The Traits of Today's CFO

6

STEP 6: IMPROVE YOUR SKILLS AS A LEADER IN THE MIDDLE

As the conscience of your organisation, you must be able to find lasting solutions. The downfall of many controllers, CFOs and finance directors is that they are so busy fighting fires that they are unable to devote time to preventing those fires. This step illuminates the real hurdle and its sources that you must face and overcome. It also provides valuable tools that will enable you to use your objective reasoning and business acumen to be a creator of solutions.

After reading this chapter, you should be able to

• define why being a leader in the middle is not a career limiter.

• become a more effective problem solver.

• increase your comfort level in using probing questions.

• restate an apparent problem in different ways to find an optimal solution.

This chapter is designed to help you grow out of your job. You accomplish this step by developing and enhancing your skills through practice and application of new tools. Make sure that one of the things you commit to from this day forward is to see yourself as a lifelong learner. This step includes ways to survive as a leader in the middle and three best practices for optimal solutions.

Exercise: Case Study—You?

You have been very successful in coaching Brian. But while Brian’s problems are theoretical, yours are not. As we cover this sixth step, think about how you can use this exercise to become a solution creator for yourself.

Instructions

Part 1: List the top six issues that ...