The evolution of the CFO’s role has continued throughout the year as businesses confront ongoing change, with finance chiefs, more and more often being asked to take on operational responsibilities. Doing so successfully, however, “requires a bit of a mindset shift” — both from the CFO and from their fellow executives, said Jason Godley, CFO of AI-powered revenue intelligence platform Xactly.

“Step one is, my mindset has to shift, and step two is, the [mindset of] people with whom I work with has to shift,” Godley told CFO Dive in an interview. “‘Oh, Jason's not the gatekeeper,’” he said of the change in perspective which needs to take place. “‘He will be at some point, because we need that, but at the end of the day he’s here to help us, guide us, coach us.’”

Melding the finance, operations mindset

Since February of 2023, Godley has served as finance chief for Denver-based Xactly, a Vista Equity portfolio company, according to his LinkedIn profile. Prior to Xactly, he served in a variety of roles for logistics and transportation firm Booster, including a period as president and a one-year stint in the combined role of chief operating officer and CFO.

At Xactly, COO is not a part of his title and his operational responsibilities at the company are informal, Godley said. Whether or not the title is formalized at a business, in Godley’s view, largely depends on what leadership thinks will be most effective for the culture of the company, he said. Software platform Salesforce, for example, recently tapped an executive in dual role of CFO and COO.

Regardless of title, however, there’s a growing expectation for finance chiefs, “in addition to the day job, the functional role of CFO, and CFO being a strategic advisor to the CEO, to also move into supporting, directly or indirectly, the operations of the business,” he said. That’s only been accelerated in an age where businesses are tasked with crafting a clear long-term growth strategy in an age of rapid change and complexity.

Part of the reason CFOs are being tapped to take on operations is because they already have a bird’s eye view of the business. The CFO “traditionally, is seeing all the activities that a company does,” Godley said. “Every function…is ultimately reflected in the financial statements.”

However, to be effective in an operational capacity, CFOs also need to be sure they can step out of the finance box, he said.

“You kind of take off your CFO hat, boom, and then can establish a variety of things to support the CEO, who's busy doing a bunch of stuff to help ensure that the plan that we put in place for the year is being executed,” he said. “So while I'm not responsible directly for the plan, I can put in place mechanisms which we can talk about that help run the business.”

An ‘unhealthy degree of curiosity’

For some, taking off the finance hat may not come easily — how different steps will ultimately impact financial outcomes is always going to be in the back of one’s mind as CFO, Godley said. Sharpening the ability to peer outside finance, and the skillsets one needs to serve as an effective operations leader, starts with “an almost unhealthy degree of curiosity about everything going on,” as well as a high dose of humility, he advised.  

When it comes to working with other leaders to set and drive strategy, for example, CFOs should be “hyper-curious about their function, try and learn what matters to them,” he said.

“Just be very open minded about what it is like to be in the lived experience of one of these functions and come to the table offering ideas, ways of thinking that have nothing to do with finance,” Godley said.

Such leaders should also be on the lookout for opportunities in other functions over the course of their career, he said. Godley, for instance, has been “fortunate to be in situations where, ‘hey, the sales leader is gone for nine months, run sales,’” he said. “Or, can you run operations for 12 months? 24 months?”

“Not only do you learn the tactical and practical [applications] of what they do, but I would say, more importantly, you become more empathetic to the problems that they face that you previously did not understand,” he said.