Judge when to escalate reading financial statements and when to absorb it.
Reading Financial Statements and Making Management Decisions Based on Them
Learn to design, measure and defend your organisation's approach to reading financial statements.
📍 Abu Dhabi🗓️ 5 training days📚 4 modules🎓 Accredited certificate
5intensive training days
4scientific modules
8training sessions
32detailed points
Course Overview
Managers are promoted for competence and then judged on reading financial statements, which nobody trained them for. Most failures in this area of organisational leadership trace back to a conversation someone avoided having. The most reliable predictor of sound the organisational leadership capability is whether anyone reviews it when nothing has gone wrong. Participants gain a clear basis for measuring what reading financial statements has actually achieved. What blocks progress on the organisational leadership discipline is usually unclear ownership rather than unclear intent. It is pitched for practitioners with responsibility for this aspect of organisational leadership, not for observers of it. Content is organised around the decisions practitioners actually face in reading financial statements, not around theory headings. The programme uses small-group work so that each participant's treatment of the organisational leadership capability is examined, not just described. The course ends by identifying what the participant will stop doing to make this area of organisational leadership sustainable.
Expected Learning Outcomes
Communicate the purpose of reading financial statements to those who have to comply with it.
Build the internal capability for reading financial statements rather than depending on external support indefinitely.
Protect the team's capacity so reading financial statements is not delivered through exhaustion.
Set direction on reading financial statements that people can act on without further interpretation.
Design a training and briefing approach that sustains competence in reading financial statements.
Set standards on reading financial statements and apply them consistently regardless of who is involved.
Who Should Attend
Team leaders responsible for daily delivery of reading financial statements.
Founders and owner-managers formalising reading financial statements as the organisation grows.
Technical staff being prepared for supervisory responsibility over reading financial statements.
Managers with direct responsibility for reading financial statements within the management team.
High-potential staff being prepared for wider responsibility for reading financial statements.
Department heads and senior managers accountable for reading financial statements.
Course Modules
Reading financial statements: the conversations that decide the outcome
2 sessions · 8 pointsSession 1Saying the thing about reading financial statements that nobody wants to say
- Prepare the response for the most likely failure in reading financial statements.
- Define acceptance criteria for reading financial statements in advance.
- Set the review point at which reading financial statements will be reconsidered.
- State the outcome expected from reading financial statements in a single sentence anyone can repeat.
Session 2The meeting that finally unblocks reading financial statements
- Identify your successor for reading financial statements and the gap they need to close.
- Record the rationale for each significant choice made about reading financial statements.
- Give one piece of specific feedback on reading financial statements within the week.
- Recognise publicly one person whose work on reading financial statements went unnoticed.
Reading financial statements: influence across functions you do not control
2 sessions · 8 pointsSession 1Getting other functions to support reading financial statements
- Agree the smallest change to reading financial statements that would be visibly useful.
- Prepare how you will respond when reading financial statements is challenged publicly.
- Decide the point at which you would escalate reading financial statements.
- Set the decision rights on reading financial statements: who decides, who is consulted, who is told.
Session 2Showing that reading financial statements changed something measurable
- Collect evidence on the present handling of reading financial statements before proposing changes.
- Draft the minimum viable leadership plan for reading financial statements.
- Assess the workload reading financial statements adds and what you will remove to make room.
- Record what was learned when reading financial statements did not go as planned.
Reading financial statements: delegation, trust and accountability
2 sessions · 8 pointsSession 1The hard cases in reading financial statements and how to reason about them
- Check whether incentives anywhere reward behaviour that undermines reading financial statements.
- Test whether the team can explain reading financial statements in their own words.
- Map the handovers in reading financial statements between functions and secure them.
- Identify the conversation about reading financial statements you have been postponing, and schedule it.
Session 2What your team concludes from how you handle reading financial statements
- Arrange the handover of reading financial statements so capability survives staff changes.
- Confirm that reporting on reading financial statements reaches the people who can act.
- Prepare the summary of reading financial statements that senior management will read.
- Name a single owner for each element of reading financial statements.
Reading financial statements: resilience and the personal cost of leading
2 sessions · 8 pointsSession 1Closing out reading financial statements and capturing what was learned
- Decide what you will delegate on reading financial statements and what you will not, and say why.
- Review a past decision on reading financial statements and state honestly what you would change.
- Ask the team what they think is wrong with the plan for reading financial statements.
- Set out the decisions in reading financial statements that require sign-off and by whom.
Session 2Building someone who can run reading financial statements without you
- Name the person accountable for each part of reading financial statements, not the committee.
- Identify where judgement in reading financial statements is legitimate and where it is not.
- Agree the indicators that will show whether reading financial statements is improving.
- Plan the sequence in which improvements to reading financial statements will be introduced.
Choose the package that suits you
Silver Package
At least 3 people
USD1,250
- Workshop or Program Participation
- Airport Transfers
- Customized Badge
- Expert Mentorship (Private Sessions)
- Supervision & Secretarial Services
- Accredited Certificate of Participation
- Complete Training Kit
- Coffee Break
- Closing Ceremony
Gold Package
At least 3 people
USD1,850
- 5-night stay in a 5-star hotel
- Workshop or Program Participation
- Airport Transfers
- Customized Badge
- Expert Mentorship (Private Sessions)
- Supervision & Secretarial Services
- Accredited Certificate of Participation
- Complete Training Kit
- Coffee Break
- Closing Ceremony
Complete your registration
We will contact you within one business day to confirm.