Leadership coach and mentor Sue Milne, FCMA, CGMA, describes key strategic and interpersonal skills that can help finance professionals keep pace with evolving business expectations, along with key questions that can help them grow as leaders.

Milne also shares essential attributes for managing finance teams today, how leaders can maintain awareness of potential blind spots, and what core values contribute to inspirational leadership.

What you'll learn from this episode:

• What inspired Milne's career transition.
• How to build better relationships with stakeholders.
• Key skills professionals can hone to manage blind spots.
• What transformational leadership is and how to make it work.
• Key components for becoming your own kind of leader.

Eric R. Alexander, CPA, president of advisory service company Six Arrows Consulting, discusses the lessons he's learned throughout his career in finance and what being a finance leader means for him, and other insights from his upcoming book, Stewardship Leadership for Stinkin' Accountants: Serving as the CFO.

He shares key strategies for developing as a stewardship leader, including how he holds himself accountable, how he views his role as a trusted adviser for organisations, and the steps he has taken to improve in the relational and people aspects of the finance function.

"I've been most effective in my work when I've functioned as a steward, meaning I understood things had been entrusted to me to be responsible for," he said. "I was accountable to people, and fundamentally, it was not all about me."

What you'll learn from this episode:

• Why Alexander says the CFO role is not about you as a finance leader.
• Key elements of stewardship leadership.
• How to hold yourself accountable as a finance professional.
• Why getting into the finer details can complicate decision-making.
• What it means to own your results.
• Tips for enhancing people and soft skills.

In this podcast episode, FM editor-in-chief Oliver Rowe summarises the content in the June edition of the magazine.

Rowe details an article on using artificial intelligence tools to bolster presentations and introduces a new, recurring column on global advocacy. He also highlights several other articles in the edition.

FM's June edition is now available (member login required). Also, access the library of past editions.

What you'll learn from this episode:

• Highlights of an article about what AI tools can do to improve business presentations.
• Details of a new, recurring column on global advocacy, which for this edition includes a focus on advocacy's role in building and sustaining public trust.
• The key points of an article about the AICPA and CIMA's Rise2040 initiative.
• Rowe's summary of an article offering advice — for women in particular — on being a strong self-advocate and one on building an anti-fraud culture.

Irena Teneva, an associate technical director at the Association of International Certified Professional Accountants, joins the FM podcast to share insights gathered from a new AICPA and CIMA report, Future Ready Finance: Productivity at the Human-Technology Crossroads.

Teneva illustrates the types of tasks experiencing clear efficiency gains from artificial intelligence (AI) adoption, where finance leaders are more cautious about implementation, and steps those leaders are taking to expand how tools can be used.

Teneva also highlights why productivity still hinges on finance talent, priority areas for skills development, and how finance leaders are collaborating across business functions.

What you'll learn from this episode:

• Process and people priorities for finance leaders in 2026.
• Where AI implementation is leading to time savings for companies.
• Some steps leaders are taking to optimise and expand AI use.
• Why productivity is still a "people game".
• How finance leaders are approaching cross-business collaboration.
• Three key steps to improving efficiency, according to leaders.

Claire DuRose, lead manager–UK Student Recruitment for the Association of International Certified Professional Accountants, and Vince Mayne, CEO of England Touch rugby, joined the FM podcast to explain the benefits of participating in team sport for students, specifically how team sport can grow skills and increase employability for finance graduates.

They discuss the ways team sport can prepare management accounting students for challenging environments at work, build deeper professional relationships, and help them through the interview process.

DuRose and Mayne also highlight what participating in team sport can give young professionals that academic and other extracurricular frameworks can't.

What you'll learn from this episode:

• The project goals for CIMA's collaboration with England Touch rugby.
• The soft skills that touch rugby can help finance students build.
• "Super skills" that can help students prepare for interviews and work.
• The value of team sport in building deeper bonds in the workplace.
• How participation in team sport can grow leaders' perspectives.

The latest Future of Finance research from the Association of International Certified Professional Accountants reveals several key focus areas for finance and business leaders.

Rebecca McCaffry, FCMA, CGMA, the Association's associate technical director, joined the FM podcast to discuss survey results, highlighting leaders' top transformation strategies, barriers facing organisations looking to upskill talent, and notable areas of progress in finance teams since a previous survey on the topic six years earlier.

McCaffry also explains the interplay between people and process and one key preference that signals a "significant shift away" from organisations' workforce strategies in 2019.

What you'll learn from this episode:

• Finance and business leaders' top priorities for transformation.
• Consistencies and shifts in focus from 2019 to 2025.
• The interplay between process and people priorities.
• Skills gap challenges and what risks they pose for organisations.
• Two points of progress since 2019.
• One key strategic area gaining traction and investment.

Anthony Boateng, FCMA, CGMA, Npontu Technologies' chair, explores why retirement planning is about much more than saving money and illustrates the nonfinancial ways that professionals can invest in themselves to prepare for and maintain a sustainable and fulfilling retirement.

Boateng introduces his model for retirement planning, including four main areas he considers essential for growth and relevance into retirement years.

He also suggests several strategies for optimising networking and building deeper relationships, and he explains why a sharp mind matters the closer we get to retirement.

"At 50 and beyond ... you are no longer just working for today," Boateng said. "You are building the intellectual foundation for the next 20, 30, or 40 years."

What you'll learn from this episode:

• Why preparing for retirement is about more than saving money.
• One critical question for reframing our approach to retirement planning.
• Four pillars that can help steer a fulfilling, purposeful retirement.
• The interplay between relationships and wellbeing.
• Three approaches for authentic, meaningful networking.
• Why intellectual growth matters more as we age.

FM editor-in-chief Oliver Rowe details the content in the April digital edition of FM. He begins with an article on setting up an AI governance policy and another on the mistakes companies make related to AI policies.

This episode also summarises articles on how to use salary benchmarking sites and other resources to determine what you're worth and on ensuring a board's capability meets the organisation's business needs.

The conversation closes with an explanation of how members can access the April digital edition as well as the issue library.

What you'll learn from this episode:

• Details on two articles related to AI policies.
• A preview of a CIMA member's article on taking a strategic look at a board's makeup to suit business needs.
• Other highlighted topics from the April digital edition.
• How CGMA professionals can access digital editions of FM.

Leadership coach and diversity, equity, and inclusion professional Sophie Turner returns to the FM podcast to explain the intricacies of imposter syndrome, ways it can manifest itself at work, and the internal and external systems that can help professionals manage self-doubt.

Turner shares individual and cultural strategies that professionals and leaders can adopt to combat negative self-talk, broaden perspectives, and lean into a people-centric approach that emphasises learning and development.

"As managers, it's really important we embrace the learning curve and support our colleagues to do that because actually what can happen is, when we make a mistake, that feeds into our imposter syndrome," Turner said.

What you'll learn from this episode:

• One tip for reframing how we see ourselves.
• Five types of imposter syndrome.
• Societal and familial factors rooted in imposter syndrome.
• Techniques for improving the feedback process.
• How leaders can help shift the focus from mistakes to learning opportunities.
• Daily rituals for improving our mindset and self-concept.

Leena Dattani, FCMA, CGMA, discusses how limiting beliefs affected her professional growth, the small steps she takes to overcome them, and the realisation that changed her idea of what it means to be a leader.

"I had a vision that in order to be a great leader, you have to be loud," Dattani said. "I think because I felt that that needed to be the case, I was almost imitating what I thought a leader should be rather than being myself."

Dattani also discusses how one organisation achieved the buy-in to improve gender equity, some ways women can start to back themselves professionally, and what International Women's Day means to her.

What you'll learn from this episode:

• Small steps for overcoming poor self-confidence.
• The importance of building a supportive network.
• One realisation that helped Dattani become her own leader.
• How one organisation created a business case for gender equity.
• One trick for challenging limiting beliefs.
• What International Women's Day means for Dattani.