What They Don’t Tell You About Becoming a CFO - Part 1

TRANSCRIPT

The path to the C suite is rarely linear and the challenges don't stop once you get there. I'm Wassia Kamon and I'm taking you with me on my journey as a newly appointed CFO. Sharing the hidden challenges and spoken rules and lessons I wish I had known. So whether you're in finance, work in finance, or just trying to get your budget approved faster.

There's something here for you. The purpose of this podcast is to make better leaders and help leaders be better at life. Welcome to The Diary of a CFO. Hello and welcome back to another episode of The Diary of a CFO. I'm super excited today to kick off a new series titled What They Don't Tell You About Becoming a CFO.

It'll be in three parts. The first part we'll kick off today is about something that I realized early in my career, but that became very obvious as I climbed up the corporate ladder. And that is that you will never be hired to keep the status quo. If you're hired and you get into a role and they're like, Oh yeah, we want you to do exactly what your predecessor did.

But I can tell you, you just landed a dead end job because most of the time when you step into a role, people want to see improvement, people want to see change. And when it comes to the actual role of the CFO, you have to remember what are the top reason why companies will go out and hire CFO. The number one reason is because of strategic growth.

They need someone that will come in and help them go through some kind of acquisition, market expansion. They need someone that will help them through the financial complexities during growth or M& A. That's the number one reason why a company will go out and hire a CFO. So for a startup, for example, or a company that has been at one level, let's say for the past couple years, they've always been at X million dollars in revenue.

And they want to grow substantially in the next three years. And it's in their strategic plan. And they realize that maybe the persons they have or the finance structure they have today is not going to help them through that growth. So that's when a company will go out and hire a CFO to support them in that strategic growth.

And that in itself means that a person coming in is not coming to keep the status quo. They're coming to lead effective change. Same thing for the second reason that company visually go and hire a CFO is to improve their financial performance. How can someone come in and identify some cost saving opportunities or help them optimize their profitability while minimizing the risks?

And again, in this scenario, it's about change, not keeping the status quo. It's about coming in with a fresh set of eyes. And see, hmm, what are some things we could be missing? What are some things we could do better? Especially from a finance standpoint. And that's why they will look for a CFO. So of course that person coming in is definitely not hired to keep that status quo.

But they're here to lead, again, change. And the third top reason a company will go out and hire a CFO is because the current CFO left. Whether voluntary or not. And whenever they bring in someone new, they want you to do better. They want you to, again, come with that fresh perspective. Cause I see it as valuable.

They see it as valuable. They want positive change. So no matter which reason the company bring you in, especially as a CFO, especially as a finance leader, it's for you to change things, help things be better because of that, how you approach the role is different, has to be different when you brought into lead change and you step into a role, especially as a CFO, there are two things.

That you have to learn to do very, very quickly. And that is one being able to build trust. And the second one to learn the business and not just the financials. Let's dive in. When you step into a new role where people expect you to build change, your number one focus should be how. You're going to build trust in order to get the buy in and the insights you will need to lead effective change.

Because people will not buy into your vision if they do not trust you, if they do not see you as credible. Now, no one will teach you how you can walk into a leadership role and immediately earn the trust of your team and your peers. You will have to figure that out and demonstrate your value very quickly.

Just because you come in in with a new title, Chief Financial Officer or VP of so and so, your title alone doesn't mean that you have the trust immediately. Your title doesn't mean that you have influence. So you have to come in and really come up with a plan and be intentional about how you're going to build that trust the minute you walk in the door.

And you have to realize when you walk into a role like that. They're apprehension, because again, you're trying to build trust, you're trying to talk to people and say, Hey, I'm so and so, I'm here to help, but your title carries so much weight. Naturally, your subordinate or anybody that's not at your level will feel very careful about opening up to you.

And when you come in finance and there's any rumors of cutting costs, ooh, that's even worse. You're not going to get that immediate, Oh, let's open up Kumbaya. Let me tell you what's going on. You kind of have to pull things out of people for it to be easy. Again, it will have to be how you build that trust.

How do you build that trust almost instantly? How is it that people will come in, meet you, feel comfortable and be like, yeah, I like this person. And I think they're competent. I think that they will really bring something different to the table. And yes, I'm willing to try, try some of the things that they will suggest, try some of their ideas.

And that's the thing too, with coming into a CFO role and you were from a different company, because. When in your company, hopefully you build that influence and people trust you, they trust the work they have seen you do in your other role within the company. But when you come to a new CFO in your new company and a new industry, there is even more layers to go through in order to build that trust.

So here are four things I will recommend in that case that have helped me. And the first one you want to do is with your first impressions. Today, people will Google you and LinkedIn you before they work with you. So your online presence has to showcase your expertise so that the first impression they have of you is like, Oh, this person knows what they're doing.

That's a way to improve your trust. So I'll give you a personal example. Been about two years when I started posting more on LinkedIn and Being more intentional about my personal brand online. The reason I started was because I took a personal branding course and the lady that was teaching it was Bozoma St.

John. She at the time was the chief marketing officer at Netflix. Strong, powerful female leader. In the first part, she said, if I was to Google your name, what will I see? If you're telling me that your rock star or your job in your field, will I see it when I Google you? And that really resonated with me because at the time I was like, okay, people knew I was good at what I was doing, but it was within my company.

It was just the people I worked with or used to work with. These are the people who know about it and the people that will see my resume. And yes, if you were to go online and look for me at the time, you wouldn't find anything. You wouldn't find anything. And so that's when I started thinking about personal branding, personal branding, personal branding.

Soon, I realized as I was building my presence online through LinkedIn posts, through articles and other publication outside of LinkedIn, because that's also part of your online brand. You can't just do a hundred percent of it on LinkedIn. You have to be out there in industry, event, do other things in order to build your brand.

That could be a great other topic, but for the topic of today for leading change and getting people to trust you. Before they even meet you, having a personal brand means when that person will go in and Google you or look you up on LinkedIn, what would they see? How is your profile? What is a title? Do you have a banner?

Does your experience section show a little bit more than just. Your title at the company and the company you used to work for. And when I started hiring soon after my brand was kind of, okay, you're getting there. We'll see, are you getting there? I cannot tell you how many people said, Oh, I was interviewing for a role in your finance department.

And I really wanted to work with you. The first time I realized it was when I became VP of finance and accounting for a chemical manufacturer, and we're looking for an AP position, the person came in and when I did the second round of interview, they said, Oh, I look you up online and I was like, Ooh, I really want to work with you because I like how you talk about professional development.

That granted you will say, okay, of course they're going to work for you, but what about the people who work with you? And that is the example I'll give you now of my role now as CFO of Ace. And I met with my peers, a lot of them had followed me. I didn't even start the role, they're already following me on LinkedIn.

My boss was following me on LinkedIn before my day one. What I found out from one of my peers in C suite was that, Oh, I looked you up on LinkedIn. I love the stuff you're doing. This is amazing. Other people did as well. And they were like, Oh, we can't wait for you to learn more about what we do and make suggestions that will help us.

Move the company forward. And again, that was not even me talking to them. It was just from my online presence, whether it's on LinkedIn or whatever that we see in Google or whatever common connections we had, because sometimes we think of online presence as how many followers you have or how many posts you're doing, but it's also the common connection because when I see someone profile online, I realized, Oh, we have like two, three, 10, 20 connection is common.

We must have something going on. We must be on the same page on a lot of things. And that, again, adds to your credibility. And you need that credibility to build trust, especially when it comes to change. So that's the first thing. Make sure when you step into a new role that your online presence is on point so that you can Build and get that instant credibility that will help you build trust quickly so you can have buy in on the new things you're going to do, the new great things you're going to do.

The second part is having a power introduction. You probably heard of having an elevator speech. So how are you going to introduce yourself when you step into that new role, when you meet people into that new function, and they'll be like, hmm, that person is great. Let me hear what they have to say. Your power introduction is what you want to have almost nailed down before day one, because you don't want to come in and say, Hey, here's a new CFO.

And just because you have a title means you're great. No, a simple introduction would be, Hey, I'm Waseya, I'm new in the finance department, boring. Hey, I'm Waseya, for the past 15 years, I've done XYZ at this type of organization. And I cannot wait to hear more about your role. And how the finance team can support you better.

Come up with something and you can come up with different types of introduction, whether it was to be to your peers, your immediate report or your indirect report. But you want that introduction to be on point because again, your goal when you step in is to build credibility and trust almost instantly.

Because you don't have much time. Again, you are not hired to keep the status quo. You are hired to bring in effective change. So trust me, people are not going to be waiting around for six months, for nine months for you to come and say, I have this great idea. No, they want to see change. They want to be able to feel like, Oh, we make the right decision.

Yes. This person is setting the right foundation to lead change. Third thing I always recommend is when you step into a new role. Especially because you are not hired to keep the status quo. You want to be intentional about your calendar and the people that you will meet. Who are you meeting first? If you're meeting with your employees, your direct reports or indirect reports, however you want to do it.

What I recommend is before your one on ones, make sure you ask HR to send you their resume and latest performance review. Before you meet with your new staff, ask the new person, especially again, if you're coming. From a different company, from a different industry, you want to make sure that with your staff, they realize that you care because that's the thing about a leader, you have to show genuine care in your people because employees in general, don't ask for much.

If you show respect and genuine care, they will accept your leadership. And so the first thing you want to do is to show your employees that yes, I have this title, but I'm also going to do my homework because I realized that without you, I can't really do my job. What I do is always ask HR before any one on one with my new direct report, send me their resume, send me the latest performance review.

I want to be brought up to date With them, same thing. If I'm meeting with my CEO, our first one on one, I went through the whole strategic plan, however many pages it was. And I was ready with questions. You have to show that you're doing your homework, especially in those first days, days, because you want to build that credibility, show that you care, build that trust so that you can lead effective change.

If you're working remotely, like many of us are, I work remotely, we're probably going to the office maybe once a month for some management meetings. One thing we may not think about is the logistics around working remotely. How do you build instant credibility and trust when you're going to be on camera 99 percent of the time?

Please make sure your lighting is on point, that your camera is great. I even have a little mic that I have, not the podcast mic. I have a little mic because I want my voice. to come out crisp, because again, when you show up on camera, again, first impression, very first impression may have been from seeing your LinkedIn, but if they didn't, the first thing they will see is you on camera.

How do you look on camera? At least the first few days, I did try to put some lipstick on and you look cute, but whatever it is, trying to make sure that your executive presence show up with you. When you get into that meeting, they should feel like somebody. of your rank entered the room and you can do it online.

I know I'm doing this video, but I'm working on a leadership bootcamp and I already have a great, great, great guest speaker that going to be on that bootcamp. You probably seen on LinkedIn. I'm not going to say much, but she is great at teaching people. How do you show up as an executive on camera? So stay tuned for more on that.

That's really how you want to be able to build trust and credibility when you walk in. Why is it important? Because again, you're not going to be hired to keep the status quo and you need to lead change and to lead change, you need buy in. To lead buy in, you need to have trust. That is a foundation that will help you thrive in your role.

And you have to be intentional about it when you start. So I told you about having a strong online presence. That doesn't get built over time. But if you realize that your future bosses. Employees. Partners. Customers will always Google you or LinkedIn you before they work with you. You will start now and it doesn't have to be difficult.

It really doesn't. And I'll cover it in another episode. The other thing you want to do is make sure before you start that you have a power introduction. How are you going to talk about your immediate goals, your vision, so people can see you as a credible leader. And start trusting you, because trust is built over time.

So the quicker you can deposit in that trust account, the better off you will be later. And then, how are you going to prepare for your initial one on ones? How are you going to build quick credibility with your boss, with your peers, with your employees? Do your homework before you meet with them. Be prepared, because these are all the things that will help you build that trust.

And again, I'm sharing that with you because That's not something you learn in school, unfortunately. There are so many things that I had to learn the hard way because I didn't realize it was important. I didn't see it as important. But I can tell you, since I started implementing that, how I come on board and people are excited to work with me.

Really changed, like the level of energy and excitement about working with me really went up because I started being more intentional about how I prepare before day one, how I prepare my introduction, how I make sure my online presence is on point because I had people that I met in this new role that went and read like my last 10, 20 posts.

Okay. So they were able to tell me, Oh, I saw your post about how you, you had your ironing board as a standing desk. And I'm like, geez, I posted that a long time ago. Again, all these things that you're doing, people will see, people will check you out. And so I cannot. Emphasize that enough that you have to do your best to be intentional about how you're going to be almost instant credibility and trust with the people you will be buying from.

And that was the first part about knowing that you are not going to be hired to keep the status quo. Number one, you have to focus on building trust. The number two thing you should do is to make sure that you learn the business and not just the financials. Especially as a finance leader who's coming in at a higher level in the organization.

And that is whether you're a director, CFO, like every time you come in at those level, people expect you to not just know the numbers. You have to learn the business. You have to be able to show that you understand the company's operations. Otherwise. How are your decisions or recommendations going to be effective because at your level now, every policy, everything you bring to the table will have ramifications on the entire organization, not just your accounting team, not just your FB& T, not just treasury.

It's going to go through an impact operations, impact marketing, everything the company is doing. And that's not just for today, but for the years to come. Think about it. If you come in and you want to implement a new accounting system, a new ERP system, it's not a change that's just going to affect the accounting team.

If you're going to change the GL number, if you're going to change how they do expense reports, You are impacting the whole organization. So in order for you to come in and be able to lead effective change, for you to come in and be able to say, this is where I want to go, you have to understand what's going on because leadership, your CEO, your other C suite members, directors, they expect you to know the business and not just the financial, because being CFO means that you understand the company's operations.

the market, the customers, as well as anybody in the room. So when the chief marketing officer is talking, you understand what they're talking about. When he's the COO, you understand what they're talking about. Because you're not just a financial steward. So you need to dig deep into the business model, into the sales strategy, into the product roadmaps.

To provide meaningful input, because again, you're the finance voice in that room. So for those of you who are aspiring to be at the top of your organization, that is something you need to keep in mind as well. Because I didn't start learning about the business when I got to the CFO role. I got to the CFO role because I made it a habit early on in my career to learn about the business and not just the numbers and not just the financials.

Something that will help you when you step into a new role is for you to be able to trace how the company makes money all the way to how it ends on the audited financial statements at a high level, at least you should understand how we make money. And when we make this type of money, how does it show on our financial statements?

It's almost like a puzzle. You know what the end look like because you probably read and I do advise you to read your audited financial statement before you step in. You know, the end results, you know what it's supposed to look like. And now your initial goal should be to understand how the pieces fit together and understand why they fit together or a certain way when it comes to leading change, I always advise to assess before you address.

Don't make the mistake of coming in and wanting to do things exactly how it was at a former company. Understand why they're doing things a certain way before you change it. Challenge your staff to do it. Because again, as one of my personal board of directors, Carol Knowlton said, The higher you go, the more you have to do your work through people.

So as you are learning those things, as I'm sharing those things with you, you should also share them with your staff. So they also have a better understanding. So it makes your life easier. Tell them, I'm interested in changing this. Why are you doing this a certain way? If we don't do it this way, what else will be impacted?

And even you, by asking those questions, you'll be able to gather the insight you need, and a certain level, you don't need to know all the details. First, you won't even have time to know all the details. And that's where having that trust comes in, being able to get the insight you need when you need them is going to be helpful and understanding the business.

So you can challenge the things that are going to come your way. And you'll be like, Hmm. It doesn't make sense for what we do or how we do things. So yes, make it a goal to learn the business and not just the financial. Because at the end of the day, when you walk in as CFO or at a higher level in your finance and accounting organization, You are a strategic sounding board.

You'll be expected to weigh in on company wide decisions that have little to do with finance. It could be about everything, about mergers, product development, entering new markets, and you're like, shoot, that's marketing, right? You will be pulled into those discussions. Your role is how you're going to help optimize the business.

Well, I'm minimizing the risk. How are you going to make sure that the finances are in check? The equity structure is right. The capital structure is right. How everything that comes through your desk makes financial sense because your role is about guiding the company strategically and you have to give advice with limited information and often no formal strategy background.

Oh my goodness. And I think that's where a lot of us get frustrated in our career. I was a controller for a good bit of time, and I cannot tell you how frustrated I was, even though I had all these letters behind my name. Okay. I'm a CPA, I'm a CMA, I have an MBA. And in none of those things, I learned about business strategy.

And yet to become CFO, you have to learn. business strategy, there is no shortcut to that. And I think that's what a lot of controllers, even though they do a lot of work, are now being promoted to CFO level because they lack that seemingly small piece of strategy. So if you are aiming for the CFO role, I cannot tell you enough, start learning about business strategy.

Whether it will be through listening to earning calls or taking courses, whatever you do, if you are in accounting and finance, you learned enough accounting and finance. If you are a CPA, you learn enough accounting in your life. Okay. Focus on business strategy, focus on the things that are outside finance and accounting to broaden your perspective so that when you are placing those situations, whether it's in an interview, even.

You can speak at a much higher level than being in the weeds that is your day to day. Why are we talking about this? Because it is something that I'll tell you about becoming a CFO. And that is, you will not be hired to keep the status quo. You are hired to bring in positive change. And the way you will do it is by building a strong foundation when you step into the role.

By number one, Knowing how you're going to build trust and number two, how are you going to learn the business and not just the financials so that when you bring your recommendations, they make sense. People want to buy in people like cited about the change you will bring about. And plus. You know, what will be the ramifications of those changes because you're doing your homework.

So how do you step in again? I shared with you, yes, your online presence is going to be on point. You're going to have your power introduction. You're going to make sure that you look good on camera. If you work remotely and you're going to do your homework, get resumes, performance reviews, strategic plans before you meet in your initial one on ones.

Now, when it comes to learning the business and not just the financials, here are some things that will help you. And that is first to have the mindset that you are responsible for your onboarding. You are in charge of your training and you will have to map it out. When it comes to training in corporate America, we tend to feel entitled to training, right?

People should train us to do our job. But let me tell you, just because you're entitled to something doesn't mean you're going to get it automatically. Okay? The policy and procedures that they may have, 99 percent of time they will either not be updated or even not exist at all. You have to come in with your own onboarding roadmap because the CEO is not going to do that for you.

If they do, great. My CEO, when I came in, there was a fractional CFO and they asked them to do onboarding roadmap of the things and the people that they thought I should learn within my first couple weeks. And the executive assistant was graceful enough to schedule those meetings. But I spoke to some other friends like, Ooh, you got it good.

That was not our case. We had to be the one saying that I want to meet with this person, this person about this thing, and this thing, you have to realize the higher you go, you're not just going to get training because you're entitled to, you're supposed to come in ready anyway, to know what you need to learn, to do what you need to do.

The sooner you let go of that mindset of I need people to be invested in my training and get me that training, the better off you'll be, you know, it's like, okay, coming in, this is how I think I'm going to unborn myself. And so block your calendar, meet with these people, do what you need to do to get to where you need to get to, okay?

The other things that helps me and I do a lot is to record my meetings because there's a lot of stuff like I'm learning now. And in any new role, because you're coming at a higher level of the organization, you're not coming to do one task. And they can show you step one, step two, step three, bam, you got it.

You learning a lot. And so I record a lot of my meetings because I don't want to always have to go back to one person when they showed it to me. We can share our screen and things like that. But that is a great way for me to gather all that knowledge in my initial meeting. And then I block my time for focus time.

I block my calendar. I went to these meetings. I need to recover because back to back meetings. Oh, that hurts, hurts your brain, fog your brain. I think there's a scientific research about this. Yes, have a plan for onboarding. Yes, record the meeting. So you'll have different ways of being able to go back and pull that knowledge.

But definitely block your calendar. Block your calendar so you can take a break. Go for a little walk. Stand, stretch, but also go over the material you just learned. You have to be intentional about how you're going to step into a new role, especially when you're not hired to keep the status quo, when you're expected to lead change and build trust.

Learn about the business so that what you bring to the table is even more effective and accepted by everyone. That's it for today's episode. Of the Diary of a CFO. I hope you enjoyed it. If you have any topic you would like me to cover in the future, please send it to ask at thediaryofthecfo. com. Again, send an email to ask at thediaryofthecfo.

com. If we connect on LinkedIn, you can just send me a DM. The reason I need it is because I want to make sure I bring you the insight you need to be a better leader and be better at life. If you enjoyed this episode, don't forget to leave a review. Subscribe and share it, and I will see you next in another episode of The Diary of a CFO.

Cheers!