How to Map Out Your Career Path and Lead Boldly

Welcome back to CFO Weekly, where we're talking with financial leaders about how to build efficiency in their teams, create time for strategy and ultimately get results, with your host Megan Weis. Let's jump right in.

Megan Weis: Today, my guest is Bolanle Williams-Olley. Bolanle is the Chief Financial Officer and part owner at Mancini Duffy, a technology-first design firm based in New York City, where she oversees the firm's financial and operational performance.

She has over 12 years of experience working in the AEC industry with a strong background in financial analysis and strategic initiatives. At her core, she thrives on building relationships between finance and management teams to ensure the overall financial success of her projects and her firm. Her clients include American airlines, Soho House, Brooklyn nets, Bulgaria, Verizon, and NBC sports group. She is a dynamic leader within the AEC industry who has been a guest panelist for the American Institute of architects, Women's leadership summit, the national organization of minority architects 47th conference, and the Mother honestly summit.

Bolanle is passionate about service and is the founder of several organizations. Before her current position at Mancini, she served five years as a senior project accountant at Skidmore Owings & Merrill. In five years as a project accountant at HLW. She holds a master's in education and social policy from NYU, masters in applied mathematics and a bachelor's in mathematics from the city university of New York Hunter College. Bolanle is a board member of the Beverly Willis Architecture Foundation. She is also the author of Build Boldly: Chart Your Unique Career Path and Lead With Courage.

She is married with two kids and obsessed with throwing fun-themed parties. Bolanle, thank you very much for being my guest today.

Bolanle Williams-Olley: Thank you for having me.

Megan: Today, we're going to be discussing you, your career journey, and your recently published book, Build Boldly: Chart Your Unique Career Path and Lead With Courage. Build Boldy provides a practical playbook to spark bold courageous action for growth and leadership that inspires other to others to rise and be their best. I'm excited to learn from you today so let's get started.

Bolanle: Yes, I'm looking forward to the conversation.

Megan: First, let's start with you. If you could tell us a little bit about your career journey and how it is you got to where you are today.

Bolanle: Sure. I'll make this as a bridge as possible.

[laughter]

I moved to the US in 2002 to come to college, wanting to study computer engineering and this is one of my favorite things to share. In my first semester, I took physics and it didn't work out.

Megan: I have a similar experience.

Bolanle: Yes, computer engineering is not for me, ended up switching my major to mathematics. Thankfully my mom was very supportive of that. Then, graduated in 2007 with no internship. Very close to graduation, I started scrambling to look for work. Again, I'm an international student who just moved here, ended up finding a job listing for a junior project, accountant at an architectural firm. Now the connection for me was that I had taken technical join in high school. That essentially was the reason why I'd applied. I said, oh, I think it'll be interesting to work here.

I had no idea what a junior project at accountant did, but I wanted to put my application in, ended up going for the interview and the interviewer also studied math in school. That was our connection we connected on our majors, and then that one interview was really pivotal for me because as I mentioned, I didn't do any internships in school. I was very like timid when I came to interviewing because I wasn't sure where I was going to end up or how to translate how my math degree can help me in a job. In that interview, I said, I was just going to be myself.

I was going to speak value that I felt a math degree could bring to work. I was sharing that I was open and willing to learn, and I got the job. That is what has now led me now close to 15 years of career journey within the architecture and interior design company, industry, sorry. I spent the first five years at my first job climbing up the ranks. I moved from junior project accountant to project accountant. Then I switched companies because I thought it was important for me to learn what project accounting was from a different perspective because I was getting on-the-job training, and building my experience through just being in the industry.

It was important for me to see from a different perspective so I switched companies and joined Skidmore Owings & Merrill for another five years as a senior project accountant. I ended up having my two babies there so I could have very well or remained there because I had stability. I had a job that I was enjoying and the opportunity came knocking. I got a phone call asking if I was interested in coming to run a finance team at a company. The company's name wasn't shared with me.

When I finally spoke to Christian Jordana, who's the presence of Mancini Duffy, it was incredible. It was an incredible opportunity for me to join us in control at Mancini. He had just taken over the reins from prior leadership and was essentially defining a new vision for the company and he was looking for someone sharp, ready to work, ready to learn, ready to go along with this vision with him. I met up with him and I essentially laid everything out on the line.

I said I'm a mom. I have two little kids under two. I'm very interested in making sure you have the flexibility for me and my kids like this is the stage I'm at in life. How do we make sure we set me up a success? As a senior project accountant, I was seeing things from a project level. Now I would be stepping into a firm-wide level. How do we make sure that I'm successful taking on this new role? Long story short now almost five years ago, I end up joining Mancini as a controller. I took the leap and better myself. After a year I became chief financial officer and then the following year I became one of the owners of the company.

Megan: Wow.

Bolanle: Now we are here in 2022 leading the company, thankfully out of the pandemic, and it's been incredible. There are lots more other things that have along the way, but that essentially is the career trajectory that has gotten me to this position now.

Megan: That's an incredible journey and as a mathematics major, did you ever take an accounting class?

Bolanle: I think I took one and I don't know if I even did particularly well in it. I also never wanted to be in accounting because my mother was an accountant and I wanted to do something completely different from her and I vividly remember when she visited Mancini when I became controller and I laughed because my mother was also a financial controller when she worked to in corporate in 1995 and I said, life really does come at you very fast and in a full circle.

Megan: Yes. That's funny. Accounting is a great choice for a career for sure. Lots of different paths to be taken.

Bolanle: Yes. Even though I didn't do it, I'm grateful that I've ended up here and of course with a math degree, that's all you're doing now. It's a lot of numbers but what it really helped me do is things strategically think about how I approach problems. Doing something as tough as mathematics.

Megan: Yes.

Bolanle: You are exercising a lot of brainpower, and so it has definitely come in handy along the way.

Megan: You might have touched on this already, but are there any stories or moves throughout your career that stand out in your mind as turning points?

Bolanle: Yes, I definitely touched on that with making that decision to cross over into Mancini because I was essentially taking on a double promotion. As I've mentioned, I was moving from just handling things from a project level to a firm level. It was critical for me to make sure that once I took this position, I could hit the ground running, but that I also had the right resources, support system, a voice at the table to make sure that the opinions or changes or initiatives that I wanted to implement happened. That interview was critical and why I say it was critical also is because I had a leader on the other side who was interviewing me, who was open to this person asking all these questions during an interview, I think it's not as usual.

Usually, if you're trying to get a job, you're not talking about your weaknesses or that's that famous question, what do you think you can improve on? No, I literally laid it all out. That was a turning point because it now allowed me accelerate my career. I feel like I had exponential growth as I'd mentioned, moving up to CFO in a year. Then, of course, being a part-owner the following year. That for me is a story that will always stand out.

Megan: You mentioned that it's not common for someone to lay it all out there but I do think that that's beneficial. I think interviewing should be a two-way street in order to find a good fit for both you and the company that you're interviewing with.

Bolanle: Yes. I encourage people. I encourage people now to begin to speak up a bit more in the interview process. It sets expectations. Especially if you have good talent you're interviewing. If you notice somebody's an A player, that means when they join your company, they're most likely going to need the right support system to move them to an A+ player. You don't want to lose out on somebody that can really bring value to your organization if, in the interview, it's all stiff, that you're not exploring all the different parts, workwise, work-life balance.

You need to be looking at all these things from the get-go so that both parties completely understand what they're getting into once you start the company. I will say, I acknowledge that it was a bit easier for me to say all those things because I was moving into a leadership position. A firm alignment was really critical for me but I will say that I noticed a bit of that in me when I was interviewing for my first job. I think I've always been on that side where I'm like, "Okay, if this is meant for me, let's make sure we show up as our true selves and just be yourself in the interview."

Megan: Let's talk about Mancini Duffy and what it is that they do.

Bolanle: Yes, sure. At Mancini, we're an architectural and interior design firm. Mancini is actually 100 plus-year-old organization, which is for me something special to be a part of an organization that has existed this long. We do a range of projects, corporate, financial services, aviation, restaurants. We're able to really come to our clients with an entrepreneurial spirit, making sure that we bring their vision and these projects that they want to do, bringing it to life. One of the things that we've really been doing over the last few years though is really thinking about how we can use technology to help improve our design process, help improve how we deliver projects to our clients.

Also, just challenge the profession, challenge our peers. At Mancini, we like to call ourselves the technology first design firm because we are thinking top to bottom how technology can help us improve overall. We have something that we've developed called the design lab. We have a process which is the 360 design process using things such as virtual reality 3D design to bring our clients into their space very early on. If you're familiar with the industry, we design all these beautiful things and then you just end up printing it out on a paper. A client has to now make a decision, just looking at these 2D drawings.

However, we've noticed that once we put them in their space, it's almost like design thinking on speed. They're able to see things that they wouldn't have been able to visualize till either when the project was being built. It helps them just make their decisions better. It's also a value add for the clients because one, from a financial perspective, there are things that you notice when you are in your VR space that like, I'd mentioned, you won't notice under your building, and that costs you money.

Over the last three, four years, even in COVID, we've had the opportunity to pivot, to keep on innovating in the design lab. Our clients are enjoying it. We're bringing more and more clients on board. It's been incredible for me to see. That to me is part of why I decided to become part of one of the owners because the future for us and what we're trying to do is really exciting. I definitely want to be a part of it just to see how it unfolds.

Megan: Technology can do amazing things these days. It's incredible how far it's come in the last 10 or 20 years,

Bolanle: I'm telling you even myself when I step into that lab, I tell you, I stepped in today and what I saw two weeks ago has probably evolved because they're constantly pushing and challenging themselves, or a client can come in and say, "Hey, can I change the material in this space?" They say, "Okay." They write it down. We have developers in-house that help us develop these tools that we are using and then I can go back in there today and it's completely different. They've progressed even further.

Megan: It's a hockey stick.

Bolanle: Yes. It's very exciting to be a part of to see. It's great for our employees because it challenges them to think differently.

Megan: Yes. Sounds like an exciting place to be working.

Bolanle: Yes.

Megan: What are your proudest achievements since joining Mancini Duffy, five years ago?

Bolanle: I was thinking about this, let me start with my most recent achievement that I'm really proud of, which is leading an organization through a global pandemic. We are not out of it yet but I think March, I think we can all playback. If you're listening for, in the US, you can all playback to March 2020 and how we all felt then. You really have to think as a leadership team on how do we get our people one from an emotional standpoint, clients, project standpoint, how do we get us through this period? Here we are now about to hit two years.

It's 2022 and we are on the other side. I'm really proud to have been able with my partners to just lead our company through this difficult period for us all. The other exciting achievement personally for me, of course, would want to be making CFO. I believe I was 32. My daughter said to me, she said, "Are you like the boss, boss now of the company?" For a little event, she probably was so she's eight. She was five and for her to understand that that was special to me because children don't really care about your work titles. When they see you, they see mom.

Yes, definitely these two that I've mentioned are two things I'm really proud of.

Megan: Mancini is very diverse from what I understand. 51% of the firm is female, which is nearly twice the industry norm. As someone who's passionate about creating spaces for women within this industry, what does this mean to you?

Bolanle: This for me means everything. I think about my experience coming up in the industry and looking at the folks that I worked with, folks who were in leadership. When I was coming up, you didn't see a lot of female leaders. You didn't see female leaders either like pulling you up, encouraging, mentoring, championing you. For me, being here and having this percentage at the organization is very critical because its representation. It's representation in our leadership group also.

We are probably 40% in ownership. We're 40% women. It means that you know you have someone who is another woman who is in the rooms where decisions are being made. It's diversity in ideas. It's representation on the floor. It is advocacy for me. It's showing that if a woman looks at our organization and is thinking about wanting to work for us, she can see others who look like her there. Then for me, sorry, women drive profitability from a financial perspective.

Megan: I've read that. That's yes.

Bolanle: When you think about that, right, you think about the decisions being made on the projects that we're working on and how projects are either successful or not. All of that ties into the bottom line. It ties into this. It's very, very important for me that my organization is reflective of or doing slightly better than the industry. Hopefully, all of all will begin to challenge, like why is it that our floors, meaning all the organizations cannot be determined. Why is it that our floors don't have more women? Why is it that we're no more diverse in terms of race, ethnicity?

All of these questions. These are things that we constantly have to be thinking about because it affects how the business thrives.

Megan: I've read articles and there's so many benefits to having women in the workplace and in roles that are leadership.

Bolanle: Yes. 100%. I say this, some people might not think this is a big deal, but as a mother, being part of leadership I'm able to-- this is an example I'll give. I think we were trying to decide where the mother's room should be in our office. My male colleague said, "Oh yes, let's just put it in this room that is directly across the floor." I'm like, "Guys, we can't do that. A new mom returning to the office needs privacy, needs space." Some people don't think this might not be a big deal, but it is a big deal.

We want to be able to welcome mothers who are returning back to work in a good manner and a good way in which they can comfortably pump if they need to or comfortably have a room where they can have peace of mind. Not thinking about their teammates on the other side of the floor hearing their pump machine run. Something as that that's a perfect example of why women being in these rooms where decisions are being made is important.

Megan: Last month you posted on your LinkedIn that as a business leader and also the person accountable for the financial success of your company, 2021 pushed the heck out of me. In those challenging times, what did you discover mostly? What did you discover about yourself?

Bolanle: Yes. I'm usually one who prioritizes my emotional well-being. I think it is essentially critical in the role that I'm at, that I have clarity in mind, clarity in thinking. I think when we entered into 2021, again, I think maybe some of us had false expectations that we would probably be through the pandemic by summer, at least. As the months started going by, of course, the different ways started coming and things didn't look as great. Emotional well-being is critical.

I say that it's something that you don't want to, excuse me, ignore. That's one of the things that I realize that I have to constantly make space for because it affected how I showed up. It affected how I made decisions at the organization. It affected how-- If I wasn't emotionally clear it would affect all these things that are critical to how the business is performing or was performing through 2021. That's one of the things I learned that I couldn't take that for granted. For me, part of the ways in which I make sure that my emotional well-being is in good standing is by working out.

I made sure that I didn't skip my workout. I made sure that I was plugged into whatever kit kept me sane just to navigate through it. Outside of that though when you think about the business, I started like just rethinking all the scenario planning that we had done. Thinking about what is it that we need to do in the immediate. What do we need to do short-term?

What do we need to do a long term? How do we begin to prioritize the different decisions that we needed to make to make sure that we made it through the year? How are we making the tough decisions that either be it from a client-side? How are we making sure that we're collecting on our projects? How are we making sure that we're delivering what our client's expectations and needs are?

All of these different things were ways in which were things that that I was constantly having to think about and so breaking them down into smaller bits, smaller timelines helped myself, helped our leadership group get through 2021. That's what I mean by pushed the heck out of me. I really have to apply myself even more just to get us through the year. I was exhausted though, by the end of the year. I wouldn't lie. I think a lot of us probably felt the same way.

Megan: To your point about emotional wellbeing, I recently, well, it was a while ago, few months ago, I read an article that said that human beings can cope as long as there's an end in sight. If they can feel like there's a light at the end of the tunnel, they're way better at coping than when it feels like there's just no end in sight.

Bolanle: No end. [crosstalk]

Megan: Challenging.

Bolanle: I completely agree with that. I think that not being able to see have the light at the end of the tunnel was a little bit tough. You just had to find things daily just to get you through.

Megan: Let's switch gears a bit and talk about your book, Building Boldly. What inspired you to write this book?

Bolanle: For me, my past-- I was reflecting back on my past to be in CFO, and being part owner at Mancini was definitely not traditional. When I reflected back, I realized that I literally crafted my own playbook to get me here. Part of the ways in which I did that was by staying curious, building relationships. We saw when we talked earlier the reason why I ended up in Mancini was because of relationships that I had developed 10 years prior.

The insertion behind it was really to try individuals and leaders who are intentionally ready to change their path and ready to change the path for others within their organization to crack their own playbooks. How can you really and truly become the CEO of your own career and chart this breathing path for yourself? The idea behind it is sharing through themes that arose over this now 15 years that I've been working, sharing through the themes, sorry, give me a sec. We're still good?

Megan: Yes, sure. Just--

Bolanle: Just cut that out. I'll take it over. Sharing through themes that I wrote throughout my career journey, I realized that moments where I really grew were moments where I was bold. That's where the idea of "Build Boldly" comes from. Really leaning into the bold side of yourself and you will see growth. You will see changes that will happen for you in a good way in your career.

Megan: I think that it's very hard for a lot of people to be bold but it's definitely important particularly as a leader to be bold.

Bolanle: I completely agree. You have to define what leading boldly looks to you. That's where the bold framework that I share in the book, you have to lean into that to nurture and retain the right people that you want to work in your organization. You can't retain people if you're not challenging the status quo. If you're not thinking about connecting to them if you're not being a vulnerable leader.

Especially, like we said, this past two years that we've experienced, you have to be vulnerable. People have to be able to connect with you. I read this thing that says, people, follow leaders who are real than leaders who are perfect. I think that because we spend so much time together at work. This idea of leading your people boldly is critical to the success of your team, your company, and yourself.

Megan: What advice would you give to aspiring CFOs who are looking to become bold leaders?

Bolanle: One, I would say-- Let me share a little bit about the acronym bold. The B is be yourself. What I mean by that is who are you as a leader? Who are you as yourself? How are you showing up in your organization? Are you hiding parts of yourself? Or are you really expressing who you are? Be yourself and you will see your people follow you more, and they will be buying. They'll be buying from your people because they can see a leader who they can connect with. The O in bold is opening your mind to new definitions and opportunities, right? Really critically looking at ways in which the organization has been run, and what new definitions can you put in place? What's your new opportunities can you afford for the folks within your organization? One, either to develop them, two, to push them into positions of growth.

How can you open your own mind to opportunities that can help propel your organization into success? Really begin to think about what are the things that we've defined? Are they really working for us or not. If they're not, how can we change it? L is lift others. Throughout my career, I'm always constantly thinking about, one, how can I give back? If I learned something, how can I pour into the next person. This concept of lifting others is an opportunity for you once to either mentor people, champion people, think about ways in which you can help them grow in their careers.

It's critical to the success of your organization, when you even think about like promotion, moving people up. If you're not lifting people up in your organization, you're going to be caught in the weeds all the time. Think about making room for people to move up and be lifted. The D is don't wait, do it now. What is it that you want to do? What are the changes that you can make? Be it immediate, be in the short term that can help make your organization different. Don't wait for the perfect time, there is no perfect time. Begin to think about these changes that you want to implement, and run with it.

That's how I lead boldly. That's how I think other CFOs can lead boldly, but really think about what you want to be known for as a leader and begin to work towards that. Begin to define that, and do it boldly. Once you flesh this out, do it boldly without fear and you will definitely see changes coming through.

Megan: Yes, I love that acronym. Those are all awesome attributes of an amazing leader.

Bolanle: Yes.

Megan: You wrote in your book that, and this is an interesting point to me but when my leadership team and I make decisions based on both the data and our guts, they usually pan out. However, when we make decisions based on just the data, we're missing an important element of decision-making. As a CFO, how do you balance both the data and gut feelings? Which as a CFO, you've got all that experience and that's what you're being paid for? How do you balance those two when you're making decisions?

Bolanle: Yes, as for me, when I think the first thing that you have to think about is context. What is the context in which we're making decisions with both the data and our guts, and when I say guts I mean, really understanding the qualitative part. The data gives us a quantitative, but you need to understand what the story is behind the decisions that you want to make some really and freely understanding that context. One, what is the risk?

Is it when you say, you're going based upon gut feeling? Is it when it comes to a new hire? I was a gut decision. On paper, I probably wouldn't have been given the opportunity to, but having that interview, and the leader, Christian religious connecting with me, and we talked everything out. He took a bet on me and gave me an opportunity to step into this position that has allowed me grow in my role. There are different situations that can come up, but you need to make sure you're thinking about the context, the risk, what is in it in the future if you make this decision now, what do you think the outcome can look like?

Just making decisions solely based on data, there are things that you miss, and it doesn't allow you have a full wholesome view of the decision that you want to either take action on, that can affect the organization. That's what I mean by don't just look at data, look at data and the qualitative aspects of things.

Megan: Yes, that's great advice because data, it tells a story but it's not always the right story if you don't know the context behind it.

Bolanle: Yes, data allows me to ask questions. That's the power of data. It allows you to ask questions that then forces people to really think about everything else behind the decisions that you want to make.

Megan: What advice do you have for CFOs who are looking to drive strategic value to grow revenue and margin within the organizations that they're at?

Bolanle: The first thing I will say is, one, make sure you understand your industry and your business through and through. You're not just in your office or wherever, with your team, just crunching numbers. If you don't understand how your business works, you're not going to be able to drive revenue, right? For me, within the architecture industry, I need to understand how projects work. I need to understand how fees and practice structures work.

If I don't understand that, I can't advise the leadership group when it comes to new clients we're trying to bring on. How do I make sure that my team is set up to work really well and closely with the project managers and make sure that we are headed for profitability on the projects that they're working on. If I don't understand what the different phases mean, and how they affect fee, how they affect profitability, how they affect how we bring new staff to work on the project on. I'm not going to be able to grow revenue.

Then really take a look and see what is working? What industries are working? What project team makeup is working? What are the key drivers that are making a fee revenue growth? When you see that, then study it and try and see if you can scale it. When you're trying to grow revenue, you have to understand where your markets are? Where your organization's, and then try to see how you can continually build relationships and grow that market.

That's, at least personally, for me, that's part of the ways in which I advise our leadership group when it comes to growing revenue. Then I think about how to improve our productivity with our people. I mentioned a little bit about our team makeup. Think about what teams, look into organizations, and see what teams are really productive, and why are they productive? Again, I can look, in the beginning, we just talked about this. I could look on paper and say, "Oh, yes, this group is productive, but why?"

What is the reason? What are they doing within their teams that is making them productive? When you do that, you're able to reduce it, expenses are reduced, the effort it takes to grow revenue to increase your margin, and then lastly, for me, I will say, think about your people. Who's working on the project is the people, right? You need to make sure that there's buy-in from your people, they understand how the hours that they work affect the product that you're delivering, affect what is presented to the client. Affects the firm's bottom line, and I think when people understand what they're doing, and the value that it brings, you begin to see improvement in your financials.

I think looking at all these different areas will definitely help when it comes to growing your revenue.

Megan: People are so important these days. Not only attracting them but like you said, being able to retain them and keep them engaged.

Bolanle: I think once you can do that, you will definitely see improvement that's been happening in our projects and just client satisfaction with those people. Even the client expressing that means that they are thinking about us when it comes to new work, more work that they want us to do.

Megan: Lastly, as a CFO, what is keeping you up at night?

Bolanle: Oh, currently, well, first of all, I like to sleep.

[laugher]

I don't like anything keeping me up at night, but currently, I think what's keeping me-- what's top of mind during the day for me is talent. I think we're all facing across the board where We want to make sure that the people who are with us are happy we're treating them right. Also looking for great talent to join us and grow the business because I'd mentioned, work is now improving coming out of the pandemic so we are looking for great people to join our team. Talent is top of mind.

Megan: Yes. I don't think you're alone there.

Bolanle: No, no, not at all.

Megan: Bolanle, thank you very much for taking the time to speak with me today.

Bolanle: Thank you for having me this is great.

Megan: I've enjoyed our conversation and all of the insights you provided. For our listeners who are interested in reading your book, where can I find it?

Bolanle: Sure. You can find my book on Amazon. You just search Build Boldly and also on my website, www.bolanlewo.com. You'll find my book there.

Megan: Okay. Well, thank you. I wish you, and Mancini Duffy all the best. It seems like you're both doing amazing things. To all of my listeners, thank you for tuning in and until next week, take care.

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