The Finance Executive Track

A monthly newsletter with practical insights to help you become the obvious choice for top finance roles and succeed once you get there.

Hello 👋🏾

I've been thinking a lot about organizational design lately because of a mismatch we don't talk about often.

Most of us (myself included) default to the traditional finance org chart:

Accounting, Tax, Treasury, and FP&A

The roles and functions within those groups were designed for only control, reporting, and accuracy.

But now the business expect us, as finance leaders, to drive influence strategy and make decisions faster than ever.

That mismatch is what's causing so many CFOs and their finance team to live in survival mode.

How do we escape from this?

Glad you asked 🙂

Let's dive in!

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What top CFOs are changing inside their teams

The CFO role evolved. Most team structures didn’t.

Here are 3 ways to help your finance team work smarter:

Expand beyond traditional finance roles

When I spoke with Paul Young, CFO of Liberty Bank, he said something that really stuck with me.

He noticed something that was probably costing his company millions:

Good strategic initiatives kept getting kicked off,

but they weren't getting completed well.

[Sound familiar?]

Instead of just adding more FP&A analysts or accountants, he added certified project managers, system experts and data scientists within his finance function.

Brilliant!

Because too often, we expect controllers or analysts to lead big projects on top of their day jobs.

They try their best, but it’s not what they’re trained for.

The support they often need is not another controller or analyst. Rather someone with a different set of skills to help them do what they do best without burning out.

Something to consider:

Look at your last few strategic asks.

What made them hard to execute?

What skills were you scrambling to find?

That might tell you what roles you actually need, even if they don't fit the traditional finance org chart.

2. Build real capacity

Mike High, CFO of NAIT, said something on my podcast that stuck with me:

5-10% of your team should have actual capacity to work on things beyond the normal compliance and reporting cycle.

Not "if you have extra time."

Not "after month-end closes."

Real, protected capacity.

That means being intentional about:

Cross-training so work can flex when someone's pulled into a strategic project
Actually automating the repetitive stuff (not just talking about it)
Hiring ahead of need, not just replacing people who leave
Getting comfortable asking for fractional help.

Side note on hiring fractional help:

This is my second year as a CFO, and for the second time in a row, I am working with a fractional Controller to help my team with year-end audit prep.

The person started in November and will work with us through February.

Yes, it took some negotiations with my CEO to get that approved at first. But, you better believe it is in my budget for next year.

Because I strongly believe that we should stop burning ourselves out, to save on "costs."

So, if you need any referral or tips to get your boss onboard, just hit reply and let me know!

3. Stop fighting different personalities and start leveraging them

This one took me the longest to figure out.

For years, I was frustrated by people on my team who resisted change. They questioned new processes. They preferred "the way we've always done it."

Then Mike High shared the soccer team analogy on the podcast, and something clicked:

Every team needs defense, offense, and midfield.

Your defense are the people who:

Know every detail of your current systems and processes
Can tell you exactly what will break if you change something
Spot compliance risks before they become problems
Keep the day-to-day running smoothly when everyone else is distracted by the shiny new project

Your offense are the ones who: