I’ve had 10 years in the CFO seat and now after a short two-year hiatus, I am rejoining the CFO community. As I have been preparing to return, I have reflected on some of the challenges and experiences that led me to where I am today, and I am excited to share ways in which to fail forward fast.
Every CFO you admire has struggled with basic mistakes and stumbled through tough feedback. Knowing that they, too, have had their share of mishaps can remind us to stay encouraged when speedbumps crop up in our careers.
One of my earliest and most defining failures happened at 25. I had been promoted to my first financial manager position. I had a brilliant CEO who pushed everyone in his team to grow.
One day the group CEO visited and my CEO introduced me: “This is Luke - one of our rising stars”. Gosh, I was flattered. The group CEO fired off some performance-related questions about our business, and I fumbled through my answers terribly. TERRIBLY. He corrected me, offered some guidance, and moved on. I never got to meet him again.
In just five minutes, I went from flattered to flattened!
When I reflect on that experience, it was a pivotal one in my career. I would make it my career goal to never find myself in that position again; where someone else knows my portfolio better than I do.
I became very intentional about always being prepared. Like the saying goes: “when the time for performance arrives, the time for preparation is over”.
Here are a few lessons from my CFO journey, which has taken me across continents, countries, and diverse teams:
- I am going to fail at things: I’ve learnt not to be too hard on myself. I make sure that any fail is a fail forward. I take the lesson, I take the loss and I build resilience – both in myself and my team.
- I have learnt to embrace feedback: This is my daily bread to fuel growth both professionally and personally. I learnt this very early on in my career and continue to practice getting feedback from colleagues, and consciously dropping my ego.
- The best accountant doesn’t necessarily win the race: At some point, every CFO’s technical competence levels out. Whether we like it or not, we work with people. So, I have learnt to work well with others and how to get the best from my teams.
