Predicting CFO Success
James OBrien
Business Acumen Strategist | COO Forum Asia | Value Creation Architect | Operations & Finance Transformation | Certified Chair?
"Psychometric testing is one tool available to predict the likely success of a candidate for the role before they have even had an interview"
I have read with interest a number of articles on the success or otherwise of psychometric assessments in the last few weeks. Many are skeptical of a 30 minute questionnaire and its ability to give a reliable prediction of success. The evidence suggests otherwise and probably more importantly their use is increasing with senior roles including CFO's.
With the struggle to find good talent and reduce the new hire "risk" these assessments now allow employers to both qualify and understand a candidates potential suitability for a role in a speedy fashion before any interview has even taken place. Ironically many employers use the assessments as one of the final hurdles before reference checking.
The upshot is if you are truly committed to your career as a CFO you need to fully understand these assessments so you can actively develop areas that are potential opportunities for improvement (or behavior changes you need to make now before its too late)
If you are actively seeking a new role then the information in a full psychometric assessment is "gold" to your self-awareness, knowledge and preparation - without it you are flying blind.
Our firm uses Harrison Assessments, a world leader in psychometric testing. Take a look at the website for further information here.
For a CFO role the Harrison Job Success Analysis looks at three distinct areas to formulate a picture of the candidate and pick the "best apples" to go forward to the next stages of a rigorous selection process. The three areas are:
- Essential Traits
- Desirable Traits
- Traits to Avoid
In the case of Essential Traits we look at its likelihood to negatively and positively impact job success. In the case of Desirable Traits and Traits to Avoid we only look at their likelihood to have a negative impact on job success.
Here's a list of all the CFO traits. Where are your strengths ? Are you aware of any personal behaviors that may fall into the "Traits to Avoid"
In our work with CFO's and other senior finance professions we use a range of reports to assist in recruitment, selection, coaching and development.
We have developed a 3 month program which using the Harrison suite of reports to guide coaching around behavioral competencies. If you would like to know more or discuss your current challenges then place arrange a confidential time to speak here.
If you are interested in exploring one of our coaching programs please request further details here.
James O'Brien is the Founder of CFO Accelerator which offers exclusive mentoring and coaching to CFO’s across Asia Pacific.
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James is accredited in the Business Acumen Gauge from Quad Assessments.
www.cfoaccelerator.com.au
Managing Director - Contour Interiors | Interior Design and Office Transition | Interior Fit Out Projects
7 年Interesting article. Thanks.
Manager at EY | Risk and Compliance | Internal Controls
7 年Thanks for the read, Informative ????
I train and coach Finance professionals, helping them to grow into business leaders and CFOs with successful, satisfying careers | Former Finance Director | LinkedIn Top Voice
7 年I admit I'm sceptical when it comes to psychometrics used like this. It comes from an experience I once had where I was turned down for a role on the basis of the psychometric tests because they apparently showed I would have been too weak and collaborative fronting up for Finance against the strong personalities in the engineering team. When I discussed with the HR manager for feedback she suggested that the results showed my better career options would have been something more academic like a librarian (she actually said that). Given I'd already spent several years in senior Finance roles I was a bit annoyed. More than that, though, who has defined what constitutes success as a CFO? And where is the research to correlate that success with psychometric measures? I'm not completely against psychometrics. They can be useful. But also can be used wrongly to justify subjective prejudice.