Behind the CFO: With Caroline Gardner

In this article Caroline Gardner shares her reflections on her career journey and approach to authentic leadership, revealing how her leadership style has evolved, the importance of authenticity in the workplace, and commitment to developing high-performing teams.

Authentically Building and Leading a Finance Team

By Caroline Gardner

In my early career, I believed I should be focused on my personal deliverables and professional image, so I strived to be a reliable and highly competent finance professional. However, it wasn’t until I engaged in a comprehensive leadership program that I truly understood the importance of embracing my authentic self in the workplace.

Through this introspection, I discovered that my true purpose is to help others achieve their potential and ensure everyone has a fair chance at success. This realisation became the cornerstone of my leadership philosophy and is what gets me out of bed in the mornings. It is also what’s at the heart of my passion for both Learning & Development and Diversity & Inclusion, whether that’s for my family, my team, or others that I connect with at home or at work.

Today, I describe my leadership style as people-centric, emphasising the importance of building deep and lasting relationships. I spend time getting to know all the teams that I work with and build deep and lasting relationships with both my Finance team and key business partners. I still have great relationships with most of the people I’ve worked closely with in the last 10 years.

To help with building relationships, I like to understand people's objectives, challenges, and aspirations and I believe that a common purpose or vision unites teams and leads to fantastic outcomes. Finding those connections with people goes a long way towards creating a high-performing team.

Balancing Authenticity and Leadership

As a leader, I am aware of the need to balance acting with integrity and meeting the business's needs. Building respect and trust with colleagues is essential but it must be done with the needs of the business front of mind.

When focusing on building relationships, I truly value the opinions of others and I like to understand what drives people. I also try to maintain a humble approach to leadership, recognising that major work outcomes are often delivered through teamwork. No one is ever really finished learning in life, so being open about development areas and challenges and then recognising and celebrating successes together with your teams is equally important.

I tend towards over-sharing rather than withholding information from my finance teams. I also believe in leading by example and demonstrating my own commitment. If I can set a good example and demonstrate my engagement with our goals, then teams will follow, and high performance will result.

Developing High-Performing Teams

I take pride in my ability to develop talent, a skill I believe is crucial for creating high performance. My approach is about understanding people’s strengths and development gaps, as well as their aspirations. Matching opportunities for growth with individual strengths is key to my strategy. This often involves having skip-level conversations and acting on the insights gained.

For me, a CFO's success is intertwined with the team's success. I try to ensure that team members have the right mix of skills and the ‘right seats on the bus’. Of course, any CFO is only as good as their whole team, so in addition to my informal L&D focus, I have also developed and led numerous Finance Academies, L&D programs, and mentoring schemes. I believe in the importance of team members focusing on their development, so ensuring that team members take time to focus on their development is essential.

The Multifaceted Role of a CFO

These days, the CFO role is far more wide reaching than budgeting and reporting numbers. A comprehensive understanding of business operations and their impact on results is crucial to being a great business partner.

The CFO plays a key role in influencing the CEO and other leaders to drive growth, profitability, and people-centric decisions. I enjoy the breadth of work in a CFO role and am passionate about developing people and diversity. No day is ever the same, and it’s great when you have an amazing team working with you.

Qualities of a Successful CFO

I believe that a successful CFO must possess several key qualities: the ability to listen, interpret data, and ‘join the dots.’, but above all, they must have integrity and the leadership skills to build & shape a high-performing team.

In summary, my journey and insights into authentic leadership highlight the importance of self-awareness, integrity, and a people-centric approach in leading a finance team. My commitment to developing talent and fostering strong relationships has been instrumental in my success as a leader and CFO.

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