My advice for aspiring CFOs and finance leaders as they climb the career ladder

While the path can appear daunting, diversity of experience and a wide network will help your journey.

January is here, and with it, performance review season. As a senior finance leader, this is the time of year when I get the most questions from hungry team members about how they can take the next step in their careers. This post is an attempt to distil my advice. 

For a start, let me take a moment to explain why a career in a company’s finance team can be so rewarding. From a seat in finance, you get a 360-degree vision of operations. You have both an eagle-eye view and the ability to get your hands dirty at ground level. CFOs and other senior figures within finance grow to become sparring partners for the company leadership, helping them make better decisions for the business. 

Now for the advice. For those in the earliest stages of their finance team careers, I would encourage you to focus on developing hard skills. You need to build out your own tool kit or library of knowledge. You need to become the most data-driven person in your team. You need to be able to consume a 50-slide deck overnight and remember the key numbers at a presentation the next morning. And you need the perseverance to delve deep into projects, even when the work is hard. 

Finance is one of those functions that exists across all sectors, bringing welcome variety. After graduating from business school in 2010, I went to work as a financial controller for a fashion brand. Though from the outside the fashion industry looks exciting and shiny, I actually found it too slow-moving and lacking in innovation for my tastes. When I joined EY the next year, I landed on the Industrials team, working with automakers and oil companies. This sector wouldn’t have been my first choice, but it taught me so much. Don’t be scared to enter a tricky industry: everything else will seem easy once you’ve mastered it. 

Advice for mid-career finance professionals

After you get a few years under your belt, my career advice would change somewhat. The more senior you get, the more soft skills matter. But how to develop those softer skills?

My first tip would be to have endless curiosity about all aspects of the finance function. It’s easy to get locked into your day-to-day routine. Those who get promoted are likely to be the people who are curious about what their colleagues in adjacent roles are doing, because tomorrow they want to lead the entire finance team. 

Stay humble! I sometimes hear colleagues whisper condescending things like “tax is easy”. Instead of looking down on certain functions, I would encourage ambitious colleagues to ensure they’re regularly moving between projects and roles. In a big company, you may be able to move sideways to experience different teams. At a small company, you may eventually need to leave. 

Take a risk by trying something removed from your current role. Nowadays, fewer CFOs are coming from traditional accounting backgrounds, with just 43% of CFOs at big US firms holding a Certified Public Accountant (CPA) qualification, down from 55% a decade earlier. Breadth of experience is becoming more valued. 

The skill I value most in colleagues is adaptability. Ten years ago, for example, the highest-flying accountants were becoming experts in mining data and building dashboards. But the world moves on. Nowadays, the “wow” skill might be using an AI model to complete your month-end close in a single day or writing a software script to automate tax reporting for 700 entities. 

Once you reach CFO

Once you get the coveted CFO title, the learning doesn’t stop. What got you here won’t get you there, as they say. As I’ve learnt the hard way, there’s a big difference between being an individual contributor and a leader. 

Some years ago, I set myself the target of becoming a CFO by the age of 30 – a goal I proudly achieved in 2017. But after just a few months in the role, I found myself burning out. I was using the hard finance skills I’d learnt early in my career and trying to do everything myself. I’d totally underestimated the soft skills: I needed to learn how to delegate tasks and influence my colleagues, not take everything on myself. 

While we’re talking about careers, I’d like to give a shout-out to my first boss at Parrot, a French maker of drones. Gilles Labossière, the CFO at that time, was a key mentor for me at an important point in my career, and I owe him huge gratitude. Gilles was very generous with his time, offering tips and many informal conversations that allowed me to imagine myself in a CFO’s shoes. In return for these opportunities to grow, Gilles knew that I would always be willing to dive deeply into any topic with enthusiasm and hard work. 

Mentors are essential to any successful career, lighting the way ahead and opening doors. A mentor doesn’t have to be your boss, of course, but I’ve found that to work best for me. 

For the past two years, I’ve also been working with an executive coach specialising in female leaders, and I’d recommend all executives consider getting their own. Coaching is very different from mentorship. My coach knows nothing about finance or accounting but has really helped me grow as a leader. 

Of course, finding a mentor you gel with isn’t always straightforward. For those on the hunt, I’d recommend joining a finance-focused professional network such as CFO Connect, one that I help run. 

A project mindset and the willingness to keep abreast of the latest tools are the key skills that will allow you to keep climbing the career ladder. What trips people up is sticking too long in one industry or one finance role. Diversity of experience and a wide network will allow you to rise to the top.