Soft Skills
Soft skills are the personal qualities that help you interact effectively with other people. Research shows that soft skills contribute towards 80% of your career success and this is arguably even more the case for CFOs. After all, if you can’t effectively collaborate with your team, then your technical skills will not be enough to deliver your objectives.
The best CFOs communicate effectively with their teams, build bridges between each department, and develop trusted relationships with key stakeholders. You need to master a wide range of interpersonal skills and apply these whilst working under pressure across a variety of complex and demanding situations. Your soft skills allow you to directly lead operations such as Finance, HR and Legal, whilst also acting as a vital member of the board and representing your business externally.
Most people underestimate how long it takes to develop your soft skills up to the level required of a successful CFO because they are complex and nuanced. They involve not just knowledge and ability, but also judgement, self-awareness, and emotional intelligence. And unlike hard skills, which can often be learned through formal training or on the job, soft skills must be developed over time through experience and practice.
Communication
Communication is one of the most important skills. By delivering clear and concise messages, listening carefully, and presenting with confidence, CFOs can communicate ongoing progress against the business plan, identify people’s key challenges and build healthy working relationships with both internal and external stakeholders.
Strong communication skills allow you to clearly articulate your future vision to get everybody on board and ensure that all teams work towards the same goal. Your messages must be simple, easy to understand, and grab the attention of the right people. You will achieve this by being powerful, persuasive, and precise, whilst emphasizing your key points and avoiding industry jargon.
Here are examples of the many forms of communication within the CFO role:
Lots of people fear presenting, but can overcome this by being well prepared, knowing what to communicate and being relaxed about making mistakes. Be clear on the purpose and think about your audience by asking yourself three questions. What do you need them to know? How do you want them to feel? What do you want them to do?
Keep it simple, shape your messages and use storytelling to capture people’s emotions. Use Albert Mehrabian’s 7-38-55 ratio for the impact of words, tone and body language. Your body language is the biggest factor and needs to be aligned with what you say.
For written communications, you must demonstrate strong business writing techniques and structure your reports in a professional manner that is easy to understand. When writing slide decks, stick to one key message and no more than six items per slide, with minimal text, to avoid death by PowerPoint. Restrict emails to three paragraphs and cover the important information early on to clearly state any required actions. Remember to critically review what you have written before sharing it with others.
Another important aspect of communication is the ability to listen. This might seem like an obvious one, but it’s so important that CFOs take the time to listen to what their team members are saying. Only by doing this will you be able to identify any potential problems or areas for improvement.
Effective communicators listen far more than they talk, and good listeners ask questions instead of making speeches. This provides a much better understanding of another person’s thoughts, ideas and needs. Active listeners suspend judgement whilst listening to properly understand the other person’s point of view.
Deep listening is an advanced form of communication that allows you to truly listen to another person with mindfulness and presence in an open-minded manner. You can develop this by practising listening to just the facts, focusing on their feelings and identifying their intentions to determine what they might be thinking but not actually telling you.
To communicate effectively, you must read your audience to understand what they need and how best to provide them with it. You should also choose the right language for the biggest impact. The information people need and the way they like to receive it will be driven by their personality.
Psychologist William Moulton Marton’s DISC system is a well-known tool that considers the four main personality profiles:
Your peers and colleagues are all emotional beings and will react emotionally based upon their specific sensitivities. Emotions will open and close doors therefore you must learn to monitor and respond to emotion in a productive way by recognizing emotional responses, taking timeouts to breathe and avoiding acting in haste.
Other Soft Skills
While communication is undeniably essential, many other important soft skills contribute significantly to a finance leader's ability to thrive in their role. These skills include relationship-building, emotional intelligence, gravitas, resilience, adaptability, and charisma.
Emotional intelligence empowers finance leaders to navigate complex interpersonal dynamics, foster collaboration, and make empathetic decisions that resonate with their teams and stakeholders. Adaptability, on the other hand, enables leaders to pivot swiftly in response to evolving market conditions, regulatory changes, and unforeseen challenges. We will focus more on these other soft skills in future newsletter editions.
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Inspirational Reflections
When we reflect on the journey of developing soft skills like communication, relationship-building, empathy, adaptability, and resilience, we realize that these are not just attributes but superpowers. They allow us to forge bonds that transcend boundaries, to thrive in the face of uncertainty, and to emerge stronger from every setback.
Soft skills remind us that our ability to connect, understand, and communicate is what truly sets us apart as leaders and as human beings. They are not just skills but the embodiment of our character, the testament to our growth, and the legacy we leave behind in every interaction.
When it comes to success, hard skills open the door, but soft skills hold the key to meaningful and enduring greatness.
Join the Conversation:
I encourage you to share your insights and experiences on soft skills:
Your perspectives are of immense worth, and by actively engaging in these discussions, we enhance our comprehension and spark positive change within the realm of finance leadership.
Stay tuned for our upcoming editions, where we'll dive deeper into each subject, furnishing you with actionable insights, invaluable recommendations, and expert viewpoints. 💡
Wishing you continued success on your journey as finance leaders and looking forward to further interactions with you!
Best regards,
Dan Wells
Founder and CEO
GrowCFO
PS Don't forget to share this newsletter with your fellow finance professionals to expand our community and collectively thrive in this dynamic landscape.