Treasurers hold dim view of advancement at their firms.

Last December, Zehren-Friedman Associates commissioned a survey of senior professionals in corporate treasury positions to gain insights about their attitudes toward their career advancement opportunities, perception of treasury and the role of career development, especially with regard to communication skills.

Survey respondents, largely senior corporate treasury professionals, came from relatively large organizations--25 percent hold the title of treasurer; 28 percent, director; 38 percent, assistant treasurer; and 12 percent, "other."

Respondents were from a variety of company sizes: 33 percent below $1 billion; 44 percent $1 -$10 billion; and 23 percent over $10 billion.

Highlights of the findings follow.

Career Advancement Potential: As a rule, treasury professionals do not view their department as a promising area for career advancement. Indeed, 43 percent of respondents felt that "treasury professionals often must leave the company in order to advanced" their careers; more than half (52 percent) agreed that "treasury personnel are generally limited to opportunities within the department." Just 18 percent said they stand a good chance for promotion to senior management or line management positions. Treasury Perception: Regarding the perception of their departments within the organization, overall, most treasury personnel feel their department is respected; 22 percent feel their department is highly respected.

Factors that contribute most directly to a stronger or weaker treasury department image include the skill level of treasury staff, the importance of the treasury function to business units and the degree of exposure to the rest of the company.

Professional Development Areas:

When considering how to advance their careers, over 80 percent of respondents ranked three development areas most important: increased exposure to senior management, communications skills and advanced technical skills and knowledge. In contrast, they indicated the development areas least important to treasury careers include advanced degree/certification (cited by 54 percent), line management experience (30 percent) and business development skills (16 percent). Importance of Communication Skills: Most senior treasury professionals recognize the importance of communicating effectively, whether in person or in writing. This is not surprising, given the fact that treasury often needs to communicate and interact with many different audiences and levels--both inside and outside the company--including management, boards of directors, business units/divisions, banks, vendors, brokers, rating agencies, etc.

When asked which communication skills are most important to advance their career, respondents cited presenting recommendations and ideas to senior management, boards or external parties and influencing colleagues and other stake-holders (internal and external).

Interestingly, most senior treasury professionals have low regard for their own communication skills capabilities. While respondents felt that "presenting recommendations and ideas to senior management, boards or external parties" was the most important communication skill for career advancement, they rated themselves the least effective in this area of all the communication skills.

Notably, while 72 percent of survey respondents believe this skill is "very important" to their career, only 23 percent see themselves as "very effective" in presenting recommendations and ideas.

Although most respondents reported a relatively low regard for their own communications skills, there is a silver lining in that almost 70 percent shared "success stories" of how they have effectively applied a communication skill they learned from a training program.

A representative sampling of the stories offered by respondents include:

"Presented to ratings agency and successfully received a rating increase by Standard and Poor's."

"I prepared and made a presentation to the President and CFO recommending how to finance and spend $200 million. My recommendation was accepted."

"I was able to sell my worldwide controllers on a major project while gaining senior management support by presenting how the structure would work and the benefits the project would generate."

Stories like those above reflect treasury's challenge to communicate clearly, given the complexity of the ideas and concepts being communicated, the magnitude of potential impact and the sophistication of the concepts, providers and processes involved.

Also interesting to note: each of the examples effectively combined the top three areas respondents cited in the survey as most important for career development--each represented an "exposure" to senior management and was an opportunity to demonstrate communication skills and apply valued technical skills and knowledge.

Blanche E. Roberts is a Senior Consultant with Zehren-Friedman Associates. (www.zehrenfriedman.com), a management training and consulting firm that helps organizations and their professionals present, negotiate, influence and sell more effectively. Survey results referred to above can be accessed at http://TreasurySurvey.googlepages.com/..