Coworking is a weekly segment where we talk to CFOs and other leaders in the finance space about their experiences, their companies, and the larger economy. Let us know if you are—or you know—a CFO we should interview.
Nicolette Turner recently took over as CFO at the meditation and healthcare app Headspace, where she had previously served as SVP of finance. Here, she tells CFO Brew how other aspiring CFOs can make the leap, and why mentorship always matters.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Our audience is mainly CFOs, but there are lots of aspiring CFOs in the mix, too—people who want to make the same jump that you just did. What advice do you have for them, and how did you use your previous role to prepare for your current job?
For folks who want to make the leap from being more of a senior leader to being a true CFO, [remember that] a CFO, at the end of the day, is a partner, and is basically a quantitative strategy enabler. A lot of times what you’ll see are people who are really excellent quantitatively, but don’t necessarily know how to be strategic or partner effectively. Or you have people who are very, very strategic and partner really well but don’t necessarily have the quantitative chops.
Finding that right balance is super, super important. It’s kind of table stakes that you have to be somewhat of an expert at many parts of finance and accounting to be a really good CFO, but the more important skill to have is to really truly be a strategic partner.
As an internal hire, you’ve learned firsthand the power of mentorship. While you were SVP of finance, how did you work to mentor other less senior colleagues?
When I think about my own teams, I tend to think about it in three parts. The first is: The vast majority of people who work professionally are much more motivated to learn, develop, and grow than they are from incentives. So creating teams that are set up in such a way that you can truly have a scope that is defined, and that you are also learning and acquiring a new skill set is really important.
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The second is that people don’t tend to leave bad companies; they tend to leave bad managers. I’m very purposeful about making sure that I have both diverse as well as really strong leaders on my team because everybody who joins my team will be laddering up to one of those leaders, so having somebody who they will see themselves reflected in our leadership team overall is really important.
Finally, I think it’s just the shadow of a leader. You have to be able to role model the things that you want and think are most important for your team. If I’m telling my team it’s not healthy if you don’t take PTO, but I myself never take PTO, that is not the right shadow of a leader. You have to be really purposeful about making sure that you’re also setting an example.
How has the CFO role changed in the last five years, even in the last year?
Increasingly, especially when you’re talking to investors, yes, they want the numbers, but they also want to know what the numbers mean. You have to also be able to effectively communicate, to a number of different audiences, what those numbers mean, and why it’s relevant to them. Having that ability to adapt is really super important for a CFO much more than ever, because you have to [explain the numbers] to a more general audience, who may not be subject matter domain experts in finance, to folks who literally have portfolio companies they’re running day in and day out. It’s just a different muscle.