GrowCFO Show

Kevin Appleby is joined by consultant, David Tuck, to explore how to set a transfer price. He also looks at transfer pricing advice and how effective it is. There has been a shift in transfer pricing David tells you there is a mystique of complexity around transfer pricing. It does not need to be that way if you have modest international aspirations. Is transfer pricing all about tax? Or public image of company? David explains how there has been a real shift. Proactive tax planning to aggressively reduce tax liability is less prevalent now. The BEPS rules play a big role in this. There has been a successful campaign in the media to show that it is part of you corporate social responsibility to pay the right amount of tax. Make sure you get it right and don’t fall foul of rules and regulations and potential complexity out there.  Transfer pricing is much more about accidental consequence mitigation now. Making sure you don’t make mistakes or interpret the rules wrong. It is also no longer adversarial; "how can we beat the tax authority?". The public outcry over Google, Amazon, Starbucks etc has been a part of this change. It’s about navigating the rules. Expanding internationally because it's in our commercial interest to do so, not to save tax. As David says, the tax tail no longer wags the business dog! Accidental consequence mitigation With transfer pricing, often start up finance leaders have heard it and they google it. They think they don’t need to do anything as there’s a UK SME exemption. This means from a UK perspective, there are no worries. They don’t, however, realise that if you have international operation the same exemptions may not apply. There is no exemption in the USA for instance. As a result, that startup could be exposed when it comes to transfer pricing. This means you could build up costs and losses which exposes the startup to inquiries in the USA by the IRS. This bites when you’re going through funding round or an exit. There can an be serious consequences. Operating in other countries may mean you need to see if you need a transfer policy. A US operation may expose start up to 6 years of going back in terms of enquiry instead of 3. The IRS can enquire into you when you are going through an exit. Any opportunity for a price shave will be looked for and they will see transfer price risk exposure. It can drop the value by 10%. What transfer pricing help do SME's need? The way David comes at is that there is a false dichotomy at present when it comes to transfer pricing. Either you do nothing or ,what a lot of finance leaders do, cobble a policy together themselves. Alternatively, they go to a professional services firm. There’s a middle ground here. The principle of reasonableness underlies the transfer pricing rules. David believes there is a gap for an OECD-aligned solution. If you’re a startup the most important thing is to have a sensible transfer pricing policy, sensible mark-up, some documentation that looks the part, then some legal agreements to back-up this is a genuine commercial relationship. David sees a gap for an OECD-aligned solution that could get you 95% of the way there. It is ballpark accurate, and it's more than reasonable. That’s what finance leaders in startups want, to have done something sensible without paying eye-watering sums for finance pricing advice. Further down the line, you might go and pay for some specialist transfer pricing advice on top of that general policy to give you additional peace of mind. You don’t want to do this at an early stage, especially when your business operations are still fluid.  Transfer pricing is not overly complicated There is nuance to transfer pricing. There are five transfer pricing methodologies. The three first considered are transactional indicators. You look at that sale of that good or service and requires knowledge of a business’s gross margin that you will realistically ...

Kevin Appleby is joined d GrowCFO mentor, Susana Serrano-Davey, to discuss how to give feedback properly. How do you start preparing a manager to give feedback properly? Susana explains to you that feedback is a craft that we acquire over time and experience. You will go through a learning curve to reach the point of giving feedback properly. To prepare a manager for giving appropriate feedback some companies have training in place, however, Susana says that this is a good step but can't be the only one you take. If you are a new manager or an experienced manager who's feedback isn't landing with their team, Susana tells you to find someone who can be a feedback mentor for you. You should find someone who gives or handles feedback correctly and then share your challenges with them. How do you give feedback properly in a difficult conversation? You should react quickly if you see there being an issue with someone's performance. It will give the person the heads up and a chance to develop before the conversation becomes more difficult. The choice of language you use is critical when giving feedback. Susana suggests using more neutral words and also to not personalise the feedback. This will help you give the feedback properly and make it less aggressive. Preparation for the feedback you are going to give is important. You need to think beforehand about what points you are going to make as you are more likely to handle the situation in a balanced way. The environment where you give your feedback can also impact the way it is received. Susana describes to us how she gives feedback to her team in a more informal setting so it can be more of a conversation and less aggressive. How can the culture of the organisation impact feedback? Some organisations can be very hierarchical. There are also some managers who think feedback is telling the person how they are doing with their tasks and what they need to do better. Others have a more holistic approach. This is where they will focus, not just on the job at hand, but also personal development. They will look more at the person rather than the role. Elsewhere we can see a culture where it's scary to ask your boss to help you achieve the improvements they have set you. In feedback, you need to not only tell the person what they need to improve on but also what they need to do to achieve it. How should you receive feedback? When receiving feedback you should put all your shortfalls on the table. This will lead you to asking for specific help on these tasks. Managers can provide you with guidance, support and even possibly finding additional resources. If someone gives you feedback in a broad way, ask for the specifics of what you are being told. This means you can be more focused on the things that really need additional attention. Susana also expands on being willing to listen when receiving feedback. Take note of what they are telling you. Also, take time to digest what you're being told so you don't automatically go into defense mode. Lastly, you always should accept the feedback. Even if it is harsh you have to look for the gem in the feedback that you need to improve from, and possibly previously didn't see. 360 degree feedback Susana likes this feedback and shows you how it can give you a more balanced view. The more directions you look into the more balanced your view will be. Listening to one opinion will leave you with a biased view on what to improve on. Even people far away from you in your role can give you insightful feedback. Some can find it hard to give their boss development points. However, it is very good practise at giving feedback properly, in a way that doesn't create discomfort. All feedback is important including your clients. These can be anyone you have delivered a product to or interacted with. The people you interact with will vary so this means your feedback approach has t...

Kevin Appleby is joined by Tony Shafar to discuss dealing with difficult conversations and how you can make them less difficult. Why do people avoid difficult conversations? Someone may not be forthcoming to have a difficult conversation with someone if they feel they will get a negative reaction from them. Tony explains that this is usually driven by them not having done the task the way they thought it should be done. Tony expands into how you can make someone more open to have these conversations. The main factor he talks about is if you want honesty you need to give it. The mindset you need to have for difficult conversations To make a difficult conversation more comfortable you need to be willing to understand from their perspective. Tony shows how this should include understanding what is stopping them from doing the task the way you want it done. When wanting people to be more open and vulnerable you need to reflect them yourself. Sharing with your team times you have previously struggled will show them it is normal. They will, therefore, feel more comfortable sharing their problems with you. Tony and Kevin agree that it is unrealistic to be good at everything. Showing this vulnerability will make people feel more open to giving suggestions and will invite a conversation to get other perspectives. Tony explains that you should have the mindset that you have an idea of how it should be done but have an open mind to other ways of doing it. The culture you create for difficult conversations You should have a culture that everyone feels comfortable giving their opinion and that they feel as though it is valid. Tony gave a few ways you can create this open culture. Utilise the junior members of your team. Hearing senior members talk about their ideas may leave junior members less sure in their ideas. To counteract this, letting the junior members talk first will let you hear their fresh ideas as they have less of an idea of what is right and wrong. In conversations there may be regular people who are always vocal. Possibly have discussions within discussions to give the less vocal people a chance. You could also highlight the counter-productive behaviour that the vocal people have with them. The finance leader's difficult conversations Managing costs and budgets is a difficult conversation finance professionals need to have. However, Tony shows us how these can be made harder when you have to have a difficult conversation repeated and are still not seeing any action. Tony then helps you by giving ways of making these conversations less difficult. One is allowing them to be part of the solution. Instead of telling them what the solution is going to be, go to them with the problem and ask for their solution to add a new perspective. It would also make them feel more involved in what the final decisions will be. The difficult conversation of change People will usually look at change by seeing what they will get out of it. This is why, Tony says, you come to them with the question of which solution would work best for you while explaining the problems they need to overcome. This involvement makes change less forced and that they are partly responsible for the decision that was made. This makes them more likely to make it want to work. Find out more about GrowCFO If you enjoyed this podcast you can subscribe to the GrowCFO Show with your favourite podcast app. The GrowCFO show is listed in the Apple podcast directory, Google podcasts and many others. Why not subscribe there today? That way you never miss an episode. GrowCFO is a great place to extend your professional network. You can join GrowCFO as a free member today and take part in our regular networking events and webinars.  Premium members also have access to our extensive training centre. Here you can enrol in our flagship Future CFO or Finance Leader programmes.

Kevin Appleby is joined by David Appel from Sage Intacct to discuss reporting for a SaaS business. 5 Stages of SaaS business growth David Appel discusses with Kevin the 5 stages a SaaS business will go through, also what they need to accompany them: At this stage the simple goal is to create product market fit.The next stage is for you to prove you can sell your product and hire reps. Here, David explains, the focus needs to be on billing and cash flow. The metrics are around customer acquisition and sales efficiency. This is when you want to prove your net renewal model. This means you can hold and upsell the customers that you have. David indicates this is why more mature finance leaders are hired here. There needs to be a large focus on tracking performance obligations and contract obligations, tying every upsell back to them. As this continues, the finance function becomes more complicated.Make it predictable and scalable. This is when you will start to hire a more skilled finance team.This is the big outcome. It will be a strategic exit or IPO where the company will go global. Due to the higher stakes, there is a lot of additional pressure and scrutiny. With a SaaS business, recurring income makes meeting shareholder expectation easier. What’s the typical time-scale between more basic (receipts in shoe box) to thinking about the big outcome? David explores how SaaS businesses are getting faster and faster at this transition. However, investors always want it to go faster. For the top 10% who get there, it can be 6-7 years. Others can take 15, and up to 20 years. This can be down to the markets moving and customer sentiments changing. David suggests you have to be lucky to have everything fall your way. There is a lot of change as a lot of different things happen to finance. How often do folk scaling realise systems aren’t good enough? Classic process optimisation means you can break it down. There is such a cultural component to this. Is everyone clear on the simple mission of the company? And what role each has to achieve that? That’s critical to truly being able to scale.  Kevin adds importantly to what David says by pointing out: you have to think like a business of the size you want to reach. The systems you put in now will fit your company when you get where you want to be.  What metrics are key from CFO’s point of view? Each one is different at a different stage. David indicates towards using your resources around you like mentors and advisors as no one can do it all themselves. Someone will have been where you are and worked their way through it. David discusses 3 metrics: Velocity. This is the pace your going at. You could calculate it by using your revenue growth or your net dollar retention. There are many ways of calculating this but investors want transparency. Profitability. You need to look at what your customer acquisition cost is. An understanding of the lifetime value of a customer is vital. Capital efficiency. You want to know how much money you are bringing in against how much it is costing you. What is your net new ARR (Annual Recurring Revenue) divided by your net burn? What Sage does David works for the successful company Sage, majoring in the Intacct Product. He briefly tells us the benefits of using them which include: Helping you through the stages you will go through and helps you close. Not only do they help you close, it will be a quick close, possibly as quick as 5 days. Find out more about GrowCFO If you enjoyed this podcast you can subscribe to the GrowCFO Show with your favourite podcast app. The GrowCFO show is listed in the Apple podcast directory, Google podcasts and many others. Why not subscribe there today? That way you never miss an episode. GrowCFO is a great place to extend your professional network. You can join GrowCFO as a free member today and take part in our regular networking events and webinars...

Kevin Appleby is joined by Chris Tredwell to discuss this years GrowCFO finance systems survey and how the results will help them structure future sessions. The finance systems survey Chris explains what the survey's purpose is and the benefits using it brings. He touched on an area of benefits that hearing the results from peers or the people who actually use the systems bring. It brings to light what people think about the finance systems they use. This helps GrowCFO to structure their sessions and become more adapted to what people are actually using. Last and this year's finance system surveys There was a lot of continuity in the results, Chris explains. However, due to the events of the past 12 months some questions were more suited to how you had adapted to working in the pandemic. There is still miseducation among people as to what their finance systems can do as some responses were contradictory. Chris shows us how this can be helpful as fellow peers can help improve each other's knowledge of the same system. increased systems footpring better represented situatuin riim Finance systems that increased footprint Kevin and Chris explore what finance systems have increased their footprint over the last year. Chris indicates that there has been shifts towards finance systems such as Cloud. Despite the large changes of last year, most people were still able to use the same finance system that they were using before, remotely. Only some of these people had to slightly modify these systems. We hear from Chris about the new intel on Unit Four as more people are using it, in comparison to last year. Alternatively, he discusses a recurring name from last year, the finance system Zero. The responses indicate this is used more frequently by start-up businesses to facilitate their early stages. How GrowCFO uses the finance survey to help Every Tuesday at midday GrowCFO holds a Future of Finance session. Chris tells you some topics that will be covered in coming weeks; Cloud, integrations and where roles are likely to be based. This is due to most saying they will not work solely from home or remotely. This leads to people deciding whether to train or hire people for their finance team. Due to the results, you will see more advice on how to hire the right staff. Chris also suggests that GrowCFO will be focusing on period end close and management packs as these were areas where the time spent was highly varied. This is a continuing issue despite improving technology. Chris also touches upon this as to why people feel they don't make the changes to the system that would improve this. GrowCFO looks to help people counter the issues they face such as they don't believe it will be a quick fix or fix anything in the long run. All Future of Finance sessions are recorded and featured on the website. New integrations and innovations Chris tells you what new players and integrators they want to look at. He lists; business intelligence, OCR, robotic process automation and ground workflows. These are all things that people wanted to tighten in their business. Find out more about GrowCFO If you enjoyed this podcast you can subscribe to the GrowCFO Show with your favourite podcast app. The GrowCFO show is listed in the Apple podcast directory, Google podcasts and many others. Why not subscribe there today? That way you never miss an episode. GrowCFO is a great place to extend your professional network. You can join GrowCFO as a free member today and take part in our regular networking events and webinars.  Premium members also have access to our extensive training centre. Here you can enrol in our flagship Future CFO or Finance Leader programmes.  You can find out more and join today at growcfo.net

Change is an important part of the CFO role. Change is a big part of a transaction, a business restructure or a systems implementation. The CFO is involved in leading all three. We look at each of these in this weeks podcast. The CFO's role in business change can't be underestimated, the CFO is a catalyst for change. GrowCFO's future of finance functions group meets every Tuesday over Zoom. I'm looking at Change and specifically how it relates to finance transformation on the last Tuesday of every month. The CFO's role in business change is covered as one of the core competencies of the CFO. The CFO as a catalyst of business change forms a key element of the GrowCFO competency framework. https://youtu.be/JuO2fKb5zuY The CFO's role in business change is in 3 areas The transaction, after a merger or acquisition, or before a divestment Systems project, putting new IT into finance or the wider business Driving a step change in performance, reshaping the business model The transaction As CFO you will have a major involvement in any transaction and a key part in making it happen. After the transaction you need to be involved in the business change: After a merger or acquisition you need to drive integration of the new business, particularly in the back office Before a divestment you need to make sure the bit of the business you are selling is properly decoupled, and there's no ongoing dependency for systems and processes with the parts of the business you are retaining Step change in performance The CFO is at the heart of driving business performance. As CFO, its you job to look for opportunities to improve the bottom line. The CFO's role in business change could involve you in one or more of the following: A business restructure Cost reduction, reducing the cost base of the business Driving a Zero Based Budget. To direct spend to the key business objectives you and your C Suite colleagues are committed, and eliminate spend that isn't focussed on these. You have a key role in decisions concerning pricing and product mix. You need to know which customers and products are profitable and which are not. The CFO view of the best parts of the business might be very different from the sales and marketing view. So, you need to: Understand the economic engine, not the P&L account Know which products & services drive cost. High margin might look attractive to the sales team, but if the product is low volume and there are lots of demands on customer service time then the overall contribution might be negative. Systems project You have an important role leading business change in a systems project. This might include: A Finance Transformation. Most finance functions have big scope to modernise and automate. Finance is your home turf. You need to get change right in finance to be trusted with change in the wider business. Wider business change, which will nearly always impact you and your finance team Delivering business benefits rarely comes from system changes, it more likely comes from changes relating to people and process that surround the system. People change is the hardest part. As CFO you have a vital role in people change. Leading change is all about leading people through the change process. Learning more about the CFO's role in business change If you want to deliver a successful business transformation then you need to understand how to lead change. John P Kotter outlines an 8 step process in his book Leading change The sessions I'm leading each month for GrowCFO's future of finance functions group is exploring the Kotter 8 step process. One step at each month's session. Dr Kotter cultivated the 8-Step Process for Leading Change from over four decades observations of countless leaders and organizations as they were trying to transform or execute their strategies. He identified and extracted the success factors and combined...

The CFO and CEO's roles have an important relationship. On this episode of the GrowCFO Show Kevin Appleby looks closer at this relationship with Richard Medcalf, founder of Xquadrant . Richard is a mentor to CEOs and tells you how the CFO should work with the CEO and also how to make the jump from the CFO role to the CEO one. About Richard Medcalf Richard studied at the University of Oxford and is now a leadership strategist to top tech CEOs. He is the founder and CEO of Xquadrant. Imposter syndrome and the CFO and CEO relationship Imposter syndrome is where you may feel out of place in your new role, or as though you don't know how you have ended up with it. Richard explains how this shows that you are developing and learning. CFOs and CEOs are both senior positions meaning that you will be playing a bigger game. You will constantly be experimenting as to what will work best for you. Richard importantly states that "there is no learning in the comfort zone, and no comfort in the learning zone". The ways the CFO and CEO should work together Richard expands on how the CFO should be the CEO's right hand. He describes how the CFO should make the CEO's case for change by using the numbers to back it up but then give a further insight to the executive and the board as to what the numbers mean. CEOs look forward for goals that will improve the business. This means, a CFO cannot be completely focused on the last quarter, but also what should happen in the next. The CFO's and CEO's need for time balance CFOs and CEOs both need a high level of skill in time management. Richard covers how you need not only to be focused on projects and execute them to a high level, but also to have time for strategic activity. If you do not time manage and are not involved, it can hinder your progression in that role. Reliability to answer questions about your section of the business is important and this means you have to have time balance so you can have that availability. The jump from CFO to CEO Richard and Kevin discuss ways to make this jump; One is to make sure you are doing more than what is required of an average CFO. This includes taking a larger interest in all the sections of the business as this is a key role of the CEO. Secondly, you have to be big on vision. The CEO looks forward and looks at what the company wants to be. The CFO often looks at what has previously happened, so there has to be a balance of looking forward but also seeing what has worked in the past. Lastly, you need to be ready to leave numbers behind. It is a new role,so don't try and be a better CFO than yours. You will be expected to be well-rounded and have expertise in all areas, not only finance. How can a CFO build business relevance: Richard discusses this in two parts; He looks into why you shouldn't look to wow with your finance skills, show your business skills. You need to add perspectives and not only see the business from a finance point of view. Also look commercially at what risks would be beneficial to take. Richard then delves into why you should not only have a financial plan but also a plan for finance. This will help you to uplevel your finance function which, if you can't do, you won't be able to do for the rest of the business. Richard's website Richard's website has many complementary features to GrowCFO's lessons. It includes things such as the kryptonite test which will highlight your teams' weaknesses and areas that need management. The CFO can also utilise this as it can see what impact finance wants to make on the business. You can also find an executive productivity assessment. This will show your benchmark and how you are doing. It will also help with time balance as you can see the least prioritised areas for work. Find out more about GrowCFO If you enjoyed this podcast you can subscribe to the GrowCFO Show with your favourite podcast app.

Great communication is a vital part of the CFO's brief. Using the right language is often the difference between good and great communication. On this episode of the GrowCFO Show Kevin Appleby discusses the power of language with Susana Serrano-Davey. Susana tells us about the many ways the right language can make a difference. The right language is vital to communicate to a team or individual effectively.  Susana expands on the ways we can adapt our language and how this adaptation can lead to better results.  About Susana Susana is a GrowCFO mentor. She is also an executive director with international experience in commercial finance, business transformation, commercial management, FP&A, financial control and audit. Be mindful to use the right language   Susana discusses how we need to be aware of our environment to give the most effective message. This means we need to use the right language for that situation.  When we meet different people our language has to adapt so we can communicate with them in the right way so our message comes across the way we intend it to. Just a few words can make a large difference on how the sentence is received.  Right language is needed so you don’t reflect our emotions in what you are saying. Using a word like ‘always’ can add layers of frustration and alter how the sentence is received.  Why do we need to change our language to the right language? Susana dives into how things such as  culture can have an impact on the way we communicate, for example, differing nationalities can also lead to different attitudes but also accents can make us sound more or less aggressive.  This means we have to identify factors on what we ourselves need to work on to be able to communicate most effectively. This may mean adapting words that we say but also how we say it.  Talking from the other person's perspective You will hear Susana explain how being aware of how other people perceive you is vital for good communication. The way people perceive you will determine how they respond to what you are telling them. Specific words will change the impression your sentence leaves, whether it shows you are being aggressive or feeling frustrated. It is also important to understand that the impression you leave does not only come from what you say but also how you say it as this creates an atmosphere. Susana discusses how being impatient can give an atmosphere that will not lead to the person you are speaking to work at their best. This is why you need to understand the impression you give and use the right language to get people to work with you. How do cultural differences affect right language? Susana illustrates how the right language can mean different things in different countries and cultures. She talks about the difference in attitudes to giving your boss feedback in Spain. This is where it is considered less acceptable to challenge your superiors. She tells the story of returning to her native Spain after working in the UK and finding it odd that her direct reports were so reluctant to give their opinions. Why do you need the right language to give feedback? You need to see how context can affect the feedback you give. You need to see how the negative can be seen in a different perspective like how, if it was resolved, it would lead to more opportunities.  Going further into this, Susana explains how this can vary from giving feedback to an individual as opposed to a group setting, where you need to be more careful as there is more room for misunderstanding due to a less tailored message. Find out more about GrowCFO If you enjoyed this podcast you can subscribe to the GrowCFO Show with your favourite podcast app. The GrowCFO show is listed in the Apple podcast directory, Google podcasts and many others. Why not subscribe there today? That way you never miss an episode. GrowCFO is a great place to extend your professional network.

Hugh Watchorn is the latest member of GrowCFO's mentoring team. Hugh brings with him a wealth of experience, and he's passionate about passing it on to the next generation of finance leaders. Kevin Appleby catches up with Hugh on this week's GrowCFO show and finds that its a combination of business and people that keeps him motivated. Listen to the audio recording and find out more. About Hugh Watchorn Hugh spent 15 years as CFO of Bonhams. Bonhams is a privately owned British auction house. It is one of the world's oldest and largest auctioneers of fine art and antiques. The Bonhams name is recognized worldwide throughout all sectors of the fine art, antiques and collectors market. Several of its departments are established world leaders within their specialist category. Hugh's passion for both business and people is clear from his time at Bonhams. He talked to me about growing the business. A merger with Phillips followed by acquisition of other businesses. He also talked about the fascinating people he got to work with. Hugh's mentoring experience Hugh is passionate about business and people. This is why he took up mentoring. He is a former mentor in the ICAEW F-TEN programme. F-TEN® is a unique business leadership, mentoring and peer-to-peer network programme designed for ambitious senior finance professionals who are one or two career stages away from a group CFO or equivalent-level role. Hugh Watchorn now brings all this experience with him to GrowCFO's mentoring programme His passion for business and people I delved deeper into Hugh's passion for both business and people. He has already had a long and successful career. Hugh could easily retire and just watch cricket. Instead, Hugh remains highly motivated. He is no longer working as a full time CFO, but he is still involved in a number of businesses. He is a portfolio CFO and has a number of non executive roles. His current project is supporting Prestige Pawnbrokers as part time finance director. We went on to talk about communication. Hugh believes that it is communication skills that set the good CFOs apart. We also discussed charisma. The really great communicator is also a charismatic character. I asked Hugh if charisma is a quality that you can teach. His answer was very interesting. Listen in and find out what Hugh thinks. Find out more about GrowCFO If you enjoyed this podcast you can subscribe to the GrowCFO Show with your favourite podcast app. The GrowCFO show is listed in the Apple podcast directory, Google podcasts and many others. Why not subscribe there today? That way you never miss an episode. GrowCFO is a great place to extend your professional network. You can join GrowCFO as a free member today and take part in our regular networking events and webinars.  Premium members also have access to our extensive training centre. Here you can enrol in our flagship Future CFO or Finance Leader programmes.  You can find out more and join today at growcfo.net

GrowCFO mentor Catherine Clark often finds assertiveness to be an issue when she is helping aspiring and new CFOs. She tells Kevin Appleby why that is and what you can do to be more assertive. Catherine and Susana Serrano-Davey recently covered assertiveness in the GrowCFO Women Finance Leaders group and on this episode of the GrowCFO Show she shares the key messages from that session Why do some CFOs find it difficult to be assertive? Catherine believes that the rout cause of a lack of assertiveness is closely tied in to a lack of confidence and to imposter syndrome. We covered imposter syndrome in Episode 15 of the GrowCFO show Often the new CXFO hasn't risen to be co-pilot to the CFO, instead one of the other c-suite members is first among equals on the board and has more influence both in the room and with the CFO. A new CFO may feel unworthy because she is underpaid, and does not feel on an equal footing with the rest of the leadership team. What can you do to be more assertive? We discuss a number of things you can do to become more confident and more assertive. These include: Improve the quality of relationships, take time to get to know people better and understand their problemsMake time to think and reflect, often there's more than one way to approach the situation and you need the right game planUnderstand the other persons viewpoint, find out the root cause. Often the immediate issue you are addressing isn't the route cause to their resistanceYou can't change the other person, but you can change your own behaviour. If you keep approaching things the same way and don't get results then doing more of the same rarely works. The DEAR technique to be more assertive Catherine has an interesting model to help you be more assertive. There are 4 parts to the request you want to assert D = Describe the situation Start by describing the situation as you see it to the other person. "It appears that....." E = Express your feelings Next, bring emotion into the conversation. "This makes me feel......... A = Assert your belief need or want. Make sure there's an action. Not a place to say sorry. Be clear what you need from the other person. "I would appreciate you doing......" R= Reinforce other person Let them know you appreciate them. A thank you in advance is a great way of getting the action you want. Find out more about GrowCFO If you enjoyed this podcast you can subscribe to the GrowCFO Show with your favourite podcast app. The show is listed in the Apple podcast directory, Google podcasts and many others. GrowCFO is a great place to extend your professional network. You can join GrowCFO as a free member today and take part in our regular networking events and webinars.  Premium members also have access to our extensive training centre. Here you can enrol in our flagship Future CFO or Finance Leader programmes.  You can find out more and join today at growcfo.net