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What I’ve Realized After Six Months as CFO · The Diary of a CFO

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  The path to the C-suite is rarely linear and the challenges don't stop once you get there.
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  I'm Wassia Kamon and I'm taking you with me on my journey as a newly appointed CFO,
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  sharing the hidden challenges and spoken rules and lessons I wish I had known.
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  So whether you're in finance, work in finance or just trying to get your budget approved faster,
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  there's something here for you. The purpose of this podcast is to make better leaders and help
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  leaders be better at life. Welcome to the Diary of a CFO. Welcome back to the Diary of a CFO.
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  Today there is no guest, it's just me, and I wanted to give you an update about my biggest
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  lesson slash takeaway so far now that I've been a CFO for six months. The learning career is over,
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  now it's all about delivering, so let's consider this my six month check-in. My number one takeaway
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  is the fact that dealing with a board as a CFO is very different than preparing slides for a board
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  meeting. So prior to the role, most of my involvement was preparing slides that did FP&A for a while
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  and providing information, couple points I actually stepped in and talked and participated in the board
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  meeting, but it wasn't the full thing because no one prepares you for how different the conversations
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  are once you're in the seat. You may think you know, but you probably don't, and that's why I'm
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  so grateful for Secret CFO and his newsletter and some of the things he's sharing. If you're not
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  reading, you definitely should. I'm like, oh, I should have had it last year, but oh well,
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  we're in the seat. It's almost like you have to be in it to understand it. Sometimes you have
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  people giving advice on raising kids and they don't have kids. That's literally how it feels,
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  that you have to be in the seat to really understand the challenges and understand the
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  preparation of preparing for an actual board meeting, the meetings that happened before the
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  meetings, the follow-ups from the prior meeting, because you really need to know who are the members,
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  how they will react to certain things. You have to be able to read the room because every board
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  member has different priorities. Some care more about risk, others about growth, some just want
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  high-level insights, but the common thing means they're all very competent people in their field.
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  The board here at ACE, they are rock stars. We are a lending institution. They are working for
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  top lending institutions, so they know their stuff, they're lenders themselves. You can't just show up
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  just because you have a cute slide deck and you have a few storytelling frameworks, you're going
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  to be fine. That is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to nurturing good relationships
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  with the board, because as a CFO, you are a trusted advisor. When the board is there, it's not just
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  to look at, oh, these are the financials, it's an update. What they're also doing is evaluating
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  you as a leader. They are looking for confidence that the company is in good hand, that the company
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  is financially secure and on the right path to deliver on its strategic plans. A couple things
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  I realized I could have done better because I know sometimes you're like, oh, this looks easy,
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  I can do it too, and then you get in and you're like, oh, I didn't see that. One thing I could
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  have done better is attending more earning calls. Most of my career was spent in private companies,
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  so I really never took earning calls like something I should be doing at least once a month as a
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  finance leader, but now I realize that at the executive leadership, it doesn't matter. You should
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  attend earning calls. My favorite platform is Yahoo Finance to learn when they're happening and how I
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  can attend, but it is very important because it gets you to understand what else matters to the
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  other stakeholders. So if you don't know, earning calls are public conference calls where public
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  companies discuss their quarterly financial performance as well as their forecast, their
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  outlook, and where they're going on a strategic level. Typical attendees are investors and analysts
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  and they're coming to tune in and ask tough questions. So the CEOs, the CFOs are ready.
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  They are ready, ready, ready, ready. Everything is tied up for those calls. How you can find the
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  details because you can just listen in is through the company website, SEC filing, or like I said,
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  the financial news platform. Yahoo Finance is my personal favorite because I just like how things
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  laid out there. You can then register to access the call. So it's usually a webcast. There is a
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  download number if it's not, but usually the company will provide a phone number and an access code.
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  And if you miss it live, you can also have replays. What I'm doing now is acting like I'm part of
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  the company. So what I will do is before the call, I will prepare for the call. I will review the
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  earnings report because those are released before the call. And I'll also review the ones from the
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  prior call. I'll also review any analysts, expectations, and start asking myself if I was in
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  that room as an analyst, as an investor, what would I ask ahead of time? During the actual call,
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  I'll definitely do some of the key takeaways. Also look for the interactions before the executives
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  of the company and the analysts and investors, what kind of questions they're asking. Because again,
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  all those things are stretching my thinking. Again, I'm all about having a growth mindset and growing.
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  It's not because I'm now in this world that I have arrived. I don't believe in such things. I believe
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  in becoming better from here. And that's something I've been doing now that I've realized that,
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  oh my God, I should have had better preparation for board. I'm grateful to work with the board.
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  He had ace there, incredibly helpful and so understanding. But I realize it's something
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  that we don't prepare enough or don't talk enough about as we are drawing in our careers. So the more
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  earning calls you can attend, even if it's just once a month, once a quarter, trust me, anything
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  will help. And then after the call, you can read the analyst report because most of them will publish
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  a post-earning report. And I love their analysis, especially when I was able to attend the actual
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  call because you're able to see what was said during the call and how it was interpreted by others.
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  So sometimes you're like, oh, the person was trying to convey that everything is okay,
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  but everybody panicked afterwards. Like, what were you guys saying? This is what we saw.
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  This is what we felt. A lot of communication, again, is not just what you intend to say,
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  but what the person on the other side is learning from it, is gathering from it. That's definitely
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  a big learning experience for me and something I actually switched in my first six months.
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  I wasn't doing it again. To me, we're a private company, working for private companies, don't
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  have to worry about the SEC or anything like that. But I now realize that as a finance person,
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  actually right out of college, we should be requiring people to attend two-earning calls
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  a year and actually prepare for it. Definitely something I recommend because, again, dealing
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  with the board as a CFO is very different than preparing slides for a board meeting.
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  The other thing is, as far as my takeaway, is learning how to lead without a roadmap,
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  learning how to build from scratch. Because in this seat, everyone expects results,
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  but no one gives you the playbook, any C-suite role, any top executive role, VP and up. You are
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  basically looking for clarity at the same time that you are creating clarity for others,
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  because people look up to you. You have to be comfortable making decisions when you don't
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  have the perfect information. You have to trust your gut, trust your judgment. To me, if you
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  need constant direction, you're likely not ready for the C-suite. Because here at this level,
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  you are creating direction. If you're trying to break through and be in the C-suite, but you always
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  need constant direction, it is a sign for your hiring manager that you're not ready for it.
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  Same thing. If you're still waiting to be trained, nobody trained me, attitude, I'll keep doing things
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  because that's the way they've always been done. You're probably not ready for it either.
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  You're probably not ready for it either. That's the theme I've seen now that I have this podcast
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  and I get a chance to talk to all the CFOs because once we're done recording, we get to talk off
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  record. I'm able to learn from them as well. One of the common theme is they're all in that
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  willingness to operate outside of the comfort zone because that's really what it is. Being able to
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  step into the unknown and deliver, being able to connect the dots and ask deeper questions.
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  Because again, you need clarity at the same time as others look up to you for clarity.
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  What it made me realize, the importance of leading without a roadmap and knowing how to
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  build for scratch, I look back at my career and I'm grateful for all those signs where there was
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  nobody to train or no one willing to do so. Because what I realized is that it helped me build
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  from scratch, which is truly a skill. How to start a scenario, how to start an excel, not just
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  an excel spreadsheet and knowing the formulas, but what is it going to be? What are the inputs of
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  your scenario, of your model? All those things are important. It's not knowing there's shortcuts.
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  You can do shortcuts all day long, but if you don't know what matters most and what are the
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  input that should be in there in the first place, even when you're not sure what you're going to
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  gather them first, but you have an idea of where it's going, all those things usually come from
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  stepping out of your comfort zone and be willing to start from scratch. Also, you hire to bring
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  change so people don't want you to use the roadmap of the former CFO. There are different things
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  that won't change. There is change happening all around us. Any given time, so this is so important
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  and I didn't know I would say that one day, but thank you God for all the time there was nobody
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  to train me. And I remember when I started my career, I was a staff accountant and I think I
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  was in the role for maybe nine months and the accounting team at the time, we had the AP manager,
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  a couple of AP specialists, and then on the GL side, it was just me. I was a staff accountant
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  and then there was my senior accountant and then the controller. And the AP person put it to the
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  controller and we're all reporting to the CFO. One afternoon, I came to work and everybody
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  was in the building. Everybody was assembled in the middle of the cubes. Now that was going on,
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  the people in the AP looked at me like, oh, you're not aware. I'm like, what's going on? And so I
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  see the CFO working through and she said, the controller and the senior accountant just resigned.
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  They were there the morning. I'm like, I saw that in the morning, they just left. Like, what do you
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  mean left? It was just the three of us that were really closing the books. So once AP closed, all
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  the AP prepays, inventors, and manufacturing company, we had a software development because
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  it was also a technology company. All these stuff was on by the three of us. And now the math is not
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  my thing, right? Two out of the three are gone and I've only been in the role for nine months.
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  That was a learning curve. I had some had files, some of them have files that was no instructions,
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  no policy and procedures. So I had to figure out things on the go. And I look back at this
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  experience, I remember fussing so much about it, but then I realized, oh gosh, thank you.
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  I can do this. I can do this. And it is so important to know how to do that because you need to lead
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  without the roadmap. You need to know how to work without roadmap and you have to get comfortable
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  with the unknown. You have to be comfortable navigating. And that was really the topic too of
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  the session I led for the Wharton FBNA certificate program. It was navigating change and uncertainty
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  with confidence. It was two hours. And it really talks about that because it's a topic we don't
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  emphasize enough. Just like my first takeaway, dealing with the board, I think dealing with
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  uncertainty, leading change is also something we don't emphasize enough in our finance and
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  accounting careers, which leads me to my last takeaway of my six-month check-in, which is a
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  value of staying plugged into the right circles. And though we hear it a lot to the point where it's
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  kind of deluded, grow your network before you need it, we hear it. But I think we are in political
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  and economic times where you do need to be plugged into the right circle. You do need that. No matter
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  how experienced you are, you need a support system. You need to engage in other CFO groups,
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  be in part of other networks, go to conferences, expand your network. Because it's really a tough
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  time to be in business with all these economic shifts and policy changes. I'm grateful to be part
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  of the CFO Leadership Council, which I joined before I was a CFO. I'm also grateful for being
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  part of the AI CPA Future of Finance Group. We're talking a lot about generative AI. We have people
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  from Amazon and other Fortune 1000 companies coming in and talking about what they're doing at their
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  level and advancing their finance function. I'm also part of the Women's Initiative Committee.
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  So I make sure that I'm staying around sharp people talking about what's going on in the world.
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  Always grateful for my executive coach, my personal board of directors, because I do believe
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  that no matter how experienced you are, you need a support system. You need that support system as
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  you're looking for clarity yourself while others are looking up to you for clarity. One thing that
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  helps me do it as well is being on LinkedIn. I know everyone is like, Waseel, how do you still
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  show up on LinkedIn like twice a week? Okay. Let me break it down for you. And I actually wrote a book
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  about it. That's called Stop Overthinking LinkedIn. It's available on my website at wasseacomond.com.
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  Grab it. I know some of you may wonder, why is it not free? Because I believe that where your money
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  goes, your attention and energy also go. So $10, get it. And basically here's a system I'm sharing
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  as well as a lot of other filling the blank templates is first, you have to know what you want to be
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  known for. Pick three items. Pick three items. And so when you're posting, it has to be around
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  those things you want to be known for. So if I wanted to be known for leading change, leadership
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  development, and let's say process improvement, for example, these three things in particular will
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  be three posts I could post. So that'll be three posts in a month that I can schedule once a week.
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  Usually I do them on Tuesdays. And the one last post could be something personal. A book I read,
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  a conference I went to, a best advice received or whatever. And I do have plenty of ideas you
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  can come from. But that will be already four posts that I will have. The other one that I post in
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  the week, because I usually post twice a week is the recap of my conversations that I have for
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  this podcast. Now the diary of a CFO. I don't have to think much. I just talk to other great leaders.
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  It's a recap that you can go and read. And that's it. I am doing two things at the same time. I'm
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  staying sharp. I'm also expanding my network because after we record, I get to talk with them.
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  We get to go to lunch for those that are local. I'm expanding my network at the same time, but
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  it allows me to stay plugged in and know what's going on, learn best practices from others.
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  Because again, you have to be in the seat to understand some of those challenges because
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  sometimes being a CFO may look easier when you're not in the seat. I felt that sometimes. I felt
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  sometimes like I would look at my boss and I'd be like, oh, I can do this job. And I'm like,
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  yay. That was not in the pamphlet. I think it's so important. I think it's so important. So that's
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  my six month check-in. My three biggest takeaway was knowing how to manage the board, leading without
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  a roadmap and the value of staying plugged in. Thanks for tuning in. And that's it for today's
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  episode of the Diary of a CFO. Thank you so much for tuning in. If you enjoyed the show,
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  don't forget to like, review, subscribe, and share with others. Our website is the Diary of a CFO.com.
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  That's where you can find all the episodes, access all the guest profiles, see their bios,
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  and the social media links. It is also the place where you can apply to be a guest on the podcast
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  and have information about how you can sponsor the show. As always, if there is any topic you
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  would like me to cover in the future, just email me at ask@thediaryofacfo.com. Again,
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  the email is ask@thediaryofacfo.com. See you soon.