Creating a unified leadership team

It is essential that management teams present your views during a Board meeting in a unified manner to show your Board of directors that you are a unified leadership team.  However, CFOs also need to demonstrate that you are properly performing your role and managing the risks within your business.

During this video extract from a GrowCFO workshop, experienced CFO and professional mentor Paul McKoen discusses how CFOs can achieve both of these objectives in a successful manner:

CFOs present at two key leadership meetings and need to be aware of how to approach each of these:

1. Internal leadership team meetings: These management team meetings take place behind closed doors.  They are the time and place for you to share your views and to push back on anything that you disagree with.  They provide you with a fantastic opportunity to present well-structured arguments and challenges towards anything that may concern you.  For example, you may highlight issues based upon your unique financial perspective, access to company data and focus on risk management.
2. Board meetings: These represent external meetings with documented board minutes.  Depending upon your business circumstances, they will often include external parties who are only involved in the business on a part-time basis.  You should present as a unified management team and demonstrate that you are joined up.  Your CEO may lead on these presentations, however there will be natural opportunities for you (as the CFO) to showcase your involvement in scrutinising the company’s approach.  For example, you may wish to answer one of the Board’s questions to clearly demonstrate how you have challenged and influenced a company’s activity from a risk management perspective.

Unfortunately, there may be times when your CEO or management team put you under significant pressure to present an inaccurate picture of your company’s performance or to support an approach that is not in the best interest of the company and its shareholders.  During such instances, you need to determine the best way to avoid breaching your legal duties, director responsibilities and institute requirements.  Your starting point will often be to push back on such requests and clearly express your concerns in order to prevent anybody from doing anything illegal or unethical.  If necessary, you may wish to seek advice from your Chairperson or external experts.

Assess your skills

How unified are your leadership team during Board meeting presentations?

How well do you demonstrate your impact and influence as the finance leader?

What could you do differently during Board meetings?