What I have noticed, which you don't capture in this specific post, is that companies seek depth in particular experience and technician-level expertise when hiring C-Suite positions. Understanding a trade is essential. However, being a technical expert doesn't make you a good fit for strategic-level thinking and coordination. There is a trend in CFO hiring, for example, that highlights the desire to have CFOs who can be more strategic. When you look at job postings for CFOs, they focus on the technical qualifications and have limited depth on successful strategic leadership qualities and skills.
Thanks for your comment and I would say for me - it depends. On my team, I’m looking for a business partner as a CFO (more strategic). I’m less concerned with the technician depth because I have a team under my CFO that provides that depth of knowledge. The higher you go up, the more important it is to build a capable team around you. I think part of the problem is many CEOs are not as financially strong, especially when they come from, Sales, Engineering/R&D, Product Development. When this occurs, they want people with a deeper technical skill set because for many outside of Finance & Accounting, it’s a bit of black magic! 😉 When I became a CEO, this was my weakest area. I spent a lot of time learning the fundamentals of finance and accounting so I’m now much less concerned in that aspect of my CFO.
Where this changes is for smaller companies. For these positions, you are more of a “working leader”. I really hate that term because we all work very hard, it’s just “what” we are working on that changes. The typical definition of a working leader is someone who straddles the fence between leader and individual contributor. In these type roles, typically in smaller companies or smaller divisions of bigger companies, I see this often. When you’re in a company like this, I can see the need for the technician level requirement.
What I have noticed, which you don't capture in this specific post, is that companies seek depth in particular experience and technician-level expertise when hiring C-Suite positions. Understanding a trade is essential. However, being a technical expert doesn't make you a good fit for strategic-level thinking and coordination. There is a trend in CFO hiring, for example, that highlights the desire to have CFOs who can be more strategic. When you look at job postings for CFOs, they focus on the technical qualifications and have limited depth on successful strategic leadership qualities and skills.
Thanks for your comment and I would say for me - it depends. On my team, I’m looking for a business partner as a CFO (more strategic). I’m less concerned with the technician depth because I have a team under my CFO that provides that depth of knowledge. The higher you go up, the more important it is to build a capable team around you. I think part of the problem is many CEOs are not as financially strong, especially when they come from, Sales, Engineering/R&D, Product Development. When this occurs, they want people with a deeper technical skill set because for many outside of Finance & Accounting, it’s a bit of black magic! 😉 When I became a CEO, this was my weakest area. I spent a lot of time learning the fundamentals of finance and accounting so I’m now much less concerned in that aspect of my CFO.
Where this changes is for smaller companies. For these positions, you are more of a “working leader”. I really hate that term because we all work very hard, it’s just “what” we are working on that changes. The typical definition of a working leader is someone who straddles the fence between leader and individual contributor. In these type roles, typically in smaller companies or smaller divisions of bigger companies, I see this often. When you’re in a company like this, I can see the need for the technician level requirement.
Do you agree?