What it Really Takes to Become a Chief Financial Officer – by an Experienced CFO

Have you ever wondered why accountants with good ‘technical’ skills can stay stuck in back-office roles?

While other accountants, with lesser ‘technical’ skills, can flourish? The ones who are promoted to management roles. Or asked to lead special projects.

It might not be right.

And it might not be fair.

But this sort of thing happens all the time.

Why?

Because being a good ‘technical’ accountant doesn’t guarantee career success.

To reach their full potential, accountants must also develop an ‘X-factor’ skillset.

And if you’re not quite where you want to be in your career. And you want to avoid the ‘back-office blues.’ You’ll want to read this article in full. Because it lets you know:

• What this ‘X-factor’ skillset is.

• What it takes to develop this skillset – and make it ‘work’ for you.

• How this skillset can help you grow your career. Possibly as far as CFO, even?

But first, let me introduce myself.

My name is Fiona Harnett.

I’m a Chief Financial Officer with 25-plus years’ accounting and finance experience.

I’ve held senior accounting roles at several large organisations. Many of them household names you’ll be familiar with.

I personally know and speak with many other CFOs, senior accounting leaders, and business owners. Plus, recruiters looking to hire people for accounting roles.

One thing we all agree on is this:

In order to develop your career, expanding your skillset – in a proactive and intentional way – is non-negotiable.

For example, the best CFOs I have worked with had very strong technical accounting skills. Yet they also brought something equally as powerful to the table.

They developed the ‘X-factor’ skillset mentioned at the start of this post.

The skillset?

Strategic Finance.

Here’s how I like to define it:

Strategic Finance involves managing an organisation’s finances to achieve long-term goals and provide returns to stakeholders.

It goes well beyond historical reporting and budgeting to focus on future performance.

Those who practice it merge accounting knowledge with leadership and influencing skills.

It’s a common scenario. A business owner or manager tells an accountant they must be more ‘commercially astute’.

But what does the business owner or manager really mean when they say this?

People often think they mean they would like the accountant to make the mindset shift from number cruncher to big picture thinker.  But I disagree with that.

As a CFO, I’ve learned commercial acumen is all about balance. A CFO or strategic adviser combines BOTH mindsets – number cruncher and big picture thinker – to drive organisation performance and meet goals.

But commercial acumen alone doesn’t make a person a great CFO or strategic advisor.

It’s a start, but a great CFO or strategic advisor needs a full toolkit of approaches.

And that’s where the Strategic Finance Toolkit comes into play.

In order to help the organisation you work for meet its long-term goals. And provide a return to stakeholders. You will need to master how to use tools and techniques like:

• Strategic Controls
• Pulling Commercial Levers
• Developing Data-Driven Insights
• Driving Strategic Outcomes…
• Or any of the dozen aspects of a good Strategic Finance Toolkit

It is BOTH an art AND a science to know: (1) which tools and techniques to use and (2) when to use them.

To get the balance right, you must understand the Strategic Finance Toolkit. Plus, you need the right mindset, which could require…

The biggest juggling-act CFOs and strategic advisors face?

Balancing their company’s growth targets and aspirations… with the need to keep their company on a sound financial footing.

To successfully balance these often-competing priorities, an accountant must develop a ‘strategic mindset’.

Developing this ‘strategic mindset’ can require a mindset shift.

A strategic mindset involves assessing risk and opportunity. Taking calculated risks and embracing uncertainty. And knowing which commercial levers to pull – and how hard to pull them.

To develop this strategic mindset, an accountant often has to:

• Re-assess the way they think about accounting.
• Learn how to embrace uncertainty.
• Look at accounting in a more nuanced way.

But it doesn’t end there.

Once you master the Strategic Finance Toolkit and develop the right Mindset, the final ingredient is to develop….

The days when the CFO was seen as the ‘Corporate Police’ – the enforcer of financial discipline, the person who monitored and restricted spending – are gone.  As is the unapproachable, aggressive number-cruncher CFO stereotype.

Today, a CFO must be influential and persuasive through business partnering skills and storytelling.

They must support the Chief Executive in leading the business in a way that drives understanding and engagement rather than blindsiding people with mystery and confusion.

A CFO needs to be clear on the style they bring to the role to achieve growth and success working with a diverse leadership team.

So, to recap, a good CFO or strategic advisor needs:

• A Strategic Finance Toolkit.
• A Mindset Shift.
• The Right Leadership and Management Style.

I call this trio: Strategic Finance.

And when you develop strategic finance skills, it opens up a range of leadership, work, and career opportunities. It’s a potential springboard to becoming a CFO. It’s a way to advance your career beyond your current position. And it’s a way to become a self-employed strategic advisor. Whatever your career goals are, it’s a skill you need to get there.

Which raises one big question

The three reasons are:

Reason One: There has been a shortage of coaching opportunities.

Reason Two: Only some corporates provide on-the-job strategic finance training. And almost no SMEs – 97% of NZ businesses – do.

Reason Three: There are many strategic finance courses, but these have tended to lack a key ingredient: the strategic finance mindset.

Request your FREE copy of my new book “How Accountants Can Master Strategic Finance”. 

Inside this short but valuable book you’ll discover:

• How accounting professionals are using strategic finance to drive success.
• It is possible to develop strategic finance skills wherever you are in your career.
• Common strategic finance challenges accountants face and ways to overcome them.

PLUS…

More information about a NEW course I’ve just created, that helps accountants sharpen their strategic finance skills – and become respected strategic advisors.

Why not request a copy right now, while you’re reading this article?

Simply enter your details below and I will send you a copy right away.

For these reasons above… and because strategic finance can be such a game changer for accountants’ careers….

I’ve taken all I’ve learned and implemented during my 25-year career as a senior accounting professional… and created a rare opportunity for 10 accountants (per course) to:

Master Strategic Finance

It is a new course that shows early-to-mid career accountants the skills and mindset needed to become a strategic advisor.

Training that could be your springboard to:

• Rising through the accounting ranks and, ultimately, becoming a CFO.
• Adding a new income stream if you are a self-employed CA.
• Simply enjoying more interesting work and greater career opportunities.

Whatever your desired career trajectory, this course offers a key to making it happen. 

To your career success.

Fiona Harnett

CFO

Director, MacGregor Jamee Ltd

Creator and Coach, STRATEGIC FINANCE

Have you ever wondered why accountants with good ‘technical’ skills can stay stuck in back-office roles?

While other accountants, with lesser ‘technical’ skills, can flourish? The ones who are promoted to management roles. Or asked to lead special projects.

It might not be right.

And it might not be fair.

But this sort of thing happens all the time.

Why?

Because being a good ‘technical’ accountant doesn’t guarantee career success.

To reach their full potential, accountants must also develop an ‘X-factor’ skillset.

And if you’re not quite where you want to be in your career. And you want to avoid the ‘back-office blues.’ You’ll want to read this article in full. Because it lets you know:

• What this ‘X-factor’ skillset is.

• What it takes to develop this skillset – and make it ‘work’ for you.

• How this skillset can help you grow your career. Possibly as far as CFO, even?

But first, let me introduce myself.

My name is Fiona Harnett.

I’m a Chief Financial Officer with 25-plus years’ accounting and finance experience.

I’ve held senior accounting roles at several large organisations. Many of them household names you’ll be familiar with.

I personally know and speak with many other CFOs, senior accounting leaders, and business owners. Plus, recruiters looking to hire people for accounting roles.

One thing we all agree on is this:

In order to develop your career, expanding your skillset – in a proactive and intentional way – is non-negotiable.

For example, the best CFOs I have worked with had very strong technical accounting skills. Yet they also brought something equally as powerful to the table.

They developed the ‘X-factor’ skillset mentioned at the start of this post.

The skillset?

Strategic Finance.

Here’s how I like to define it:

Strategic Finance involves managing an organisation’s finances to achieve long-term goals and provide returns to stakeholders.

It goes well beyond historical reporting and budgeting to focus on future performance.

Those who practice it merge accounting knowledge with leadership and influencing skills.

It’s a common scenario. A business owner or manager tells an accountant they must be more ‘commercially astute’.

But what does the business owner or manager really mean when they say this?

People often think they mean they would like the accountant to make the mindset shift from number cruncher to big picture thinker.  But I disagree with that.

As a CFO, I’ve learned commercial acumen is all about balance. A CFO or strategic adviser combines BOTH mindsets – number cruncher and big picture thinker – to drive organisation performance and meet goals.

But commercial acumen alone doesn’t make a person a great CFO or strategic advisor.

It’s a start, but a great CFO or strategic advisor needs a full toolkit of approaches.

And that’s where the Strategic Finance Toolkit comes into play.

In order to help the organisation you work for meet its long-term goals. And provide a return to stakeholders. You will need to master how to use tools and techniques like:

• Strategic Controls
• Pulling Commercial Levers
• Developing Data-Driven Insights
• Driving Strategic Outcomes…
• Or any of the dozen aspects of a good Strategic Finance Toolkit

It is BOTH an art AND a science to know: (1) which tools and techniques to use and (2) when to use them.

To get the balance right, you must understand the Strategic Finance Toolkit. Plus, you need the right mindset, which could require…

The biggest juggling-act CFOs and strategic advisors face?

Balancing their company’s growth targets and aspirations… with the need to keep their company on a sound financial footing.

To successfully balance these often-competing priorities, an accountant must develop a ‘strategic mindset’.

Developing this ‘strategic mindset’ can require a mindset shift.

A strategic mindset involves assessing risk and opportunity. Taking calculated risks and embracing uncertainty. And knowing which commercial levers to pull – and how hard to pull them.

To develop this strategic mindset, an accountant often has to:

• Re-assess the way they think about accounting.
• Learn how to embrace uncertainty.
• Look at accounting in a more nuanced way.

But it doesn’t end there.

Once you master the Strategic Finance Toolkit and develop the right Mindset, the final ingredient is to develop….

The days when the CFO was seen as the ‘Corporate Police’ – the enforcer of financial discipline, the person who monitored and restricted spending – are gone.  As is the unapproachable, aggressive number-cruncher CFO stereotype.

Today, a CFO must be influential and persuasive through business partnering skills and storytelling.

They must support the Chief Executive in leading the business in a way that drives understanding and engagement rather than blindsiding people with mystery and confusion.

A CFO needs to be clear on the style they bring to the role to achieve growth and success working with a diverse leadership team.

So, to recap, a good CFO or strategic advisor needs:

• A Strategic Finance Toolkit.
• A Mindset Shift.
• The Right Leadership and Management Style.

I call this trio: Strategic Finance.

And when you develop strategic finance skills, it opens up a range of leadership, work, and career opportunities. It’s a potential springboard to becoming a CFO. It’s a way to advance your career beyond your current position. And it’s a way to become a self-employed strategic advisor. Whatever your career goals are, it’s a skill you need to get there.

Which raises one big question

The three reasons are:

Reason One: There has been a shortage of coaching opportunities.

Reason Two: Only some corporates provide on-the-job strategic finance training. And almost no SMEs – 97% of NZ businesses – do.

Reason Three: There are many strategic finance courses, but these have tended to lack a key ingredient: the strategic finance mindset.

Request your FREE copy of my new book “How Accountants Can Master Strategic Finance”. 

Inside this short but valuable book you’ll discover:

• How accounting professionals are using strategic finance to drive success.
• It is possible to develop strategic finance skills wherever you are in your career.
• Common strategic finance challenges accountants face and ways to overcome them.

PLUS…

More information about a NEW course I’ve just created, that helps accountants sharpen their strategic finance skills – and become respected strategic advisors.

Why not request a copy right now, while you’re reading this article?

Simply enter your details below and I will send you a copy right away.

For these reasons above… and because strategic finance can be such a game changer for accountants’ careers….

I’ve taken all I’ve learned and implemented during my 25-year career as a senior accounting professional… and created a rare opportunity for 10 accountants (per course) to:

Master Strategic Finance

It is a new course that shows early-to-mid career accountants the skills and mindset needed to become a strategic advisor.

Training that could be your springboard to:

• Rising through the accounting ranks and, ultimately, becoming a CFO.
• Adding a new income stream if you are a self-employed CA.
• Simply enjoying more interesting work and greater career opportunities.

Whatever your desired career trajectory, this course offers a key to making it happen. 

To your career success.

Fiona Harnett

CFO

Director, MacGregor Jamee Ltd

Creator and Coach, STRATEGIC FINANCE