As we know credit management is a busy occupation. It may be hard for a Credit Manager to take the time to step back and assess your department's deliverables. Is the department focused on senior management priorities? You should do this periodically. What are the expectations of senior management? What are the true priorities? How does your department fit into meeting those priorities?

Start by looking at your department through the eyes of your boss. If your boss were to take a fresh look at your department, what changes would be needed to deliver the best value to the company?

Ask these five questions:

1. How would the department be staffed and organized?
2. What would the Department's critical functions be in support of the company's cash flow, revenue, and profit expectations.
3. Is significant FTE time now spent on non-core functions that should be redirected, automated, or eliminated?
4. Can non-critical functions be outsourced?
5. As the old saying goes, perception is everything. Ask what the perceptions are:

• Of your department's value to the company?
• How well do others understand your role?
• Do others outside the Credit Department understand the scope of your department's responsibility?
• What is the perception of your personal and department's effectiveness?
• What do Customers think? Is the “Department” an obstacle? The “no” department, or a reasonable “deal maker”?
• What does your Sales department think? Do they see your department as sucking the lifeblood from every deal, wasting precious sales time, and orchestrating commission reversals? Or as an enabler to sales, taking reasonable risks?
• What does your boss think? Is your department seen as a backroom administrative function somewhere deep in the Accounting Department? Or a collaborative deal maker, company resource, and profit center?
  
  Take action where it is needed. Think like your boss.

Senior company managers are typically responsible for multiple functions. They have to understand how to orchestrate the coordination of those functions to meet overall company objectives. If your focus is solely on the workings of the credit department, you may be taking too myopic a view. A treasurer, CFO, and CEO see a broader spectrum of priorities. Look at your department through their lens. Take any necessary actions to meet the following expectations examples. Do you:

1. Take a strategic, cross-functional view. Opposed to a tactical focus?
2. Support revenue growth, cash flow, and liquidity?
3. Provide excellent customer service?
4. Develop creative credit policies: Aimed at enhancing profitable revenue opportunities with managed risk?
5. Maintain adequate credit controls and proactive collections?
6. Encourage collaboration between departments and stakeholders aimed at continuous process improvement?
7. Set goals and metrics in-line with the company's marketing and financial strategies?
8. Effectively deploy staff to drive maximum process efficiency and contain overhead expense?
9. Prevent surprises by proactively identifying performance risks and issues?
10. Act as a trusted advisor managing a value-added department with a compelling ROI?
11. Implement best practices, resources, and cutting-edge automation?
12. Strictly comply with company policies and relevant laws and regulations?
    
    If the answer is no to any of the above, it's time to get to work thinking like your boss.

Watch our course on Credit and Collections Career Development Tutorial to identify your strengths and development opportunities for career advancement.