en
Jobs

Our industry specialists will listen to your aspirations and share your story with Belgium’s most prestigious organisations. Together, let’s write the next chapter of your career.

See all jobs
Services

Belgium’s leading employers trust us to deliver fast, efficient hiring solutions that are tailored to their exact requirements. Browse our range of bespoke services and resources

Read more
About Robert Walters Belgium

For us, recruitment is more than just a job. We understand that behind every opportunity is the chance to make a difference to people’s lives

Learn more

Work for us

Our people are the difference. Hear stories from our people to learn more about a career at Robert Walters Belgium

Learn more

5 tips for today's CFO

It goes without saying that a CFO must have outstanding finance skills and the ability to make smart and strategic decisions. But in today’s fast paced environment the role of a CFO has become extremely variable. Leadership, interpersonal and communication skills are also important in such a high level position.

In order to succeed, the CFO of the future will need to branch out from the traditional well-known financial skillsets and acquire new skills which have become crucial to the CFO function.

Here are 5 key tips and skills to keep in mind to overcome the challenges CFOs are facing in today's ever changing environment:

1. Be a team leader

Mentoring, coaching and talent spotting are all attributes outside the traditional skillset of the finance chief which are proving to be more and more important. The role of the CFO (Chief Financial Officer) is to bring together a diverse group of professionals to achieve superior performance. A successful coach will produce superior results by finding the strengths of their team members and obtaining a higher level of performance than the individuals might achieve on their own.

2. Be a soft skills’ advocate

Leadership, communication, and skills are absolutely crucial to the future of the CFO function. It takes much more than analysing the numbers behind transactions. Finance professionals are now expected to have qualities needed to be strategic advisors. This means stakeholder management, efficiency and control, overall strategy improvements to engagement with staff members and effective communication skills.

3. Engage by seeking input from all levels

Understand operations and customers by asking employees across the entire organisation questions and involving them in key processes. Making employee involvement a priority when developing the overall strategy will ensure the company’s goals are aligned with those of stakeholders.

4. Be open to new ideas

Collaboration, innovation and open mindedness are key attributes promoting the creation of new ideas leading to success. Today’s ever changing business environment requires CFOs to adopt an informed and forward thinking approach to decision making. By adopting continual learning processes and looking out for latest insights, you will be able to embrace change in a proactive way. 

5. Be a team player

The CFO plays a critical role in shaping a company’s strategy. Shift the way you view yourself from being self-centric to becoming more altruistic. Making other team members feel important will encourage positive perceptions within the organisation. 
 

Find out more

For more information about finance roles, or for a confidential discussion about your career or hiring needs contact us today. Wondering how much you could be earning? Get access to our free salary survey tool to find out.

Share this article

Related Solutions

Sign up for job alerts
Salary Survey
Career Advice
Get in touch

Find out more by contacting one of our specialist recruitment consultants

Related content

View all

Tips to capture +10 years on your CV

As a senior professional, you have undoubtedly worked in several organisations, or held numerous positions in your career. If, at some point, you decide to look for a new professional challenge, you will most likely need to prepare or complete your CV. But where do you start? Is it essential to ment

Read More

Becoming a CFO

If you have a financial background and are already working in accountancy and finance, your ultimate goal may well be to become a chief financial officer (CFO). But what does a CFO do and what skills and experience do you need to become one? CFOs oversee all the financial operations of an organisati

Read More

Achieving a healthy work-life balance

We all know that maintaining a good work-life balance is important for your personal health and wellbeing on a professional and personal level. A healthy workplace can allow you to better achieve and exceed performance objectives and therefore have a positive impact on your career. Increasing worklo

Read More

I'm Robert Walters Are you?

Come join our global team of creative thinkers, problem solvers and game changers. We offer accelerated career progression, a dynamic culture and expert training.