{"id":10091,"date":"2020-08-14T15:21:00","date_gmt":"2020-08-14T19:21:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-us\/blog\/?p=10091"},"modified":"2026-02-12T05:02:53","modified_gmt":"2026-02-12T10:02:53","slug":"six-covid-lessons-learned-being-a-better-cfo-back-at-the-office","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-us\/blog\/six-covid-lessons-learned-being-a-better-cfo-back-at-the-office\/","title":{"rendered":"Six COVID lessons learned \u2013 being a better CFO back at the office"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\"\u00a0\t\t\t\tErnie Humphrey<\/span>\n\t\t\t<\/a>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

The global pandemic has been disruptive on many fronts and has forced all companies to function in a new remote reality. However, there have already been many hard lessons learned that CFOs at any company would do well to take back to the office to drive results in any business environment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Based on conversations with hundreds of finance leaders and kept up with COVID-19 related survey results since early February, I offer six valuable COVID lessons learned:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Communication<\/strong> \u2013 More communication is always better. There are many tools to leverage to communicate and collaborate effectively beyond email that include: Zoom, Slack, GoToMeeting, Microsoft Teams, and within leading AP, AR, and Treasury Management Solutions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Engagement <\/strong>\u2013 Companies and managers have been forced to get a bit creative in engaging their teams. Examples of interesting engagement tactics include virtual coffee hours, virtual yoga, karaoke, guess my office, guess my pet, guess my favorite band, virtual family feud, virtual gaming, and virtual happy hours. Companies would do well not to lose the increased commitment to being engaged with co-workers, direct reports, suppliers, customers, and service providers that have been critical in the remote reality.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Networking<\/strong> \u2013 Many finance professionals did not know how to deliver anything close to business as usual in a remote environment and turned to virtual networking via LinkedIn and even online communities to get peer-to-peer advice on succeeding in a new business reality. Finance leaders would do well to re-embrace the concept of an online community for Finance professionals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Technology<\/strong> \u2013 Many companies have learned that a crisis can be the right time to invest in technology. Some companies had to invest in AP Automation<\/a> to make payments and mitigate payments. Others focused on visibility into cash movements, improving cash forecasting, or facilitating more timely reporting and business agility for increasingly dynamic business conditions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Experimentation\/Innovation<\/strong> \u2013 Companies and leaders have had to experiment and innovate to keep themselves, their teams, and their business partners engaged and productive in new ways over the past 3-4 months. The courage to not fear failure and take chances to create a competitive advantage in any environment will serve any company moving forward.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Realignment <\/strong>\u2013 Finance leaders found the value in realigning on expectations with staff, co-workers, suppliers, customers, and technology providers. Aligning on expectations should be done more than once a year. Doing this monthly, if not more often, is a good practice to continue to keep any relationship on the right track.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I also wanted to share a few more tips for CFO success related to engagement courtesy of a conversation from a recent episode of the Finance Trends & Disruption podcast episodes, Finance Dimensions \u2013 Communication, Motivation, Transformation<\/a> and Delivering Success as a Finance Leader in the Next Normal<\/a>.<\/u><\/p>\n\n\n\n