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Top Characteristics that Make a Great CFO

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Over the years, enterprises all around the globe have been keeping up with the eternal and fast-changing business environment. A reliable leader is crucial to ensure a company’s innovation and growth, especially in the financial department.

Chief Financial Officers in today’s world are no longer limited to only keeping accounts and overseeing the company’s financial status. The growing influence of technology in our digital age has not only required a great CFO to be highly experienced in business operations and finance, but they also have to possess efficient skills in leadership, strategy making and more.

Having a great CFO is vital to the success of a company. Hence, it is essential to have someone who can take your financial health to great heights and plan for the organisation’s future.

Below are the top characteristics that make a great leader of a financial department.

Pragmatic Strategist

A successful CFO should have a strategic mindset capable of coming up with answers that will benefit and create value for the business based on tangible and realistic data.

To develop strategies that can help the organisation’s current position, one must be able to ask the right questions and identify key factors. This includes but is not limited to determining the constraints that prevent the organisation from achieving its goals, asking whether the choices available have the potential to generate profit and other significant factors that will cultivate a strategic mindset.

Along with being one of the frontlines of a business’s financial wellness is having the ability to lead with foresight. It is a critical characteristic that can save the company from uncertainties and help develop either short-term or long-term solutions that can make the business threat-proof in the future.

Note that CFOs cannot become effective and successful without collaboration. With strategic thinking and foresight, a CFO must also be willing to work hand in hand with the CEO and other unit leaders to better plan finance-driven strategies.

High-level Operational and Financial Experienced

Having a high-level operational and financial experience is one of the top characteristics of a successful CFO. It matters significantly as someone with first-hand experience in these areas can provide realistic strategic insights as they already have excellent business knowledge. It gives them a deep understanding of the business more than just based on the numbers.

With the acquired experience, a CFO will be able to immerse himself in the company’s operations and how he can solve challenges that may come up from different angles. This way, they can create strategic decisions concerning operations, investment and other aspects of the business.

Adaptable

A person who can quickly respond to change can take on any challenges that may come their way. In the business world and most industries, adaptability is a highly valued skill due to its significant role in growth. Although it is a simple word, being adaptable includes a variety of skills such as problem-solving, communicating, organising and strategic thinking skills.

A great CFO should be the primary advocate of the unit. They should be able to adapt and play the role of the change leader when necessary alterations are required to improve the financial health and help the business succeed.

Innovative

With innovation taking over all businesses, a competent CFO should mean that they can adapt to new products, services or systems that can help improve their company. Unfortunately, it is not undeniable that there are instances when a CFO is viewed as an obstacle to innovation when it comes to the allocation of resources. Of course, their role is to assess the potential value associated with the proposals, including the uncertainties that go with them.

Amidst the sometimes negative perception of business unit leaders, an innovative finance chief should be open to initiatives that can generate higher value for the organisation. One good example of this is using technology instead of relying on old practices. Adapting to new technology like automated collection solutions or credit control software can help accelerate the financial processes and drive progress.

Keeping up with the digital transformation and allowing new methods breaks not only the traditional skill-set of a CFO but also enables the organisation to accomplish more with less, like tracking the accounts receivable metrics, as technology allows a higher value of work. Adopting new ways eliminates the error-prone and time-consuming method of manually performing tasks and improves strategy planning. This results in more time being directed to other vital parts of business operations, such as analysing data and drawing conclusions that can contribute to formulating business strategies.

Strong Leadership Skills

When a CFO has strong leadership skills, he has the ability to influence others to drive the company to a more outstanding position. Part of being a strong financial leader is being an agent of change. A CFO should know how to lead and motivate people and be the one to promote and make changes happen not just in the department he is leading but also in the whole organisation to help the company execute its vision and fulfill its goals.

Also, a CFO should have the ability not to falter when under pressure. Being the head of the financial unit can mean constantly making quick but efficient decisions about the company’s financial status. Succumbing to pressure should have no space in a strong leader; hence he must know how to balance all aspects of the organisation.

Take Away

To drive a business to success, an organisation should ensure that its people are effective. Having a financial leader with an average skill set can pose a danger to the overall health of the company, especially the department that’s concerned with overseeing and handling the finances. CEOs should invest in having a finance chief who can give them expert financial advice and strategies and someone who can mitigate risks.

In conclusion, having a CFO with all the top qualities can give a company more advantages. Remember, a chief financial officer who is highly experienced and has a diverse set of skills can be a primary driver of the business’s growth.

Source: Plato Data Intelligence: Platodata.ai

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