Center for Creative Leadership

APRIL 24, 2019

I recently spoke with the CEO of a medium-sized manufacturing company about his new CFO who was poised to attend our flagship program for senior executives, Leadership at the Peak. She was respected by colleagues and employees, and over time had become the right-hand assistant to the CFO. How to Increase Your Executive Presence.

Charisma 65

Charisma CFO CEO Execution 65

Strategy Driven

MAY 4, 2019

Before starting as CFO, I repeatedly scanned through my leadership qualities, considering how I would present myself to my new colleagues. Those with high IQs have dazzled their superiors with high-quality work and valuable insights, using brainpower as jet fuel to soar into top leadership spots. They should be story-tellers.

P&L 58

P&L CFO Sharpe Finance 58

Women on Business

NOVEMBER 28, 2012

Staying on-task during the holiday season is a challenge across the professional universe and no one is immune, whether you’re a CEO, CFO or president, account exec, receptionist or intern, work at home or commute. They’re all enjoyable distractions, but I’ll be the first to admit, the juggle takes a toll on the job.

PR 248

PR CFO Energy Project 248

Lead Change Blog

JANUARY 23, 2015

Usually the CEO and the CFO have the biggest impact on organization-wide changes, but it is not always so; in some cases the hierarchy doesn’t reflect the amount of influence, so it’s advisable to check everything carefully. By considering their opinion you not only gain their support, but improve the quality of your project as well. .

Project 150

Project Succession Stakeholder Analysis Influence 150

Great Leadership By Dan

MAY 7, 2020

The firm might have relied on their rolodex to place a CFO in New York City, but this doesn’t mean they can do the same and find you a candidate in Chicago. These recruiters will say things like “it’s not about quantity, it’s about quality” or “we know everyone in this space, so it won’t take us long to source these profiles.”

Execution 213

Execution Chief Financial Officer Industry Strategy 213

Harvard Business Review

JULY 25, 2016

What receives far less attention is that, more and more in our increasingly complex, volatile, and fully-globalized business world, the effectiveness of such action depends on a powerful partnership between the Chief Financial Officer (CFO) and the General Counsel (GC). Compliance.

CFO 8

CFO Chief Financial Officer Compliance Due Diligence 8

Great Leadership By Dan

FEBRUARY 26, 2013

They are responsible for establishing a rigorous quality control process that ensures consistency and results. The CEO then manages this portfolio of development plans the same way the CFO manages the company's financial assets.

Process 227

Process Execution CFO CEO 227

Lead on Purpose

FEBRUARY 22, 2014

The leading candidate is the scheming CFO played by Frederic March, a passionless, colorless bean counter groping for power, but with no vision beyond increasing dividend payouts to stockholders. Emotion Is Integral to Quality Leadership. Upon the untimely death of the revered company president, the board must select a new leader.

Charisma 222

Charisma Leadership CFO Learning-by-Doing 222

Strategy Driven

MARCH 20, 2021

It’s usually the job of a bank’s chief financial officer (CFO), chief risk officer (CRO), or chief technology officer (CTO) to oversee tech implementation. The tech can actually enhance the quality of human staff work while relieving the latter of the more rote aspects of financial analysis.

Technology 70

Technology Chief Financial Officer Banking Chief Technology Officer 70

Tanveer Naseer

NOVEMBER 28, 2017

Lars Sudmann, former CFO of Procter & Gamble Belgium, TEDx presenter, leadership and board advisor, and executive coach, believes that companies should provide consistent feedback to all of their employees. “Point it out, dot your legal I’s and cross your HR T’s and let them go—you’ll be doing everyone involved a favor.”

Charan 257

Charan Attrition Morale Survey 257

Marshall Goldsmith

JUNE 16, 2013

Who would you rather have as a CFO? But further along in your career curve, when it’s time to step up into a leadership position, you’re going to need these qualities in spades. All other things being equal, your people skills (or lack thereof) become more pronounced the higher up you go.

Chemicals 133

Chemicals Welch CFO CEO 133

Lead Change Blog

NOVEMBER 6, 2018

” CFO Jon Verbeck gives us a major pointer for increasing our profits, and helps leaders understand these important elements of running a department or business. The ‘why’ is essential to your quality of motivation, well-being and performance. Jon Verbeck shares Focus on Profit Part 1: Decrease Costs.

Leadership Development 269

Leadership Development Development Leadership IAS 269

Lead Change Blog

MAY 1, 2017

In this post, Chris gives pointers regarding how you, as a leader, can ensure you’re paying close enough attention to the quality of your team or company’s work culture. Everyone knows the roles and responsibilities for a CEO, CFO and CTO but change the wording and a different picture emerges. Follow Chris on Twitter at @scedmonds.

Leadership Development 264

Leadership Development Development Leadership CTO 264

Great Leadership By Dan

MARCH 26, 2015

If a leader is someone who can persuade others to do what they don’t want to do and like it, what we have found is that he can tap that quality to convince a person to reveal truthful information, even when that person has a very good reason to want to conceal it.

Short-term 120

Short-term CFO Long-term Learning-by-Doing 120

Marshall Goldsmith

AUGUST 15, 2011

For example, you don't want the CEO and CFO coming to you and saying, "You never justify why we're spending so much money, so we're cutting your budget." Align yourself with the rest of your executive team. Driving revenue hinges on alignment of marketing with sales and other functions. Measure your way to a seat at the table. Life is good.

Advice 107

Advice Execution Marketing Prahalad 107

Persuasive Powerhouse

JULY 7, 2010

Some thoughts about what you can do to make relationship-building at work a priority: Make building and sustaining high-quality relationships a priority: What will it take to put “building relationships” at the top of your “to-do” list? The CFO owns a couple.

Greenleaf 200

Greenleaf Maslow Goal Goleman 200

Marshall Goldsmith

NOVEMBER 22, 2010

We sometimes find companies adding excessively complex assessment criteria to the succession planning process in an effort to improve the quality of the assessment. The CFO is a high performing leader who has passed all the assessment criteria to be a high potential, ready-now candidate for the CEO job. Keep it simple.

Planning 118

Planning Efficiency Succession Tips 118

N2Growth Blog

AUGUST 22, 2010

While optimism is generally a great quality for a CEO to possess, there is a point at which unbridled optimism can disconnect a person from reality. If your CFO handles all communications with your banking relationships, and your Chief Investment Officer handles all of your investor relations, you’re flat out missing the boat.

Blog 401

Blog Gordon CEO Consultative 401

The Empowered Buisness

JULY 14, 2015

For example, A successful CFO is likely to have such MAPs (Motivation and Attitudinal patterns) as — strong motivation toward procedures over options; a preference for solving problems over focus on goals; and a high past time orientation that drives focus on traditions, past experience and benchmarks. Future Orientation.

Motivation 100

Motivation Leadership McClelland Long-term 100

Strategy Driven

APRIL 18, 2014

The qualities of a true leader revolve around hallmarks of respect and consideration. Her work has also been featured in Forbes , CFO , Newsweek , CNN Everyday Money , Business Week , The Boston Business Journal , The Los Angeles Times , The Boston Globe , and The Boston Herald. FREE StrategyDriven Trial Membership.

Consultative 56

Consultative Skills CFO Competitive Advantage 56

Strategy Driven

NOVEMBER 18, 2013

They’ve refined the buying process so far that they have precluded the words ‘quality’ and ‘value’ from the buying process AND they have taken the words productivity, ease of use, and morale out of the delivery process. Make an appointment with the CFO. They have to take the lowest bid.”. They just buy.

Proposal 58

Proposal Price Long-term Customer Loyalty 58

The Practical Leader

JULY 11, 2012

As I’ve gotten to know Joe Folkman and others at Zenger Folkman over the past few months, I’ve been very impressed by the high quality and high values team he, Jack, and Bob Sherwin (he was CFO at Zenger Miller) have put together. Click here to meet the key Zenger Folkman leaders.

White Paper 56

White Paper Drucker Leadership Development CFO 56

Mills Scofield

NOVEMBER 18, 2011

From this small spark, we examined the potential of four additional “problems” we had learned about in our medical industry research and feel we can leverage the Amalgatome into a full-fledged business platform. This is the tie that binds us and we live it every day.

Succession 70

Succession Industry Stage-Gate CFO 70

Harvard Business Review

OCTOBER 26, 2011

As finance shifts its focus from controlling costs to advising managers on improvement activities, CFOs must change their thinking and behaviors. Getting the CFO on board is key. CFO Tim Olson of ThedaCare , a healthcare system in Wisconsin, went through a similar conversion. Then I became an advocate. Now I know that.".

Finance 11

Finance CFO Budgeting Operations 11

Harvard Business Review

OCTOBER 9, 2014

Half are C-Suite level executives, meaning that they serve as CEO, CFO, COO or the board of directors at a company. These executives attribute participation in athletics to qualities like a commitment to bringing projects to completion and greater abilities in motivating others. Gender Hiring Leadership development'

Sports 16

Sports COO CFO Participative 16

Harvard Business Review

MAY 31, 2017

Before 1999 “performance” had a simple, unidimensional definition for health care leaders and their boards: It was shorthand for the CFO’s financial report, summarizing operating margins. In the years since, “performance” has become more complex, now including dozens or even hundreds of quality measures.

Health Care 13

Health Care Chief Financial Officer Comparison Quality 13

Harvard Business Review

JUNE 5, 2012

Our needs aren't just growing, they are ever-evolving — and both the quantity and quality of top technologists is lacking, in some places severely. Facebook Flop Won't Scare Off Growth-Company Listings (CFO). The rest of us have a big problem to solve. Let's face it, the war for tech talent is only getting worse. What to do?

Development 14

Development McKinsey CFO Competitive Advantage 14

Harvard Business Review

MAY 3, 2017

And many CEOs we talked to, like Owen Mahoney of Nexon, agree that the CHRO is one of the most strategic roles someone could have: “Businesses grow or die based on the quality of their people, so the human resource executive role is arguably the most strategic in the company.

Quinn 13

Quinn Execution CFO Forrester 13

Harvard Business Review

OCTOBER 11, 2018

health care costs too much, the quality is uneven, and too many people can’t get the care they need. In that brutal environment, a handful of private Indian hospitals, led by compassionate doctors, have found innovative ways to drive down health care costs to unimaginable levels while maintaining high quality.

Health Care 8

Health Care Insurance Cost Price 8

Great Leadership By Dan

NOVEMBER 26, 2014

Here are seven critical elements of an effective program to both identify and act on warning signs: High-level oversight – does your company have an organizational structure led by senior management that oversees issues such as compliance, quality and safety, while being able to respond quickly and appropriately to credible warnings?

CEO 240

CEO Compliance Organization Report 240

Harvard Business Review

NOVEMBER 22, 2016

Since returning from duty, I have applied these lessons to emails that I write for my corporate job, and my missives have consequently become crisper and cleaner, eliciting quicker and higher-quality responses from colleagues and clients. CFO will be in Boston on Thursday meeting at an offsite with the management committee.

How To 8

How To Bottom-up CFO P&L 8

Harvard Business Review

JUNE 20, 2018

In digital publishing, it might be measuring writers solely on traffic numbers, rather than the quality of the writing. In sales, it could be solely focusing on revenue targets, without considering how the quality of client relationships drives future business. The privileging of immediate data can take many forms.

Performance Review 11

Performance Review Review How To CFO 11

Harvard Business Review

JANUARY 19, 2015

Swansea City gets a player of much higher quality than they could hire, and Tottenham Hotspur gets Caroll having the first team action so critical to his development. He spent two years as the CFO of power and automation company ABB, from 2002 to 2004, before returning to Shell as CFO. Both clubs realize a unique win-win.

CFO 8

CFO Leadership Development Telecommunications Cost 8

Harvard Business Review

DECEMBER 2, 2016

By incorporating design thinking and design principles into their planning process, the hospital’s executives, supported by external designers, have turned the hospital into a showplace that has won a number of safety, quality, and design awards — including a nomination for the prestigious Dutch Design Award. Insight Center.

Health Care 8

Health Care Airlines CFO Operations 8

Harvard Business Review

JULY 31, 2017

This makes it difficult to justify investment in change management with the rigor that a data-driven CEO or CFO might expect. Improving the tools the artisans use may make for better outcomes, but it won’t enable demonstrable cause and effect.

Marketing 8

Marketing Root Cause Analysis Management Supply Chain 8

Harvard Business Review

FEBRUARY 10, 2016

Yet our research tells us this strategy backfires: the greater the personalization of content for each member of a purchase group that must reach consensus, the lower the likelihood of a “quality sale” (one in which the customers did not take a smaller deal at a lower price).

B2B 8

B2B Content Marketing Consensus 8

Harvard Business Review

AUGUST 26, 2016

In that case, taking a financial management class before you leave your day job, or recruiting a top-quality CFO, would simultaneously assuage their fears and make your startup more likely to succeed. If you’re planning to launch a startup, for instance, your colleagues might have highlighted concerns about your finance skills.

Career 8

Career Hedge CFO Advice 8