A Leading Lineup: How to Coach Your Accounting and Finance Team

Strong, effective leadership is the backbone of any successful business team. Good leaders set clear goals, establish a sense of purpose, build consensus, and empower their team members to tackle the many challenges at play.

Much like sports teams, accounting and finance teams have to adapt to their ever-changing environments to be successful. For sports teams, it’s adapting to losses, injuries, weather conditions, etc. For accounting and finance teams, it’s adapting to earnings, economic conditions, mergers and acquisitions, staffing shortages, and more. Of course, no matter the challenge, good leaders know it’s the roster of players that keep the momentum moving toward the goal.

Here, four C-suite executives—including three from Chicago’s prominent sports teams—share their advice for how to lead like a champion.

Build Consensus—There’s No “I” in Team

“When we think about winning in the business sense, I focus on building consensus and trying to bring everyone together—even if there’s going to be disagreements,” says Kieran Kelliher, CPA, vice president of finance and administration for the Chicago Bulls and adjunct lecturer at Northwestern University. “At some level, everyone has to unite behind the final decision and move forward together.”

According to Kelliher, it’s imperative for leaders to gather input from many different voices across the organization, including seeking perspective from people outside of their specific team, such as stakeholders or partners. Then, as leaders build consensus, they can start identifying specific targets and planning details.

“You can’t just dive right in—you have to discern purpose and set that vision not only for yourself but for your team,” Kelliher advises. “At that point, it’s not just the leader’s view on how to do things, it’s the team’s view. Leaders should empower everyone to solve problems and work toward a vision as best as they see fit.”

Pawel Szynalik, CPA, CFO and senior vice president of program revenue at the Chicago Fire Football Club, echoes this sentiment and sees extraordinary value in building consensus as a team: “Just like on a soccer pitch, a winning team goes well beyond the score. It’s a group of individuals, with different skills and varying levels of experience, that continually strive to improve and work together cohesively toward the ultimate goal. A winning team is very much committed to the overall team’s success, not individual accolades.”

Protect, Guide, and Support

Bill Waters, vice president of finance for the Chicago White Sox, says he’s fully open to brainstorming and listening to ideas from staff as part of his decision-making process, but it’s ultimately up to him, and other leaders like him, to take action and be fully accountable for all outcomes—positive or negative.

“I always try to protect my staff,” Waters says. “If something goes wrong, that’s my responsibility, not theirs, and I’ll take the fall for it.”

That said, Waters stresses the importance of clear, constructive feedback: “You got to give good news where good news is due, and sometimes you got to give bad news. It can’t just be one-sided, so tell them when they’re doing something right and guide them when they’re doing something wrong.”

Waters’ straightforward and supportive leadership style has translated into something he’s very proud of—strong staff retention in an industry where high turnover is the norm. Waters, who’s been with the White Sox for 36 years himself, has staff members that’ve been by his side for as long as 34 years, with 10 years being the shortest.

What’s helped Waters build and retain his team is that fact that he’s been in their shoes. He first joined the White Sox as a controller in 1989 but quickly moved up the ranks.

“I’ve always been open to taking on more responsibility, learning new things, getting involved, pitching in when others may not want to,” he explains. “Everything my staff is doing, I’ve done and had to learn at some point. So, I can relate to what they’re doing.”

When asked what makes a good leader, Waters says it comes down to being someone who’s available, actively involved, encourages their team, and challenges their capabilities.

“Leaders get most of their work done through their staff, so if you’re not available to them, they can’t get their work done, which means you don’t get your work done,” he explains. “Encourage your staff to come forward. Don’t make them think they shouldn’t be bothering you.”

Szynalik adds that a good leader is someone who creates a positive and productive work environment.

“They must have high integrity and lead by example,” Szynalik says. “Be someone who shows empathy and can easily relate to each team member’s challenges and aspirations.”

The Importance of Humility

Similarly, Kelliher says being humble plays a large role in effective leadership: “I’m a big fan of preaching humility. To be a great leader, you have to know your gifts and strengths. You owe it to your teammates, company, peers, and staff—you owe it to all the people around you to use those gifts, offer that perspective, and speak up when you know you have something that’s important to share. Conversely, you have to know your limits, weaknesses, and when to hang back, listen, and learn more.”

Notably, research backs Kelliher’s claim on the importance of humility in leaders. Nearly 200 studies in the last decade have shown that humble leadership can boost productivity, lead to higher employee satisfaction and retention, and improve a company’s overall performance. Further, a study published in Human Resource Management in January 2024 looked at 610 leaders across 18 industries and found that those who displayed humble behavior typically engaged in frequent, informal mentorship, which in turn helped them gain favorable status and opened doors to corporate opportunities.

Humble leaders are able to self-reflect, acknowledge mistakes, notice others’ strengths and contributions, and are open to feedback, according to the study. “Some leaders take a dominance track to the top, characterized by inflicting costs on others, but we suggest humble leaders naturally take a status track to the top, which involves benefitting others,” the study’s researchers stated.

According to the researchers, there are three ways organizations can encourage humble leadership:

• Incorporate humility as a key employee performance metric and when evaluating potential candidates for leadership roles.
• Encourage humility and mentoring in leadership, in turn, creating a learning-focused culture.
• Offer training programs or workshops that highlight humility.

Harnessing the Art of Storytelling

While leadership virtues like humility and integrity are powerful tools, communication is equally critical. Successful leadership simply requires communication. In fact, all three seasoned Chicago sports executives said that having frequent and transparent face-to-face conversations among all team members is essential.

“Interpersonal communication helps build trust and alignment and ensures that any roadblocks that come up can be dealt with timely and efficiently,” Szynalik says.

Another way to build trust and culture as a leader is to harness the art of storytelling, according to Reena Kansal, chief operating officer and story facilitator at Leadership Story Lab, a women-led business storytelling consultancy firm based in Chicago.

“Storytelling can be an effective way for leaders to communicate to their team—it’s an opportunity to share your point of view and persuade your team to take some form of action,” Kansal says, who’s coached hundreds of corporate clients across industries. “We define leadership storytelling to be the strategic sequencing of facts and emotion.”

Kansal says one fundamental storytelling framework that leaders can use goes by an acronym any accounting and finance professional can remember—IRS. In this case, IRS is short for intriguing beginning, riveting middle, and satisfying ending.

• Intriguing Beginning: The goal is to capture your audience’s attention.
• Riveting Middle: This is where you want to translate the data and information into meaning for your team.
• Satisfying Ending: As the storyteller, this is your opportunity to assert your point of view. Kansal stresses: “Make sure you have a clear takeaway for your team so they know what action should be taken next.”

When it comes to connecting with your team in a meaningful way, Kansal recommends taking a step back and tailoring stories appropriately.

“Perhaps you don’t have the luxury of getting to know every team member better or spending time with them. In these situations, try putting yourself in their shoes and think about what’s important to them,” Kansal suggests, adding that being a good listener and asking questions will help with your storytelling.

“We believe everyone can become a good storyteller—it just takes practice,” Kansal says. “The more you do it, the better you get.”

Avoiding the Common Leadership Mistakes

On a larger scale, one common mistake leaders tend to make is micromanaging their teams, which can lead to burnout, Szynalik stresses.

“You have to trust your team, otherwise it’ll lead to frustration on both sides,” he warns. “It’s essential to give team members the autonomy to carry out their work. Give them the freedom to approach problems in their own way, and if they feel stuck on an issue, provide the necessary guidance and feedback to get them back on track.”

Another way teams may lose momentum toward their goal is when leaders make rash, ill-informed decisions, likely the result of not building the necessary consensus with the team. As Kelliher says, “Remember the old adage: ‘If you want to go fast, go alone; but if you want to go far, go together.’”

Kasia White is a freelance writer who specializes in profiling leaders of globally renowned companies.

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