What types of skills and experience set apart one CFO candidate from the next? Mabry Smith, president of executive search firm Wheless Partners, joins us to help reveal the evolving criteria now being used to advance CFO placements. How do aspiring CFOs put their careers into high gear? What should be expected in a CFO courtship? What career path voids trip up otherwise strong CFO candidates? Mabry answers all of these questions and more when he joins us as CFO Thought Leader’s very first special guest.
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Mentoring Highlights:
- “A CFO considering joining an organization will want to take a hard look at the CEO’s tenure and consider how long that tenure may be. In public companies, you’ll find that the chair of the audit committee is someone who should have input on the next CFO. … The healthiest situation is where the CEO and the board are working collaboratively together to select a CFO.”
- “Traditionally, CEOs have had many avenues for leadership development. They need to follow and intentionally seek out and find such avenues to become leaders who can be highly effective at engaging everyone within their organization. In the past, there’s been much focus on the technical side, but what we see making a big difference is the leadership ability, especially when it comes to relationship-building and providing influence.”
- “A CFO’s influence can manifest in two different ways. They can influence either by the power of position or the power of persuasion. The power of position says, ‘This is the way it’s going to be because I’m the CFO.’ The power of persuasion says, ‘As CFO, I want to sit down with you and look at this business case together to look at the opportunity as well as the risk.’”
Business Books
Strengths Based Leadership: Great Leaders, Teams, and Why People Follow
Interview Links
- Maby’s site