Financial Management Community: Competencies
The Comptrollership Community Development Office supports the Government of Canada’s financial professionals by providing resources, programs and events to enhance skills, advance careers and promote excellence in public service.
Key competencies for success
Developing robust behavioural and technical competencies is vital for achieving excellence in financial management roles in the public service. These skills correspond with the government’s commitment to cultivating a highly capable workforce that promotes sound financial stewardship and prepares professionals for future leadership responsibilities.
On this page
- Demonstrating integrity and respect
- Thinking things through
- Working effectively with others
- Showing initiative and being action oriented
- Functional competencies
- Get in touch
Demonstrating integrity and respect
All competencies are grounded in integrity and respect. These values form the foundation of ethical conduct, public trust and effective resource management. A key principle underpinning these values is stewardship.
Stewardship
Stewardship reflects the responsibility entrusted to federal public servants to manage and care for public resources responsibly, ensuring their effective use for current needs while safeguarding them for future generations.
Public servants demonstrate these principles by:
- acting with fairness, openness and accountability
- fostering a respectful and inclusive workplace
- managing public resources responsibly and sustainably
Through stewardship, public servants uphold the trust of the people they serve, ensuring that resources are used ethically and with a long-term perspective.
To meet the government’s expectations and effectively contribute to public service goals, financial professionals need to build expertise in the following areas.
Thinking things through
Interpreting, linking and analyzing information to understand issues and provide relevant insight.
Developed by working on the following skills:
- Situational awareness: Understanding and managing the complex dynamics between internal politics, external economic and political environments. This skill requires being aware of how different factors affect organizational strategy and operations.
- Strategic thinking: Analyzing complex situations, anticipating future trends, and making long-term plans to achieve goals. Strategic thinking involves assessing internal capabilities, market dynamics and competitive landscapes to identify opportunities and risks.
- Innovative mindset: Thinking creatively and challenging conventional ideas to make meaningful improvements. This skill includes solving problems, embracing new ideas, using technology and integrating new trends.
Working effectively with others
Working collaboratively with others to effectively achieve common goals.
Developed by working on the following skills:
- Stakeholder-centric: Prioritizing and meeting the needs and expectations of all relevant stakeholders, including clients, colleagues, partners and regulatory bodies. Being centred on stakeholders means understanding, anticipating and responding to what these groups need, ensuring that actions and decisions build trust, collaboration and high-quality service.
- Communication: The skill of conveying information in a clear, concise and purposeful manner tailored to the audience and context, whether through speaking or writing. Effective communication makes complex information easy to understand and facilitates common understanding. Telling stories as part of communication can make facts more interesting and help create a personal connection with others.
- Collaboration and mobilization: The ability to work well with others to reach common goals by promoting teamwork, open communication and respect for everyone. Collaboration brings people together to solve problems and innovate. Mobilization means inspiring and coordinating efforts to ensure sustained progress and shared success.
Showing initiative and being action-oriented
Focusing personal efforts on achieving results and making a difference.
Developed by working on the following skills:
- Digital acumen: The ability to use digital tools, financial technologies and data to improve processes, work more efficiently and make better decisions. Employees who have strong digital skills use automation, analytics and new technologies to anticipate and adapt to changes in the financial world and support ongoing improvement.
- Change leadership: Focuses on providing vision, inspiration and a clear strategy to lead change in an organization. Change leadership emphasizes the leader’s role in motivating and guiding people through transition by providing a compelling vision, aligning change initiatives with long-term goals, engaging stakeholders, fostering a culture of innovation, and demonstrating strong leadership qualities such as empathy and resilience.
- Operational agility: The ability to handle change with resilience, adaptability and agility in a constantly changing environment. Employees who have strong operational agility are open to new ideas, embrace uncertainty, and adjust to new priorities and challenges to effectively handle change.
Functional competencies
Technical skills vary by role, enabling effective performance, goal contribution and targeted growth development.
Functional competencies include:
- Financial literacy: The ability to apply financial principles and practices to support sound decision-making and manage resources wisely. Financial literacy includes expertise in financial reporting, analysis, budgeting, forecasting and resource allocation. Employees demonstrate financial literacy by interpreting financial data strategic advice to improve financial performance and achieve organizational objectives.
- Oversight and risk management: Involves being able to identify, assess and reduce financial and operational risks while ensuring effective governance and compliance. Employees use this skill managing risks, implementing controls, and leveraging governance frameworks to safeguard organizational integrity, encourage accountability and improve financial decisions.
- Compliance: Involves being able to identify, assess and reduce financial and operational risks while ensuring governance and compliance. Employees apply this skill by proactively managing risks, implementing controls, and leveraging governance frameworks to safeguard organizational integrity, drive accountability, and enhance financial decision-making.
Get in touch
To learn more about the Government of Canada financial management community, email us at zzfmcd@tbs-sct.gc.ca.
Already part of the community?
To keep up with the latest happenings in your community, visit GCXchange (opens in a new tab, only available on Government of Canada networks) for development program information, tool kits, guides and more.