The shift from doing to leading
Up to Senior Accountant or Finance Manager, your value is your output. Above that, your value is what the business does differently because of you. That is a genuinely different job, and it is why strong technical performers sometimes stall at the step into leadership.
The clearest symptom is waiting. A finance professional who waits for the founder or the executive to specify what they need is not operating strategically. They are a Senior Accountant with a more senior title, and at Head of Finance level that dynamic does not work.[1] Leadership starts when you bring the question rather than answer it.
Trust is the operating currency
Numbers matter, but trust matters more for finance leaders, because without it even the best reporting will not get used.[2] If your pack is technically flawless and the executive still makes decisions without opening it, you do not have a reporting problem. You have a trust problem, and no amount of extra analysis will fix it.
The same principle governs the top of the function. The CFO role transcends financial reporting into strategic advice, challenging decisions and critical business input, and if the CEO does not instinctively trust or enjoy working with the CFO, technical ability becomes irrelevant.[3] That is not a comment about likeability. It is about whether the person's judgement gets weight in the room.
It follows that in the first 90 days of a new senior finance leadership role, the focus should not sit solely on quick wins. It should include building trust.[4] Quick wins that nobody asked for buy you less than you think.
Speaking the language of the rest of the business
Businesses value finance leaders who speak the language of operations, technology and strategy, not just accounting.[5] This is the single most learnable leadership skill in finance and the most commonly neglected.
Practically it means being able to explain a variance in terms of what the operations lead should do next week, not in terms of the general ledger. It means testing a hiring plan before it becomes a commitment rather than reporting on it after. The best leaders build finance teams that are commercially minded enough to pivot quickly and resilient enough to handle volatility without burning out.[6] Both halves of that are leadership decisions, not technical ones.
| Senior individual contributor | Finance leader | |
|---|---|---|
| What you are measured on | The accuracy and timeliness of your own output. | The quality of decisions the business makes with your input. Accuracy is assumed rather than credited. |
| How work arrives | Assigned. You deliver against a defined brief. | Self-defined. Waiting to be told what is needed reads as a senior accountant with a bigger title. |
| What earns influence | Technical correctness and reliability. | Trust. Without it, even the best reporting will not get used, no matter how correct it is. |
| Language | Accounting: variances, accruals, standards. | Operations, technology and strategy. Translating the numbers into a decision someone outside finance can act on. |
| Team | Doing the work well and helping others when asked. | Building a team commercially minded enough to pivot quickly and resilient enough to handle volatility without burning out. |
If you are aiming specifically at the CFO seat, I set out what separates a great CFO from a competent one here.
Leadership in a startup is a different environment
Most formal leadership content is written for large organisations. In the Australian startups and scale-ups I recruit into, the conditions are different enough to matter. Finance teams often double as operations, strategy and systems, with investor expectations driving faster cycles and tighter budgets while the structure is still forming.[7]
Leading in that environment means making calls with incomplete information and being visibly comfortable doing so. It also means being honest with yourself about fit. Do not take a startup role expecting a corporate environment enhanced with equity; startup land means embracing chaos and ambiguity and rolling with whatever the day throws at you.[8]
One more environmental factor people underrate: when leadership above you changes, the entire philosophy of the business shifts, with real consequences for centralised versus decentralised reporting, risk appetite, capital expenditure approvals, performance expectations, headcount decisions and how closely the CFO works with the executive.[9] A finance leader who reads that shift early adapts. One who assumes the mandate is fixed gets caught out.
How to build the skills before you have the title
- Own an assumption, not just a model. Take a forecasting assumption, defend it publicly, and be accountable when it is wrong.
- Bring one recommendation per cycle. Every reporting pack should carry a view, not only the numbers.
- Build breadth deliberately. Build breadth and adaptability now to stay competitive, because market cycles will eventually turn.[10]
- Learn from people a step ahead. There is far more learning and development content aimed at CFOs than at every level below.[11] The CFO Track podcast exists precisely to give up-and-coming finance leaders the learning and development they might not otherwise get.[12]
If you want that in long form, the CFO Track podcast interviews Australian finance leaders about how they actually got there here.
Common questions
What does leadership in finance actually mean?
It means being paid for the quality of decisions the business makes rather than the accuracy of your own output. The technical craft is still required but it stops being the thing you are judged on. In practice the shift shows up in three places: you define what needs doing rather than waiting to be told, you are measured on whether your work changes decisions, and you carry the team's capability rather than just your own.
What skills do you need to lead a finance team?
Commercial judgement, the ability to influence people who do not report to you, and the language to translate finance into operations, technology and strategy rather than accounting. Then the people side: building a team commercially minded enough to pivot quickly and resilient enough to handle volatility without burning out. Trust underpins all of it, because without trust even the best reporting will not get used.
How do I move from a technical finance role into leadership?
Start behaving like a leader before the title arrives. Own a forecasting assumption publicly rather than just building the model. Bring one recommendation with every reporting cycle instead of only the numbers. Build breadth deliberately, because market cycles turn and breadth is what keeps you competitive when they do. And find learning from people a step ahead: there is far more development content aimed at CFOs than at the levels below.
Is finance leadership different in a startup?
Materially. In fast-growing businesses finance teams often double as operations, strategy and systems, with investor expectations driving faster cycles and tighter budgets while the structure is still forming. Leading there means making calls with incomplete information and being visibly comfortable doing it. It is also worth being honest with yourself about fit: a startup is not a corporate environment enhanced with equity, and plenty of excellent finance leaders are not built for that level of ambiguity.
References
- Tom Hunter on strategic operation: a finance professional waiting for the founder to specify needs is not operating strategically but as a Senior Accountant with a more senior title, a dynamic that is ineffective at Head of Finance level.
- Tom Hunter on trust in finance leadership: numbers matter, but trust matters more, because without it even the best reporting will not get used.
- Tom Hunter on the CFO remit: the role transcends financial reporting and covers strategic advice, challenging decisions and critical business input; if the CEO does not instinctively trust or enjoy working with the CFO, technical ability becomes irrelevant.
- Tom Hunter on the first 90 days in a new senior finance leadership role: the focus should not be solely on quick wins but also on building trust.
- Tom Hunter on what businesses value in finance leaders: they want people who speak the language of operations, technology and strategy, not just accounting.
- Tom Hunter on building finance teams: the best leaders build teams that are commercially minded enough to pivot quickly and resilient enough to handle volatility without burning out.
- Tom Hunter on fast-growing environments: finance teams often double as operations, strategy and systems, with PE and VC expectations driving faster cycles and tighter budgets while the structure is still forming.
- Tom Hunter's advice to finance professionals considering a startup: do not take the role expecting a corporate environment enhanced with equity. Startup land means embracing chaos and ambiguity and rolling with whatever the day throws at you.
- Tom Hunter on leadership change: when leadership changes the philosophy of the business shifts, with real consequences for centralised versus decentralised reporting, risk appetite, capital expenditure approvals, performance expectations, headcount decisions and the CFO's engagement with the executive team.
- Tom Hunter's advice to senior finance leaders: build breadth and adaptability now to remain competitive, because market cycles will eventually turn.
- Tom Hunter on the development gap in finance: there is so much learning and development content out there for CFOs, but very little for everyone at the levels below that.
- Tom Hunter on The CFO Track podcast: the whole idea behind it is to give up-and-coming finance leaders the learnings and development they might not have had the opportunity to get otherwise.