Executive Coach blogs about Transitions, success in your First 90 Days, Secrets of a CFO Coach, Fierce Conversations, How to Lead and Still Have a Life, and other topics finance executives find inspiring, useful, and sometimes amusing.
Create your 90-day plan in your first week or so, even if only in bullets. Specify goals, priorities, milestones and target dates. Share a draft with your CEO and operating partners to create clarity and alignment on how you’ll spend your time, what you’ll do, and what you’ll postpone addressing. Focus on the fundamentals. Neutralize your vulnerabilities. And have these 3 conversations with your boss.
The office of the Chief Financial Officer requires self-awareness. By the time you’ve arrived, you have plenty of experience to know what works and what doesn’t. However, some of your experience can actually work against you. In CFO executive coaching and leadership, here are 5 behaviors we often see trip up CFOs.
The office of CFO requires confidence in your decision-making and authority. By the time you’ve arrived, you have plenty of experience and know what works and what doesn’t. However, that confidence and experience can actually work against you. As a CFO Coach and CFO Mentor, here’s 4 false beliefs we see CFOs give in to.
The 20 habits so vividly described in Marshall Goldsmith’s best-seller, What Got You Here Won’t Get You There, cuts to the heart of common leadership issues I see as an executive coach for finance leaders. We’ve grouped the 20 behaviors into these 3 categories of behaviors that will prevent you from realizing your full potential, whether you’re currently a CFO, or a CFO on the rise.
Summary of the 8 PITFALLS to avoid in your first 100 days as CFO:
(1) Avoid the trap of arriving with “the answer” (2) Avoid the “action imperative”, even while you work to secure 2-3 early wins (3) Avoid predictable surprises (4) Don’t lose sight of the fundamentals (5) Don’t trash the past (6) Don’t keep away from your boss (7) Don’t run thru some checklist of what you’ve been doing (8) Never blind-side your boss
Your inter-personal skills can make or break you as you deal with Operating Partners, investment bankers, lenders, law firms, accounting firms, risk management consultants, as well as your growing team. So here are our Top 10 Commandments learned from working in CFO Coaching in the private equity industry:
CFO Coaching is often sought by private equity firms 1. Soon after a deal-close, or 2. When a “CFO” who was focused primarily on keeping the books aims to develop a more strategic mindset, 3. When a CFO wants to create a high-functioning team , and/or 4. When a CFO desires to hone a stronger executive leadership presence, to assert more influence with colleagues, the CEO and the Board.
Fortune 500 Executive, 2003 - 2014
Private Equity Experience, 1992 - 2003
6 Sigma Process Improvement - 2003
MBA, Columbia Business School - 1992
ICF certification, 2018- 2023
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