What skillset should you look to develop to make the progression to Treasury Manager?

In any career, there is a requirement to change skillset as you become more senior. The more “in-detail” element of the role is left behind, as the senior members of the team need to have a more holistic mindset, as well as get used to delegating and team management. This is no different in treasury. For the purposes of this article, we are going to assume a medium sized core treasury team of six people – two Analysts, two Managers, an Assistant Treasurer and a Group Treasurer. That said, structures and titles can vary hugely, but the premise will remain the same.

Throughout a treasurer’s career there is a natural evolution of day-to-day responsibilities. Analysts will most likely need to be more in the detail, being the “doers” in the day to day running of treasury. This can involve a broad range of cash management activities, including bank account reconciliations, settlements, FX management and payments execution. Similarly at Manager level, there will also be a lot of “doing”. Most likely the role of the manager will differ to the Analyst mainly in the complexity of work. Where the Analyst will be working on the day-to-day cash management and back-office treasury, the Manager might be responsible for the execution of the hedging strategy, inter-company funding and cash pooling and any operational improvement work. This person may have elements of management and delegation responsibilities if there is a Treasury Analyst in the team, however, the role still tends to be a “doing” role.

Arguably, the biggest shift in the focus of a role comes in the progression from Manager or Senior Manager to Assistant Treasurer. Whilst the Treasurer role will always be the most strategic position in the function, the Assistant Treasurer role is also required to hold a more holistic view of treasury. It is at this point that the individual becomes more connected to the overall strategy of not just the treasury team, but the business as a whole. This means that the role is no longer predominantly a “doing” role, but has much more responsibility around oversight and delegation, leaving the day-to-day responsibilities to the analysts and managers in the team. This is also the position that can often be the “face” of treasury, both internally and externally, representing the team with regards to working with banking partners, as well as business partnering internally with other teams.

What skills do you need to be an Assistant Treasurer?

Often the feedback that we receive from clients when looking to employ someone at the Assistant Treasurer level can be boiled down to two key points: people/team management, and “big-picture thinking”. It is imperative to get both of these points across in interview.

Firstly, when wanting to display management skills, examples are key. That said, if you haven’t had the opportunity to manage multiple individuals, then it is important to refer to times where you have needed to delegate work as part of a project or similar situation or even have acted as a mentor for more junior members of the team. That said, management is about a lot more than just delegating, and so it can also be useful to refer to what management styles you respond to yourself to get an idea of the type of manager you would like to be.

Secondly, a very common theme when interviewing for roles at this level is focusing too much on the detail. At the early stages in your career, you’re taught to have strong attention detail. But when progressing to a more senior role, there needs to be a transition in mindset in order to demonstrate that you can have high-level conversations with both internal and external stakeholders and be able to summarise without feeling the need to go into microscopic detail.

The role of Assistant Treasurer is a crucial one within these medium sized teams and is a great stepping stone if you have aspirations to one day run a treasury function, no matter what size business is the best fit for you. We work with treasury professionals throughout their career and often help build a career pathway, helping them secure roles to develop their career and achieve their aspirations. So if you are looking to make this next step up please let us know!