Op-Ed: Women in Finance – Maintaining a Work/Life Balance

Contributed by Sandra B. Richtermeyer, Ph.D., CMA, CPA

Women are often drawn to accounting or do well in it because of their organizational skills. It is a personal belief that many women are “hard wired” to consistently look at the most efficient way to accomplish tasks and meet deadlines, while never losing site of the family needs – managing kids, schedules, making sure their house is in order, etc. Women are often required to be multi-taskers in every aspect of their lives.

Deadlines, Deadlines!

No matter what area of the accounting profession you are in – public accounting, industry, etc. – deadlines will be front and center. There will be deadlines for reports due to internal stakeholders as well as external stakeholders. On the external side, there is often a multitude of tax filings, financial statements and various compliance activities. On the internal side, deadlines may be more focused on internal financial statements and related financial reports, budgets, planning, forecasting and analysis activities.

Depending on the industry, size of organization and accounting role, the deadlines vary but the skill sets to manage the deadlines are largely the same. Developing skills in time and project management as well as mastering the art of prioritizing can be a lifesaver!

Giving up control

Many people drawn to the accounting profession are often referred to as “control freaks.” I believe this is a huge positive, particularly for women. It is also a trait that can be very beneficial when it comes to the complicated, technical requirements of the accounting profession where a great deal of control and focus are necessary.

It can be difficult for people with this personality trait to give up control in any aspect of their life, but many women who have successful careers in finance and accounting often learn to give up control in certain areas of their life, particularly as they gain responsibility and move into leadership roles. For example, in their personal life, they may give up control of things that are easily outsourced like house cleaning, shopping, errands, lawn care, etc. That gives more time for the things that cannot be outsourced, such as being involved with your kid’s, spouse’s or other family member’s activities.

It can be harder to feel that you can give up any control in your work environment but by learning to effectively delegate, you can obtain more balance at work. In addition, you may be able to ease the burden at work by investing time in the professional development of those who report to you. Developing their skill sets so that they can take on more responsibility can better align not only your work-life balance but those you work closely with.

Informal/Formal Communication Management

Making effective use of informal and formal communication channels can really help with work/life balance as well. Often, we anchor on one type of communication method, such as email, making it difficult to manage responsibilities and connect the dots in all the issues we may be simultaneously involved with. It is often too easy to let one form of communication, particularly email, “dominate you.”

I find it helpful to inform the key people in my life how to best contact me during the week. For my family, it is a text message or cell phone call (and usually I prefer both). For those who directly report to me at work, I insist that they call or text for urgent matters. For those who aren’t as critical in my personal supply chain, they typically will contact my administrative assistant, call my office line or send an email. Utilizing this practice, I feel comfortable breaking from my e-mail to focus on projects, deadlines, etc.

I often have to travel for work and find that the best way to immediately get up to speed after returning to the office is to walk around, and have conversations with those who are directly in my area of responsibility. I find that personal “face time” helps solve problems that may otherwise take 50 or more emails to resolve!

Professional Development

I believe that successful accounting professionals, both men and women, never compromise on their own professional development. Our profession requires many hours of technical education each year as well as ongoing education in soft skills or leadership. As our accounting certifications and licenses require continuing education, we often manage to check the boxes and meet the basic requirements. Due to pressing family needs, many may feel guilty going much beyond that, particularly when professional development requires travel or to give up more family time.

For women, it can be especially hard to find the time to attend to this aspect of your career when you have school-age children, because many times additional travel or personal time off is required for some of the most impactful professional development activities. As a result, professional development often gets put on hold, sometimes long enough where we wake up and find ourselves 15 to 20 years into our career and frustrated with our lack of options in terms of promotion or general employability.

I find that sharing my professional development plan with my family and professional support network makes a really big difference. By bringing them into the plan, they see how it can be helpful to me from a career standpoint and perhaps help me grow into other roles in the future. For example, one key aspect of my own professional development is serving as chair of IMA, an association for accountants and financial professionals in business, a role that takes me away from my family and my own work environment quite a bit, and as such I needed to make sure a balance existed between work and home.

As I explained to my young son what it meant to be chair and how I would be growing as a leader and helping other accounting professionals with their own career development, it made a lot of sense to him. It also helped him understand the value in volunteerism. Furthermore, when I explained that in over 90 years, IMA has only had four female chairs and only one with a school age child during their term, he not only felt special, but wanted me to do it. I have also found it particularly effective to bring my son (when practical) to special events or celebrations related to my IMA board chair responsibilities.

Family First

Although there have been many positive changes, the accounting profession often loses its appeal when women feel it is not conducive to the right type of balance between work, family and other personal goals. I believe that any success in your professional life will never be true success if your family life is compromised. In today’s society, the definition of family can be quite broad but having a solid family foundation, however that may be defined personally, will provide a solid base for a successful career.

Sandra B. Richtermeyer, Ph.D., CMA, CPA is Chair of the Department of Accountancy at Xavier University’s Williams College of Business in Cincinnati, Ohio. She is 2010-2011 Chair of IMA, the association for accountants and financial professionals in business.