As a finance manager, running effective 1:1s means more than just checking in on tasks—it’s about helping your team see the bigger picture. Finance teams often work behind the scenes, but their contributions are critical to the organization’s success. By explicitly connecting your team’s daily work to broader business outcomes, you can boost engagement, motivation, and a sense of purpose. In this unit, you’ll learn how to reinforce the meaning behind your team’s contributions by linking their efforts to business success, cross-functional impact, and customer value. When people see how their work matters beyond their immediate tasks, they feel more invested and purposeful.

To help your finance team understand the value of their work, make the connection between their achievements and the company’s goals explicit during your 1:1s. Instead of a generic thank you, try something like: "Your improvements to the monthly report helped leadership make faster, more informed decisions—directly supporting our growth targets." This approach not only recognizes effort but also clarifies how individual actions drive organizational results. As a finance manager, you can use these moments in your 1:1s to show your team how their work underpins the company’s financial health and strategic direction.

It’s easy for finance team members to focus on their own responsibilities and lose sight of how their work enables others across the organization. By highlighting cross-functional impact in your 1:1s, you foster a sense of shared accomplishment. For example, you might say: "Your timely budget updates allowed the marketing team to launch their campaign on schedule."

Equally important is showing how your team’s work benefits customers, even if they don’t interact with customers directly. Closing the loop with a statement like "Because your team caught that reporting error early, our client received accurate insights and renewed their contract with us" helps everyone see the real-world effect of their efforts. Use your 1:1s to share these stories and reinforce the broader impact of your team’s work.

• Jessica: Hey Ryan, I wanted to talk about the new dashboard you built for the finance team.
• Ryan: Sure, is there anything I should tweak?
• Jessica: Actually, I wanted to highlight the impact. Your dashboard made it much easier for leadership to spot trends, which helped them make faster decisions during last week’s strategy session.
• Ryan: That’s great to hear! I wasn’t sure if it was making a difference.
• Jessica: It definitely is. Plus, the sales team used your data to adjust their approach, and we’ve already seen an uptick in customer renewals. Your work is having a real ripple effect.

In this exchange, Jessica goes beyond simple praise by connecting Ryan’s work to both business outcomes and cross-functional impact. She also closes the loop by showing how his efforts ultimately benefited customers. Notice how this approach makes the recognition more meaningful and helps Ryan see the broader value of his contributions.

Mastering these techniques will help you build a finance team that is not only productive but also deeply engaged and connected to the organization’s mission. In the upcoming role-play session, you’ll get to practice linking your team’s work to broader outcomes in real conversations.