GrowCFO Show

We’re all back at work after the festive break, refreshed and ready for whatever challenges 2021 will bring. Did you set yourself any new goals for 2021, or perhaps some new year resolutions? I caught up with Mark Channon for some help on turning those goals and resolutions into reality. Mark has some great advice to help you achieve your objectives. About Mark Channon Mark originally trained as an actor, before becoming one of the first 8 people in the world to become a Grand Master of Memory in the 1995 World Memory Championships. These days Mark works as a performance coach. How does Mark plan his year? Mark uses the 3-3-1 model. Three years, three months, one month. While he has a 3 year vision he never plans in detail for any more than three months at at time. He then breaks his objectives down into monthly goals. We focused on technique for goal setting in the last episode of the GrowCFO Show Achieve your objectives with Tiny Habits Mark is a huge advocate of tiny habits as a way to achieve your objectives. He has produced a free course inside GrowCFO that explains how to use the technique. https://growcfo.mn.co/courses/2178470/content B J Fogg devised the Tiny Habits method, and Mark has worked with B J for some time. Mark was originally fascinated by B J Fogg’s claim: “Create new behaviours without the need for willpower or motivation” Focus on tiny In the Tiny Habits method you always start with a tiny behavior. Below are some examples: Floss one tooth Pour a cup of water Read one sentence in a book Put on walking shoes Take one deep breath At the end of this page, I’ll explain how to translate a difficult habit (like 25 pushups each morning) into something tiny. But first, let me explain why tiny matters. Why start tiny? Difficult behaviors require a high level of motivation. You’ve seen this in your own life. If there’s a tough task facing you, such as cleaning your entire home, you won’t do it unless your motivation level is high. As human beings, our motivation level for any behavior goes up and down over time. That’s natural. And you can’t always rely on having a high level of motivation. Your motivation is often low for cleaning or exercising or cutting vegetables. That’s reality. Relying heavily on motivation to create a habit does not work. Tiny gives you success When a behavior is really easy, like putting a magazine back on the shelf, you don’t need to throw a party to succeed. In other words, when a behavior is easy, you don’t need to rely on motivation. You simply put the magazine back on the shelf, and you are done. This was BJ’s insight: “Okay, BJ. You already know how to floss all your teeth. That’s not the problem. You don’t yet know how to do this automatically.” So I scaled back flossing to just one tooth. I then focused on making this tiny behavior automatic in my life. Soon I created a solid habit, and then I grew the habit to include all of my teeth (hooray). Simple is powerful Simple is powerful. You’ll experience that next week. You can grow your tiny behaviors in later weeks (for example, expand from flossing one tooth to all your teeth). But for this next week, to benefit your own success and learning, please, please keep it simple. Just like with plants: You start small. It takes root. And then it can grow. Simplicity changes behavior. The most important three words you’ll read today. Achieve your objectives with Pomodoro Mark uses Pomodoro as a way to develop a tiny habit into a much bigger behaviour. He’s currently writing a book, and uses the technique extensively to get work done The Pomodoro Technique is a time management method developed by Francesco Cirillo in the late 1980s. You use a timer to break down your work into intervals. These are traditionally 25 minutes in length, separated by short breaks. Each interval is known as a pomodoro, from the Italian word for ‘tomato’, after the tomato-shaped kitchen timer that Cirillo used as a university student. There are six steps in the original technique: You decide on the task to be done. Set the pomodoro timer (traditionally to 25 minutes) You work on the task. You end work when the timer rings and put a checkmark on a piece of paper. If you have fewer than four checkmarks, take a short break (3–5 minutes) and then return to step 2; otherwise continue to step 6. After four pomodoros, take a longer break (15–30 minutes), reset your checkmark count to zero, then go to step 1. Why does Pomodoro work? A goal of the technique is to reduce the impact of internal and external interruptions on focus and flow. A pomodoro is indivisible; when interrupted during a pomodoro, either the other activity must be recorded and postponed (using the inform – negotiate – schedule – call back strategy) or the pomodoro must be abandoned. After you complete a task in a pomodoro, you can use any time remaining for activities such as: Review and edit the work just completed. Evaluate the activities from a learning point of view: What did I learn? What could I do better or differently? Review the list of upcoming tasks for the next planned Pomodoro time blocks, and start reflecting on or updating those tasks. Cirillo suggests:  Specific cases should be handled with common sense: If you finish a task while the Pomodoro is still ticking, the following rule applies: If a Pomodoro begins, it has to ring. It’s a good idea to take advantage of the opportunity for overlearning, using the remaining portion of the Pomodoro to review or repeat what you’ve done, make small improvements, and note what you’ve learned until the Pomodoro rings. The stages of planning, tracking, recording, processing and visualizing are fundamental to the technique. In the planning phase, tasks are prioritized by recording them in a “To Do Today” list. This enables users to estimate the effort tasks require. As pomodoros are completed, they are recorded, adding to a sense of accomplishment and providing raw data for subsequent self-observation and improvement. Achieve your objectives by focussing on less Simply having too many goals can stop you achieving what you want. We talked about Essentialisn by Greg McKeown in the last episode. You can go an inch in a hundred directions or a hundred miles in one direction. The pursuit of less can be extremely powerful. In Essentialism, Greg McKeown, CEO of a Leadership and Strategy agency in Silicon Valley who has run courses at Apple, Google and Facebook, shows you how to achieve what he calls the disciplined pursuit of less. Being an Essentialist is about a disciplined way of thinking. It means challenging the core assumption of ‘We can have it all’ and ‘I have to do everything’ and replacing it with the pursuit of ‘the right thing, in the right way, at the right time’. By applying a more selective criteria for what is essential, the pursuit of less allows us to regain control of our own choices so we can channel our time, energy and effort into making the highest possible contribution toward the goals and activities that matter. You can use this technique to claim back your own time. Think about all those meetings you are invited to as the CFO or head of finance. Are they part of your agenda or somebody else’s? Do you really need to be there. Look at your approach to email as well. Responding to other people’s requests can easily divert you from your own priorities. Can you choose when you respond? Maybe there’s sense in looking at email later in the day and doing your own deep work first. Achieve your objectives with 5 Minute Journal You can achieve more with less. 5 Minute Journal will help you seamlessly create positive habits without investing years in experimenting and research to achieve the same results. Its a straightforward app available for your phone that allows you to focus your mind on your purpose. Its a great tool to add to your morning and evening routine. The Five Minute Journal App asks you three morning questions designed to instill gratitude, set purpose for your day, and create empowering beliefs. When you start your morning off on the right foot, days seem to go by smoother.   At the end of the day, two night questions ask you to reflect on the amazing things that happened throughout your day and how you could improve for tomorrow. Sleep easier ending your day on a high note. 

Goal setting is something that should be very personal. As you move to senior finance roles you need to take charge of your own destiny. You set your own goals, independently. We believe that goal setting starts with understanding your why? Only once you understand your why can you move to the what? The specific goals you want to achieve. Setting the goal is all very well, but you also need to address the how? How exactly will you achieve your intention? Do you plan for a whole year? Both Kevin and Catherine agree that a year is much too long to plan. A year looks too far into the distance and there are too many unknowns. Catherine plans monthly. Goal setting for Kevin is the next 90 or 100 days, but then he breaks this down into months. What is your why? Both Kevin and Catherine believe you need to understand your purpose, your own particular why? Only when yo have this can you naturally start goal setting. Do you understand what motivates you? What excites you? Kevin has a single motivating purpose. A single motivating purpose isn’t a destination its a state of being. Its expressed as “I wake up in the morning to do xxxxx in order to xxxxxx” A number of resources to help: If you are looking to better understand your own why? The following books will help: Strengthsfinder 2.0 https://amzn.to/3hiOHjF Unique Ability https://amzn.to/37Kdhqq Goal setting: around your strengths or your weaknesses? Kevin believes you should focus your objectives around your strengths. Strengths are things you can develop to mastery, while weaknesses are things you are likely only ever to be mediocre in. Catherine points out that to really develop you need to get out of your comfort zone, so don’t interpret strengths as just things you are comfortable doing. Think about new skills you might need to develop. Goal setting. The what? Once you understand your personal why? articulating the goals you want to achieve becomes easier. Catherine has two or three big goals. She breaks these down into intentions. The goal describes the outcome you want Catherine writes down 10 intentions each month, written as if they already happened. The intention breaks down the goal Affirming the goal is very important. You need to enjoy the journey to achieve your goals and intentions. If you believe in what you want to achieve you will achieve it Goal setting. The How? Think of goals as projects. Organise your tasks and activities as you would a project. Think also about people. Who are the people I need to engage? Make your goal setting smarter: Specific Measurable Achievable Realistic Timebound Exciting Relevant Focus on one or two key things: Whats the most important thing to do today / this week? Don’t have too many goals. Less is more. You can go an inch in a hundred directions or a mile in a single direction. Further Reading: Essentialism – Greg Mckeown https://amzn.to/3nQpgsg Dream bigger Most of us don’t think big enough, we limit what we can achieve simply by thinking small. You need to dream big and have a great vision, the vision needs to capture your attention. Where attention goes energy flows. How do I want to feel? Who do I want around me? State your intentions to others, this puts accountability in place. The power of your vision Catherine shared her recent blog post: The power of your vision is in seeing yourself doing the thing you want to achieve. Be the leader, the director, the owner of a successful business, the person who helps others. If you can see who you want to become and why, you can be that person. You can step into their shoes and and stride purposefully forward. Never lose sight of what you want to achieve, It is the glue that holds every small step together. It is the light that you keep moving towards, that stays lit even when your motivation fades. Your vision is what drives you but you must never forget that you are the driver of the car and along the way you can choose to go in any direction. There is no sat nav with a preset A to B, it’s back to the map and back to choice. Your vision isn’t the outcome though because even the outcome is part of the journey. It is a successful achievement that becomes the stepping stone to something even greater. It will take energy, dedication, determination and smart choices but if you surround yourself with those who believe in you and keep your dream alive you will believe in yourself and then anything is possible.

At the end of 2020 you may well find yourself reviewing your finance team. Its been a very unusual year. A test of character. Some of your team may have struggled while others have flourished. The team has adapted and survived, but the start of 2021 might be the time to make some more long term changes. Andrew Waters joins the GrowCFO Show to help us navigate our way through the review. What do you intend to do long term Our finance teams have been operating under unusual circumstances since March 2020. By and large we’ve adapted and survived. The next 6 months lare likely to be very similar. Beyond that we might be returning to a more normal situation. But what lies beyond? Are you now a remote team? How likely is it you go back to exactly how it was? Your high fliers have had a taste of alternative way of working which they may have loved. There are risks to bringing them back into the office 5 days a week. We’ve been ducking and diving, muddling through with the current team. There have been few opportunities for CFO to take control of situation. Now is the time for that to change. What should the team look like in 6 or 9 months time. Is your finance team still motivated by the same things? Dont assume you know what works best, ask the team, involve them in designing the future Motivations may well have changed. Are individuals still quite so motivated by career progression and money as before. Is Friday afternoon off to play tennis much more important than it used to be. How do you deal with individual finance team member’s performance? Top performers need to be rewarded. Some people will have flourished during the pandemic. They will have thrived in the new conditions and will have gone the extra mile. Your 9 and 10s need to be recognised. Is it time to stretch these people further. Are there any new responsibilities you can pass their way that might help the next step in their development? Likewise solid performers at 7 or 8 will be doing great things to hold the team together. What can you do to make sure this continues? Can you better support these individuals? What about poor performance? Poor performers, 6 and below are more difficult. Who has done much worse than expected, or worse than previous years? Nobody shows up at work to do a bad job. Its been a tough year and some folk have been in a difficult situation. You need to understand what’s going on under the surface. You need to avoid similar conversations in 6 months time, so look to see how you can help. A sudden drop in performance will have a story behind it. You need to know that story and investigate how to change its ending. Ongoing poor performance is a different matter. If somebody has performed consistently badly you may need to take more drastic action. Its likely that the pandemic is more excuse than reason for the current year grading. How do you reward people? Saying thank you is sometimes enough. Don’t forget the simple recognition. Think about giving your best performers more challenges and opportunities. Make sure you take money off the table. Pay sufficient to make sure your folk are well rewarded, but beyond that remember that money isn’t always the best motivator. Lack of money or lack of parity with friends may well de motivate so make sure that doesn’t happen. We discussed the effectiveness of bonuses in a recent GrowCFO members Situation Room. One of our members referred us to this excellent video from Dan Pink. Take a look before you conclude that bonuses work. Dan argues otherwise. https://youtu.be/u6XAPnuFjJc Think about benefits as well as bonuses. Gym memberships; mental health wellbeing coaching. Make sure people working remotely aren’t disadvantaged by the geography of supplying the benefit. How do we need to evolve? Take time to reflect on 2020. What have you learned about your team? Are there things you could have done differently? What extra could you have done to support them? Some common themes are emerging from finance teams. A common cry is for more time to do the job. Often the communication has been over done. Many people are zoomed out. Do you need to move away from the strict 9 to 5? Many folk are achieving outcomes but not necessarily within those hours. It doesn’t really matter what time of day it gets done as long as the outcome is there. Some folk are starting earlier because not commuting but also struggling to turn off in the evening. Make sure that some boundaries are set and expectations aren’t set too high to be unrealistic. Do you need to change the structure of your finance team? As well as looking inward to your finance team you need to think about the business context. Whats happened to the wider business? what new demands has that placed on finance? Many tech businesses have accelerated, and on a faster growth trajectory. The team might be stretched to its limits. What extra skills and capacity do you need? Now is the time to think it all through and start laying the post pandemic foundations. The foundations you will build upon in the new normal.

On this week’s podcast we talk about investor communications. Investor communications are an ever more demanding responsibility for the CFO. We take a look your responsibilities, how these can become a major distraction from other key business tasks, and how tools built specifically for the CFO can help you. Aside from accounting software there aren’t many tools made specifically for the CFO. Andrew Seski’s company NthRound make one of them. It focusses on investor communications, and gives both investor and CFO a portal that can both save time and improve investor relations. CFO as the public face of finance Your CFO role means that you are often the main point of contact between the outside world and your business. Rather than just head up the finance function you now need to represent finance to other people in the wider world. This can include customers, suppliers, and investors. This communication role gives you lots of new challenges and takes you further towards the edge of your comfort zone. You need lots of new skills. These will often be things that you didn’t learn to pass exams or you didn’t need in a head of finance role. Investor communications is a skill in itself, and one you will need. Addressing shareholder needs is more and more a CFO responsibility As CFO it’s likely that in a fast growing company investor communications will be your responsibility. As the company grows need to interact with investors grows too. The company may initially deal with one or two angel investors. As time goes on it is possible that more investors become involved. It may be that the company gets involved in raising equity finance in a whole range of different ways. Each time the role of the CFO becomes more complex with more people to communicate to. The needs of investors become more complex too. There will be different types of investor, each needing different information. The equity fund will need quite different information to the employee shareholder. Information you will need to supply will be quite diverse. You will need to communicate company results and forecasts, but these days many more things are called for too. Investors also need access to legal documents about their shareholding, and it can be a time consuming activity top provide copies of these on demand. Communicating important investor updates and sharing documents via email can quickly become an administrative burden as your cap table grows. Investor communications is not necessarily the CFO’s core skill Investor communications falls on the CFO. But have you ever been trained?We think its quite unlikely. This makes the whole area quite challenging. Giving the right information at the right time and in the right way is quite demanding. Investor relations isn’t necessarily the first thing you worry about as CFO. But it is very important. Any help in this area is incredibly useful. Nth Round gives the CFO a solution for investor communications Andrew Seski’s company nthround provides a tailored and bespoke solution for investor communications through an investor portal. A modern investor portal provides a new way to share reports, updates, and private documents all in one place: one that matches people’s communication expectations today. With the ability to post your latest information online, you’ll save paper and time while making sure your investors can access the information they need at any time on any device. New NASDAQ Requirements and investor communications New NASDAQ regulations require companies to demonstrate diversity and inclusion. When you engage with investors cognitive bias will often kick in, and your communications may emphasise one group of investors over another. When you engage a diverse audience you must avoid any bias. An Investor portal ensures that you give a consistent message to everyone. We looked in detail at the issues of ethnic minorities and all female business teams attracting investment in a recent podcast with David B Horne. A Christmas Present for the CFO Kevin and Andrew compared notes on what Christmas present they would like to give to the CFO. Kevin talked about the CFO Readiness Toolkit. GrowCFO already have version 1.0 within the Future CFO Programme. Kevin is actively developing version 2.0. This will contain much more and is not just aimed at the future CFO. The toolkit will become relevant to every CFO. It will identify learning and development priorities. Andrew mentioned the T Shirt NthRound are giving away this Christmas. Its based on the GAP T-Shirt, but with a supply changed logo using an extra A. The tag line is “I know GAAP and I’m not afraid to use it”. Are we giving the CFO an impossible task? I discussion moved on to ask if these days the CFO has an impossible task. You need to be multi disciplined. you need so many different skills. No other member of the c-suite has such a varied portfolio. Every board member is likely to suffer from Imposter syndrome. The chances of the CFO having imposter syndrome are double. We discussed impostor syndrome in last week’s podcast with Catherine Clark. We concluded that in a world of uncertainty and where the CFO needs to deal with so many things there might be a better gift for Christmas. Perhaps the gift you really need is a crystal ball?

Catherine Clark joins the GrowCFO to talk about imposter syndrome. Its a problem that Catherine encounters with lots of her mentees. Its something quite common amongst first time CFOs and its something she suffered from herself in her first role as a CFO. In this podcast Catherine gives you some great strategies for coping with imposter syndrome. What is Imposter Syndrome? You are in the role that you always wanted, so why do you feel like you don’t deserve it? What are you thinking right now in relation to your intelligence, skills, or competence? If you’re feeling unworthy in some way, consumed with self-doubt. You may be thinking, ‘I got here by luck’, ‘I just work harder’, ‘I am not really good enough to be here in this role’. The chances are you are feeling like an imposter, and doubting your ability to repeat past successes. Imposter syndrome is a problem worth sharing And one worth solving. Because it takes so much emotional energy to deal with the feelings of not being good enough. Lower emotional energy will drain your ability to show up in the way you wish to. It will affect your confidence, productivity, motivation, and influence and ultimately stem your potential to be the best you can be in work and in life. When you feel like an imposter, there is a gap between how others see you and how you feel inside. You attribute your success to external factors outside of yourself, rather than learning to feel like you have worked hard to deserve your role or the praise and recognition by others. Do you have an underlying fear of being found out? ‘I am not the person others think I am’, I don’t deserve this!’. Imposter syndrome can arise from social conditioning, self-critical thinking, and family patterning. You may have been brought up to doubt your own self-worth in some way or be in a work environment that promotes self-doubt. It’s normal to feel this way. You are not alone if you have these thoughts. Research shows that the majority of people feel like an imposter at some point in their life. The feelings can be there all the time, or they can come and go. Self-awareness is the first step to combat imposter syndrome The thoughts we are having in life affect our emotions, our bodily sensations, and our behaviours. I’m going to get straight to the answer, you can change how you think. Despite having around 60,000 thoughts a day, we are not our thoughts! Meditation is one practice that is very helpful in allowing us to sit in the present moment and objectively observe our thoughts without reacting to them. In the case of imposter syndrome, you may be in a big important meeting and a thought, ‘I am not as good as my colleagues’ emerges. You are likely to feel anxious or worried. Your heart may beat faster. You may feel butterflies in your stomach. You may blush if asked a direct question. As a result, you may withdraw inwards and not speak up with your insight or concern. You may be afraid to ask the questions you would like an answer to. It is often the emotion we notice first, and it is the strength of the emotion that can determine how much you believe the thought. But imagine if these automatic negative thoughts, often arising from our underlying core beliefs and assumptions and attitudes did not emerge, or if they do you would be able to reframe them? Think how much better you would feel. We can catch our thoughts and choose to react to them in a different way. It will take effort however we can break lifelong habits, and we can change our own belief system to something new. Confidence comes from courage. The courage to be imperfect, to take positive actions, one step at a time to retrain our brains and change and create new neural networks that work for us not against us. Creating new unconscious habits takes time. It will be a daily practice to train the mind ‘muscle’ to perform better and stronger, but it will be worth it to see an improvement in your mental health, your daily mood and how you perceive situations that arise. This process may feel uncomfortable and challenging, but showing vulnerability and letting ourselves be seen fully is the basis for the creation of deeper relationships and connections. Brene Brown describes this brilliantly in her Ted talk ‘The power of vulnerability.’. It is so important to love ourselves enough to want to make positive changes to feel like we deserve to achieve anything we want to. Changing your thoughts… So how do you reframe your thoughts? As I said earlier, it starts with self-awareness – what thoughts are you having? What emotions arise as you have these thoughts, or before you acknowledge the thought? What behaviours arise from these thoughts and emotions? Please pause and breathe and take the time to reflect before you react – what evidence is there to really support these thoughts? How much do you really believe them? If you don’t believe it 100% then there must be some doubt! Journaling and writing down our thoughts and the implications of our thoughts using the above paragraph as a guide can be extremely helpful. We can be our own worst critic, so positive self-talk is vital, you must speak to yourself as you would to a good friend. Here’s a short exercise called ‘The Thought Ladder’ to get you thinking differently: Identify your most prominent single Imposter Syndrome current thought e.g. I am not as good as my colleagues Consider an alternative thought – what you wish you could believe about yourself e.g. I am intelligent enough to succeed in whatever I choose Focus on the middle next steps – 2 or 3 helpful empowering thoughts you could try to think that are more positive than the current one e.g. I still have lots to learn but I am enthusiastic and willing, and I bring a fresh perspective; I have accomplished many things, equivalent skills to my colleagues Reflect on how these new thoughts feel. Make sure you believe them. Practice them daily – set an alarm with the thoughts on your phone or pin them to a visiblewall. The more you think about them the better!If you can take this a step further then acting ‘as if’ you believe the alternative new perspective (even if you do not fully yet) and observing the outcome, the ‘fake it till you make it’ analogy can go a long way to building and projecting more confidence.Thoughts are generally easier to change than beliefs because we tend to live by our beliefs as if they were facts. They are not facts; beliefs are learned and therefore they can be changed by examining the evidence for and against and coming up with an alternative new way of looking at things. Old belief in relation to imposter syndrome: If I am lucky then I will get the role I want. New belief: If I work hard with the best intentions, then I am worthy of success. You can take this a step further. If you take your existing ‘old’ belief you can look at the advantages and disadvantages of believing this with the goal of retaining the advantages and minimising the disadvantages. Often the disadvantages outweigh the advantages, so this creates a lot of motivation for change. If you can combine thinking differently with behaving differently then imposter syndrome will be a thing of the past! Our experience of situations is caused by our interpretation of events not by the event itself. Otherwise everyone would react the same way to the same situation. Choose to positively thrive and don’t be so consumed with what other people may think. Build daily routines and habits around the things that matter the most to you and that support your personal energy and ability to think and see clearly. Develop a growth mindset so you enjoy and celebrate the lessons on the road to success. Don’t be afraid to try things out along the way. No-one knows everything and an outcome is never fixed – remember you may not know how to do something yet but with practice, training, learning and support you will. Ask for help from a mentor In my view there is no choice other than to instigate change and to get the support you need from friends, family, and colleagues. Often you need a more independent supporter. A coach or mentor will help you to see a different perspective. A mentor can help you to create alternative thought patterns and solutions to problems you identify. Choosing a mentor can be a daunting task. You really need to find the right person. Chemistry between mentor and mentee is vital for the relationship to work. GrowCFO can help you find a mentor that is right for you. If you are interested in mentoring then you can find out more here Catherine’s own experience of imposter syndrome I felt like an imposter when I was promoted to the Board of Directors. On the outside I appeared confident but on the inside that is not how I felt, and it was exhausting. In the first year of my appointment, I felt less worthy. I felt less valued than my board colleagues and this made me feel sad and at times angry. I was encouraged to speak up more but because I perceived my opinions were less valid, less knowledgeable, less well received. The result? I lost the voice I should have had. I had the platform to make a big difference, yet I wasn’t able to take full advantage of that. It didn’t happen overnight but with time and effort I found the confidence to be me. I sought support to uncover and unlock the thoughts that were holding me back from being the person I wanted to be. I reached a point where my negative thoughts felt like they were suffocating me, and I had to change. Life isn’tperfect and new situations can trigger my old thought patterns. With the tools to support myself my imposter feelings are significantly reduced. I became a mentor because I have a passion for supporting people to be and feel the best they can, and to help them to believe in themselves and their value so they can bring even more value to their businesses and their lives. I strongly believe it is worth investing in yourself to get support so you are not wasting precious time and worry in thoughts and beliefs that may hold you back and stop you being the person you deserve to be. Resources we mentioned in the show Kevin recommended “Atomic Habits” by James Clear. The book has some great advice on creating new thoughts, behaviours and habits. Concluding thoughts… Imposter Syndrome is unlikely to go away completely but it can lessen. Those feelings of self-doubt will creep back in, however they can be useful because you need to step out of your comfort zone, try new things and feel the fear of the unknown to grow to our full potential, so don’t let it hold you back!

You are a newly appointed CFO. You need to take a view of whether your finance function and the finances systems you use are appropriate. Matt Benaron joins the GrowCFO Show to show you how to create a finance function blueprint during your first 100 days in post. About Matt Benaron As Director and Co-founder, Matt Benaron leads the VantagePoint consulting team by drawing upon his extensive experience implementing finance solutions across multiple sectors. He is a CIMA-qualified chartered accountant with comprehensive experience across varying finance systems as a solutions architect. How do you start to create a finance function blueprint? Once you have secured your first CFO role you will need to act quickly. The first 100 days in your new role are critical. During that time you will need to assess your finance function and determine what needs to change. You need to have a finance function blueprint that you can use with your team and the rest of the business to signpost the way forward. Its likely you will need to implement change, and the finance function blueprint will set out the vision, the indicative solution, the roadmap, and the funds needed to change. You will need to go through several steps in those first 100 days. Matt takes us through those one by one. We cover two key modules from GrowCFO’s Future CFO programme: Module 8 Take over the finance function, and create a blueprint for your own team Module 9 Create your identity, The first 100 days Be clear on business strategy Your finance vision must align to the overall strategic objective of the business. So start with CEO, the rest of the c-suite and the board, There may be a written strategy and objectives for the business. But its not unusual for that not to exist. Even where a strategy exists then the interpretation of it may not be universal across the whole top team. Find out what the real objectives are, and make sure you have alignment. Often the objectives aren’t clear, or incomplete, so work with the board to understand what the objectives really are. You need everyone bought in from the start. Translate business strategy into a vision for finance Take a view on what the strategy means for finance. What do growth targets or geographic expansion targets mean for finance? How big is the company going to be? Will transaction volumes change significantly? How many currencies will you deal with? Is there a move to different channels? Will finance need to integrate with new things? Get your team on board with the finance function objectives Engaging with your team early on is extremely important. You need them to be bought into the solution. Communicate often. Think about catch phrases and themes, make sure they start using the language you do. They need to understand their role in the change. Listen and engage with your entire finance team. Ideally one on one. Surveys and interviews work well. Find out what works well and what doesn’t. They will be able to give you a lot of the detail that will help you formulate the finance function blueprint. There will be other key pieces of information easily to hand. Look at past audit reports and similar documents, they will give you clues about some of the issues you will need to address. Engage with the rest of the business Ask the rest of the business about finance. These people are your customers and will give you a great perspective of how well you serve them. A significant part of your job is raising the perception of finance in the business, so understanding what they need from you will start this process. The customer of finance will tell you about issues your own team won’t. lots of issues for finance start in other departments, and finance causes issues for the rest of the business. You will need the whole of the business bought into your finance function blueprint, not just your own finance team. But remember to put the customer first. The customer of finance is the rest of the business Get the right support for your finance function blueprint The CFO doesn’t need to be an expert in finance processes and systems. There are so many aspects to your role as CFO these days that you can’t possibly master all of them. Its likely that there are other people in the business better placed to own the detail in your blueprint than you. Don’t be afraid to use them, they might be in finance or in the wider business, for example in the IT function. If you can’t find the right people internally, don’t be afraid to look externally. Keep it simple and look for quick wins You don’t turn every challenge into a massive transformation project, look for some simple changes and for quick wins. Quick wins will help get people on side. Break things down into incremental changes. Don’t have one change, look for 10 or 20 smaller ones. Some will naturally go together and you will start to build a route map with a staged approach to change. You need to take a holistic view of people; processes; and systems. Technology isn’t the answer by itself and won’t solve the problem without the right business processes and organisation design. How do you get the funding for your finance function blueprint? Once you have identified 10-20 change initiatives, you can establish a mini business case for each. The business case will explain why the change is needed, what it will deliver and when, the costs involved and how it will be done. Changes are bundled into stages, and you end up with a roadmap. You will have multiple changes in a stage but the overall blueprint is broken down into bite size chunks None of this should come as a surprise to the board. You have been building trust and expanding on your story right across your first 100 days. If you’ve managed those 100 days properly you will have taken your board on a journey. First listening to their concerns and issues, and their view on strategy and objectives. You will have helped the board clarify a common vision, and you will have demonstrated clearly how finance needs to embrace the vision and supply the right service to the future business model. how do you find the right external support? There are many consultancies to choose from, ranging from the big 4 to boutique firms. Generally there is no single right choice. You need to find advisors that you feel comfortable with, and you are happy to work with. It often ends up being a very personal choice. it comes down to people….you need to work out who you will work with day to day. are they the right ones, will they engage and learn about your business, must bring right empathy and connection. don’t want someone that just brings a methodology that they force on you. You won’t necessarily know all the firms that might be right for you. Reach out to peer CFOs and ask their advice and recommendations. The GrowCFO community is a great place to ask your peers for recommendations. Remember also to check out the future of the finance function topic, and maybe attend some of the regular Zoom sessions hosted by Chris Tredwell.

Hannah Munro is managing director of Itassolutions and host of CFO 4.0 Podcast. Hannah has over 10 years experience helping CFOs drive finance transformation and reshape finance functions. We look at what you need to do as a CFO to lead a successful finance transformation There are three elements to finance transformation: People, Process & Systems Hannah Munro has a background in analytics and process design and not in technology She believes that the key to a successful transformation is to make sure you don’t concentrate solely on the technology. You can have the best technology in world, but if you don’t have good processes and motivated people then your project won’t get anywhere. Finance transformation is driven with a good change process If you want to deliver a successful finance transformation then you need to understand how to lead change. John P Kotter outlines an 8 step process in his book leading change. The 8-Step Process for Leading Change was cultivated from over four decades of Dr. Kotter’s observations of countless leaders and organizations as they were trying to transform or execute their strategies. He identified and extracted the success factors and combined them into a methodology, the award-winning 8-Step Process for Leading Change. Create a sense of urgency Build a guiding coalition Form a strategic vision Enlist a volunteer army Enable action by removing barriers Generate short term wins Sustain wins Institute change If you want to find out more about Kotter here’s a great article Create a sense of urgency for finance transformation A sense of urgency or a burning platform needs to underpin all change. If you don’t have a burning platform for making your finance transformation then its unlikely to happen. Recently we’ve seen remote working mean on premise accounting solutions are no longer viable. This has given an urgency to adopt cloud based systems. If you want to transform then something needs to motivate change. Ask yourself whats driving the urgency? If you have no urgency you will have no motivation. Sometimes that lack of urgency means necessary change doesn’t happen. In the podcast Kevin recalls his employer growing by acquisition but failing to consolidate the back office. Once the need to consolidate became urgent it was too late to do it. The business was already losing too much money and collapsing fast. Build a Guiding Coalition that extends beyond finance You might be transforming finance, but you need to look further. The problem often sits outside finance. Make sure there is representation from across the business, not just from the finance team. You will likely have to change processes that significantly impact on the way your finance team operates. Many of those processes won’t be owned by finance and will be driven by the rest of the business. You can start by identifying capable, influential, and critical allies from across your business. These people are your change oversight team. Make sure finance transformation aligns with a strategic vision Build a picture of what the future looks like after the finance transformation is implemented. Your picture of what the organisation can become is both a future that looks appealing and sensible. If it isn’t, then it will be hard for the leaders to sustain commitment to the change effort. In this step, you must maintain a balance between setting organisational direction independently and collaborating with the guiding coalition. A strategic case for change is a key element of any business case. Poor finance solutions can hinder the wider business strategy. The system you choose for finance needs to enable wider business processes so you need to ensure the technology is a strategic fit with other business systems. Enlist a volunteer army Can you communicate your vision effectively? You must capture the hearts and minds of the employees and managers who are necessary to implement this change. With simple messaging that is repeated effectively in different formats, you can help the rest of the organisation to understand and accept the need for change and become part of it. You will need to involve as many people as possible. Can you give your people the freedom to build the solution? They will understand the issues better than you do, they deal with them every day. They will also accept a solution they designed themselves much better than one in which they had no say. You can’t expect your finance team to have all the skills to come up with the best solution. They will need guidance and help. Make sure you give them all the support they need. If you seek external help then make sure your people aren’t excluded from the solution design. Enable action by removing barriers to finance transformation This is a series of actions to remove obstacles that do not support your change vision. At this point of the change journey, you are squarely in the implementation phase. You are actively working with the rest of the organization to make changes to the existing processes, procedures, and organisational structures. People often assume there are barriers where there are none. Quite often things get done in a certain way, or certain processes exist when there is no real reason for it. Things often happen in a certain way because of history, not because of need. Keep asking why? Why do you do that? Give people an incentive to do things differently, a reason to change. If you want a system that relies on electronic invoices give your suppliers a strong reason not to send paper. You have many tools art your disposal. You could offer better payment terms for electronic invoices. Generate short term wins Complex goals are difficult to achieve and take time. The change will often stall if it takes too long to generate benefit. Some quick wins can generate a lot of goodwill. Are there any actions you can prioritise that might give short term payback? You should try to make changes to processes ahead of technology. Better processes will make it easier for you to go forward. if you cut out unnecessary processes and simplify then you can often generate instant benefits. Eliminating unnecessary process steps will make peoples lives easier, save time and reduce cost. When your people see immediate benefits they will be motivated to go further. Sustain wins look beyond the low-hanging fruit of the short-term wins to tackle other more difficult initiatives. This step serves two purposes. First, it prevents the organisation from going back to its old way of doing things and second it combats continuing resistance to change. Most finance transformations fail to achieve the benefits they promised. Most ERP implementations don’t pay back the investment made in them. Beyond the quick wins you must remember why you initiated the finance transformation in the first place. The big wins are harder and are easier to lose sight of. When you are in the midst of putting a system in with a very short time window then delivering the project becomes more important than delivering the savings. Focus often moves from realising benefits to making the tech work properly. Deadlines are deadlines! Institute change You need to embed the business change. If you don’t embed change people revert to the old ways of doing things. You must make sure your people are comfortable with the new ways of working. Equally you must make sure you can’t revert to the old ways of doing things. Once you make a process simpler and easier it will be very hard to revert to your old ways. People are genetically engineered to hate change. You must link change to people’s motivation. You need to give them a really powerful reason to change. As the CFO leading the finance transformation, you must communicate the urgency to change. You must communicate a compelling vision. You need to demonstrate that the new world is much better for everyone. People do things by habit. Your habits become subconscious. You do them automatically. habits are done subconsciously, and feel natural because a pattern has been imprinted. The new is done consciously as it hasn’t been learned yet, it feels uncomfortable, and people want to revert to the comfortable. Do you need to know more about Finance Transformation? GrowCFO has lots of information in the learning centre to help you get to grips with the 10 Core Competencies that every CFO needs to know. You can join GrowCFO and find out much more.

Today I explore the CFO mindset with Tony Shafar. Tony is an executive coach. He coaches business leaders and in particular people in senior finance roles. Tony believes that for most the technical abilities needed to do the job are taken for granted, but these only account for a small part of what makes a successful leader. The rest is mindset. We explore how the wrong mindset can undermine you, and how to address the problem. About Tony Shafar After studying Accountancy and Business at Strathyclyde University, Tony qualified as a Chartered Accountant working for Grant Thornton in Glasgow. Upon qualification, he moved to the London office specialising in Corporate Finance. Tony’s career progressed through senior finance roles at Morrisons and Virgin Media. He then spent 10 years working as a Finance Director for Ogilvy where he was a key member of the senior management team, managing the P&L, negotiating with clients, and working alongside the CEO managing staff and other key stakeholders. Tony realised being a finance director with a large corporate was no longer fuelling his passion, and he changed direction to become a coach alongside a role as a portfolio CFO for a number of smaller organisations including owner managed businesses and technology start ups. He enjoyed taking on a broader role, not only including managing the finances and helping with fund raising but also having operational responsibilities in helping manage the business. Whats the issue with CFO mindset? The technical aspects of the job are taken for granted, you have a good no2 producing numbers for you. The mechanics are 15% of the job. The rest is mindset. Its such a big part of the role you have to get it right. Most of the time Tony’s role is to help people get clarity on what’s holding them back. Discover what this is and you have the key to creating the right mindset for success. Mentoring and coaching can really help you. An experienced mentor can help you navigate the diverse challenges your role gives you. If mentoring interests you then GrowCFO can help, and you can find out more here. Uncertainty is the biggest problem Do you ever say to yourself: “ I’m not experienced enough to get that promotion” “I can’t let people know that I’m struggling with this as they will see me as incapable and not up to the job” “ I would like to take on that assignment but I’m worried that I might fail” These negative, fearful thoughts are not uncommon and come from limiting beliefs, embedded in your mind. They have been built up throughout your life. They are determined by many factors including experiences of the past and what people said you could or couldn’t do. Is this common amongst finance leaders? Lots of Tony’s clients talk about uncertainty and fearful thoughts when making key decisions. This uncertainty stops them taking the next step, even when that step is something they really want. You might be a financial controller wanting to progress to CFO. You don’t know whether you can do the role. This is because you have never done it before. Uncertainty leads to doubt about whether to apply for role and inaction or procrastination. Procrastination leads to unhappiness as you aren’t getting fulfilment.The more senior the role the bigger the problem, so CFO mindset is vital. how do you encourage someone to push through? You must identify the real underlying fear thats holding you back. What’s stopping you taking the next step or making the key decision? Its usually uncertainty and your natural tendency to avoid risk. By accepting a limiting belief, it will become your reality, so once you hear the negative critic in your head, call it out, and ask yourself something which may question your limiting belief and help move you towards your solution as opposed to focusing on the problem. Good questions to ask yourself include: “Do I really know this to be the case or am I assuming it?” “If my friend had the same problem what would I advise them to do?” “How else could I look at this?” “What could be a more helpful, empowering belief?” By starting to ask yourself different questions when encountering limiting beliefs, you will change your reality and move it more towards a future that you really want. CFO Mindset and imposter syndrome Most first time CFOs suffer from imposter syndrome. You might not admit to imposter syndrome openly, but its likely that you will doubt some part of your ability to do your job. Imposter syndrome is usually regarded as a problem. Tony actually believes it might not be a bad thing. Imposter syndrome actually shows you are making progress. You have left your comfort zone and are addressing the unknown and uncertain. Gravitas and the CFO Mindset Gravitas is important. If you start emulating a role model CFO you will soon adopt the right habits. Who is your role model? Ask yourself “what gives them authority & stature?”. How does your role model respond to particular situations? When confronted with a situation you can ask yourself “how would they respond?” This technique can depersonalise the situation and give you an objective view. Find out more about Tony Shafar Tony is part of the GrowCFO community and is often found posting thought provoking articles. Why don’t you drop over to the community and start a conversation with him? Tony runs his own coaching business, Shafar Coaching

Your first CFO role will involve a big step change in responsibility and take you right to the edge of your comfort zone and beyond. You need to stay resilient in order to survive. Dr Russell Thackeray is a psychologist and psychotherapist who specialises in resilience and frequently coaches c-suite executives. He shares his expertise on the GrowCFO Show Dr Russell Thackeray started his career as a professional musician before a career in sales and marketing. he has been CEO of a law firm and founded a major training business. These days he operates an organisational development consultancy and coaching business. He has worked with a diverse range of organisations including Central and Local Government, the National Health Service, Mercedes Benz, GKN, The Guardian, Hyundai, QinetiQ and Asda as well as for Private Equity and Venture Capitalists. As an entrepreneur, he has grown a number of organisations and has worked in the investment space with a number of UK Private Equity companies, including some major UK universities, to help them build the best people to ‘ramp up’ their investments. He is also a non-executive director of a number of digital businesses including lifestyle transformation and cruise travel companies. Is it difficult to stay resilient in your first CFO role? Russell believes there are many challenges faced by the first time CFO that will call upon the new CFO’s resilience. As a new CFO you have been working hard to land your first chance to do the top job. You have aspired to the role for a long time, but its a massive step up. The fight to win the job was tough, but it’s only the start. Now the really hard work starts, so yes its going to take all the resilience you have in order to survive and then thrive. Russell identifies two possible scenarios Scenario 1: You rise to the new challenge, and perform well. but find it really stretches you and overwhelm comes from the volume and variety of work you need to undertake and the need to operate at a whole new level Scenario 2: You perform poorly, you struggle with the huge range of new skills needed to do the top job. You were comfortable as head of the finance function, but the new role is a million miles from your comfort zone. You struggle to deal with your new senior colleagues, and overwhelm gets the better of you. How do you stay resilient in Scenario 1? A major issue in scenario 1 is that your personal time gets squeezed. You have little time to do personal development and your own training goes out the window. Your wellbeing is at risk from the overwhelm of your new responsibilities. To stay resilient you must: Learn to leave behind the job you did before, you can’t afford to hang on to the safety security & comfort of the finance function If your new job is in the same company then make sure you have replaced yourself with a great number 2 If your new job is in a different company then make sure the team around you is strong and capable to support you You can’t be the outward face of the company while still looking inward, so you must be ruthless and jettison what you brought with you. Avoid the familiar, throw yourself into the stuff you aren’t good at. You will become good at it in time. You need a good mentor. We discussed mentoring in episode 5 of the GrowCFO Show Don’t be afraid to ask for help. Asking for help isn’t a sign of weakness Find the natural rhythm of your job. The regular requirements of the job won’t be apparent at first, you need time to settle in. Let your team do the technical stuff, you don’t need to be the expert in everything How do you stay resilient in Scenario 2? The issue is you have bitten off way more than you can chew. You are drowning. You don’t have all the skills to do the CFO role. Maybe you have been over promoted and shouldn’t be doing the job. There’s actually no harm in admitting this if it is the case. Not admitting it can be more dangerous, as the stresses and strains won’t get better over time they will get worse. Over promotion is rarely the issue. The step up to CFO is a big one. Its rare for the CFO to arrive with all the skills needed on day 1. There are things you need to put in place: A dedicated personal development plan. We look closely at building a development plan in module 3 of the future CFO programme Avoid burning yourself out.risk off burning out. Sometimes you imagine the expectations on you are greater than they really are Nobody expects you to be brilliant right at the beginning. The first 100 days are a critical honeymoon period. Use them well. Module 9 of future CFO programme looks at how to best use first 100 days Managing change is a huge challenge Or is it? Don’t let the need to champion change overwhelm you. Just coming in, being new and fresh is big part of change. You bring something different to your predecessor, so don’t be afraid to be yourself and make your own mark: You need to start with yourself. Lead it, live it, and influence other people. The CFO needs to be the pivotal person changing the perception of finance in the organisation. Finance needs to become vital rather than functional. Functional can be automated and outsourced. You must have your head around digital technology Start by changing finance not the rest of the organisation.

There are many different ways to become a CFO. In this episode of the GrowCFO Show Kevin Appleby explores the seven main routes to that top job with GrowCFO founder Dan Wells. We discuss which route is best. We look at the advantages and disadvantages of each. Then we conclude by looking at what help and support you might need depending on which route you take. The road to becoming a CFO isn’t a straightforward one. Generally when recruitment agencies are engaged to find a CFO they are looking for experience. Most of the time their ideal candidate will already be a CFO. So if that is the case then how do you get that elusive first CFO opportunity? Fortunately using a recruitment agency isn’t the only way to secure a CFO role. You have  a few other options. Dan Wells talks us through 7 different routes to the top job. We look at the pros and cons of each. 1) Become a CFO through internal promotion In our survey earlier the year 52% of GrowCFO members who replied felt that an internal promotion is the best route to securing your first CFO role. This allows you to build your knowledge of the company’s industry and products. You can develop your relationships with key internal stakeholders and grow into the role. There are downsides to this route. You may be typecast into your previous role and some people may not truly recognise you as the CFO. Its also possible to get held back by still having to perform your old role. If you choose this route its vital that you recruit a good number 2 to support you and backfill your old job. 2) Take a role as CFO in a start up Joining an early stage company as their new CFO is one of the most effective routes for landing your first CFO role.  24% of our survey responses suggested this was the best way. This involves leveraging your experience of working in a more complex scaled up business in order to become an attractive CFO candidate at a smaller company. The fast growing start up will certainly challenge you. It will stretch you right to the edge of your comfort zone and beyond. You may feel very lonely with little support as you are likely to be the only qualified accountant in the business. If you find yourself as a first time CFO in a startup then some of the best advice is to find a good support network. A mentor who is an older much more experienced CFO might be essential to your success. 3) A startup financial controller will often grow into a CFO A good number of people suggest joining a start-up company as their Financial Controller. The FC will lead the finance team and can grow into the CFO role as the business scales.  Many finance leaders have taken this approach. It provides you with the opportunity to take on more responsibility, learn new skills and impress your employers. However you take a risk. The company may fail to achieve its growth target and your role doesn’t evolve.  You might not be first choice for CFO. The business recruits another candidate into a future CFO role ahead of you. 4) Become a CFO via a divisional FD role A divisional FD role can carry a huge amount of responsibility and expose you to many of the skills a future CFO will need to demonstrate. It’s likely that this role can give you board experience, and you will be required to support the overall CFO of the organisation. The divisional FD role at a larger company to be a good progression towards a future entrepreneurial business CFO role.  Divisional FDs typically develop a range of relevant skills. These might include data analysis, operational activities and strategic initiatives. Chances are you will need to change employer to progress to CFO, so the downside is you will be up against some very experienced candidates in the job market. 5) Be a part time of portfolio CFO You might consider becoming a part-time FD for smaller companies. This way you can gain the necessary skills and experience to progress into a future CFO role.  Historically the portfolio role has been the preserve of CFOs winding down at the end of their career. This is changing, and it is becoming a much more mainstream career path. Typically you will provide strategic financial input whilst working on day rates. You will gain good exposure to CFO-related tasks and potentially being recruited as a full-time CFO by one of your clients. One downside of the portfolio role is you might be the only finance person in the organisation. As well as being the CFO you might be the book keeper too! 6) Move to a finance role at a client You might currently work in professional practice, so one route to CFO is to join a client. Professional advisors often help companies through major transactions and can be very involved in the business. Consultants can work on transformation projects and become very familiar with the way the client’s business operates. Its a small step from leading change as an external consultant to leading change as the CFO. Transitioning to a CFO role at a client can be tricky. Its likely you have deep experience in a few specialist areas. While these will be useful to your new employer you may lack some of the broader skills a CFO needs. 7) Get Head Hunted Not many CFO roles are advertised. Your search of the job market will only reveal a small percentage of roles. Companies engage headhunters to seek out and approach potential CFO candidates. Many are approached even when they aren’t actively seeking a new role. You need to stand out to attract the attentions of the head hunter. You are likely to be well connected and good at networking and you will need a strong personal brand. How can you improve your chances? You can do a number of things. Find a mentor. You should look for a mentor who has already done what you are aiming to do. Lots of experienced CFOs are prepared to mentor the next generation of leaders. If you don’t have someone you can ask then GrowCFO provides a great mentoring service. Join the Grow CFO future CFO programme. The future CFO programme covers all the skills and competencies you will need as a CFO You should have a clear personal development plan. Understand what you need to do in the next 12-18 months to secure your dream job. The GrowCFO learning centre has tools to help you build your plan. Take an active role in a community. The GrowCFO community. You should join in events and make sure you are visible.