Right on the heels of some comments this morning regarding the evolving role of the CFO, I finished reading my latest book last night by Patrick Lencioni; “The Five Temptations of a CEO”.  While it might appear from the cover that it’s more directed towards a general management application, that’s exactly where the leading Finance folks seem to be finding themselves these days. If you haven’t read any of Lencioni’s works, they are great reading. While really simplistic in content, it’s refreshing to be reminded of concepts that really are simple and to reinforce the need sometimes to get back to basics. To put a focus on the values that, while maybe practiced daily, need to be communicated to others.

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      In his first work, Lencioni discusses the five temptations that CEO’s need to avoid. His collection of these five temptations were developed as a result of his consulting work, compiled, further discussed, and affirmed through a wider audience. Simply, those five temptations are:

Temptation #1:   Choosing Status over Results

Temptation #2:   Choosing Popularity over Accountability

Temptation #3:   Choosing Certainty over Clarity

Temptation #4:   Choosing Harmony over Conflict

Temptation #5:   Choosing Invulnerability over Trust

     It really is interesting to see how these cross over to a Finance application and where we might fall into one of these areas.  With respect to Finance, I am almost always certainly pursuing Certainty over Clarity when it comes to making decisions regarding significant expenditures. Although we now find ourselves in an environment where speed and the speed of adaptation are playing a significant role, I am typically pursuing Certainty.  Moving to the last one, with respect to business, I trust few. When it comes to major decision making - What due diligence steps have been pursued? Do you have the supporting documentation? What is the source of your data and when was it last updated? Resume looks great but did you run reference checks?  Trust in Finance?….Not often, and only after I’ve developed a good history with the person in question. But then again, many had a long history with Madoff.

     Hopefully you enjoy the book as much as I did and I highly suggest reading some of Lencioni’s other works.

Thanks for reading . . . .

Jeffrey Ishmael