who chooses to work in a part-time or contract capacity. The specific duties are not as important as the attitudes and skill set. I will assume that you already know how to do accounting, so we will not cover number crunching. We will cover topics such as how you market yourself and how to deal with the ego-centric CEO.

Assess Your Contract Professional Skill Set

Self-Assessment #1: Where Do You Rate?

Be truly honest and rate your ability in each of these skill areas. If you confused about the skill, read the explanation on the following pages.

Answer Key

Scores of 77 to 88

Wow! If you are not doing it now, you are ready to be a contract professional! Your next steps are to coach and mentor others so they can develop these skills too, while building up your practice.

Scores of 66 to 76

You are utilizing your skills well! You are very close to being ready to be a successful contractor, so your next steps are to seek out opportunities where you can increase the skills you scored lowest on and obtain honest feedback from the people you work with.

Scores of 55 to 64

You are contributing and make differences in small ways! However there are larger issues that you need to address. Your next step is to focus on the skills that you rated lowest on and seek out opportunities to practice those skills over and over until you have mastered them.

Scores of 44 to 54

You are only halfway to being considered an effective Controller and contract professional. The next steps you must take are to raise the bar for yourself and consider getting a mentor who will teach you the skills that you lack and challenge you to become more of who you can be.

Scores Below 44

Ouch! You either took the wrong class because you are not ready or are thinking that you are more effective than results show. You have a clear choice: 1) reevaluate your career choice, or 2) find ways to get out from behind your desk and become a more proactive agent of change each day, both inside your company and in volunteer situations. Failure to do this will cause harm to your earning potential. Sorry!

Contract Professional Skills Explained

The following are a list of skills, along with descriptions of those skills, that are necessary for the successful contract professional.

ACTIVE LISTENING

• 100 percent of your being is involved when you are actively listening!

• Hearing is a physiological reaction, while listening is a mental process.

• Hearing is automatic, while listening is a conscious choice.

• Listening cannot be substituted by another skill.

• Over 40 percent of communication is the process of listening.

OBJECTIVE OBSERVING

• Sitting back without an emotional attachment to what is in front of you and seeing it as a child would.

• Observing or watching to see the entire picture and the parts that are not readily evident.

OBJECTIVITY

• Staying above the problem or issue.

• Not taking sides.

CLARITY

• Seeing the event or issue with fresh eyes.

• Using your entire thinking abilities to see things clearly for insights and undiscovered truths.

BUILDING TRUST

• Inspiring in others their confidence in your ability and character.

• Making others feel assured that you will not cause harm.

TESTING ASSUMPTIONS

• The ability to analyze your or other people’s assumptions surrounding an issue to identify and remove any biases.

• Working to remove any paradigms that you use to filter out information that conflicts with your deeply-rooted beliefs.

PARTNERING

• Thinking and behaving collaboratively.

• Keeping the client’s best interests in everything you do.

PROBLEM SOLVING

• Looking for solutions that not only stop the problem today but help to prevent it from occurring again tomorrow.

• Using a wide variety of tools and insights to get to the core of the problem, while not getting bogged down with the side issues.

INTEGRATIVE THINKING

• The use of facilitation tools to develop tailored and thoughtful recommendations for any unique situation.

• Learning quickly as time passes, using a variety of methodology.

SELLING IDEAS

• Being able to convince or persuade someone with your arguments and logic.

• Selling ideas runs the gamut from simply stating the obvious to negotiating with another person.

PROFESSIONALISM

• The expectation that a person will act as an expert at a reliable level of integrity.

• Competence and integrity are essential to professionalism.

TAKING A FIRM STANCE

• Living up to your role as the conscience of your firm. There will be times when you have to take a firm stand against something that nearly everyone else believes is a good choice.

• The Controller needs to be able to clearly state their convictions and use that stance to persuade others.