The CFO Skills Exchange for Faster Growth

The person with experience in the area you’re lacking is three desks down.

And they’re stuck on something you’ve already solved.

So why are you both trying to figure it out alone?

Most finance leaders treat development like a solo exercise, quietly working on their gaps, hoping experience will catch up.

But the CFO role isn’t built that way.

It’s built on conversations, trade-offs, and learning in real time from the people around you.

The reality is, great CFOs don’t develop in isolation. They accelerate through others.

The Skills Gap

Let’s take a closer look at the workflows of CFO-ready professionals and leaders who get stuck in the middle.

The Skills Exchange: Stop Struggling, Start Trading.

I regularly review competency frameworks with ambitious Finance Directors who know exactly how to pinpoint their skill gaps and set practical goals.

However, when I ask them how they plan to close their gaps, the response is almost always a resounding: “I’ll put my head down over weekends and figure it out.”

It won’t work. Especially when the person with experience in the area you’re lacking is three desks down, and they’re struggling with something you can do in your sleep. If you want to move faster, you need to stop treating development like a private project.

The CFO Approach: Trade your strengths. Leverage expert experience.

The Amateur Approach: Hoard your strengths. Study shortcomings in private.

What You Can Do This Week

Before diving into tactics, get clarity on your direction.

Ask yourself: what kind of CFO do you want to be, and what does success look like 3 years from now?

Once you’ve determined that, follow this roadmap:

1. Create a one-page 90-day plan

Write:

• Your 3-year direction (two sentences)
• Your 90-day objective (one sentence)
• Goals for Weeks 4, 8 and 12

Send it to:

• One peer skilled in an area you aren’t
• One mentor

Ask for a weekly, 10-minute check-in.

2. Two Conversations > One Course

Schedule short upskilling sessions with:

• One peer
• One senior stakeholder or expert

Ask them three questions:

• “How did you learn to do…”
• “This is where I’m stuck… How did you overcome it?”
• “This is my goal. What would you do in the next 30 days?”

Leave with:

• One recommendation
• One introduction
• One risk assessment

3. Stop doing work you shouldn’t be doing

• List what you excel at, what you shouldn’t be doing and what you don’t enjoy.
• Pick one item from “shouldn’t be doing.”
• Slice, stop or swap it with a peer who needs experience in that exact area.

Suddenly, development stops being theoretical and starts feeling real.

Ready to see the Skills Exchange in action?

Join a free Future CFO Preview Event and learn how focused objectives, peer learning, and accountability will make you CFO-ready.

Save your seat here.