How Finance Leaders can Build Trust & Win Respect

In all relationships there are two essential ingredients that must be present for the relationship to flourish. These are mutual trust and mutual respect. Leadership Author, Stephanie Brown shares with CFO Magazine A/NZ insights on ways finance leaders can build trust and win respect.

Trust and respect are the bonds that tie. They are the essential glue that hold us in healthy relationship dynamics. High performing teams are ones where independent thinkers can come together in ways that activate collective intelligence. Trust and respect allow us to share honest viewpoints and listen with an open mind, so that we can leverage collective wisdom to innovate new solutions to existing problems.

Trust and respect are essential to success for CFOs. CFOs are the keepers of the ultimate performance measures of an organisation, revenue and margin. Accountability for the organisation flows from the capacity of the CFO to honestly and transparently communicate performance against these two vital signs of business health.

Organisational accountability starts with the relationship between the CFO and the CEO. Trust and respect between these two key role holders allow for an environment of honesty and transparency, where issues can be directly addressed. A level of constructive conflict between a CEO and CFO is essential to allow both parties to align on an acceptable risk profile for the business and ultimately present a united front to stakeholders.  

Further, when a CFO is well respected within a leadership team, they are sought for counsel and insight, seen as a partner and not a blocker to progress and risk taking. They enable their C-suite peers and ultimately their direct reports be accountable to numbers, painting the picture for how every individual in the business drives a result.

To build trust and win respect, take the time to invest in relationships by following these principles:

Build trust by being vulnerable

Trust and vulnerability go hand in hand. To trust is to be vulnerable, and to be vulnerable is to trust. Both are essential to getting at the real concerns, real viewpoints and diversity of views essential to effective problem solving and ultimate buy-in.

For CFOs this means not just sharing objective facts, but also your feelings about the numbers. Brené Brown is a world leading expert on vulnerability, and she defines vulnerability in her book Dare to Lead as “the emotion that we experience during times of uncertainty, risk and emotional exposure” (p.23). We feel vulnerable when we feel challenging emotions like frustration, confusion, anger, fear, sadness or shame. Being willing to share your emotions when it comes to the story the numbers are telling, opens the door for others to similarly share in kind. This allows us together, as a team, to find the root cause of challenges and ultimately to solve them.

This opens what Daniel Coyle refers to in his book The Culture Code as the ‘vulnerability loop’

The vulnerability loop works as follows:

• Person A shows their vulnerability
• Person B recognises this, and shows their vulnerability
• Now Person A recognises Person B responded in kind
• Trust between Person A and B becomes stronger

By sharing your feelings along with the facts, you start the vulnerability loop and open the door for more honest sharing of fears or concerns that may be holding people back from achieving their numbers.   

Win respect by showing up

Respect ensures we appreciate differences. To develop the bond of respect, is to develop a high level of openness, appreciation and acceptance of difference. This ultimately allows teams to benefit from the true advantage that diversity brings.

Similar to the concept of vulnerability, we win respect by offering honest viewpoints that broaden or even challenge the consensus view. By opening the sphere of thinking, we add value to conversations. Similarly, we encourage others to do the same. We actively seek diverse viewpoints because they enable us to apply more rigour to our thinking and communications.

As a CFO, your voice matters. CEO’s do not need ‘yes’ people around them, they need to be supported by a team of experts who are willing to challenge them and test ideas so they can make better decisions, together.  When it comes to respect, it’s important to remember that you don’t need to like someone to respect them. You can disagree, and yet still hold someone in high regard.

Facilitate open conversations with your c-suite

If your goal is to open the conversation with your peers and allow for their true concerns and fears to be aired (and ultimately worked through), adopt the stance of a facilitator. For example, you may need to facilitate a conversation about how cash flow is maintained in a quarter where revenue targets are not achieved. 

When facilitating, the content comes from the group, not from the facilitator. Facilitators frame the conversations, draw out the inputs, consolidate the thinking, and collaborate to agree on the outputs or ‘next steps’ for each conversation. This is a process of creating shared understanding and consensus on the best path forward so that there is ultimate buy-in. 

To effectively facilitate:

• Capture inputs visually – on a flipchart or whiteboard (or relevant online version). This demonstrates that what people say is important and valuable.

• Manage contribution– subtly close down dominant voices and invite in silent ones. Ensure all voices are heard by asking something like “thanks for your contribution. That’s one opinion – let’s hear from others…” or “That’s useful, thanks. Who has a different opinion or idea?”

• Use questions to ask people to go deeper: “Tell me more about that?”, “How did that make you feel?”, “Why was that important to you?”. Not everyone knows how to be vulnerable – your questions can help them get there.

• Manage time. If a conversation will run overtime – check that others are OK with that. Demonstrate that you’re actively managing time, not letting it run away from you.

• Use your body language as a cue for listening. Sit on the chair and lean in when it’s time to listen. Stand when it’s time to capture outcomes. You set the tone with what you say and how you move every minute of the session.

By working on building the tandem ties of trust and respect, CFOs will increase their spere of influence and ultimately drive stronger performance outcomes for the organisations they lead.

About the Author: Stephanie Bown

Stephanie Brown delivers talks and programs that transform the way leaders connect, align and inspire. She is the author of two books on high-performance; Curious, Connected & Calm: How leaders are better together, as well as Purpose, Passion & Performance: How systems for leadership, culture and strategy drive the 3ps of high-performance organisations.

For more information, visit www.stephaniebown.com