You’ve been in a senior financial role with the company for a while, and have been aiming for the CFO chair. One day, you get the call from the CEO (or the Chairman) and they offer you the CFO job.
Congratulations! You’ve been promoted to CFO. You have a new office, a new title, new business cards, and a better compensation package.
Except…
… You’re not exactly sure what to do as CFO.
Based on speaking with new CFOs in the same situation as you, you are not alone. When I speak with them and ask them if their job has changed since their promotion, they usually answer “Not really…”
As CFO, you should not be doing the same job you were doing before.
So now that you’ve been promoted to CFO, what can you do to ensure you become the best CFO you can be for your company?
1) Prepare a Plan
Your success as CFO depends on you having a plan for success. This requires that you be aware of the expectations the CEO and Board has from you, and putting in a plan to ensure you can deliver, and have a Strong Finance Team you support you in your goal to become a Successful CFO.
I recommend that this plan be completed within the first 100 days of your new tenure as CFO.
2) Get a Coach
If you ask your CEO, there is a good chance he or she has a Coach. It gets lonely at the top (see Lonely CFO). Being an Effective CFO requires someone that you can talk to that can guide you to make the right decisions and keep to your Plan.
Your success as CFO depends on your ability to deliver. Take responsibility for your new role. Make sure you have a Plan for your success, and have a Coach that ensure you keep to your Plan.
I agree that you need to have a good team to support you. Without a good team is impossible to make your strategy happen. However, in order to things succesfully happen I believe there are 3 basic requirements: 1)Good team, 2)Good Strategy and 3)Good Coach.
If at least one of these factors is missing, chances are that you fail.
Leonardo
Excellent points!
Sounds easy to have these 3 basics. I’m sure you will agree with me that it’s not easy.
What have you done to make these 3 basics happen for you?
Samuel
I recommend to read (or revisit) the book “The First 90 Days: Critical Success Strategies for New Leaders at All Levels” by Michael Watkins for everybody starting a corner office job, be it as a CFO or something else. I found the advice in this book helpful. I agree to being successful having a plan is key. Starting to develop this plan in the first 90 days though, may already be starting late. Why not develop that plan before you set foot into the new role? Of course, you won’t know all the challenges you will face before you actually show up for your first day in the office, but still, there is quite a bit of planning that you can already do based on what you have learned from the interviews with the CEO and the board members. They will have given you some goals and you hopefully have learned what the perceived weaknesses of the previous CFO were. Overcoming these weaknesses and scoring a few early wins in these areas will give you a good start and quickly provide you with the elbow room to find your own roadmap to success as you gain the trust of the CEO and board members.
Good luck to you all on your next new assignment.
Torsten
Excellent recommendation for preparing a Plan.
Would you recommend a Coach?
Samuel