CFO Resolutions for 2025
At this time of year, it’s so important we take time to refocus our efforts and make changes to set ourselves off on a good footing for the new year. Just as we revisit the business strategy or set new SMART objectives as a team.
With new budgets in place, there are often new initiatives and refreshed energy and if we don’t take the time to focus on how we want to do things differently now, then we’ll be full steam ahead without any time to ourselves.
I’ve spoken to several fractional CFOs who have shared the resolutions they’ll be making in 2025 as we look to the future and take stock of what we want to improve upon this coming year.
In times of change, often the businesses that thrive are the ones that are willing to seize the moment, change tack and try new ways of doing things.
Jacinta Magee, a fractional CFO in Bristol, UK is approaching the new year with an optimistic outlook, encouraging her clients to take more calculated risks. She reflects that “In the current political and economic environment – both for the UK and Globally – it can feel like the best course of action is to batten down the hatches. As CFOs we can often be seen as the ones that will stifle creativity and dodge innovation to play safe.” But this doesn’t have to be the case, Jacinta says, “Imagine if our colleagues and teams know they have our support to go against that flow if they see an opportunity they want to take. We want them to see us as their safety net – we’re here to ask the right questions and give the right support to give them confidence to take a chance and aim high.”
In today’s rapidly changing business landscape, embracing curiosity as a core management skill is essential for fostering a motivated and innovative workforce, ensuring that teams remain aligned and focused on achieving common goals in an ever-increasingly complex business world.
Adrian Message, a fractional CFO in the West Country region of the UK, is embracing intentional curiosity in 2025, “When CFOs demonstrate genuine curiosity, they create an environment where connections can flourish.” Adrian reminds us that “this openness not only makes interactions more enjoyable but also encourages team members to share their ideas and insights freely. Colleagues can sense a CFO’s interest, which builds trust and strengthens relationships.”
By modelling curiosity and being careful not to come across as argumentative or confrontational, CFOs inspire their teams to explore new concepts and solutions, driving collaboration and creativity. Ultimately, curiosity brings people together, enabling them to tackle challenges collectively and effectively.
It’s often said that time is our most valuable asset, and the beginning of the year is a great time to reassess where we want to be spending at least 7 hours a day, 5 days a week. Is there the opportunity to get out from behind the desk, both metaphorically and in reality, to fully immerse ourselves in the day-to-day activities of the business?
Harnish Hadani, a fractional CFO in Leicester & Northampton, UK, reminds us to look beyond the finances. “It’s only when we fully immerse ourselves in the business and its operations that we start to see things from a different perspective and this is often where true innovations occur,” says Harnish. “By making time to go back to basics, learn from the experiences of team members and understand the complexities that aren’t always easy to untangle, we can bring value above and beyond the finances.”
As a member of the leadership team, it’s easy to operate at such a high level that although we see the wider picture, we don’t see the impact that small changes will make.
Too often we are tempted to build walls between departments, when trouble strikes it is tempting to pass the buck to another team, but we need to break down these cross-department walls to get teams working towards the same goals.
David Haran, a fractional CFO in Ireland, remembers far too many times in the past when he’s heard members of the Finance team blaming the Ops team and vice versa. He wants to develop closer relationships across departments so that they work together to share any problems that emerge.
“I like to encourage team members to think holistically rather than just from a departmental point of view,” David explains. “It’s about making sure we work together rather than ‘throw a grenade and run away’. When working with another team in the business, I ask team members to let their colleagues know they can come back to them to work together if there are any issues.”
As CFOs, it’s our job to know everything there is to know about the numbers but for my CFO resolution for 2025, I’m going to be focusing on the numbers that really matter. Increasing profit and carefully managing our cashflow is at the heart of the business but over the years, as a business we’ve learnt that if we just focus on these aspects for the business owners that we work with, we’re missing a trick.
The real numbers we should be focusing on are the ones that matter most to the people around us – if it’s important to the business owner to watch their son score that one goal in the cup game, or make enough money to buy the holiday home in Portugal for the whole family to enjoy every Summer, then as CFOs, that’s what we should be spending our time working towards. And this goes for us, our team members and everyone in the business.
If we work towards financial aspirations but build in the human stories, we’ll all understand what makes each other tick and will pull in the same direction.
In my time speaking to these fractional CFOs based at the CFO Centre, I realised the focus of their resolutions wasn’t on technical capabilities, but on building connections. As we aim to influence the strategic agenda as CFOs, maybe it’s about stopping to smell the coffee and taking the time to go beyond the numbers.
Sara Daw is Group CEO of The CFO Centre and The Liberti Group, and the author of Strategy and Leadership as Service – How the Access Economy Meets the C-Suite, which explores the fractional leadership trend.