Brian Olson was tapped to head up finance early in his career and promoted to CFO of an international publicly traded company at 30. He was green and had to learn some of the nuts and bolts of public company finance as he went along. When he subsequently took the reins of CEO, he “matured as an executive, partly out of necessity,” primarily because he enjoyed the work and wanted to get better at it, he says.
Back then, Olson succeeded with help from some board mentors and business partners, he says; executive coaching wasn’t well known or available. Now, it’s hard to see how a CFO could be successful without one, especially with all the leadership intangibles the job demands—resilience, empathy, emotional intelligence and the ability to inspire, to name a few. “Let’s not be mistaken—CFOs are expected to be rockstars,” Olson says.
As a coach at Chief Executive Coaching, Olson guides CFOs through the process of developing their brand and self-awareness and helps them gain insights they can’t get from a book.
In the first of a two-part Q&A, we asked Olson (who also teaches golf) about his approach to coaching CFOs and how current and up-and-coming CFOs can profit from a coaching relationship.
How do you equip CFOs with the tools and behaviors to form them into top-level executives? What’s your approach to coaching CFOs?
Despite coaching’s growing popularity, there is no recipe for this, and each coaching situation demands different approaches, methodologies, assessments, a touch of creativity and commitment. For the executive, coaching is not about emulating someone else or, for the coach, trying to make an executive lead like someone else; that’s dangerous. It’s about an executive humbly accepting and owning their leadership style, their strengths and weaknesses and leveraging who and what they are. That is where the magic takes flight.
I love using golf parallels in describing executive coaching, as I also coach golf. They share many principles and dynamics. Whether it’s golfers or executives, it starts with the reality that their swing is theirs. A coach can refine and improve a swing, but it’s better to base the coaching on who that golfer is, not make them into some other golfer and attempt to make them swing like Tiger Woods. Or lead like Elon Musk. Coaching doesn’t work well like that. We are all unique; no leadership style or golf swing is the same.
An executive shouldn’t have to feel like they must become a different person. There is freedom in becoming a better you, not a new you. It becomes a delicate dance and art of leveraging who you are as an executive, what the situation calls for and what underlying shifts can occur that also leverage the underlying composition of the person you are.
Can any CFO become a better leader with the proper coaching?
Yes. Coaching is powerful. It’s true in golf, sports and entertainment. The business world is waking up to the power of coaching. And let’s be clear: Executive coaching is not business consulting. There is a discrete difference between the two. Consulting generally fixes business or financial problems and supports company endeavors. Executive coaching speaks to the executive on a personal level. It’s intimate and enlightening. It’s transcending and transformative. It requires openness, vulnerability, honesty and will. But it’s a process, and we see all stripes of executives make great strides under coaching models.
However, to be clear, an executive must want to become a better leader; I mean, really, really want to become a better leader. It’s not an exercise in leadership 101. Instead, the coach asks which behaviors, traits and characteristics can be exploited. Where does the executive believe they can make strides?
We’ll break the coaching parallels with golf. Golf follows physics and is linear in learning. Despite the many possible breakthroughs in the practice facility or the course, improvements and changes take time. I wish they didn’t. Alternatively, human behavior can, and usually does, change quickly once an individual makes the firm, yet simple, decision to do so. It generally happens fast if one genuinely makes one’s mind up to change. It’s human nature, and an executive can and should use this to their benefit.
I sense executive coaching isn’t easy, and there are no recipes. So, not just any coach will do.
Let’s be honest; business, in general, isn’t easy. Golf isn’t easy. None of this is easy. But that’s what makes it so rewarding. A coach must possess a strong sense of who the executive is and their situation and needs. They must have intuition, smarts, strong listening skills and the perspective to grasp the opportunity. Coaching also requires a unique approach and individualized game plan to address each situation.
Coaching isn’t about throwing an executive in the oven, baking at 400 degrees and expecting them to become a better leader. We can talk about a CFO being more forward-thinking, innovative or a better company-wide leader all day. But what does that mean?
Coaching can be intimidating for any executive; maybe that’s the biggest challenge. And it’s compounded by all the fancy words that make it seem less than straightforward, let alone inviting.
So, from the CFO’s perspective, why get a coach?
It is very simple: to become the best CFO one can become. Humans don’t self-reflect and think as much as we used to. None of us do. The coach can help create space for executives to gain perspective—to step back, take a breath and think through a problem or who they are as a leader. And if a coach can do that and be the vehicle for that, it’s very powerful.