Is it Irking or Embarrassing or Both?

A discussion of times fellow Finance Leaders drive me crazy.

Don’t you hate it when your CFO or Consultant steals your watch and tells you what time it is?

It is almost as cliche as “What keeps you up at night?” But these phrases and sayings come from truths, so please look past that with me.

Here are some examples of Finance Leader’s “INSIGHTS” that embarrass our profession.

“X revenue decreased $yk ($yk 2025 vs. $yk 2024) due to a year-over-year client decrease. X revenue also decreased $yk YoY, which aligns with fewer clients.”

Or here is one that is marginally better but still awful:

“X revenue decreased $yk ($yk 2025 vs. $yk 2024) due to a decrease in the size of X projects.”

No kidding, right? Thank God I’m paying $200k plus for someone to write a sentence, call it insights and spell out the direction and obvious reasons for changes in my financial numbers.

Phew! I’m in the big leagues now!

So, what should you expect if you get the above?

Or, if you are a Finance Leader and this is what you write out, what should you provide?

Let’s dig into that over the following few blogs.

Here’s the thing: some CFOs and Controllers come by this honestly. If you worked in audit or pubco MD&As, the amount of insights you can provide is not overly different than the above. You need to stick to facts, and sometimes that means the obvious. But that isn’t what we need as Executive teams that use the financials to make real operational and future-oriented differences. It is time to level up.

After all, AI could do what you are doing if the above is as good as you get. Right? Make yourself irreplaceable and step out of your past and into the seat of an Executive, just like you are being paid to do.

And if you are an Executive questioning the value of the human sitting in your CFO or Finance Leader seat, don’t paint my entire profession with the brush. Give it another chance, and you’ll find that with the right approach and person, you’ll level up, too.

Finance leaders must be courageous enough to ask questions that inspire the numbers and results.
They must collaborate and discuss the risks and opportunities when we see the financial results.
They need to be curious and seek to learn about the root causes of the changes and what that means for the risks, opportunities, and decisions that are coming up.
As a Finance Leader, you need to be in a position where you are perceived as caring so you can challenge directly with candor.
You must also ensure that your communication connects with your audience visually, narratively, and in discussions.

Anything less isn’t worth the payroll, and it will soon be done by quicker, smarter, and more accurate technology anyway.

Let’s dive into these. It all comes down to ACTIONs. Month-end reporting isn’t about hitting the deadline or getting the compliance reports to the financial statement users. It should be about data-driven decision-making that results in real actions – taking on new opportunities supported by the financial strategy. We must face and identify risks and mitigate them based on a fulsome understanding of what the numbers tell us. The whole Executive team should understand each decision from all angles – including the financial side of the equation.

Here are the blogs we will share over the next month on the “Don’t You Just Hate It” series.

Don’t You Just Hate It when your Finance Leader provides only spreadsheets and tables? A discussion on the importance of visuals and dashboards and knowing your audience.
Don’t You Just Hate It when your Finance Leader provides you with fancy dashboards and all the visuals but no actionable insights? A discussion on the importance of data-driven decisions and what business leaders should use the financials for.
Don’t You Just Hate It when your Finance Leader is stuck in the past and compliance? A deeper discussion on how financial strategy needs to be future-oriented and help the business identify risk and opportunity well ahead of time.

Join us in expecting more.