What are the most successful FD’s great at?

I’ve known some of the FDs and FCs in my network for almost 2 decades. I met some when I was a fresh faced 23 year old in my first recruitment role in Manchester – some of them had just graduated from uni and are now in CFO positions.

If you’re a geek like me and you track the careers of finance professionals over a long enough period, certain themes start to emerge.

The people who progress from part qualified accountant to Financial Controller, Finance Director and beyond aren’t (by their own admission) always the most intellectual person in the room.  They often aren’t necessarily the most technically gifted.

So, what stands them apart? And how can you use that info to control and enhance your own career prospects?

More often than not, they’ve developed a broader “soft skills” toolkit that makes them invaluable to the businesses they work in.

If I were a qualified accountant looking to accelerate my career over the next 2–3 years, these are the 6 key areas I’d be investing my time in.

1) Your Emotional Regulation

The FCs and FDs that people enjoy having in the boardroom, enjoy working with and enjoy working for tend to have calmness as a superpower.

When cash is tight, forecasts are looking a bit pinchy or the business hits an unexpected bump in the road, people look to leadership for cues. Banging the table, becoming defensive or getting flappy rarely helps.

The ability to stay pragmatic and composed under pressure, ask good questions and create clarity when others are feeling uncertainty is hugely valuable.  This isn’t always a natural trait, it’s something that can be proactively worked on and developed.

2) Clear Commercial Understanding

One of the biggest shifts in a finance career is moving from reporting “what happened” to accurately predicting and then influencing what happens next.

Spend time understanding the commercial drivers of the business. How customers are won. Why they leave. What drives margin. What motivates the sales team. How operations really work. What are the competitors up to. What is likely to shape the landscape of your market?

The best finance leaders can translate and utilise the numbers and impact decision making because they really understand the business.   You need to be able to demonstrate the ability to get that commercial awareness.

3) Technical ability matters… but probably not in the way you think and not as much as you might perhaps think…

Strong technical accounting skills are important. They tend get you in the room. Especially early doors when an FD will be looking at your competence to produce sensible and credible packs.

But as a career plays out oddly the technical excellence alone is rarely what gets someone promoted into senior leadership positions.  Lots of FDs I know would openly say “I’m not that technical”  – – sometimes they are being humble (British innit) but in reality they often aren’t tax specialists or all over the latest FRS changes.

Most great FDs know who to call when a highly technical accounting issue lands on their desk.

Caveat though – what does stand out on a CV is experience of major transactions and change events. Acquisitions, disposals, due diligence processes, data rooms, funding rounds, refinancing projects and successful integrations all demonstrate commercial and leadership capability.

If the opportunity arises to get involved in one of these reasonably technical chunky projects, grab it with both hands.

4) Coaching and Developing Others

This is something I would spend hours on if I were you.

As you become more senior, your success becomes increasingly dependent on the performance of other people.

Can you develop future leaders? Can you delegate effectively? Can you create an environment where people grow in confidence and capability?  These things come more naturally to some people than others but they need to be proactively improved and developed.

The finance leaders who consistently build strong teams become incredibly valuable because they create capacity way beyond their own output. And they develop mega reputations and profiles which means they get into more rooms than their peers.

5) Building Influence Outside Finance – business partner is the overused term of the decade but it’s so vital.

This is a big one.

The strongest finance leaders are rarely confined to the finance department.

They’re trusted by sales teams, operations leaders, HR, marketing and the wider board. They’re people who do what they say they’re going to do. People who take an interest in others and understand the challenges they’re facing.

When trust exists, finance stops being viewed as the function that says “no” and becomes the function that helps people make better decisions.

Being able to connect with people, understand their world and then put numbers behind the decisions is a hugely powerful skill.  Again you might need to work on your listening skills, how you deliver info, how you challenge without losing people’s favour… it isn’t about manipulating people it’s about collaboration and being a bridge between the boardroom and the rest of the business… all that stuff will supercharge a career.

6) Communication (up, down and across the business)

The ability to explain complex financial information simply is underrated.

The MDs I recruit for usually don’t want or need more spreadsheets. They need clarity. They want digestible, actionable, accurate info. Simples.

Can you explain a problem in three sentences? Can you tell the story behind the numbers? Can you help non-finance stakeholders understand what matters and why?

The finance leaders who communicate well often create more impact than those with superior technical knowledge.

When you look closely for long enough, at the careers of the finance professionals who consistently progress, these are often the skills sitting quietly in the background driving that success.

Thanks as always for reading