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CFO Folklore: Why Do I Work So Hard?


People are frequently surprised by my dedication to the job.  And I have to admit, my level of commitment, loyalty and work ethics is quite high.  Some even think that I have a stake in the company or am related to one of the owners.  But no, even though a CFO, I am just an employee.  Moreover, I have advanced my career by moving from one company to another about every 5 years.  Hence, any particular company is just another line on my resume.  My compensation is not tied to any volume factor and bonuses are discretionary.  So, why do I work so hard?

I am definitely NOT doing it for the BOSS.  Those who read my posts know that I have deepest respect for entrepreneurial bravery and ingenuity of business owners (even when I address their negative traits as a source of frustration).  And I cannot really complain; most of my bosses have shown a lot of appreciation for my efforts.  But, unfortunately, they are capable to see only the superficial aspects – long hours, multi-tasking, etc.  The quality of the impact I make on their company completely escapes them.  Plus, unlike others, I don't run to report every single achievement.

So, no I am not doing it for the bosses or their recognition.  One can say that the reasons fueling my drive for excellence are selfish.  I do it for myself.  I simply cannot do it differently.  It doesn't matter whether anybody else acknowledges it, if what I do is not up to my own standards, I get extremely disconcerted. 

I have learned this about myself a long time ago – dissatisfaction with my own performance is the biggest source of frustration and anxiety.  So, the choice is simple: either apply your absolute best or suffer the psychological consequences.  That is why I work so hard.  It makes me feel at peace and, yes, proud.   

Few years ago I was flying with my boss to Amsterdam for meetings with our bankers.  I was outlining the important issues I wanted to address and touched on the impressive growth rates we have achieved.  I guess my excitement affected him and he felt compelled to tell me how much he appreciated my hard work.  This is what I  told him, "When I came, the company was doing $40M a year.  It did $80M a year after, $120M a year after that, $160M last year, and I guarantee $200M this year.  Knowing that I was instrumental to that growth is what drives me." 

You say, vanity?  And may be you are right.



 



First Impression Is the Most Lasting Indeed


They say that the first impression is the most lasting one.  And it is true even for those people who try very  hard to be fair and give people a chance to show their true qualities. 

I myself is one of those people who make themselves look past the appearance of a job applicant.  Few years ago I have interviewed a woman who was grossly obese and needed a cane to assist her in moving her body.  I knew right away that aside from possible health issues, there could be multitude of other problems: we would need to order her a special X-large chair, my CEO may not like someone like that to be prominently installed in the Operations Department, visiting business relations may be destructed by the sight, etc. etc. 

Nevertheless, I gave her a full interview, which she passed with flying colors, and ended up hiring her.  It never even occurred to me not to offer her the salary attached to the position.  She got paid the same wages anyone in her place would.

Turns out, I am a rare exception.  Please, read this post from Vault's Career Blog Does your weight determine your salary?  The statistical data reported in the article are appalling.

Weight issue aside, my opinion is that when it comes to hiring process the entire "first impression" concept is very unprofessional.  Time after time, hiring execs, recruiters and variety of HR professionals yield to their contrived, closed-minded, self-centered views of other people instead of thinking of what's best for their companies.

Two weeks ago my good friend MJZ, also a career CFO, went for a job interview to a company that provides services to children with learning disabilities and autism under the contracts with various government health agencies.  Since such programs usually become first victims of states and counties budget cuts, the company desperately needs someone who can strategize their way into more diversified revenue models.   MJZ has a vast experience of building such strategies and facilitating companies' growth. 

She has previously had a phone interview and communications with the CEO's personal assistant.  So when in-person interview invitation was received, she assumed it would be with the CEO herself.  However, she was interviewed by a middle-rank HR Manager.  

When she told me that she did not even make it to the next round – the actual interview with the CEO (the HR Manager sent her an email), I've asked for the entire meeting description.  Now, knowing all details, I am confident that the HR Manager's rejection had nothing to do with MJZ's professional qualifications.  It had to do with the fact that she was dressed for an interview with the CEO and instead was assessed by a sweater-and-tights-clad middle-manager. 

The sad result is that the company had missed an opportunity to hire somebody who could have brought them to the next level of development.  Their loss, of course, but nevertheless a disappointing experience for my friend.

The Frustrated CFO Is Getting Anxious


I am really anxious to move away from abstract discussions on the nature of stress we experience every day and start showcasing stressful incidents and frustrating professional issues near and dear to every CFO, Controller, etc.  However, before I do that I feel we need to address one more theoretical subject – correlation of Frustration and Anxiety.

As I already mentioned several times, frustration is a normal reaction (whether extra- on introverted) to situations in which we face obstacles to our achieving goals or actions that contradict our standards, etc.  Every person experiences it from the moment he or she is born.  In this blog, with examples from daily war of survival, I argue that my peers, CFOs, Controllers, and other financial execs in entrepreneurial environment, operate in a state of chronic frustration.

Anxiety, on the other hand, no matter how many scientific definitions are out there, boils down to sense and fear of danger, whether real or non-existent.  The symptoms and sensations are the same if you are genetically predisposed ("wired") for anxiety or forced into it through the lifetime of conditioning.

Because it is far more fascinating to try to explain why some people feel anxiety and panic attacks for no tangible reasons at all, cognitive science is primarily preoccupied with the types of anxiety that are caused by chemical imbalance, hereditary factors, etc.  If you are interested to learn more about the latest research advancement in this area, I particularly recommend an almost a year old, but still very accurate and exhaustive, New York Times Magazine article Understanding the Anxious Mind. 

And, of course, most of us belong to the army of Americans (tens of millions of people, actually) who are worried about the economy, their job security, the money they lost in various market shakeups, the environment, the future of their children, etc. etc. Economic and environmental issues are big reasons why so many people seem to be on the verge of a breakdown.

That said, in the context of this blog I am primarily interested in the undeniable fact that chronic frustration with your job leads to stress and acute anxiety.  Just like Pavlov's dogs we are conditioned by frustration to fear those situations that cause the unpleasant experience.

We try to accomplish a particular task, meet our regular obstacles (bosses interventions, subordinates incompetence, time constraints), fail to achieve our goal, get frustrated – and (surprise-surprise), now we feel anxious every time we start that task, because subconsciously we anticipate frustration and fear the pain.  The anxieties accumulate into stress, and now we feel trapped.  If the situation is not managed, we can spin out of control.

And that is why it is so important to find methods of releasing frustration out of your system (please see my post One CFO's Personal Tools for Frustration Relief) and, just equally important, find resolutions for your professional problems by elevating your managerial, organizational, behavioral and technical skills – issues I hope to discuss in the future based on the incidents from your professional life.  

The Dashboards Obsession


It is easy to understand how executive dashboards have become so chic.  Most products come to mass market by way of technological advancements.  The 3-D movies fascinated audiences in select theaters for decades.  Now, we have 3-D TVs in our homes.  By the same token, specialized and complicated business intelligence software (like Cognos) existed since the 70s.  However, the 21st century brought forward adaptable, customizable, open-architecture systems and integratable reporting tools. 

Business intelligence and financial performance management are not new ideas.  Data warehousing may sound like a novelty, but collecting and organizing records in a particular order for easier access existed for centuries. The concept of information as a key to business success is millennia old.  How many spearheads you are going to make, if you don’t know all the warriors in your tribe? 

Of course, nowadays data flows are more complex.   The CFO’s and CEO’s need information integrated from different sources and they need it fast.   So, the developers caught up with the demand and offered executive information systems aka dashboards.  They advertise, give distribution licenses to specialized vendors, hold conferences, etc. As usual, standardization is mandatory in order to capture larger market shares, and that’s where the fallacy forms. 

Don’t get me wrong, they are beautiful visual arrangements – much more vivid than dry columns of numbers, far more impressive and memorable.  On top of that, more expensive ones allow you to drill down into the data behind them.  That’s incredibly cool!

Here are some of mine own:

Yet, in far too many instances the form obscures the substance.  Now, the users think they need something looking exactly like that, instead of thinking what info is fed into it.  And it is very sad, because CEOs and CFOs in need of sensible information, frequently end up just looking at a pretty picture.

I’ve seen a lot of dashboards – most of the time I find them absolutely irrelevant.   You are looking at your 12-month revenue curve and it displays expected cyclical pattern.  What are you learning here after spending a tidy sum for ability to generate this graph with a push of a button?  Nothing new – your last year curve had exactly the same shape.  How do you know whether you are doing better or worth now than a year ago?

And the gauges!!!  They look awesome and they justify the name “dashboard,” but they are the most difficult charts to read.  Moreover, they are kind of useless for static information.  Unless a constantly changing (and most importantly, crucial) information is fed into this device in real time, you have no reason to stare at a red circle with green border and unmoving black arrow.    

Here is my advice: don’t fall for colorful pictures.  Start from the beginning.  You know which information is most important for you and your CEO, which parameters affect your business’s ability to survive.  Figure out what combination of data would make the real impact on your decision-making, how frequently you want see it, whether it needs to be dynamic or static, etc, etc.  Only after that you can think about the format. 

Let’s say your product’s price is in direct correlation with crude oil market.   In this case, may be the two sets of data should be presented together, or maybe it’s most important to look at the units, not the sales dollar value?  Those are the important decisions, not the shapes and colors.

It is very possible that you need bar charts, graphs, even gauges.  Hey, if you are a jewelry manufacturer and make raw material procurement decisions all day long, there is nothing wrong with having a gold price meter installed right in the center of your screen.  At the end of the day, it is all about common sense.

Quote of the Day


"Life is what happens when you are busy making other plans."

                                                                                John Lennon

 

R.I.P.

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