In order to be successful, a CFO must have solid communication skills. These skills are even more important for CFO consultants because with multiple clients, the challenge to communicate with them all becomes even more difficult.

The number one rule for being the kind of good communicator a CFO or CFO consultant needs to be is that you are responsible for both sending and receiving communication. You aren’t a good enough communicator if you only take responsibility for what you send out. You need to understand what the other person is saying and make sure they know they’ve been understood. Identifying the needs and wants of their clientele is at the core of what being a CFO is all about, and at the core of finding out what these needs and wants are is good communication with your clients.

It only takes one person in the loop to break down communication. If one person does not like someone else in that loop, communication starts to break down. Agreement and understanding are hindered if a person or people in the communication loop let their biases affect them. If people like each other perfectly fine but cannot agree in the loop and refuse to bend or compromise, or simply let their frustrations rule their behavior, communication starts to break down.

The only way to obtain good communication with in the group where you need it the most is to having a liking for and respect for the people in your “loop”. You need to be in agreement and understand each other, and be a true united front.

CFO’s and CFO consultants need good communication skills and also need to be able to impart those skills to their clients.

The post The Chief Financial Officer And Communication first appeared on Nextstepcfo.net blog.