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Strategy and innovation

CFO and networking: the need to create a professional network.

The Chief Financial Officer feels the solitude of the goalkeeper before the penalty, as was said in the popular novel by Peter Handke The growing complexity of the role means it is now more necessary than ever to weave a professional network to support the Financial Director in their difficult mission.
Red profesional CFO
Category
Strategy and innovation
Content type
News
Written by
Editorial Dept
Reading time
10 minutes
Published
29 Nov 2022
The Chief Financial Officer feels the solitude of the goalkeeper before the penalty, as was said in the popular novel by Peter Handke. The growing complexity of their role and the challenges they have had to face in recent years - the pandemic, digitalisation, the supply crisis and inflation at unprecedented levels - make it more necessary than ever to weave a professional network for support with their difficult mission.
Networking, which in other spheres is associated with the search for business or job promotion, is the CFO's chance to get out of the office. While meeting professional colleagues and executives from other areas is personally enriching, it also provides the opportunity to get to know the market better, detect trends and become receptive to new ideas and ways of thinking.

While the growing complexity of the CFO role increases the need for training and to keep up to date, this also applies to the search for talent, ideas and a break from day-to-day activities.

We have spent more than two years concentrating on the problems that threatened us and it's time to take a breather. The CFO never has all the answers and frequently finds them in the network that has been formed throughout their career. It's time to ask: Have we cherished and nurtured this network? If there are any doubts we need to get down to work.

Networking in three steps: visibility, authenticity and conversion

Networking in three steps: visibility, authenticity and conversion

As Stendhal warned us, the only way of being original is to be yourself. Many brands have appropriated this idea, showing that they are not very original, but it remains valid and helps us to underline a golden rule of networking. It is not necessary to build a personality or represent a role, but to be yourself and acquire a network in which we feel comfortable and recognisable.

Iván Misner, one of the world's leading authorities on this subject and the creator of the Business Network International (BNI), says that networking is one more job that involves being visible in your environment. It's all about getting out and making contacts.

“It's not net sit or net eat -- it's called network. You have to work at it”, warns Misner. A process that he has patented and that he calls VCP: Visibility, Credibility & Profitability.

Visibility

It's about getting out and making ourselves known. Today we do it in person, but we are lucky to have networks and channels to achieve that visibility, most notably LinkedIn. The most important thing is to show ourselves with our own style and personality and be transparent. The opposite of being locked in an office or to our name only yielding a dozen or so results when someone looks for us on Google.

Credibility

Once we are known and recognisable comes the really crucial step: being credible and reliable. This is achieved with deeds. By how we interact with others. We not only expect something from our colleagues, but we also add value to them and create a climate of trust. The first step, visibility, would be: I know who they are. And the second: I know what they are like.

Yield

If we do not achieve the first two, we will never get to the third: turning our professional relationships into opportunities for knowledge, business and personal and professional growth. It is the harvest stage after many months, perhaps years, of sowing relationship seeds. Those who throw themselves into networking starting with the third stage cause shock and generate rejection. Rather like when someone asks you for contact on LinkedIn and immediately sends you their portfolio of services.

Visibility

The basic human network is 150 people

The six degrees of separation theory was proposed by the Hungarian writer Frigyes Karinthy in his short story “Chains”, in which the characters play to see how many connections they can have. Although it is still an abstract concept, it indicates that the more contacts we have, the greater the likelihood we will reach the right person.

It is based on the fact that each person has 200 contacts on average and these, in turn, have another 200 contacts. This leads to the conclusion that we are only six degrees from knowing anyone in the world.

It is a hypothesis that explains the success of social media, where we accumulate contacts that we sometimes don't even know. The British anthropologist Robin Dunbar, after examining the social relationships of primates, reached the conclusion that the human species can only interact with 147.8 individuals.

It is what is known as “Dunbar's number”: the maximum number of people with whom we can relate as a species based on our cranial capacity. This is why all human communities - from the village to the military unit or our group of friends, colleagues and family members - tend to be around this number of one hundred and fifty individuals.

But if we were only able to connect with 150 people, there would be no need for networking and social relationships. What these theories teach us is the importance of the network that we can control being dynamic and, in addition, expanding in concentric circles towards people to whom we are not close, but who are acquaintances, or acquaintances of acquaintances.

This is what we see on LinkedIn when we find a profile. If it appears first, it means that we are already in contact. A second degree indicates that it is a contact of a contact. And a third level is that it's in the middle of the six degrees of separation that Karinthy spoke about.

When someone says that “they can pick up a phone and solve it in a few minutes” it does not mean that they know everyone, but that they have quality contacts with people who know what they are doing. For this it is essential that this basic network is nurtured on a regular basis: with messages, phone calls, meals and events where we can meet acquaintances and put a face to professionals we had only heard mentioned.

How are you when it comes to networking?

How are you when it comes to networking?

Returning to Iván Misner, he identifies four stereotypes of people when it comes to networking. With whom do you identify the most?

  • The go-getter. This is the person who arrives at an event and initiates a contact for a specific interest: to do business or find a better job. They are practical and results-oriented.
  • The promoter. A positive, empathetic and outgoing person. They are the life and soul of the event or group because of their affable character and their natural talent for establishing relationships. They would rather close a deal at a dinner than in a meeting.
  • The nurturer. This is the person who forges strong relationships. They may not be as sociable as the promoter, but go step by step and not only sow, but reap. They nurture their relationships and don't take too many risks: they often go to events where they already know someone.
  • The examiner. The person who goes to an event or gets to know a person to learn a methodology, expand their knowledge or obtain information they need. When it finishes, they leave promptly, after taking good note.

We doubtless find these characters around us in our professional relationships and identify with one of the four styles. It is obvious that the profile to which most of us aspire would oscillate between the promoter and the nurturer. The profile who has it easiest on account of their character and the one whose emotional intelligence enables them to strengthen their relationships. Without forgetting results (let's learn from the go-getter profile) and that for a CFO, time is money (what the examiner teaches us).

Eight tips for quality networking

The leading experts in networking show us the way. In these eight points we will summarise how to rise to the challenge of building strong relationships with contacts in our professional life.

  • Establish goals. It can be simply socialising and getting out of the office, finding professional support, examining new markets, or scouting for talent for your team. The point is to have clear ideas and move in the right circles for this purpose. And adapt the objectives to how we are. If we find it difficult to show ourselves in public, there is nothing better than looking for less crowded events and arranging small-scale meetings.
  • Learn to ask for help. Nowadays it is not frowned upon to raise your hand. The CFO role is so complex and covers so many tasks and specialities that when you don't succeed or don't know about something , asking an expert for advice, financial or non-financial, does not diminish credibility, but in fact demonstrates professionalism. The CFO must not only move among peers, but with other managerial profiles that help them in their work.
  • Show appreciation. Congratulate colleagues who switch jobs on LinkedIn, be courteous with those who contact you, and be grateful just for the fact that they are in touch.
  • Help, even if you aren't asked. No one ever forgets a favour. Especially if you have not had to ask for it because someone has come forward to help knowing that it was necessary. It is the golden rule of networking: build strong relationships based on mutual trust. We should do this out of conviction, but without forgetting Thomas Jefferson's maxim: “Assuredly nobody will care for him who cares for nobody”.
  • Keep in touch. Relationships need to be freshened up and any excuse is good. An interesting article to recommend, for example from this very CFO Forum, or an invitation to visit the company. Because a cold call, out of pure interest, years after the contact was first established, is the last thing we want to have.
  • A balance between online and face-to-face. We have focused on online contact in recent years and it is a good time to say “enough”. We need to see one another again and any excuse is valid. Just saying that “it's okay to see each other on the phone” is a good excuse to call that colleague who we have not been able hug for two or three years.
  • Offer to take part in a conference. Sometimes the organisers of professional events, awards ceremonies, etc., as well as universities and business schools, see and want them to find speakers or have someone qualified to deliver a master class. No one has time. As we have emphasised, networking is not just about receiving, but also about offering our time and experience.
  • Use your suppliers' contacts. According to John Toley, from Salveson Stetson, a US headhunter firm that serves large companies, professional services companies organise a multitude of meetings where contacts can be made. But don't wait to be asked: tell them what profiles you would like to meet and they - financial institutions, tech companies, professional law firms, etc. - are bound to assist you in the process.
Networking on LinkedIn

Networking on LinkedIn

As we have seen, experts recommend combining in-person contacts with online activity. An ideal way to do this is by taking part in LinkedIn groups such as the SuperCFO Group, created in 2008 and which has 100,000 members, which can be narrowed down, for example, to the 570 who are in Madrid.

But there are more specialised forums such as the Finance Club, with 1.7 million members, as well as The Modern Finance Forum For The CFO and the CFO Network. With little time for other types of contacts, in this professional network, removed from the noise of other channels, visibility is achieved, credibility is forged and the foundations are laid for turning superficial relationships into solid contacts.

The penalty must only be saved every Sunday. But conversing with other goalkeepers during the week and knowing which way the striker usually shoots makes us fly higher.