As a FocalPoint coach, I make it my personal mission to help Milwaukee’s top financial executives tackle their biggest leadership challenges and bring out the full potential in their teams. Over years of partnering with local CFOs and controllers, I’ve fielded numerous thoughtful questions around how external coaching can optimize their impact.
There’s no such thing as a bad question when it comes to building stronger workplaces.
Below I answer some frequent inquiries I’ve received around enhancing leadership abilities, driving strategic alignment, preparing high-performing teams to scale successfully, and more. Consider this your insider’s guide to the specialized executive coaching and consulting services financial decision makers need to deliver results.
Let’s get to the heart of your most pressing questions—and uncover the immense opportunity ahead.
What Specific Problems Do Financial Executives Face?
Many CFOs wrestle with talent gaps in technical capabilities, poor retention, lack of collaboration across silos, inadequate succession planning, and communication issues with their CEO and board. It takes commitment to build a high-performing team.
How Can a Coach Help Our Finance Department Specifically?
I offer customized coaching engagements tailored to your executive team’s needs after conducting a thorough assessment. I help craft solutions to increase operational excellence, talent development, leadership capabilities, workplace satisfaction, and strategic alignment with company goals.
What Are Some Examples of Leadership Development Areas We Can Improve?
With anonymous surveys and regular feedback sessions, I pinpoint development areas related to your presence as a leader, communication style, emotional intelligence, critical thinking, relationship building across the C-suite, and ability to drive change. We capitalize on your strengths while improving weaker areas.
Walk Me Through Your Strategic Planning Process.
I collaborate with finance leaders in interactive half-day or full-day working sessions focused on identifying your department’s core values, strengths, unmet talent needs, process/policy gaps, tools required, innovations on the horizon, and objectives for the next 3-5 years. We create aligned strategic plans.
How Do You Improve Alignment Between the CFO and Our CEO?
With empathy, wisdom and discretion, I facilitate open conversations around misalignments between these critical roles. We identify issues, find common ground, and build tighter collaboration. Strong CFO-CEO relationships unlock organizational potential.
What Does the Overall Time Commitment Look Like?
After aligning around your goals, we design a tailored 12-month engagement that fits your schedule. I offer monthly advice calls, quarterly strategy offsites, or more immersive training through weekly check-ins. We scope programs based on your capacity and needs.
Can You Help Us Prepare Our Finance Operations to Scale 10X?
Yes. I work closely with executives to fully map your current departmental state across technology, tools, workflows, team members, and KPIs. We then plan vital 3-year initiatives around updated metrics, optimized talent and processes, system improvements, and innovations to support 10X intended growth.
What If Our Goals Seem Unclear? How Do You Advise Us Then?
Lack of clarity around vision, values or strategy is common. I excel at asking thoughtful questions to help leadership teams gain alignment and confidence. My most rewarding work has come through facilitating interactive offsite sessions where organizations discover inspiration around their true purpose and strategic direction.
The Power of Ongoing Advisory
While our engagement may start with key initiatives around leadership development, strategic planning, or cultural optimization, the partnership shouldn’t end there. I provide CFOs and financial executives with ongoing advisory to tackle new goals as they emerge for continued success. I’m here to meet you where you’re at now and serve as a thought partner for all that’s ahead.
Let’s Connect!
To learn more about specialized coaching and advising for Milwaukee finance teams, contact me today to schedule an intro call. I’m excited to explore your goals and gaps. Let’s build something great!
