Young: First off, it’s interesting because talent to me is the most… I don’t know. I think it’s the fun part of the job. It’s the hardest part, but it’s the fun part of the job. I don’t just think about it for finance, I probably think about the whole organization. I get to interact with all the groups. It’s a fairly quantitative business. I’m constantly evaluating what we have. We have remarkably talented people and so my first thought is retention of our really good people, and retention is really critical. We can talk about attracting attention, but retention is… Sorry, attracting talent. But that retention piece is incredible.
Read MoreSo recognizing who the hypos are, the high performers and high potentials in my organization and other organizations is what I sort of immediately do day one. Start maintaining that list, making sure I’m getting lots of exposure to those folks and from other organizations making sure that A, I’m learning from them. They feel like they’ve got multiple connection points in the organization, always with an eye towards maybe they want a career in finance as well. I wouldn’t be afraid to offer them as well. So I think that’s really critical.
Then I also think about myself as one of the people facing members of the team. I get lots of airtime and all the rest. So every interaction I have, I think about my ability to engage, encourage, speak truth to our teams. So I think all leaders have to do that. But I realize I get a fair amount of time at the mic and it’s really incumbent upon me to think more broadly about my scope and specifically to people. That’s what matters. I think if I do my job well, I can help our other leaders sort of galvanize the talent part, which helps with retention and obviously recruitment.
CFO GUEST: Jim Young of Coalition
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