The 7 Habits of Highly Adaptive CFOs

If you’ve been in the business world for more than a decade, you know The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by @Stephen Covey.

More than 20 years and I’d be surprised if you hadn’t read it.

If your experience is at all like mine, you’ve spent a career trying to keep up with the steady pace of change in new technologies, fresh methodologies and radical philosophies - from cloud computing to radical candor.

And if you’re at all like me, you’re also aware of, maybe even afraid of the AI era quickly evolving all around us. I say this even as the proud Chair of an FP&A software company built for the AI era.

With this backdrop, I think today’s finance leaders need a 7 Habits of their own.

And that’s what I’m writing with the 7 Habits of Highly Adaptive CFOs. A 7-part series borrowing heavily from Covey’s bestselling classic.

Covering the habits I’ve learned not just keeping up to speed with AI and other finance trends, but helping hundreds of CFOs do the same.

Habits I see are just as important to CFOs as I help them navigate the next wave of change. To anyone who’s read Covey, familiar habits like:

Put first things first: Before you go on an AI shopping spree…do you know how you’ll us it? Are you even ready for it?

Synergize: I hate the term, but can’t think of a better one for deciding how to look at (and link) your financial, operational and revenue data.

Think win win: When you win, your LOB owners do too…so why can budgeting and planning feel like a conflict - where both sides feel like they’ve lost?!

You get the idea.

Look for more as I dive into each of the 7 habits in the weeks ahead.