What Finance Leaders Are Actually Training for Now
As we wrap up the year and head into the festive period, it felt like the right moment to step back and look at what finance leaders have been investing in — not in theory, but in practice.
Across the GrowCFO community this year, one pattern has been unmistakable.
Finance leaders are no longer asking how to do more.
They’re asking how to think better, influence more effectively, and redesign the way finance operates as automation accelerates.
That shift showed up clearly in the work we delivered this year.
What we built together
- 30+ Live Premium workshops
- In-person keynotes and training led by GrowCFO facilitators inside organizations across the globe, not just online
- A community of 100,000+ finance leaders
- 20,000+ weekly Future CFO Newsletter subscribers
- 250th podcast episode focused on real CFO judgment, not textbook theory
- 69 Future CFO program graduates in 2025
- 100+ one-to-one CFO mentoring clients
Three training trends we saw repeatedly
1. Business partnering is now the core skill gap
The single biggest increase in demand this year was for business partnering capability.
As transactional work becomes automated, finance teams are being pushed into conversations that require:
- Commercial judgment
- Clear storytelling with numbers
- Confidence challenging assumptions, not just validating them
Many finance leaders told us the same thing: “My team can produce the numbers — but influencing decisions with them is where the pressure is now.”
2. AI and automation have moved from curiosity to priority
AI is no longer a future topic. It’s now at the top of the enquiry list.
Not hype — but practical questions:
- Which processes should be automated first?
- How do we redesign roles once the manual work disappears?
- What does good system architecture actually look like in finance?
The shift is clear: CFOs don’t want tools. They want clarity and control.
3. The finance role is moving from ‘doer’ to interpreter
Across workshops, mentoring, and programs, one theme kept resurfacing:
Finance leaders are being judged less on output and more on judgment, communication, and presence.
The strongest teams are those where:
- Systems handle the mechanics
- Finance leaders focus on interpretation, trade-offs, and decision framing
That requires a different skillset — and a different mindset.
What this tells us
Finance leadership is not getting easier. But it is getting clearer.
The role is shifting away from:
“Can you produce accurate numbers?”
And towards:
“Can you help the business make better decisions with them?”
That’s the transition many finance leaders committed to this year — and it’s what we’ll continue building around in the year ahead.
Thank you for being part of GrowCFO, and for holding yourself to a higher standard as a finance leader.
Wishing you a restful break and a strong start to the year ahead.
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