Editor’s note: Zheng Wei (pictured), finance director, Hays Asia shed light on what matters when it comes to leadership, how you can progress to become a leader, and the biggest challenge facing finance leaders today. This interview is part of FutureCFO’s Female Leadership in Finance Series.
FutureCFO: When did you start to become interested in finance? What’s your career goal now?
Zheng Wei (ZW): Good question. I honestly never thought about it. I think my interest in finance grew over time after being in this profession, routed from my first mainstream finance role back in 2018 when I became sub-regional financial controller at Hays.
I never had any very strong preference for what I needed to major during my university years. Finance became a sensible choice for me because my mother worked within the profession and I was always comfortable with numbers.
With a degree in finance, I then progressed into a graduate scheme with one of the Big Four companies, mainly doing assurance work which I knew I didn’t want as a career.
I wanted to be part of the execution effort rather than an advisor on the sideline. So I took up the challenge to relocate from London, where I grew up, to Hong Kong, transitioning into a mainstream finance role in 2018.
I never look back at this decision because while advisory work laid a solid foundation for me to become a competent finance leader, I enjoyed being part of a team working towards a common goal—with the ability to steer and execute—so much more. I continue to learn from this process while the ability to make an impact and see real-time results daily through decisions that I was part of is extremely rewarding.
I don’t like to focus on long term career goals too much. Instead I prefer to focus on doing well in the present and taking up challenges when opportunities arise.
If I had to think of a “goal” at this stage of my career, that’d be fostering what I describe as a future-equipped “modern finance team culture”’ that supports, encourages, and empowers individuals in my team to become future finance leaders who can power business success.
Everyone needs to be part of a solution rather than being simply informed of it.
FutureCFO: What do you enjoy doing the most among your current responsibilities?
ZW: I enjoy teamwork and partnering with people in my organisation to come up with solutions and a common goal.
To me, brainstorming and driving the execution of an idea are rewarding while the wide range of ideas and topics that I need to deal with adds to the enjoyment.
For example, I could be discussing broader business strategy with our managing director and then moving onto a discussion with our people and culture department on how to better empower women in our Asia workplace. After that, I would meet my finance colleagues to talk about the financial implications of cross-border transactions.
This adds variety to a work day and expands my knowledge. I also learn from cross-team collaboration every single day, which enriches my life beyond my work at Hays.
FutureCFO: What are some of the biggest challenges facing you as a finance leader today? How might some of these challenges evolve in the near future?
ZW: The biggest challenge is the speed of change and the resulting agility required of the finance team.
Changes we experience are multi-faceted. They can be business-driven, led by our underlying market, resulting from industry-related legislation, or a shift in employee lifestyle, behaviour, and workplace needs as a result of the COVID pandemic.
Against this backdrop, a quick turnaround of insightful data that enables actions is required of the finance team. And to support a fast decision-making process, we need to have enough financial data points and become data interpreters with insights into the process and system, rather than simply presenting calculations on a spreadsheet.
However, finance teams weren’t trained to be data interpreters—we were “programmed” to be data processors in the past.
Luckily, I have a strong, forward-thinking team of country finance leaders working with me, where we consciously make decisions with the finance team’s development in mind.
We offer upskilling opportunities to shift the finance team from traditional ‘processors’ towards a modern team equipped with “thinkers”.
By thinker, I mean data interpreters and process owners who aid decision-making, which was often left to executives with leadership roles.
Of course we need to be mindful of having the right balance because transactional delivery remains the bulk of the finance team’s responsibilities.
In addition, as proactive cost management is a key focus of our business, the finance team must carefully orchestrate this to deliver its outputs.
All in all, that makes increasing efficiency in transactional delivery capabilities and upskilling to repurpose the existing team to become business partners an ongoing journey.
As a byproduct, this change also creates career development opportunities for the entire team including myself.
I don’t see this demand for quick decision-making that leverages finance experts’ insights into data and processes slowing down in the future.
Especially with the fast progression of AI which gives users access to information in seconds, we subconsciously increase our expectation of how fast data can be obtained and decisions made.
I firmly believe in engaging people in an organisation when addressing challenges.
Everyone needs to be part of a solution rather than being simply informed of it.
As finance leaders, being reactive to situations is no longer adequate. The value we provide is that we can prepare business for the foreseeable future and most importantly steer the finance team towards that path.
I don’t see the demand for quick decision-making that leverages finance experts’ insights into data and processes slowing down in the future.
FutureCFO: What’s your advice to female finance & accounting professionals who aspire to become finance leaders?
ZW: I never think much about gender. If you don’t think about it, you won’t be impacted by it and you are less likely to behave with that impact in mind consciously or subconsciously.
Instead, I’d recommend my female counterparts to be their true authentic selves and assess what they encounter professionally from a different angle.
For example, if I see a domineering participant in a meeting, I wouldn’t associate that behaviour with a particular gender. I will instead identify that behaviour with that particular individual.
That’s not asking you to deliberately turn a blind eye to any potential gender issues, as any intentional gender stereotyping that hinders your ability to perform and perhaps progress to leadership should be called out. And I am glad I have seen an improvement and deliberate increase in awareness at Hays over the last few years.
Having said that, my advice to anyone who’s interested in a serious finance career towards leadership are as follows.
First, voice your career aspiration to your reporting manager and don’t be shy.
As your direct manager is the key person to provide you with the relevant opportunities to reach your career goal.
It’s a people manager’s job, in my opinion, to listen to your career ambition and guide you to a solution. This may even include advising you to move to a different company to pick up a certain skillset that your existing company can’t offer.
Second, you must take responsibility for your own goal and work on it proactively. Monitor your progress, voice out if you have concerns, and make decisions when opportunities arise.
Like anything in life, career achievement requires consistent commitment and conscious effort.
For those wanting a leadership role, my last advice is: don’t underestimate the people aspect and the need to build relationship beyond the workplace.
You must also have the patience to truly understand people you lead beyond their roles. In leadership, I’ve learnt that there is no one-size fits all. Everyone is unique.
If you want to be a leader, you must be willing to get to know people who work with you and bring them on a journey to a common purpose.
FutureCFO: Tell me something about yourself: What are your hobbies? How do some of these help you relax outside work? Do some of them inspire your work?
ZW: I like to keep moving physically, whether that’s gym workout or outdoor walks and hikes, either alone or with friends and family.
I do weightlifting—it forces me to stay focused to avoid injuries. It also forces mental shutdown that gives me a break from my thoughts, including work-related ones.
Walking alone allows my mind to refocus. I tend to start my day with that so I can come up with a list of priorities before hitting office.
Having a friend or family member join me on outdoor hikes is especially useful for any problems with which I’ve been stuck for some time. And having a trusted thinking partner in a safe space can spark creative ideas at times.
