Lynda McGoey, Managing Director, Global Head of Trade Finance at General Electric Company & GE Capital Corporation, says her career is testimony to the importance of trying new things and being brave. Lynda has been at GE for 25 years, but she started out on Wall Street, an intern in college on the floor of the New York Futures Exchange (NYFE).

After the NYFE, upon college graduation she joined Texaco, working in FX, commercial paper and corporate finance learning how treasury supports the companies’ goals and objectives and the importance of operational excellence. It was only when she stepped into other areas of the oil group’s treasury function that she discovered trade finance, her natural home. “Be brave, try all areas of treasury rotational programmes, which are an excellent way to learn new skills and build relationships” she said, speaking during Treasury Today Group and Allspring Global Investments Future Treasurer series in New York.

In conversation with Sophie Jackson, Treasury Today Group’s Head of Strategic Content, Lynda said not having experience of a particular element of treasury isn’t a barrier to entry. Some people on her team didn’t have trade finance experience when they applied but had other critical skillsets that would be complementary and enhance the team dynamics. “Don’t be dissuaded to apply because you lack a certain skillset, have the conversation and express your interest in a new role,” she said. One of her main focuses during interviews centres around ascertaining how much candidates are willing to learn, do they have leadership abilities, where do they believe they will add value, are they are team player and will their personality match. “We all want to like the people we work with, and enjoy being around,” she said.

Fellow speaker India Gary-Martin lent her leadership expertise to the conversation. Much of her work centres on fostering enterprise leadership, encouraging people to extend their influence beyond their specific role and function to develop a broad understanding of the wider business. In a treasury context, this means developing an understanding of how treasury impacts on other elements of a business-like operations and sales, for example. “Enterprise leadership involves developing the capacity to look across the organisation,” she said.

It means developing influence across the wider business, something that can be challenging because it is difficult to influence events beyond our immediate sphere and team. Enterprise leadership involves bringing people to the table, she continued, explaining that his involves persuading people outside our direct influence to buy into new ideas. One way to anticipate colleagues’ potentially negative responses is to have solutions at the ready. “Know what other people’s non-negotiables are – influence isn’t magic. It involves preparation,” she said.

India’s advice was echoed by Lynda who counselled on the importance of tailoring ideas or initiatives around new projects to managers and stakeholders’ key priorities. For example, presenting a project to a manager who is primarily focused on the bottom line, should highlight the benefits and the ROI. “Go in prepared,” said Lynda, adding pre-meeting preparation is critical and should focus on the so-called 5Ps – proper preparation prevents poor performance. “Understand your manager and stakeholders needs and what is impactful to them.”