CFO Leadership

This is the fourth part of a blog series based on an ebook we published in 2020 entitled, “Women in Corporate Finance: Five Guiding Principles From Leaders in the Field.” At the time, Vena spoke to five women who have broken the glass ceiling in their own corporate finance careers. We asked them what it took to get to where they were, and what advice they had for the women following in their footsteps. Throughout March, for Women’s History Month, we’ll be revisiting their words in light of everything that’s happened since, to see what’s changed and what hasn’t in the two years that have passed. In this post, we speak to Laura Szreider, Head of FP&A at Intelligent Processing Solutions Limited. Women don’t always bring the same qualities to the workplace as men. They don’t always benefit from the same advantages either. We saw as much in the last blog post in this series. According to the Women in the Workplace 2021 report by Lean In and McKinsey & Company, women managers do more to support their team and promote employee well-being. They help them navigate work-life balance, deal with burnout and manage their workloads. And they’re also more likely to take on mentorship roles, support career development and advocate for diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI). In fact, the Lean In and McKinsey & Company research shows that 38% of women at senior levels mentor or sponsor a woman of color—compared to just 26% of senior-level men. All of that work has real effects in the workplace. It leaves employees wanting to be there, less likely to leave and less prone to burnout.  Since turnover can cost employers 33% of an employee’s annual salary—and holding on to employees is even more difficult than ever during the Great Resignation—those are significant skills to have in the modern workforce. And, as we saw in the last post, it’s only some of what women bring. Despite that, though, those skills are often overlooked when performance review time comes around. Of the companies polled in the Women in the Workplace 2021 survey, 87% saw supporting employee well-being as a critical function, yet only 25% of those companies actually recognized it in any substantial way when it came to formal evaluations like performance reviews. When it came to DEI, 70% saw it as critical, but just 24% recognized it formally. “I definitely think emotional labor is being taken for granted,” one woman who was surveyed responded. And since performance reviews are often used to negotiate promotions and raises, women are once again left at a disadvantage. So how do they make their mark in a way that will put them on the trajectory to career growth?  Principle #4: Find Advocates  “A lot of emotional energy goes in for a woman who wants to progress, in thinking about how she positions herself all of the time,” Laura Szreider, Head of FP&A at the UK-based Intelligent Processing Solutions Limited (iPSL), said when we talked to her in 2020.  Women are often measured by “a different yardstick” than men, Laura said then. And there’s plenty to support Laura’s words. While the confidence gap between men and women has long been considered one factor behind the lack of workplace parity, research shows that’s not necessarily the case, finding that it’s women’s reluctance to self-promote that’s actually slowing them down—and for good reason. Namely, self-promotion doesn’t get them very far either—in fact, it’s often looked at negatively in women. “While assertive self-advocacy lines up nicely with the long-standing stereotype of the ambitious male go-getter, some studies show that when women demonstrate identical behaviors, they elicit negative reactions for failing to show stereotypical ‘feminine traits,’” Jo Miller, author of Woman of Influence: 9 Steps to Build Your Brand, Establish Your Legacy, & Thrive, wrote in 2021.  Research has found that appearing self-confident “did not translate into influence equally for men and women.” For women—unlike men—influence was more tied to how warm and caring they appeared than how self-confident. “Where their male colleagues are allowed to focus on their own objectives, women who are expected to care for others are shouldering an unfair load,” the researcher concluded in the Harvard Business Review. Which brings us back to where we started. Because, as we’ve already seen, women are taking on more of that “emotional labor” than ever—but that isn’t translating into the same formal recognition and career advancement. It’s no wonder, then, that Laura said women have to constantly grapple with how they’re putting themselves forward—to appear confident, but not too confident, and assertive, but not too assertive. “I think women have to think much harder about how they communicate,” she said.  Where the Right Advocates Fit In Since workplaces are often naturally geared towards men’s communication styles, Laura said two years ago, women are often spending their “emotional energy” thinking and rethinking how they approach every situation. “It's always that balance about being soft, but not too soft; hard, but not too hard,” she maintained. Finding the right advocates and leaders that recognize the unique qualities you bring is one way women can get ahead, Laura suggested then. Having someone in your corner can help women focus on doing their jobs well instead of stressing over how that’s communicated or whether the strengths they’re bringing are being overlooked. In almost two decades in corporate finance, Laura herself has learned to look for leaders who won’t just back her up, but also encourage her to be open about her goals and how she plans to achieve them. “I think women quite often can be afraid to say what they want,” she said in 2020. “Actually saying, ‘I see myself on the boards, I see myself in the senior management role,’ feels like a really big deal. It feels like almost putting yourself somewhere where you shouldn't be. It feels presumptuous.”  But doing so, and finding the teams that align with those goals and support them, can help women get exactly where they want to go. Which leads us to the advice Laura gave to young women coming up in the corporate finance workforce today. Jump into the unknown, she said. Push your comfort zone. Put yourself into situations that are deliberately scary. “You build resilience and self-confidence. You start realizing that actually, I can handle this thing just as well as the next person,” Laura told us. “So, therefore, I can handle the next thing just as well as the next person too.” Believing you can accomplish your goals, after all, is a good first step to finding others who think so too. Learn how to challenge the “She-Cession” with the help of workforce planning. In our final blog post in this series, we’ll talk to Jennifer Korbely, Controller with BurgerBusters, Inc., about staying visible.

This is the third part of a blog series based on an ebook we published in 2020 entitled, “Women in Corporate Finance: Five Guiding Principles From Leaders in the Field.” At the time, Vena spoke to five women who have broken the glass ceiling in their own corporate finance careers. We asked them what it took to get to where they were, and what advice they had for the women following in their footsteps. Throughout March, for Women’s History Month, we’ll be revisiting their words in light of everything that’s happened since, to see what’s changed and what hasn’t in the two years that have passed. In this post, we speak to Maggie Carey, Senior Vice President, Finance & Budget of the 9/11 Memorial & Museum. There are a couple of things everyone should understand about women in power. First off, there are too few of them. But second: The women who do get to the top make a difference while they’re there.  “Men in senior leadership outnumber women 2 to 1—but employees are equally likely to say that women and men leaders have supported their career development,” explained the Women in the Workplace 2021 report by Lean In and McKinsey & Company. “This means women are shouldering roughly double the load of mentorship and sponsorship.” And that’s not all. According to research by S&P Global, firms with female CFOs have also proven more profitable. They drive more value appreciation, better defend profitability moats and deliver excess risk-adjusted returns for their firms. When looking at the 24 months post-appointment, female CEOs saw an average 20% increase in stock price momentum, while female CFOs saw a 6% increase in profitability and 8% larger stock returns.  Despite all of that, though, women are still being overlooked for leadership positions. “Being more selective with female appointees means that the board of directors may pass over a more qualified female in favor of a less qualified male,” the S&P Global study reported. “If this is the case, it follows that the remaining pool of female contenders for C-suite positions remains richer with talent.”  All of which encapsulates the words Maggie Carey—Senior Vice President of Finance & Budget at New York City’s 9/11 Memorial & Museum—shared with us in 2020. “A lot of times, a woman's gender is seen before her work,” she said then. Which brings us to our third principle, the one Maggie lives by: Understand the unconscious bias. Principle #3: Understand the Unconscious Bias  “Unconscious bias can play a large role in determining who is hired, promoted, or left behind,” the Women in the Workplace 2019 report by Lean In and McKinsey & Company attested. According to Maggie, that bias can also affect how women are treated day-to-day.  When we spoke to her in 2020, she suggested that the right conversations—in the media and beyond—can begin to reveal and unravel that bias for all women. Finding leaders who see past gender helps as well. And those types of leadership skills can be learned—at the management level, unconscious bias training has demonstrated real results. Yet out of the 323 companies who gave answers for the Women in the Workplace 2019 report, only six had a full range of best practices in place meant to support inclusive and unbiased hiring and promotions. And one in four women still thought their gender had played a role in missing out on a raise, promotion or other chance to get ahead.  “Social science research shows that we tend to overestimate men’s performance and underestimate women’s,” the report stated, suggesting the use of unconscious bias training can help fix this problem. “There is … compelling evidence that this training works. In companies with smaller gender disparities in representation, half of employees received unconscious bias training in the past year, compared to only a quarter of employees in companies that aren’t making progress closing these gaps.” Celebrating a Diversity of Experiences “Diversity of thought and experience is critically important in all industries,” Maggie said two years ago. Yet in the workplace, diverse thoughts and experiences don’t always get recognized. And that’s just as true now than it was back in 2020. Today, working mothers are finding their experience especially overlooked, and are feeling more than ever that their careers are at risk and their performance is being judged. After all, they, more than their male counterparts, are taking on the role of primary caregiver for kids learning remotely from home and family members getting sick—duties that are often playing tug of war with their duties at work and putting their male counterparts at an advantage when promotions come around. In 2020, estimates showed that working age women would take on 173 additional unpaid hours for childcare, compared to 70 additional hours for men. At the same time, according to research by Catalyst, 41% of mothers felt they had to hide their caregiving struggles in the workplace, for fear it would affect them negatively.  But it’s not just the work at home that’s getting in the way of career advancement. The work they do in the workplace to support employee well-being and career development, as well as diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI)—something also taken on in greater amounts by women—is often undervalued as well. “When managers support employee well-being and companies prioritize DEI, employees are happier, less burned out, and less likely to consider leaving their jobs,” the Women in the Workplace 2021 report explained. “In spite of all this, relatively few companies formally recognize employees who go above and beyond in these areas—and this needs to change.” Finding the right teams and the right leader—male or female—can help women get the recognition they need, Maggie said.  “I've been very fortunate to hold some really interesting and amazing positions over the years,” she shared. In one role, in particular, she was the only female voice among a team of men—yet it was one of the most supportive environments she’s ever been in. “I attribute that to just having a really incredible boss at the time, being part of a really incredible team that never made me feel like I was the only woman sitting at that table.”  New World, Old Biases  “Don't let anyone in any situation make you feel less than for any reason at all,” Maggie said in 2020. Yet in 2021, that feeling of “less than” was still hard for many women to avoid. The pay gap still existed, with women only making 82 cents for every dollar made by a man. At the same time, the women’s labor force participation was at a 33-year low, putting women at even more of a disadvantage on the pay front, as they faced going back to work after a period of unemployment.  But if you listen to Maggie, it’s exactly the experiences that women offer that should be celebrated. So how do you show that to others? “Definitely ask questions, ask to be a part of conversations and find mentors that will really guide you and help you develop and grow,” she said. Learn more about what you can do to help challenge gender inequality in the workplace.  In our next blog post, find out what Laura Szreider, Head of FP&A for iPSL, has to say about finding advocates for the qualities women bring to the workplace.

They say the only things you can depend on in life are death and taxes. But there’s something else we can always count on to rear its head as well: inflation.  Since World War II, inflation—measured by the Consumer Price Index (CPI)—has reached 5% or higher a total of six times. Now we’re into a seventh, as inflation hit its biggest 12-month increase since 1982, rising to 7.5% in January 2022. And with increased inflation, rising interest rates are sure to follow.  A product of supply chain issues, labor shortfalls and material shortages—combined with increased consumer demands as people try to return to normal as pandemic restrictions lift—this inflationary period brings new misgivings with it. And finance teams—still recovering from a pandemic—are back to wondering what they’ll need to do to lead their businesses through more uncertainty ahead.  To discuss exactly that, Vena’s CFO Darrell Cox and Vice President of FP&A Tom Seegmiller met with Paul Gill, Partner of Valuations and Modeling, Financial Advisory Services at BDO, to chat about inflation and what it will mean for finance teams and their business bottom line. You can listen to their entire discussion in our recent CFO Confidential: Unpacking Inflation livestream—now available on demand to members of Vena’s Plan to Grow platform. Here’s some of the advice the panel offered finance teams: 1. Watch the Markets Closely To understand how to react, you need the best and most current data to act on—which means keeping an eye on the markets in real time. Because while understanding past inflationary periods certainly doesn’t hurt, using them as a predictor of what’s going to happen now isn’t always effective. The current supply chain issues, for instance, are more in line with post-World War II inflation than that of the 1970s. But retiring baby boomers are adding to the shortage of workers and the war in Ukraine is affecting the price of gas and other goods. Immigration, meanwhile, offers the possibility of new demand and an increased workforce. All of which factor into the effects inflation can have, Paul Gill said in our CFO Confidential panel.  “If we look to the ’70s and the ’80s, when there was a lot of inflation, it really negatively impacted corporate earnings. Earnings went down and demand got destroyed. Stock prices also went down,” Paul said. “As long as corporate earnings keep outpacing inflation, or even staying on track with it, it's a different situation than we had in the ’70s and ’80s.”  Of course, conditions can change at any time—which is why it’s critical to keep a close eye out. “The biggest risk is if inflation goes out of control—if it goes out of control [and] destroys demand, corporate earnings come down,” Paul added. 2. Re-Evaluate Your Prices Watching only gets you so far, though—sometimes you need to take action. And while some businesses may be able to absorb any changes caused by inflation, for many businesses—especially those with low margins—there will be no choice but to raise prices. “You can actually go bankrupt pretty quickly if you don't increase prices,” Paul said during the CFO Confidential panel. That doesn’t necessarily mean raising prices across the board, though. Instead, he suggests a more focused approach that involves finding the best places to increase prices where it will have the least impact on demand.  “You have to understand the price elasticity of all of the different customers that you have. Just break it down,” he said. “Look at it and say, ‘Okay, if I increase prices by 20 to 30% here, will it really impact the demand?’” 3. Don’t Forget To Cut Costs Too Raising prices isn’t the only way to combat inflation and rising interest rates. Cost reductions can help as well. In fact, it’s something finance professionals should be considering all of the time anyway, Paul said—but especially with supply chain issues affecting the price of goods. “Because there are so many supply chain issues across the board, almost in every business, I think now is a good time to really revisit what [costs] looks like and look for alternatives,” he said. “That could make a big difference right now just because of the delta between alternatives. There are certain alternatives that are three or four times more expensive while others might be only 10% more expensive. So now's a good time to really revisit the supply chain as well.” 4. Constantly Be Ready To Adapt With all of the uncertainty at play in the market right now, agility is key. And thanks to the pandemic, financial teams have learned to be more agile than ever, Vena Vice President of FP&A Tom Seegmiller pointed out. Many of the lessons learned over the past two years can be applied to current market conditions too. “It’s not so different from the early days of COVID,” he said. “Don’t get too anchored in. Be ready for anything. Current data can be so useless at any point in time. Look at micro- and macro-economic inputs and be ready to adapt and reforecast at any time, to avoid and mitigate risks and capitalize on opportunities.” 5. Always Focus on Your Customer Finally, but most critically, don’t lose sight of your customers or the competitive advantage that you offer them. While price increases may be necessary to stay ahead of inflation, for example, you should always keep in mind your customers’ needs when you’re making them.  In fact, this may be an opportunity to open up a dialogue with your end customer to understand their issues and sensitivity to inflation and price increases themselves, Paul suggested. Whatever’s happening, he told the CFO Confidential audience, you want to ask “Well, how could this potentially impact my customer? How could this impact the person on the other end, who's driving my business,” he said. “And then just go sit down with them and talk to them. Conclusion There’s little financial professionals can do to affect inflation and interest rates in the short, medium or long term. But there are actions you can take to insulate your business from the effects bigger market changes might have and to continue growing despite uncertain market conditions. Which brings us to our last piece of advice. “Focus on those things within your control,” Tom told the audience of the CFO Confidential panel. After all, that’s all you really can do. Eventually, like those before it have, this inflationary period will end. You just want to be sure you’re making the best decisions for your business until it does. To watch the full episode of CFO Confidential: Unpacking Inflation, become a Plan To Grow member and join the community.

This is the second part of a blog series based on an ebook we published in 2020 entitled, “Women in Corporate Finance: Five Guiding Principles From Leaders in the Field.” At the time, Vena spoke to five women who have broken the glass ceiling in their own corporate finance careers. We asked them what it took to get to where they were, and what advice they had for the women following in their footsteps. Throughout March, for Women’s History Month, we’ll be revisiting their words in light of everything that’s happened since, to see what’s changed and what hasn’t in the two years that have passed. In this post, we speak to Christine Harms, Controller, Arizona Cardinals. In our last post in this series, we looked at how far women have come in breaking through the glass ceiling of corporate finance. Spoiler alert: there’s still a long way to go. There are fewer women at the top of the corporate finance ladder than men, and fewer women of color even still. For women still making their way up the ranks, the statistics probably aren’t surprising. After all, it’s likely they’ve never worked under a female CEO. They’ve probably always had male CFOs as well. According to research by Catalyst—a global nonprofit dedicated to creating better workplaces for women—only 24% of C-suite positions are held by women.   What many women probably don’t realize, though, is how far-reaching the effects of that disparity can be—and how much of a disadvantage it puts them at. With fewer women at the top, women in entry-level and mid-tier positions have less access to the role models or mentorship opportunities enjoyed by their male counterparts. And because of that, they’re less prepared to make it to the top themselves. For proof, just consider a 2019 study by researchers from Harvard Business School and the University of California, Los Angeles. It found that male employees were promoted faster and paid more under a male manager, a direct result of old boys’ club-style bonding. “This male-to-male advantage can explain a third of the gender gap in promotions,” the researchers concluded. And a 2019 survey by SurveyMonkey and LeanIn.org showed that men are less likely to take on the same type of mentorship roles with women: 60% of male managers were uncomfortable mentoring, socializing with or working alone with a woman they supervise.  “The younger ladies need mentors, they need people who can lead the way—to discuss their career, teach them best practices and help them understand the big picture,” Christine Harms, Controller for the Arizona Cardinals—the NFL’s oldest football franchise—said back when we spoke to her in 2020. And that’s just as true now—if not more so. But how do they find that? In this blog series, we’re looking at the principles women leaders in the field have ascribed to as they’ve climbed the ranks of corporate finance. And our second principle, from Christine, is all about knowing how to ask for exactly what you want. Principle 2: Don’t Be Afraid To Ask Christine learned early: You have to ask for what you want. It’s something her mother instilled in her, but it’s also something she’s seen other women falter at. For that simple reason, she explained in 2020, they don’t always end up with the same training or leadership credentials as their male counterparts, who aren’t afraid to make those requests. That can set them back come promotion time. To get to the next rung of the corporate ladder, Christine said, you sometimes need to make demands. “Ask for training. Ask for opportunities to learn things. Don’t just sit there—go after everything you want.”  It was good advice in 2020 and even better advice now. Yet the pandemic has only made making those demands even more difficult. A survey by Indeed showed that women had become 12.1% less comfortable asking for a raise, compared to an 8.6% decrease in comfort by men. Meanwhile, women were 8.5% less comfortable asking for a promotion, as opposed to 4.5% for men. So how do women get past that hurdle and set themselves up for the leadership opportunities they strive for? Looking to other women for support can help—even when those women aren’t necessarily mentors. And so can opening up a conversation with the leaders you do have. Opening Up a Conversation In her 20-year career in corporate finance, Christine has done more than ask for training opportunities—she also hasn’t been afraid to have open conversations at every move up, to ensure she’s getting everything she needs to thrive. Above all, that meant maintaining the balance she needed to take on progressive leadership roles while still having time for her husband and two children—something a lot of women can relate to. “I've been here [at the Cardinals] 10 years and we definitely have balance,” she said in 2020. “I get to see my kids after school, I get to fix them dinner.” While asking might get you to the top, though, giving will help others get there too. That’s why Harms is also a big advocate for helping out the people around her. Starting with sharing knowledge in the workplace and collaborating with colleagues at all levels—and continuing by taking up the mentorship mantle.  And in 2022, the kind of collaboration and conversation Christine advocated for then is even more critical. Learning How To Ask COVID-19 has disproportionately affected women in the workplace. Women have experienced more job loss than men and have taken on more of the at-home responsibilities. That means it’s more important than ever that they ask for what they need. Not only for raises and promotions, but for more flexible working hours and time off to care for family when they need it. But, as we’ve seen, asking has become even harder than ever.  The (somewhat) good news: Just having other women in the room, especially women who look like you, can help empower women to do so. When you’re the “Only” person of your gender or race in your department, rank or workplace, there’s no one there to show you how to ask for what you need (or back you up when you do)—or to demonstrate to others that it’s okay to make those demands. That can make opening up that conversation Christine talked about even harder. “Compared to mothers of young children who regularly work with other women, those who are Onlys are significantly more likely to be burned out and to have considered leaving their companies,” states Women in the Workplace 2021, a report by Lean In and McKinsey & Company. “They are more likely to feel judged when they take advantage of options that make it easier to balance work and life, such as working from home or working nonstandard hours. And they are less likely to feel comfortable sharing their personal challenges with colleagues, which may make it harder to get support.” Knowing What You Want It’s likely not surprising to most women, then, that more women at every level of the workplace can help create better conditions for all women in the workplace. So what advice did Christine offer these women?   According to Christine, going after what you want starts with knowing exactly what that is in the first place—and knowing you love it enough to pursue it no matter what. If you have a destination in mind, and a passion for getting there, it’ll be easier to know (and hopefully ask for) what you want to achieve your goal. Her advice: “Find what you love to do and go after that. If you start to look at it and think ‘this is not really what I love,’ there are so many different areas of finance. You're going to find that perfect niche that you love to do.”  But businesses can help too, by supporting the women who work for them, building on that conversation and providing mentorship opportunities. But most of all, they can listen to what women need—even when they’re not the loudest voice in the room. Find out how Christine Harms and the rest of the Arizona Cardinals’ finance team used Vena to create a more proactive planning process and add more strategic value to their business. In our next post, learn why Maggie Carey, Senior Vice President of Finance & Budget for the 9/11 Memorial & Museum, says recognizing unconscious bias is a critical step for women trying to get ahead. 

The following blog series is based on an ebook we published in 2020 entitled, “Women in Corporate Finance: Five Guiding Principles From Leaders in the Field.” At the time, Vena spoke to five women who have broken the glass ceiling in their own corporate finance careers. We asked them what it took to get to where they were, and what advice they had for the women following in their footsteps. Throughout March, for Women’s History Month, we’ll be revisiting their words in light of everything that’s happened since, to see what’s changed and what hasn’t in the two years that have passed. In this post, we speak to Diana Stevens, President, theTaxGroup.   Numbers tell a story. Nobody understands that better than women who have spent their careers in corporate finance. And when you stop to look at where those women stand in the industry today, there are some bright spots to that story. But the numbers can get complicated too. Just consider research compiled by McKinsey & Company, in collaboration with LeanIn.org. At the beginning of 2021, they found that 52% of the financial services workforce was made up of women. For an industry traditionally considered male-dominated, those numbers are positive—a sign of gender parity. However, dig a little deeper and that story starts to fall apart. The glass ceiling still exists and the pay gap is as real as ever.  After all, the same research revealed that women were struggling to make it up the ranks. While more women were making it past the entry level compared to 2018, 64% of C-suite positions in financial services were still held by white men, with only 23% held by white women. But women of color fared worst of all, with representation falling by 80% on the way from entry level to the C-suite—leaving only 4% of C-suite positions held by this demographic. They’re not the only ones struggling either: the National Center for Transgender Equality reports that more than three-quarters of transgender people have experienced workplace discrimination of some kind and that more than one in four have lost a job because of bias.  It’s probably not surprising, then, that in its 2019 Quick Take: Women in Accounting report, Catalyst—a global nonprofit dedicated to women in the workplace—found that women still made less on average than their male counterparts. “Women working as accountants or auditors earned a weekly median salary of $1,108, compared to the weekly median salary of $1,404 earned by men in the same fields in 2018,” Catalyst reported. Similar numbers out of the U.K. found that even in 2021, female directors at the country’s largest financial services firms made two-thirds less than their male counterparts. So what’s the story behind the numbers and why has true gender parity been so slow to come?  In this blog series, we’ll address these questions and others, to try to understand why the glass ceiling still exists in corporate finance—and highlight the principles women leaders in the field have lived by as they’ve made their way through it.  Principle 1: Search for the Right Balance  Work-life balance has always been a critical part of theTaxGroup President Diana Stevens’ success story.  She’s not alone, either. In their Women in the Workplace 2019 survey, McKinsey & Company and Lean In found that work-life flexibility was the number-one issue raised by respondents. “When workplace policies support balancing work and life, employees are happier at work,” the report stated.  And for Diana, a key part of achieving that balance is finding a flexible workplace—especially for young parents trying to juggle work with family. She should know. She was once one of those women. Navigating Work-Life Balance “I started to see obstacles and barriers as a puzzle to navigate my way through,” Diana said when we spoke to her in 2020. Now Founder and President of theTaxGroup—a software provider dedicated to increasing the productivity of corporate tax departments—she started out in the world of corporate finance in the 1970s, surrounded by men.  At the time, she faced her share of obstacles. But none as great as when she started having a family. The mother of three now-adult daughters explained that back then, there weren’t any accommodations for young parents looking to approach the work-life mix outside the traditional way it had always been done. “It was just assumed you couldn't be a good mom and be successful in your career,” she remembered. “Because they could only really see the traditional way of working, where you're all locked in the office together all the time. But for me, that was just one of those things I had to figure out along the way—how to make it work.”  Trying To Do It All Even in 2021, according to the research by McKinsey and LeanIn.org, senior-level women in finance are 57% more likely than senior-level men to have a spouse who works full time. And those who do live with a spouse are seven-and-a-half times more likely than their male peers to say they are responsible for all or most of household responsibilities.  For many women, that’s a huge load to bear. For Diana early on, a key ingredient in taking it all on was a boss who bucked the trend by not judging her for how much time she spent at her desk, but rather for the quality of work she produced. She called him a mentor and has continued that tradition in her own role as boss. She’s always offered her employees a flexible work environment and given them the opportunity to work remotely even pre-pandemic—saving commuting time and allowing young parents the flexibility to work around their kids’ schedules.  But getting the work done is only one step to getting ahead, she added, and many young parents trying to do it all will skip out on the more casual, team-bonding time—something that can be just as detrimental to their careers as skipping out on an annual ski vacation might be to family bonding. “Just doing a good job isn't enough,” she said, and women, especially, need to give themselves permission to join in. Of course, in the years since we talked to Diana the pandemic has made that—and work-life balance as a whole—even more difficult for women to achieve.  Factoring In a Pandemic According to Women in the Workplace 2021—another report by Lean In and McKinsey & Company—women were even more burned out in 2021 than just a year before, with the gap in burnout between men and women almost doubling.  And it’s not just the responsibilities at home that are contributing. “Across industries, women leaders are more active champions of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DE&I) initiatives than their male peers,” McKinsey and LeanIn.org’s research stated. “In financial services, senior-level women in particular are much more likely to feel a personal responsibility to promote DE&I, which usually falls outside formal job responsibilities—increasing their invisible workload without increasing recognition.” It might not be surprising, then, that all of that responsibility has had its toll. The Women in the Workplace 2021 survey also found that one in three women had considered downshifting or even leaving their careers over the year. And since data has shown that women are leading the way in the Great Resignation, quitting at a higher rate than men, it’s clear that many have followed through. Balance, it’s clear, has been hard to achieve. But in light of that, the advice Diana offered young women in 2020 offers some hope. “A career can be more of a maze than a straight path,” she said then. And it’s often in the zigs and zags where the most interesting experiences happen, she added. As women zig their way through the rest of the pandemic, let’s hope that’s the case. Read this blog to find out why the pandemic pushed career-driven women out of the workforce. In our next post, Christine Harms, Controller of the Arizona Cardinals, tells us why asking for what you want is the principle she lives by. 

What does a strategic CFO look like? Just take a look in the mirror. If you’re a CFO today, chances are you’re already thinking and acting strategically. Over the past decade, the role of CFO has moved from one that was once primarily accounting focused to one leading organization-wide decision making. As a strategic partner to the rest of the business, modern CFOs provide data-fueled insights and analysis that drive results through every aspect of the organization. But the best strategic CFOs aren’t just satisfied with a seat at the table—they want to be a voice that’s constantly pushing their business forward. And to achieve that, you can’t act alone. To better help their business thrive, strategic CFOs need the support of a strategic-focused finance team. So how do you go about building the right one to meet the needs of your organization? Building a Strategic Finance Team What’s the difference between a strategic finance team and a non-strategic finance team? That’s a question Vena CFO Darrell Cox posed in our recent livestream, CFO Confidential: The Rise of Strategic Finance—now available on demand to members of Vena’s Plan To Grow platform. In the session, Darrell invited Kansas City Chiefs CFO Dan Crumb, Climate Pros CFO Patricia Burkland and Vena Vice President of FP&A Tom Seegmiller to discuss the finance team’s rising role as a strategic business partner.  More efficient processes and technology advancements have helped the strategic CFO reach a point where they’re able to devote more of their time to analysis and insight, the panelists pointed out. “[That] makes the finance team a much more important member at the table than just the one who's keeping score,” Patricia added. If you want your entire team to do more than just keep score, though, you need to build one that offers that extra value—or add new skills to enhance the team you already have. Here are five things to consider as you do: 1. Look for People Who Aren’t Satisfied With the Status Quo What sets a leading strategic-focused CFO apart? According to Dan and Patricia, it’s a belief that nothing’s ever good enough. By always striving for what’s next, they’re constantly searching out new ways to improve the business. “There’s almost an element of being unsatisfied,” Patricia said in the CFO Confidential panel. And it’s because Patricia has that mindset herself that she says she’s always asking “Is this working? Is it not working?” and trying to find better ways to achieve growth—then continuing that search even after her business reaches its current goals.  So if those are attributes the best strategic CFOs draw on to help move their business forward, shouldn’t the team helping you do so have the same qualities as well? A team that constantly asks questions—looking for ways to improve your processes and make your systems better—is always going to have an eye on building company growth and improving on your current goals. They won’t be satisfied with riding whatever momentum you’ve already built—not when they can start building further momentum towards a new objective. That’s a team member that won’t just get you where you want to go—they’ll help you move beyond it. Which definitely makes it a must-have quality on your strategic finance team. 2. Look for Storytellers These days, your team needs to do more than “speak finance”—they have to act as translators, sharing the data-driven insights you’ve uncovered in a way the rest of the business can get behind. That means learning the needs of other departments, understanding their points of view and developing a wider understanding of the business as a whole.  “It's really about being storytellers, distilling that information,” Kansas City Chiefs CFO panelist Dan Crumb said in the CFO Confidential panel. “We take tons and tons of data, data points and information, and we carve out what are the most important things that each department needs to know.”  At Vena, we understand the value data storytellers bring to the finance function. Building a team of storytellers to support you—and arming them with the technology that will let them better tell those stories—will help you expand the value you offer the rest of the business and put the entire organization on the same page. All of which is key to establishing the buy-in and support you need to drive company-wide change. Learn how the Kansas City Chiefs use Vena to speed up reporting times by 95% and add more strategic value to their team. 3. Look for Data-Driven Mindsets But storytelling is just the start. To know the right story to tell your team needs to be able to dig into the data and understand exactly what metrics to follow to help meet your business goals. All of which takes a data-driven point of view.   “I think that our skills are changing,” Dan told the CFO Confidential panel. “We need to be really proficient with data, we need to be able to look at data and [understand] what data is important.” Since data is central to the new strategy-focused finance team, your team has to know how to extract everything they can from it and use it to plan ahead. That starts with capturing the right data—including data that goes beyond the financial numbers that are familiar to a more non-strategic finance team. It also means asking the right questions of that data, knowing how to put it to work and understanding which levers you can pull to stay agile to change.  While doing so involves a knowledge of the technology and processes that can help, it starts with a mindset, Dan explains. Your team needs to embrace data and everything it offers—always looking for new ways to apply it to the decision making at hand. Achieving that, in fact, sometimes means adding new skill sets to your team... 4. Look For New Skill Sets That Will Add Value Sometimes, the traditional roles of finance may not be enough in this new strategic world. Dan, for one, has three data scientists reporting to him, building out his team’s strategic and analytic value.  At Climate Pros, meanwhile, Patricia has a programmer working predominantly for the finance team as they look for ways to further accelerate and automate their financial close—freeing up even more time for finance to contribute strategic value in the process. “We actually hired somebody that is working primarily in finance right now, until we get to the point where all those steps are automated,” she explained in the panel. “So we are doing coding to automate some of those functions.” In other words, by understanding where the gaps are in your current team, looking at where there’s room for improvement and thinking outside of the box to fill your existing needs, you can add depth to your strategic capacity and stay ready for whatever comes next. 5. Look for People Who Want To Keep Learning The role of finance continues to change—and that’s probably not going to stop anytime soon. As technology adds new efficiencies to their day-to-day role, teams are able to spend more time on strategy and analysis—and on exploring new tools and processes that will let them build on that added value.  With that kind of change underway, a strategic team can’t be stagnant. Finance professionals need to be constantly ready to develop their skills and add to what they bring to the table.  For a strategic finance professional, in other words, learning shouldn’t be an obstacle—it should be an opportunity. Which means you need to look for team members who are constantly excited to grow. “When it comes to the people side, making sure people are always elevating themselves [is key],” Patricia says. “It makes the job more interesting for them as well.” Adding Continued Strategic Value A strategic CFO can’t act alone. Not if they want the kind of results that help your entire business thrive, keeping it agile to new changes on the horizon. For that, you need a team that’s focused on the same things you are—and one that uses data to propel decision making forward, getting the whole organization behind you.  Putting that team together means adding to the traditional accounting skills that are a mainstay of a finance team—to embrace data storytellers, translators of business and data experts. Then it means always continuing to develop your team’s skills to keep up with finance’s continuously changing role. “My number one challenge and [number one] opportunity is always around the depth of the team and the strength of the team,” Patricia said in the CFO Confidential session. “I think it really does always come down to the team, and making sure that we are developing the team and that we're giving them experiences [to learn from].”  To watch the entire CFO Confidential: The Rise of Strategic Finance livestream on demand, become a member of Vena’s Plan to Grow platform today.