Your Roadmap to Executive Leadership

TRANSCRIPT

Welcome back to Dairy of a CFO. Today's episode is A recap of a recording I did of a webinar on December 19th. The title of the webinar was the number one mistake keeping you from executive roles and how to fix it was really about how to unlock your potential when it comes to reaching and thriving in executive roles.

Take a listen. I spent about 15 years in accounting and FBNA. So even though it wasn't all smooth toward the end, it was quite fast getting to where I am now as a CFO of ACE. And so I've seen many talented professionals stay stuck in middle management because of how they approach your lead to executive leadership.

And that's what I really want to focus today. I really want our conversation to be focused on. And my purpose for you today is to get clarity. Once you have clarity, you can then have focus so you can do the right thing and actually get the right results. And yes, results also mean money and impact because clarity drives focus and focus drives action and action drives results.

So as we are thinking about how do we make that lip into executive leadership, it's good to have clarity about what. Executive leadership is in the first place. Business executive is a senior leader that drives overall strategy. So strategy, keyword number one and success of the organization. So not just the department, because they are making decisions that impact the entire organization.

That was a first learning experience for me when I started, because you start working and you often focused about how is this one thing going to impact me? It's going to make. More work or, oh, marketing is creating more havoc. So I used to hate sales and marketing team, but they're driving the business.

It takes a bit of a change in mindset to start making your way through executive leadership.

And one thing to realize is that regardless of your company size, executives account for no more than 1%. Of all employees, which means if you want to be part of the 1%, you cannot think and act like the 99%. I know that could be some harsh truth here, but it's true.

You can take as today, wherever you're working, if your company have 50 employees, how many employees are in the SLT, the executive leadership team, how many employees you likely find is probably 1 percent or less. When you start thinking that way, because again, it all starts with the way you think, you cannot be comfortable saying things that, that's the way we've always done it, or getting generic advice from anybody.

You see things here and you go for it. And you have to start thinking of your career as a business, CEO of me, Inc. I'm the CEO of my career. Who else is thinking the same way? Like we have to start thinking. About us, about our career, like it's a business because. A lot of time, we're not willing maybe to invest a little more and we're only going to invest or pay for what the company is covering.

We cannot think that way. If you want to be part of 1%, I like to say that it's almost your career is almost like a venture or startup. You often have to put your money first before other investors show up. So there's a lot of things that you have to be willing to do differently. And the earlier you know about it, the easier it gets.

As we go through our career, we usually think about four keys, right? What is going to open doors for us in our career? Key number one, education. Number two, technical skills. Number three, soft skills, or other would say human skills. Number four, experience. And we could even add a fifth key. Which is hard work.

So it's almost like you get to a point in your career and you are faced with different doors. I'm sharing here a graphic with four white doors and one yellow doors. And let's pretend that the four white doors are the doors from like your first job, then your first manager job, then some other, before you get to the yellow door, which is the executive door.

Let's say this first door here. You probably opened it with the key of education, and then maybe the other door you were able to open because of your technical skills. Maybe it was because you were the best person in using Excel, the one who better understood the ERP system or any other things that really helped you be that.

technical go to person. And then as you grow, you get experience, you get soft skills, you realize, oh, leadership, this is all good.

And then you get to that yellow door, you get to that executive door and you try all your keys. And that's where I was stuck. A couple of years ago, I was a controller for about five years.

At some point our CFO left and I was like, Oh, I'm controller. I'm a CPA. They're definitely going to pick me to be the next CFO. No. So I was like, okay. I went back to my education key, right? I went back and I went for my CMA. So maybe I had the experience, but I didn't have. The CMA, even though I was already a CPA, I'm going to do this and it's going to help me open that door.

Didn't work out. I quickly saw that I could stay there more years, nothing was going to happen. I shift, I look online and they say, Hey, FBNA is a new thing. So I'm like, okay, I'm going to go into FBNA. I went from being a controller, managing. A 15 people department to being an individual contributor, taking a pay cut to be an FPNA.

I wanted to be an FPNA manager. That's what people said. That's what I went for. And that's what my LinkedIn post, I think last week was about people thinking that FPNA is the only way to do it. But anyway, I'm like, yeah, I'm going to follow the generic advice. I go for it. And there, there was still nothing.

Not much growth. I learned valuable skills. I learned more about being a business partner and then COVID hit. When COVID hit, I think it all reset how we're thinking about our careers. Who else was in the COVID? Yes, let me reset, let me think through some of the things that I'm doing. And I could clearly see that I was missing something because I tried education.

I try all the keys. I try hard work. I tried all the keys. By that time, I was almost done with my MBA. So I was CPA, CMA, MBA. No sign of executive leadership role in sight. I had all these years. You want accounting? I can do it. You got treasury? I could. What else? You want Excel formulas? What do you want?

Managing people? Yes, I told you. I've managed a bunch of people before. People that were actually sometimes twice my age. I had hired, I had fired, I had planned layoffs, I had done a lot of things. And you get to this door, this yellow door here, and you're like, what is going on? What is it that I am missing?

And that's when I started spending time researching online. Branching out, observing other people. Cause there was this one lady at my workplace that I will never forget. Her name was Avra and it felt like almost every year I was there for almost four years, she was getting promoted to something. Even sometimes during the same year, she got like two promotions and I was like, okay, how does that work?

Cause the only time somebody talked to me about a promotion was because somebody left. It wasn't because. Um, you're great. Let's create a job for you. But that didn't happen quite often in my career. It was because we did work done. Here's somebody that can do it. Slide in. But I was wondering what was the difference between those who seem to just crack through every door and Where I was at a time.

So I spent time on coaching. I took a personal branding course. I took any course, any coach you can think of. And that's when I realized that we struggle a lot. And I think that's the number one mistake we do when we trying to get into executive leadership. It is that when you want to reach a higher level, that door may look the same, but the locking system has changed.

When you think about a, a VP role, VP of finance and accounting, when I applied for that role, and it was actually through a recruiter, he told me, he said, well, they requested that the only candidate we present only have CPAs, I had a CPA, but I'm competing with other folks, right? They wanted people who had at least 10 years of experience.

Great. I was competing with people having 20 years of experience applying for the same job. They wanted people with those technical skills, those same soft skills, those same leadership skill. Why would my case be different? How would I position myself to be different? Because again, the door looks the same, but the locking system has changed.

It almost feels like you're stuck and you're not sure what you're missing. You may be spending money, like I did, on different courses, different things, trying to go to different events, and it's very frustrating, and that is because the locking system has changed, and a lot of us don't realize it. It's almost like you go to the door, and you think you need a key, but now you need to crack a code.

You actually need a pin code, a three digit code to get you through a fingerprint. It's almost as if, because now, again, you, you thinking about the 1%. And the 1 percent are not like everybody else. If every door was this way, there will be more, but they can only be a few leading organizations at this level.

So once you get to the executive level, whether it's going from director to VP to SVP. There is a couple of things that you will want to consider. And that's why I framed it as P N P I N. So that it's easy to remember because so far you'll realize you have management skills. You see probably your CFO and you're like, I could do this too.

So it's because you have approached your career by unlocking those with familiar keys, your degrees, your experience, your hard work. And these keys fit the locks and open doors up to a certain point. Now you need to accelerate and you realize you don't need those. And yes, if you realize sooner, you could have gotten there faster, but it's not too late.

Okay.

I'm going to share with you what that pin code is. The pin code. Presence, influence, and networking. You need executive presence, which is how you show up. You need influence, strategic influence. Influence to go from one idea all the way to the execution. And people who don't report to you will buy in and be willing to do it because it came from you.

And you need networking. Ever since my first VP role till now, I have not applied for a job online. And that is because a lot of the roles that are VP and up are only done through recruiters. They are only down for recruiters. A lot of the positions you may see on LinkedIn, they're just like an HR process.

They have to do to say, yes, we kind of check a box and we advertise the role. So let's think about presence for you to show up as leadership material. There were a lot of things you were doing for you to show up as executive leadership material. It is. Very different is how you show up. It's how you project your confidence and your authority.

You cannot be executive material. If when you walk into a boardroom, you feel intimidated and you can't even utter a word. You can't even say something because you feel out of place. You get into an interview talking to CEO and you're like shaking. Well, that person will be your boss. If you're shaking just because they're here, you're probably not ready.

Because if you're not ready in your head, it will translate. So when you think about your presence, you want to think about, are you seen as a doer or as a leader? That one was hurtful for me when I did my own, 360 degree review. of how people saw me. And you can do your own audit too, because you can pretty much see what kind of requests come through your email, through your inbox.

Do people ask you to do things or to lead things? Because if you are a doer, you will notice that on your performance review, you get a lot of, Oh, great work, exceed expectation. She was so good. He was so good. But then nobody talks about promotion. You get all these great comment. She's doing good. She's helping.

This person is a bomb. Go to them. She's a go to for this. He's a go to for that. You have a great, glorious performance reviews, but there is no promotion. There is no increase. That's how you start noticing. If you are seen more as a doer than as a leader, it also comes to how you communicate in meetings.

Because if you have imposter syndrome, like I said earlier, preventing you from clearly articulating your thoughts, you will not come out confident. So that's the area of presence. Then we get into influence. Do you get buy in easily from the people you needed the most? How often do you struggle to get your point across?

How often do you make a suggestion and it doesn't even reach You feel like you, you had a great idea when nowhere, that's your influence. That's how you want to align, like with power players. Who do you know in the company? Do you have a sponsor? Do you have people who speak about you? When you're not in the room, who are advocating for you, what is your influence, how do you get things moving, even when people don't report to you.

And then networking, that's a big one, because it wasn't until, I think it was 2022, That that one hit me. I was working on cracking that code for you. Say, you're welcome. You are welcome because I'm giving it to you right now. Someone told me you want to be a CFO. Great. How many CFO mentors do you have? Do you know, do you keep in touch with because your network impact.

where you go. It's what helps you extend your reach, not just the recruiters, right? Because again, you want to be recruited for executive roles. How many executive recruiters do you know? Do you regularly contact? For me, very personal because back in 2022, 2021, I started a little bit posting on LinkedIn here and there.

2022, my audience grew bigger and I started making connection with people in the DMs because I realized It's not just what you see on the surface is what happened offlicting on the DMs, not just the things in your feed. That's what really makes a difference. And so I started connecting with people and I was invited to a AICPA conference.

So I go there and there was like fortune 1000, fortune 500 people. I'm like, Whoa, I get to meet like, uh, the, one of the VP at Lowe's, some VP of finance and Amazon. I was impressed. I was like. Whoa, this is so good. And one thing I realized is I didn't have enough people like this in my daily life. to help me stretch my thinking.

I didn't have enough. So now that you know the PIN drop in the chat, which letter do you think you need to work most on? Is it your presence? Is it your influence? Is it your networking? I will see how many I get and I can dive right now. Okay, so I'll start with presence. So when we think about presence, you probably have an executive you worked with and you realize when they enter the room, it almost felt like all eyes went to them or when there is a decision to be made and they say, what do you think?

It's almost like the room goes quiet and all the eyes goes to them. Even in virtual, there is a pause because people are waiting for that person to speak. The reason they're waiting is not just necessarily because of the title is because when an executive speaks, they elevate the conversation. The next time you're in a meeting, think about how you are elevating the conversation.

For example, for me, I told you I was accounting manager. Every time I step into a meeting, I was like, no, no, no, this is not a good idea. Oh, he's going to mess up the system. I wasn't thinking about the company as a whole. I wasn't seeing the bigger picture. I was so focused on my department. I was so working in silos that I couldn't see what really mattered.

So I wasn't invited into many rooms. I didn't realize that at the executive level, you need to think bigger than your title and your department. You need to think about the company, where is the company going? And if you're not able to think that way, it means you probably need to spend more time with either your sales and marketing team.

Ask them, what is a SWOT analysis of our company? What are our strengths? What are our weaknesses? What are the opportunities out there? What are we trying to do? Try to understand that to open up your mind and see the bigger picture. So you're able to come back and be in conversation where you elevate the conversation.

Before you dive into the weeds, what are we even here for? Now back to I for influence, okay? In a company, there is always what I like to call power players. It could be an admin. It's not even a title. It's the people that get you the meetings, the people that know who you should talk to, the people whose name comes every now and then.

You need to align with them because if one of these people don't like you, your career at that company, probably not going to go further. So you have to think in those terms too when it comes to your influence. Are people taking what you say into consideration? Moving on to N, networking. This is for thoughtful networking, not just networking for networking.

I want to be a CFO. I need CFO friends. I need CFO mentor. And I will tell you that in 2022, I met my first CFO friend. Two years later, I'm a CFO. This stuff is real because when I was just talking to her, just when she was venting, she was dropping things like, oh, the board. I was like, board? Hmm, I have to worry about board management.

I'm The thing she was talking about, how she was thinking about treasury money, she taught me so much. I asked the former CFO Caterpillar, I want a mentor. I just met you, I know, but will you mentor me? I started having CFO friends who taught me what it was like to be a CFO.

For PIN, so presence, influence, and networking, you have to remember that it happens on three levels.

All right, so we start with yourself, your mindset. Then you move to what you need to do at work and then to what you need to do beyond work. Okay, start with your mindset, then what you're doing at work. You cannot be in the day to day staying in the weed and not thinking strategically to try to elevate those conversation and be executive material because then you are able to realize, okay, when I look at my calendar, What time am I dedicating to invest in me?

One hour, 30 minutes, or when I have time, there's only 52 weeks in a year. What is the spot on your calendar to meet a different person? Do you have a 30 minute block somewhere to have a virtual coffee chat with somebody every week? There is only 52 weeks, guys, a year is ending soon and years will go by.

And that's why I want you guys to have that clarity. So you can be more intentional about doing things. At your level at work, but also beyond work, how you show up your LinkedIn profile should scream executives. Mine was screaming executive. I was not even a VP yet, and that's how I was contacted to become a VP for the first time.

Eventually you want to fill out this chart. So the chart I'm sharing is a nine box grid. It has three columns and three rows. Across the columns, you have presence, influence, networking, and then the rows is what I should do at myself, the individual level, then at work, then beyond work. So a couple resources I want to share with you is one, the email guide.

So I have an email guide called Unlock your potential. And it's a 14 day free email course. Every day for 14 days, you'll be getting emails that are really breaking down the concept of PIN, the PIN code. So presence, influence, networking with much more details and some personal stories as well to help you go through that.

In addition, I created an assessment called the strategic influence quiz that you can take to walk you through. Any misalignment you may have between how you think you are in terms of your personal brand and how people actually see you. It's an assessment. You can access all of that on my website, wasiakamon.

com. And then last but not least, I have a cohort program coming up called the Office of the CFO Bootcamp. It's a three week cohort program, very hands on with weekly meetings. Now we're going to do live and have Q and A. Again, tons of resources out there. Of course, you can always grab a spot on my calendar.

It is quite packed, but I'm always trying to make sure I have room to answer all of your questions. Again, all of this information you can find on my website at wasiakamon. com W A S I A K A M O N dot com.

I see a question about any future events to share with the community. My next event will be for the diary of the CFO podcast.

I want to do a live Q and a, so it will be all Q and a you will be on camera. So I get to see you and not just see the chat. And yes, so that one will definitely be in January. I'll post it on LinkedIn. Good question. Thank you. Any other questions? I see many. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. The pin is awesome.

Yes, I'm telling you, if you just work on these three letters consistently next year, there is no way your career will be at the same space. There is no way you'll be at the same spot in the career. Next question was, how does AI help you grow in your journey? I don't think AI helped me much. I think I had already figured out a lot of those things before AI came.

AI comes to help with productivity. For example, if I need to polish an email before I send out. Now, the very thought of knowing I need to polish or write a certain way comes from that experience of hanging out with other people. Or seeing how other leaders are interacting. So to even start that prompt, you still need that experience and that big picture mindset to know what to ask AI.

Otherwise by itself, it's going to sound very generic. Thank you so much for joining today was such a joy to share this with you. Definitely get the guide. You will get more detailed information. You should actually try to do it with somebody else. So if you download, ask somebody else to download on the same day.

So every day you can have an accountability partner with you through this journey. That's it for today's episode of the Diary of a CFL. 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 the diary of the cfo.com, again, send an email to ask at the diary of the cfo.com.

If you're connecting on LinkedIn, you can just send me a idea. The reason I need it is because I wanna make sure I bring you the insight you need to be a better leader and be better at life. If you enjoy this episode, don't forget to leave a review, subscribe and share it, and I'll see you next in another episode of the diary of the CFO.

Cheers.