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Module 1: Embed finance across the company5 Lessons
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Module 2: Identify profit and cash initiatives7 Lessons
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Module 3: Oversee and drive business change13 Lessons
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Module 4: Deliver data-driven strategic insights6 Lessons
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Module 5: Challenge your Board and influence strategy9 Lessons
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Module 6: Drive key decision-making11 Lessons
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Module 7: Represent your business externally6 Lessons
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Module 8: Become a critical and influential voice5 Lessons
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Module 9: Deliver the business plan7 Lessons
The CEO and CFO need to act in a joined-up manner when working together if the company is to be successful. This means that you need to be on the same page when it comes to making decisions, setting goals, and allocating resources.
If you are not aligned, it can lead to tension between the two roles and ultimately hinder the company’s growth. When there is poor communication, it can lead to confusion and conflict. This will become transparent to your leadership team and the wider business, which will have a knock-on effect across the company.
In this lesson, we will discuss why it is so important for the CEO and CFO to work together closely, why you need communicate consistently and how you can achieve success by being joined up.
To become the co-pilot to your CEO, the CFO needs to work closely with the CEO to help deliver the business plan and communicate progress on a consistent basis. You should complement one another’s skill sets and fully understand each other’s thoughts.
Benefits
There are many benefits arising when the CEO and CFO work closely together, including:
- Robust communication between the two roles
- Avoidance of confusion and conflict
- Achieving company goals
- Improved resource allocation
- Better workforce motivation
By being fully aligned, you will create a positive culture across the business and encourage everybody to support the delivery of your business plan.
Challenges from misalignment
Many things start to go wrong when the CEO and CFO are misaligned. Some of these challenges include:
- Tension between the two roles
- Hindered company growth
- Leadership team transparency issues
- Wider business knock-on effects
As the CFO, if you find yourself misaligned with your CEO then you need to take action immediately to address this. It will likely have a huge impact on your business and cannot be left to continue over time. It normally makes sense to start off with direct conversations to realign yourself, although you may require a professional mentor to support you.
The CEO and CFO can work together to overcome these challenges by improving communication between the two roles, setting goals together and working closely on a consistent basis.
Summary
The CFO is well-placed to act as the co-pilot to your CEO and work closely together in a joined-up manner. Businesses are constantly evolving throughout a company’s life cycle and there is huge potential for misaligned at some point during this journey. By adopting the above techniques, the CEO and CFO can maintain a strong working relationship and avoid any potential conflict that could arise from misalignment.
