Finance / Accounting

Chief Financial Officer

Overview

A CFO, or Chief Financial Officer, is a senior executive responsible for managing the financial actions of a company. The CFO’s duties include tracking cash flow and financial planning as well as analyzing the company’s financial strengths and weaknesses and proposing corrective actions. Their role is critical in strategizing investments, capital structure, and long-term financial planning to support the company’s growth and sustainability.

According to onet, 46% of CFO’s own a master’s degree, 32% have bachelor’s degree and 5% have associate’s degree.

Common tasks 

    TaskRelated trait(s)
    Direct or coordinate an organization’s financial or budget activities to fund operations, maximize investments, or increase efficiency. Business acumen
    Confer with board members, organization officials, or staff members to discuss issues, coordinate activities, or resolve problems. Effective listening 
    Prepare budgets for approval, including those for funding or implementation of programs. Mathematical Proficiency Attention to detail
    Prepare or present reports concerning activities, expenses, budgets, government statutes or rulings, or other items affecting businesses or program services. Financial Linguistic Acumen
    Implement corrective action plans to solve organizational or departmental problems. Business acumen

    Soft skills measured by TraitForward

    TraitNo of QuestionsCronbach’s  alpha (α)
    Inclusive in leadership80.72
    Do they operate according to the principles of fairness and equality?
    Integrity80.71
    Are they moral, honest, do they follow the rules?
    Financial Linguistic Acumen50.72
    Are they adept at interpreting complex financial texts for informed decision-making?
    Fluency of ideas70.76
    Can they generate a lot of different ideas?
    Mathematical Proficiency80.73
    Are they numerically literate?
    Attention to detail90.78
    Do they ensure precision and thoroughness in their financial management?
    Business acumen90.72
    Are they effective at leveraging market insights?
    Persuasive Communication90.83
    How effectively can they engage and motivate others?
    Effective listening80.71
    Do they understand others?
    Team synergy90.72
    Are they effective team players?
    *Cronbach’s alpha coefficient (α) determines the extent to which the questions consistently measure each trait and it is expressed as a number ranging between 0 and 1 . Higher values indicate higher agreement between questions.  A value of α equal to greater than .7 indicates acceptable reliability or internal consistency.  For more information on the psychometric properties of the solution, please click here.

    Did you Know?

    Source: US Department of Labor – Bureau of Labor Statistics

    Median wage: 

    $500,090 / per year

    $480.12 / hour

    A relatively low annual wage is $408,594 (25th percentile)

    A relatively high salary of the annual wage is $898,653 (70th percentile)

    Expected employment growth:

    Number of professionals occupied in US in 2022: 280K

    Projected number of professionals occupied in US in 2031:257K

    Find out the psychometric properties for the Chief Financial Officer Traitforward questionnaire

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