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You are here: Home / The Passionate CFO

January 11, 2012 By Samuel Dergel 15 Comments

The Passionate CFO

You are forgiven if you thought this blog was about Valentines Day. And no, Valentines Day is not this week, so you can breathe a little easier.

So what am I talking about?

My friend, Cindy Kraft, wrote a blog yesterday about Lessons in Branding from Tim Tebow. Her points are very valid. There is certainly a lot for a CFO to learn from branding from Tebow.

She did get me thinking though. From my perspective, the one thing that differentiates Tebow from other players is Passion.

I speak with a lot of Chief Financial Officers. When I tell people that I speak to CFOs for a living, I often get an eyeroll, a sigh, and a look on their face that says “Oh, that must be boring”.

While some CFOs are bland, the majority of them are not. In many cases, knowing how to speak to them and get them interested and excited, I am able to get them to break through their shell and be themselves for me.

The CFOs that stand out are the ones that love what they do, love the company they work for, love the people they work with and couldn’t think of any other job they could have in the world that could be better then what they are doing right now.

When the passion is gone from their employment, they look for (and find) another one.

These CFOs love their children, their spouse, and their job.

And it shows.

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Comments

  1. david k waltz says

    January 11, 2012 at 8:29 AM

    Sam,

    Interesting, I just did a Treasury Cafe post based on some innovation research by Booz and McKinsey, passion is one of the elements that sets up new and creative thinking! CFO’s can innovate too!

    Reply
    • Samuel Dergel says

      January 16, 2012 at 9:15 PM

      David.

      Yes they can!

      Thanks for the comment,

      Samuel

      Reply
  2. Cindy Kraft says

    January 11, 2012 at 10:35 AM

    Thanks for the mention, Samuel.

    As we discussed on my blog post … I believe one’s passion naturally flows from being authentically branded. When you are doing what you love, love what you’re doing, in a place that is a great fit for you … you’ve most likely found your ideal brand fit.

    Reply
    • Samuel Dergel says

      January 16, 2012 at 9:15 PM

      Yes. But what happens when the passion disappears?

      Reply
  3. Derick Sibley says

    January 14, 2012 at 5:08 PM

    A true passion for ones job, or anything else in our lives is what keeps people going. When we have a passion for our jobs we will not only work hard at our jobs, but also look for ways to make our jobs and company better. Very good comparison between football and the business world.

    Reply
    • Samuel Dergel says

      January 16, 2012 at 9:17 PM

      Derick
      Thanks for the comment. Do you have any other comparisons?
      Samuel

      Reply
  4. Stavros Constantinou says

    January 16, 2012 at 2:08 AM

    Most European Union working people these days are full of gloom; the financial crisis has taken its toll and the fear of job losses is widely evident. It is also a fact that you simply do not see CFOs smiling any more. As further and further cost cutting exercises are not proving to save enough losses, we (CFOs) are trapped in a lose-lose scenario where the more you cut costs, the more you find yourself (the company) in the red….
    It is high time we focused on increasing margins, and at last put a smile on people’s faces 🙂
    CFOs need to differentiate themselves from the pessimistic views of their surroundings by putting in more energy and focus, positive thinking, actions and suggestions that should help increase morale. Yes, we should be more passionate about making the extra mile, about change management, about getting rid of ways and methods that do not bring the desired results any more. We should refocus; re-establish communication lines to awaken sales and operational managers, but especially the CEOs who have been at extreme unease due to reduced profitabilities and increased losses.
    We should do what we do best, get back into that WIN-WIN scenario, and ensure our companies get rid of the defensive mood and re-enter the offensive mood, because the best proven way to defend is to regain offence!

    Reply
    • Samuel Dergel says

      January 16, 2012 at 9:19 PM

      Stavros

      Thank you for the long and thoughtful comment.

      From the sounds of it, it looks like you know exactly what to do to make your company (and your career) succeed in what looks like gloomy times ahead in Europe.

      Let me know if you need some smiles from this side of the Atlantic,

      Samuel

      Reply
  5. Edward Rejmer - Finanse z Pasją says

    January 30, 2012 at 1:31 PM

    Samuel, I love your post about passion! I realized not long ago how important is passion at work, how satisfaction and happiness grow when you live your values at work. Thanks for writing it!

    Reply
    • Samuel Dergel says

      January 30, 2012 at 1:57 PM

      Edward,

      Glad you enjoyed the post!

      Do you have any input on how to find passion at work?

      Samuel

      Reply
      • Edward Rejmer says

        January 31, 2012 at 4:13 AM

        Well, a very valid question. My guess would be that increase in self-awareness can be very helpful here.

        In my case coaching had a big added value. It helped me to better understand myself, decrease stress and fear and take more pleasure from what I am doing.

        Reply
  6. Stu Fleischer says

    February 22, 2012 at 5:36 PM

    Hi Sam –

    You CFO blog is very interesting since it covers such a wide range of topics. I especially agree with the passion part. I talk about it in my blog.

    I would greatly appreciate you taking a look at my CFO blog entitled “The Common Cents CFO”. It is located at http://www.stufleischer.com.

    Hopefully, you will find my four part article entitled “The CFO’s Four-Pronged Approach to Great Corporate Profits” of interest.

    Regards,

    Stu Fleischer

    Reply
    • Samuel Dergel says

      February 22, 2012 at 8:05 PM

      Stu

      I had a look at your blog. Congratulations on putting one together and making the effort to keep on doing it. I know how much hard work it is, and I commend you for your content and your commitment. I know it will pay big dividends to you.

      Thanks for your comments and feedback. They certainly are appreciated.

      Best,

      Samuel

      Reply
  7. curiousmanager says

    February 27, 2012 at 2:18 PM

    Just discovered your blog and although I am no CFO, I quite like it.
    As you are obviously an avid blogger, could you write a few words on how you see CFO’s avoiding the typical pitfalls for their passion? I am thinking about typical things like company politics, pressure from investors, etc. How do they keep that passion alive?

    Reply

Trackbacks

  1. Confidence: A key to CFO Success « Samuel's CFO Blog says:
    February 23, 2012 at 9:40 AM

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