Nothing is more important for the CFO to achieve, than taking action for the best possible management of their team. This is not just another function in their long list of tasks, but can be defined as their main responsibility. Not exercising good leadership means not performing your role correctly, since the objectives are achieved with the added value of each member of your team.
The CFO's leadership must have the ability to transmit the objectives to be achieved in the short, medium and long term, both those of the department and, fundamentally, those of the organisation, indicating at all times the path to be followed to achieve them.
Like any other leader, he or she must become the ‘guide’ figure, with the necessary aptitude to make his or her team grow and motivate them, providing sufficient confidence to get the best out of them in achieving the challenges, something that cannot be expressed in figures, because it goes far beyond any number or indicator to be achieved.
This is why the ability to communicate is a critical aspect to be achieved on your part, which must at all times be characterised by being totally ‘transparent’ in the transmission of the challenges to be met and the expectations placed on your team to this end, establishing ‘open’ channels of participation among all its members.
Emotional intelligence, understood as the ability to understand people emotionally, acquires a more than relevant role to be achieved by the CFO, as he/she may have the best possible training for the development of his/her functions, but becoming a good leader implies, as a ‘sine qua non’ condition, knowing how to interpret and coordinate emotional competences.
From a more ‘hard’ perspective, the CFO should promote the availability of comprehensive treasury solutions, such as Embat, which enable visualisation and automate the generation of cash flows, reports and forecasts of cash and debt positions. This frees the finance team from operational tasks and allows them to devote more time to higher value-added tasks.
By reducing the burden of manual and repetitive work, the team can focus on analysing data, identifying opportunities for improvement, and collaborating on strategic decisions that drive business growth.
The CFO must manage to foster a sense of belonging, so that the work done can be perceived as a valuable and significant contribution to the organisation, which requires, for his part, knowing how to influence the members of his area, so that they can carry out tasks that they would not be able to do on their own.
It is the CFO who must foster a culture of collaboration and continuous learning at all times, which implies making team members feel comfortable, contributing ideas and taking new risks.
A greater diversity of profiles, in the sense of having different skills and personality traits, is a positive thing to achieve, as it allows problems to be tackled from different perspectives, providing the best possible solutions.
It should be clarified that talent management is something that goes beyond the recruitment of employees with the necessary qualifications and knowledge for the development of their tasks, as what is involved is the creation, by the CFO, of an environment that allows the future growth of its members, both to exercise new functions in the company or outside it, as part of the evolution of their careers.
This is why it is also another function to promote the development of new ‘leaders’, both in their team and in the different areas of the organisation with which they interact on a day-to-day basis.
In short, proper management of the team by the CFO is fundamental for the achievement of success, both individually and as a group. Proper communication, facilitating collective participation and positively influencing the achievement of the proposed objectives, represents the greatest value that this figure can bring to the organisation, together with the development of its strategic function and as a partner of the CEO.
