The Goal for a Retiring Manager: Teach the New Person to Seamlessly Continue in Your Place

In this article, IOFM interviews long-time IOFM Member and Advisory Panelist, Lynn Tate, APM, who is semi-retiring after more than 40 years in financial operations. Ten of those years have been spent as the Accounts Payable & Expense Report Analyst at Urban Science Applications Inc. in Detroit, Michigan.

We asked Lynn to provide her feedback and advice for retiring managers and new managers who are entering the financial operations profession.

Q. Can you tell us a bit about your career? What are you most proud of?

A. I started my career as a high school English teacher but decided it wasn’t for me. I ended up in accounting—specifically, accounts payable—a few years later. That has blossomed into a more than 40-year financial operations career.

When I started working at Urban Science nearly ten years ago, I was presented with the opportunity to make AP function more efficiently. I am proud of the work I’ve accomplished.

As the AP Analyst, I created a module outlining how I expected the department to work and then went about implementing it. At the height of the pandemic, I transitioned the department to a paperless operation and created a SharePoint site to track invoices. Additionally, I was able to convert all but about two percent of my suppliers from check payments to ACH or wire payments.

Over the years, I have become active with IOFM. I joined IOFM in 2018, earned my APM certification, and became a member of the IOFM Advisory Panel. I have contributed to many presentations and surveys and presented an IOFM podcast. 

Q. According to recent IOFM research, nearly 20 percent of the nation’s AP and AR leaders are planning to retire. What should organizations be doing to plan for this mass retirement?

To start, every organization needs to make sure that all its AP processes are documented. It’s important to have a “bible” of sorts that covers as many scenarios as possible and includes work instructions on how to handle those scenarios. It also helps to make sure that you have someone during a leadership transition who knows enough about AP to assist in any “crisis.”

Q. What kind of opportunity will you have, as an outgoing/retiring manager, to train and mentor incoming talent?

A. I will transition first to a part-time role so that I can train and mentor my successor. I would like to have the final say on when I believe that this person is ready for me to leave and for them to seamlessly continue in my place.

Q. How important is it for retiring professionals to work with their replacements?

A. In my organization, it is a very, very important step for retiring professionals to remain during a leadership transition. Our company values its retiring professionals and depends on them to be the resource for their replacement or replacements to work with. AP at Urban Science operates within guidelines, but it is not a “cookie-cutter” operation. Any new leader must be prepared to adapt to the flexibility of our culture and our operation.

Q. What observations do you have about retirement today as opposed to retirement in years past?
A. Coincidentally, my father worked in the same building where I work now—the Renaissance Center, commonly known as the “RenCen,” a complex of seven connected skyscrapers in downtown Detroit, Michigan. Before I joined Urban Science Applications, I never thought I would eventually work at the RenCen myself.

The times were different, and our jobs and our responsibilities were different. Nonetheless, my father was an important influence. He taught me many timeless skills. I carry his work ethic with me every day. Among the most important lessons he passed along was the importance of working effectively with others.

As I prepare for retirement, Urban Science is preparing to leave the RenCen by the end of the year. The Urban Science tower and the tower my father worked in are being torn down for the revitalization of the Detroit waterfront.

I wonder how my father would feel about the changes. I imagine he would miss, as I will, being able to see the morning sunrises as he looked across the Detroit River, and seeing Windsor, Ontario, Canada as he planned his day ahead.

Q. In your decades in AP – what are the biggest changes you’ve seen?

A. The biggest change is the push for companies to do more with less—and succeeding at it. At Urban Science, our success at steamlining processes and removing unnecessary layers within the finance department created an AP function that is more involved as a revenue leader within the department.

Q. How has the rise in fraud changed the focus in financial operations?

A. In my organization, our IT Security, both locally and globally, has strengthened our AP processes. This, in turn, continues to help curb fraud on many levels within finance. We are ISO compliant in vetting new suppliers and customers, and we must be vigilant with training employees to do so as well.

Q. How have AP or AR managers’ goals become more strategic now?

A.  Process improvement is always a big topic and goal for AP. We have learned to utilize our accounting system in ways that are more defined. Other organizations are going through the same process, and I have found that networking and learning through questions that come about through “Ask the Expert” are excellent sources for leveraging our system.

Q. Are there any timeless skills and goals that you believe need passing on that are always needed and valued in any generation—even in this technical age?

 
A. A former manager once told me this, and I live by these words every day: “Focus on the big picture, ask questions, act your ‘wage,’ and never short-change your ability to help others.”

I think the best advice I can give to incoming managers is to never discount what an outgoing or retiring manager has done before you. If nothing else, keep your negative thoughts to yourself and earn the respect of your team.