Advancing Your Influence: Strategies for CFOs

In recent years, the role of the CFO has been redefined by expanding responsibility, increasing influence, and heightened scrutiny. While historically CFOs focused on managing financial data and reporting, today’s finance executives are also expected to lead organizational change, improve leadership impact, and act as cultural stewards for their companies. This creates a delicate balance of power and pressure.

In a recent survey of CFOs in The Circle, 83% of respondents said the level of pressure and intensity in their role has increased in the past two years. Several issues are compounding these feelings, including the fatigue of being in a low growth/low capital environment, and the whipsaw of change away from hyper-growth. There is also the responsibility of managing expectations of the CEO and board, overseeing departments that aren’t finance-focused (HR, Legal, etc.), and articulating complicated financial concepts to first-time founders or technical leaders. 

In a conversation with the CFO|Circle, Executive Coach and 30-year veteran CFO Jim Cook shared strategies for professional growth during this pressure-filled time. These include how to strengthen your CXO peer relationships, level up your soft skills as your responsibilities grow, and influence your executive peers and organization.

1. Strengthen the CEO + CFO  Relationship

The majority of CFOs in the conversation believe that they have a positive relationship with their CEO. While that is welcome news, Jim noted it is okay to have a healthy tension with your CEO and challenge them when necessary.  “Their job as CEO is to push, and our job as CFO is to be a pragmatic guide,” he said. “We want to push their vision along, but we do not want the business to go over the cliff.” 

One way to facilitate healthy conflict and constructive debates with your CEO is to reframe how you ask questions. Instead of positioning them from the view of right and wrong, present them on a “risk-versus-opportunity” continuum.

“When you change your language to talk about the risks and probability in a decision, it changes the nature of the dialogue. You also sound more credible.” – Jim Cook, Executive Coach

By doing this, you move away from answering questions in a binary way and can instead determine the level of risk you want to take, measured against the probability that you could be wrong. 

While CFOs want to feel a confidence level of 99% when they make a decision, Jim encouraged everyone to make decisions when they feel 80% confident in them. Why? “The value of being 80% right is that you create space for people in the room to challenge the ideas presented,” he said. 

This dynamic allows for more perspective and creates an environment where everyone reaches a final decision together – fostering ownership and collaboration.

2. Investing in Soft Skills is Key as Your Responsibilities Grow

During the discussion, the CFOs were polled about what competencies they viewed as the most uncomfortable or challenging. The top four areas were all soft skills of leadership, effective communications, and storytelling.

As companies scale and CFOs take on greater responsibilities, soft skills become much more important. Being a cultural bearer, motivating your team, and communicating the financial well-being of your company to non-finance employees often requires pushing outside of many CFOs’ comfort zones.

“CFOs are very good at living in the details, but we must also be able to both zoom out and look at our business from 50,000 feet. The balance between the two allows for both depth of understanding and accountability to a broader vision.” – Jim Cook, Executive Coach

CFOs in the conversation agreed that, as your company grows, you should spend more of your time building decision-making systems for scalability  down the road. You can then turn the system you have built to others to run day-to-day. 

At the IPO readiness stage, your responsibility will shift again. Now you will spend a larger portion of your time in an external-facing capacity, so communication skills become even more important. “You will need to translate what the company is doing from a strategy perspective, tell the company narrative to investors, and manage investor expectations,” said Jim.

3. Effectively Influencing Others is a Big Unlock

When it comes to influencing key constituents like your CXO peers or board members, you must have a point of view. More so, you must be able to communicate that point of view crisply and have it be memorable (which is not easy for introverts). 

To do this effectively, Jim recommends the “SEC” framework, which stands for statements, evidence, and conclusion. 

• Deliver three or fewer statements
• Have three or fewer pieces of evidence to support them
• Make one summary conclusion, which is the big takeaway you want everyone to remember 

Why three? Because that is what most people can remember at one time, said Jim. 

Once you deliver your conclusion, be silent so your audience can absorb what you shared. Take an extra beat, because a long pause for you can feel very short to others. “You want them to ask a question and challenge your statement, then you can use your data and business content to influence the conversation,” said Jim.

Use this framework to guide and anchor important conversations. As your executive team members brainstorm new ideas (or go down rabbit holes), you can be the one to say, “Hey, these are all great ideas. But let me remind everyone we have to…” 

What’s even better than making concrete statements? Asking powerful questions: 

“The masters of influence force others to engage by answering their questions, which gets alignment around their point of view.” – Jim Cook, Executive Coach

The Takeaway:

Over the past two years, CFOs have felt more responsibility and pressure in their roles. Investing time and energy in developing softer skills of influence, communication, and storytelling will serve finance leaders as they flex to meet the evolving needs of their business. These professional growth strategies will allow you to strengthen your CXO relationships, communicate more effectively, and steer your organization through uncharted waters.

Apply to join The Circle to participate in conversations like this one within a private leadership community of CXOs.