CFOs at large enterprises are underinvested in key activities and spend about one day per week on the wrong activities, according to Gartner.
To ascertain what the most effective CFOs do differently with their time, relationships, and teams, Gartner conducted more than 100 interviews with finance chiefs and assessed personal performance and effectiveness across 231 attributes.
“CFOs are under pressure to elevate performance across a range of job responsibilities, but our research shows that attempting to ‘do everything better’ is not the answer to driving better personal effectiveness,” said Johanna Robinson, managing vice president in Gartner’s finance practice.
The two most critical levers, she noted, are how CFOs manage their posture and relationships within the organization; and which activities they prioritize through the intentional allocation of their time.
The research found that just 22% of CFOs were personally effective. Personal effectiveness scores were based on how well a CFO’s organization aligned to what Gartner calls “efficient growth” behaviors.
Such behaviors are characterized by how willing key stakeholders and the finance team are to take risks to support long-term growth, and the CFO’s performance against CEO expectations.
Survey data revealed a significant under-investment of time in such key activities as customer engagement and corporate strategy, as well as a desire to reallocate a full day per week to different priorities.
Gartner’s research identified three key areas that are responsible for driving personal effectiveness among CFOs. The personally effective CFO:
“While most CFOs have not yet achieved a high level of personal effectiveness, our data shows that they are at least aware of a misalignment between how their time is spent and their stated priorities,” said Robinson. “To achieve better outcomes, CFOs can replicate many common finance leadership practices in how they approach their own personal time management.”
Gartner’s research showed that personally effective CFOs followed four common practices that allowed them to focus more time and energy on the activities most impactful to their job performance. Those practices included:
Survey results were discussed at the recent Gartner CFO & Finance Executive Conference in Washington, D.C.