Financial know-how is not enough to become a strategic CFO according to interim executives.

If you have been an accountant for many years and are wondering how to move up to a higher position, such as a CFO, interim executives believe that just having financial knowledge won’t cut it.

Interim executives state that you need to understand how to become an effective leader and how value is created for your company to be a strategic CFO. By understanding these 2 concepts and displaying it in your workplace, you should have a higher chance of getting that promotion you have always dreamed of.

Interim Executives tip #1: Leadership

The CFO position is one of the highest positions you can get in any organization. As a CFO you will have hundreds of employees under you looking for leadership, thus it’s important to have good skills in leadership.

Interim executives state that there are 3 areas of leadership that you should focus on, which are personal, public, and strategic leadership.

1. Personal leadership requires you to have a good work-life balance and a strong personal brand.
2. Public leadership is determined on your public speaking skills and relationships with employees.
3. Finally, strategic relationship focuses on how you create and execute business models.

As you can estimate, being a CFO doesn’t require only knowledge on finance. In fact, there are other factors which you need to be good at.

Interim Executives Tip #2: Value

The main role of a company is to create returns to its investors in the form of value. You can consider value to be monetary assets or profit. Because to gain value you have to have a proper business strategy that outlines how to effectively utilize your company’s assets to make a profit or value.

Value is created through a multitude of things such as consumers, employees, and society. The most important aspect is that your shareholders gain value. The most common way shareholder value is created is through customer value. This is done by selling a high quality product or service to your customers at a high enough price to create a profit. Doing this satisfies both the consumer and stakeholder.

Being a financial specialist is one aspect of becoming a good CFO, but high ranking positions like this have other requirements. Leadership skills and knowledge of organizational value is an integral part of becoming a strategic CFO.

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