Leaders of Modern Finance Ep. 7 – How to Be a Rockstar CFO ft. Jack McCullough
On this episode of the Leaders of Modern Finance podcast, host Tiffaney Fox Quintana of Stampli welcomes Jack McCullough, President of The CFO Leadership Council, a professional association that aims to empower senior financial executives and help them to achieve success in their careers. He is also the author of Secrets of Rockstar CFOs, and The Psychopathic CEO: An Executive Survival Guide.
Jack takes Tiffaney briefly through his career as a CFO at 26 different companies, why he founded The CFO Leadership Council, and then he dives into the trials, changes, and triumphs that successful CFOs encounter throughout their careers.
Rockstar CFOs
Traditionally, a company’s CFO came up through the finance and accounting ranks. Companies make their best accountant the CFO, and years ago that made sense; finance and accounting were critical functions the CFO had to deal with on a daily basis.
Times have changed. Software and automation have taken many of those functions away from the CEO, and being a great accountant no longer means you’ll be a CFO. In today’s world, rockstar CFOs have to think of themselves as a cross-functional executive, who happens to be a financial expert.
Today’s successful CFOs are strategic thinkers and are an integral part of the leadership team, not just the numbers person. The CFO is likely to be the only financial expert in the C-suite, which is great. But the role also requires critical thinking outside of the world of finance and accounting.
That means the rockstar CFO needs to be well-rounded and more of a generalist. You no longer need to have a master’s in finance or taxation. The world is starting to see more MBAs being elevated to the CFO role because they understand business, not just finance.
One way to achieve this is to have a mentor outside of the world of finance. Jack gives an example of a CFO who was mentored by the VP of sales. She wanted to learn more about the company, especially who the customers were and what they expected.
She was a rockstar CFO.
The Rise of the Controller
As the day-to-day duties of running the finance and accounting departments make way for more strategic, cross-functional thinking and decision making, Jack is seeing what he calls the Rise of the Controller.
As CFOs take on new strategic initiatives, they still have to make sure all the financial operations are being properly covered. This means the controller—or it could be the equivalent, like a chief accounting officer or a chief compliance officer—becomes critical to the financial health of the company. A great CFO must have a strong relationship with, and total trust in, their second-in-command.
In fact, Jack developed his Rockstar CFO book with controllers in mind. They are often six-to-18-months away from becoming a CFO themselves, and he was inspired to help them prepare for that next step in their careers.
The Ethical CFO
As Jack interviewed CFOs for his book, he noticed another common theme in addition to strategic thinking: ethical leadership. Most CFOs are inherently ethical, otherwise they would probably have chosen a different profession than accounting and finance. But simply not doing anything that will sink the company and send people to jail isn’t enough these days.
Ethics today means building a culture of ethics, not just being able to use buzzwords and cliches. Employees don’t want to work at companies that discriminate against certain groups of people or that pollute the environment. In today’s business environment where top talent has their choice of companies to work for, they want to work in an ethical environment.
It’s also good for business. Investors don’t want to put money into unethical companies. Customers don’t want to do business with them. Think of ethics as another way to help your company grow and thrive.
Increasing Diversity
The CFO role hasn’t been known for much diversity in past years. Jack is seeing a change, although he says there is still a long way to go.
According to statistics, 14 percent of CFOs today are female. That’s progress, and it looks like that percentage will continue to rise. Ten years ago, 60 percent of those graduating with degrees in finance and accounting were female, and they were getting better grades. Ten years later, those graduates are two to four years away from getting their first CFO job, if that is the career path they choose.
The “CF-No”
When Jack was 19, he coined the term “CF-No.”
He later came up with the opposite of the CF-No, the “CF-Go.” The CF-No looks for reasons not to try new things or entertain new ideas. The CF-Go looks at new ideas as opportunities to help the company grow and help their own career grow.
This is important, especially in times of crisis, like the recent pandemic. During a downturn, the CF-No won’t hesitate to lock down the company’s cash, lay off employees, and hope to ride the crisis out without any further thought.
The CF-Go will assess the crisis, and look at it as an opportunity to grow. Can we upgrade our technology? Are our processes and operations as efficient as they can be? Can we automate some of those procedures?
CF-Go’s don’t just say yes to everything. It goes back to being a strategic thinker. Every situation is different and every idea deserves thoughtful contemplation, not just an automatic no. Every crisis ends; a rockstar CFO understands that and doesn’t stick his head in the sand hoping it will just go away.
The Psychopathic CEO
Jack’s other book, The Psychopathic CEO: An Executive Survival Guide, was inspired by a speaker at a conference who asked for a show of hands of people who had worked for one. About half of those in attendance raised their hands.
Jack estimates that 15 percent of all CEOs are psychopaths. He wrote the book to help people navigate those turbulent waters when they find themselves working for one.
Be a rockstar, not a psychopath.
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