Mentoring - GrowCFO

Unlock your full potential with an experienced and trusted advisor

Our mentors are experienced CFOs who have made the journey before and understand the challenges that you will face next. A mentor can help you accelerate your personal and professional development, offering specific guidance on your goals and desired outcomes.

Lead Mentor, Catherine Clark FCA FIOD

The best CFOs ask for help and support.

Many successful executives attribute part of their professional success to having a mentor. Because of the breadth of knowledge and evolving responsibilities required of a CFO, an experienced mentor at your side can help you navigate leadership, governance, specific strategic issues and more:

Think of us as your motivator, sounding board and biggest supporter.

Mentors are invested in your progress and achievement. They’re committed to helping you succeed, so you’ll grow faster. Our Mentoring is fully personalised and adaptable to your needs and will provide a safe confidential environment and quiet focused space for you to explore your thoughts and tap into the knowledge and experience that is on offer to fully support you.

How will I benefit from regular mentoring sessions with an experienced CFO?

Knowledge and Experience

We will maximise the value you deliver to your business and help you overcome the key challenges within your role. We bring to you our wealth of financial, strategic and life experience to make your life easier.

Accelerated Development

We will motivate you to identify and deliver your career development plan, holding you accountable for your actions. We will help you to explore your mindset, to achieve your potential using proven tools and techniques to support this process.

Independent Support

We provide an independent point of contact and listen actively and objectively to enable you to talk through sensitive matters in private. We will act as a sounding board, and provide someone to think through problems, issues and challenges.

How GrowCFO Mentoring Works

Individual mentoring starts with a free chemistry call to discuss your needs and find the right mentor you feel confident will help you achieve your outcomes. We will work with you to create a tailored mentoring programme.

Book a free 30 minute chemistry call

The first step is to choose a mentor; one you have chemistry with and you feel confident will help you achieve your outcomes.

Decide on your priorities for discussion

Agree on what you want to achieve from each session.

Progress on your action plan

Start your sessions and move forward on your goals.

Structure your sessions

Choose the best format for you. We recommend 60 or 90 minute sessions once a month.

Your Action Plan

Our mentoring is fully personalised and adaptable to whatever your needs may be. Your sessions with your mentor need to focus on what’s important for you right now.

Sample Action Plan

Ambitions and goals

Personal strategy session: an honest discussion as to where you are now and what your future goals and desired outcomes are so we can identify the actions needed to close the gap.

Your goals: a chance to explore the leader you want to become, with a focus on strengths and limiting beliefs.

Financial and/or career strategy: review your progression strategy, explore how to show your strengths and your value at their best, and close any skills gaps.

Mindset and high-performance habits

Growth and agile mindset: How you can look after your mind to increase resilience, performance, productivity, motivation and energy.

Performance: Looking at how to drive business change and key decision making and how to deliver the business plan.

Focus and clarity: Taking your goals to a more specific and measurable level with a focus on supporting habits and routines.

Behaviours and traits for success

Leadership styles: looking at how to become an externally-facing leader. The team needs to support you as a CFO, and you need to support their development.

Behaviours and key skills for success: looking at the key behavioural skills needed at CFO level with a focus on leadership, influencing, critical thinking and stakeholder management and communication.

Executive presence and impact: Looking at how you can leverage your personal leadership style and brand to increase engagement and credibility.

Trusted and vital Executive and Board member

Strategy and decision making: the importance of developing and setting strategic direction for Finance and the company, and how to challenge the Board and influence strategy.

Growth: the financial responsibilities of growth and the role a CFO should play. Looking at the business drivers of value.

C-Suite and the Board: Looking at what a CFO should bring to the Board to enable the right decisions to be made, how to best present data, and how to be become a critical and influential voice.

Our Mentees Say

I now have a very clear picture of where I want to go and I’m working on the plan that will get me there. Where I lacked clarity and was too focused on one end goal, I had actually lost track of what would make me happy in the longer term. That is more important than any promotion or pay rise. Most importantly, I feel better in myself. I have a lot more control over my situation and the outcome.

Mentoring with Susana Serrano-Davey exceeded my expectation. Her 360 holistic approach to mentoring went beyond me getting guidance on my career. It was a balanced approach that helped me improve on other aspects of my Life. She left me with the ability to help myself and get answers to things that niggle at me. I look forward to continuing the Mentorship program.

“Thanks to the mentoring I received, I have been able to identify my strengths, skills and recognise my value. I feel I am finally living up to my potential and continue to grow.”

“My mentoring is also having a positive and cumulative impact on the people I manage. We have better engagement and projects are more efficient due to better communication.”

I loved working with professional mentor Helene Brichet. I grew significantly under her guidance both on a personal and professional level. I gained a lot of confidence and feel better equipped for my next step as CFO. Helene has tremendous experience within the payment and financial services industry. I would definitely recommend her services to people who are eager to learn and challenge themselves.

Working with professional mentor Catherine Clark has enabled me to build confidence and manage imposter syndrome. Her holistic approach has helped me to understand my values, beliefs and visualization for what I want to achieve. This has helped me to reach a position where I am confident in the value I bring to my role and have the vision to enable me to seize opportunities to create additional value.

I initially met Catherine Clark as part of the GrowCFO sessions that she organised and we started working on my personal development as part of one-to-on mentoring sessions and the CFO programme. I must say it has been really nice to have someone to help me further look inside myself and bring to light some blindspots. It is invaluable to have someone like Catherine to not only guide me along the way but also to get exposure to a different perspective.

Catherine Clark

The reason I mentor is because I love helping people to see their own potential more clearly and for their confidence to build so they achieve what they want to achieve. My philosophy in life is to keep teaching what I learn. I will bring simplicity and clarity to situations or decisions that may feel complicated or overwhelming.

Susana Serrano-Davey

I support my clients in their change journeys with a focus on their business and also career development. I aim to help them reach their full potential in their work environment whilst taking care of themselves.

Tony Shafar

I believe much of what prevents us from achieving our goals is our mindset. I coach people to help them understand what is holding them back, giving them clarity and confidence to move forward in their careers. I also mentor clients. My experience from my own career allows me to provide strategic and practical advice to people progressing their careers within Finance.

Helene Brichet Herbinet

I am passionate about supporting talented individuals reach their full potential. My ambition is to help accelerate your learning and development through real-life situations including managing a Finance function, leadership skills, confidence and resilience.