Ep. 140: Dana Pascarella - Staff Development Strategies

Contact Dana Pascarella:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/dana-catanzaro-94978a6/


FULL EPISODE TRANSCRIPTAdam: (00:05)
 Welcome back to count me in, IMA's podcast about all things
affecting the accounting and finance world. I'm your host, Adam
Larson. And this is episode 140 of our series and today's
conversation. You will hear from Dana Pascarella, VP of finance
at Wesco International. As she talks about staff development.
Dana is a finance executive with extensive accounting experience
at a global publicly held fortune 500 organization. She is
particularly skilled in mergers and acquisitions, debt,
financings, business growth strategies and technology upgrades,
among other areas, but she is especially passionate about
developing our finance staff to ensure organizational success.
Let's head over to the conversation and hear more about it
now.
 
 Mitch: (00:52)
 So Dana, from a finance perspective to kick things off
here, what are some of the key areas you focus on when it comes
to staff development?
 
 Dana: (01:01)
 Yeah, so ultimately I'm focused on providing my staff, you
know, a foundation that will allow them to deliver solutions in
the future. So, obviously that's, teaching them the skills to
become an expert in their area. Right. I want them to become an
expert. I need them to have the basics, the fundamentals, the
technical skills, but also I think it's so important, especially
with the younger staff that they really start to understand and
learn those softer skills. So organization, adoptability,
communication, you know, those soft skills are so important and
can truly take years to learn and you want them to be able to
really be able to draw upon that, that total foundation so that
the technical skill plus the soft skill will really provide them
something, to draw upon as they move forward in their
career.
 
 Mitch: (01:59)
 Yeah. You know, it's interesting at IMA obviously we focus
on management accounting, you know, accounting and finance and
the technical skills, the emerging skills are obviously highly
important, but we also really try to make sure that the
foundation, you know, the, the leadership skills and the ethics,
all of that is equally emphasized, I would say, and a lot of the
things that we do and now granted it's for members as opposed to
staff, but I think the focus is really there. And, it's all about
developing that pipeline. Right. And I think that's kind of what
you were touching on. So from your experience, from again finance
and staff, when it comes to developing your staff, what kind of
methods or types of trainings have you attempted, implemented?
You know, what kind of training has been the most effective for
you and your staff?
 
 Dana: (02:50)
 Yeah, so definitely every year always focus on goal setting
with a couple of stretch goals, right? I want to, I want to
challenge them, pull them out of their comfort zone a little bit.
But you know, something as simple as regular communication,
having one-on-ones and being clear and providing constructive
criticism to really help them, you know, improve if you're not
providing constant and regular feedback, I don't think
individuals know where to begin or what to improve on. So I
really think that communication is super important, cross
training, getting folks into, maybe areas that aren't their area
of expertise, but, allowing that cross training to really build
out their, their expertise, involving folks in a new project or a
responsibility for a short period of time, if something comes
along again, that's part of, kind of pulling them out of their
comfort zone, but also seeing how they do with these new projects
and give them that role, you know, obviously guide them, but let
them be the decision-maker to an extent, obviously, you know, the
leader I'd have to provide guidance, but let them participate to
understand the different perspectives and see how they would
answer the questions. And let them feel kind of part of that
process. I also think anytime you can provide a staff an offsite
experience, I think that, especially in finance right, we're just
the behind the scenes books and numbers. So when you can give an
employee an opportunity to kind of better understand the
business, the operational side of what's going on, you know, be
it visit a branch, an office, accompany an internal audit to a
site visit, visit a customer, a vendor. I think that really
helps, especially some of the newer staff really put the full
picture together. So not only understanding the numbers, but also
understanding the why, the how, and how the businesses is
running. I just think it helps to put that full picture together
and is just so much more valuable as they move forward in their
career.
 
 Mitch: (05:10)
 Yeah, I totally agree. And a lot of great practices there
from my own personal experiences, I can say, you know, a lot of
what you've shared that I've been through, it certainly works,
and it really helps with that stickiness and makes everything
kind of make sense, big picture, like you were saying, but I do
want to kind of just follow up on what we're talking about here.
You've mentioned a few different skills, but when it comes
specifically to finance, what are some of the skills you see that
are most important? You know, when it comes to staff development,
we talk a lot about upskilling or reskilling. Where is the focus
today?
 
 Dana: (05:43)
 I mean, clearly you have to have that mathematical
analytical skill set, right. I think, you know, today also having
pretty strong IT skills are pretty important and that's all part
of kind of that technical skill. But I also think persuasiveness,
decisiveness, interpersonal communication skills are, it's all
part of, of finance, right? It's more than just that technical
skill. It's how do you, how do you deliver that technical answer?
How do you, how do you provide that with confidence? Right. It's
one thing just to give a number, but if you provide it with
confidence and decisiveness, then your audience is, they have
comfort in you and what you're delivering. So it's, again, it
goes back to, you know, not only those technical skills, but, but
having strong, soft skills.
 
 Mitch: (06:35)
 That's great. And, again, I can really see how everything
you're sharing comes together. I can relate personally to some of
my experiences. So, like I said, a lot of great ideas,
perspective here. I'm curious when it comes to thinking about
these ideas and trying to put a plan together, how do you go
about mapping out these needs? How do you go about picking these
different practices to implement? Is it an individual basis? Is
it by department? You know, how do you go about planning your
staff development?
 
 Dana: (07:08)
 Yeah, so I think it is important to kind of first
understand the individual's career aspiration, their personality.
You know, you want to make sure you're stretching and challenging
the right person and the person that you're giving them
challenges that fit their personality. Right, so you want to
align project and work with those desires because if there's a
mismatch, it won't be effective. Right. But it is about
understanding that person, their career goals, their personality,
and providing challenges and, and stretch goals to kind of push
them outside of their comfort zone and see how they perform. You
know, some people they're just, you know, you're steady Eddie,
but, but some people have a desire to continue to move up in
their career. And so you would align projects and
responsibilities accordingly. So for me, it's always been
understanding that individual person and their desires and their
personalities, and then al...