INCPAS recently partnered with CPA Crossings on new research entitled, “Corporate Finance CPA Research: Most-Wanted Competencies from CEOs.”

This report surveyed more than 320 CEOs and hiring executives at companies of all sizes across the country. It focuses on more than 80 competencies and sub competencies, and has participants rank the importance of each competency based on differing criteria.

Here are three of the findings:

#1: Financial acumen is the most-required competency for CFO applicants and new hires, but with a twist.

Most CPAs and accountants are trained to review past performance and ensure their clients comply with relevant regulations and pass an audit. CEOs want CFOs and finance senior leaders who can look forward — who can strategize, forecast, identify new opportunities, plan to mitigate risks, and think critically as they apply their financial acumen.

#2: Leadership and strategy are not soft skills — they are required skills for today’s CFOs.

Over the last few years, the role of CFO has expanded. Today’s CFOs and senior corporate finance leaders often oversee human resources, operations and information technology as well as finance. A lot of the day-to-day financial management is handled by others on the finance team so that the CFO can focus on being in sync with the vision of the CEO, board members, key investors or donors, industry analysts, employees, and more. The CFO must be a critical thinker who can also motivate and educate these audiences. Many CFO applicants may not have acquired leadership and strategy skills in their experiences or in their firms, and may want to strengthen their skills before submitting their résumés.

“Across companies of all sizes, a CFO is expected to be more of a strategic partner to the CEO and board and not just a financial technician.” —Survey Respondent

#3: Soft skills such as emotional intelligence ranked at the bottom, but do not let that deceive you.

While having high emotional intelligence will make you a more effective leader, it isn’t a competency that hiring executives are prioritizing during their CFO searches.

In fact, putting too much emphasis or focus on emotional intelligence could harm a CFO candidate’s chances more than help them. Emotional intelligence consistently ranked at the bottom of competencies (8 out of 8) and all of the emotional intelligence sub competencies rank near the bottom, with social skills being the highest at 69 out of 79.

However, having reported these findings, we believe that emotional intelligence sub competencies ranked near or at the bottom not because emotional intelligence is not valued — but possibly because the hiring managers assume executive-level candidates have already mastered these sub competencies or the hiring managers are just more interested in some of the “harder skills.”

After all, not displaying emotional intelligence during an interview could diminish your strengths in other areas. For example, as a holistic CFO candidate, you may need to address how you would manage finance, human resources and information technology teams. With broad responsibilities beyond finance, CFOs must be able to apply emotional intelligence to motivate, lead, resolve conflicts and make key decisions with these teams. Emotional intelligence helps one understand the perspective and concerns of parties they are interacting with including CEOs, executive leadership, board members, shareholders, analysts, managers, employees and more. Also, high emotional intelligence ensures that CFOs are making decisions consistently that take into consideration reputation, trust and legal compliance.

A CFO candidate who has high emotional intelligence will stand out from the other candidates. The competency does not need to be highlighted. It will show itself naturally as answers to various questions come out. It is really the common thread that ties many of the highly ranked competencies and sub competencies together.

Other Key Findings

What other CFO competencies are highly desired by CEOs? What are the 80+ competencies and sub competencies that were ranked? Do these competencies change based on the company industry or size? Does a CPA license help you or hurt you when applying for a CFO or senior corporate finance position? What do you need to do to better your chances of getting a CFO interview or job?

All these questions and more will be answered in our upcoming webinar: “New Research: The Competencies That CEOs Require in Their CFOs Today” on Tuesday, August 13, from 10:30–11:30 a.m. ET. Register today to access full search results and whitepaper.

How to Register for the Webinar:

• If you’re in the Corporate Finance or Not-for-Profit Member Section: Click here to register for the free webinar (use incpas.org login).
  Reminder: The 2023–24 Member Section program year ends June 30, 2024. Be sure you've reenrolled in your Member Section for 2024–25 to receive access to this webinar – it can be done at the same time you renew your membership.
• If you’re not in the Corporate Finance or Not-for-Profit Member Section: You can enroll in the Corporate Finance or Not-for-Profit Member Section now to gain access to the upcoming webinar and whitepaper. Member Sections are $99 each and can be added at any point throughout the INCPAS membership year.