Leading with personal mastery: leadership development strategies for achieving a level of personal mastery will better equip chief financial officers to face myriad external and internal challenges.

• Author: Peeler, Marie
• Position: Leadership

Fickle markets, regulatory uncertainty and economic hardship have conspired to make this one of the most difficult times yet to be an executive over any functional area of the enterprise. All areas in an organization are struggling to not only keep pace but to excel, despite a climate of extreme instability and uncertainty.

Financial executives face particular challenges. While some of the most troubling external issues faced by today's companies--the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, tax reform, XBRL implementation and potential health care reform among them--fall into the main purview of the chief financial executive, CFOs sometimes face the biggest challenges within their own organizations.

The Conundrum

The very nature of the CFO's role can cause the executive to appear to be the gatekeeper to innovation and creativity. In fad, while other executives have roles to play in guarding the financial integrity of the company and managing risk, it is often the CFO that holds these responsibilities closest and, in doing so, seems to be a naysayer. Many CFOs have likely heard the cry "Can't you be solution-oriented, instead of telling us what we can't do?"

Such cries frustrate the CFO, who is simply trying to do a difficult job and keep the organization on the straight and narrow. Some, faced with the apparent choice of doing "the right thing" or being a team player, simply choose the former and resign themselves to "being the bad guy" not realizing that there are other options.

The problem with addressing the conundrum with such "either/or" thinking is two-fold. First, the CFO, like all executives, has a dual role. One role is as the head of finance and the other--the one that some would say is the more important one--is as a member of the larger team responsible for the success of the overall organization.

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Individual team members cannot perform this part of their role if they have retreated into simply looking after their functional responsibilities. Doing the supposed right thing is seldom clear cut and can be better accomplished with a holistic organizational view.

CFOs would be well advised to be ever-mindful of their interpersonal relationships and the full spectrum of their organizational responsibilities because the ability to influence others is far less dependent on position than it is on credibility. The CFO that cultivates a reputation for being balanced and open-minded will inevitably be more respected and wield more influence in the organization.

Going it...