Top 10 Financial Management Skills for CFOs

In this article we discuss the following skills for CFOs:

• Strategic Financial Planning and Forecasting
• Data Fluency
• Cross-Functional Collaboration
• AI Readiness
• Proactive Risk Management
• ESG Insight
• Change Management Leadership
• Executive Communication
• Strategic Workforce Management
• Continuous Learning and Curiosity

Chief financial officers (CFOs) have always been strategic leaders, bridging financial data with actionable insight and revealing the stories behind the numbers. Today, their influence is expanding even further, shaping decisions across every part of the business.

McKinsey reports that more than half of CFOs (52%) now spend most of their time on transformational initiatives—both within finance and across the broader organization. Gartner’s latest CFO survey echoes that shift, highlighting priorities such AI expansion and growth forecasting as top finance priorities for 2026.

Together, these findings point to a defining transition: CFOs are no longer just stewards of budgets and reporting. They’re becoming strategic figureheads who drive change, innovation, and enterprise-wide performance.

And while core financial management skills remain essential on the path to a CFO career, leading today means pairing them with sharp analytical thinking, cross-functional collaboration, and an innovative, forward-looking mindset that keeps the business a step ahead.

Top 10 Financial Management Skills for CFOs

As CFOs step further into cross-functional, strategic leadership, their influence is impacting everything from digital transformation to enterprise risk management to company culture and talent management. Leading at this level requires a new perspective—seeing financial management not just as oversight but as a driver of innovation and growth. These are the skills that help CFOs stand out.

1. Strategic Financial Planning and Forecasting

Market uncertainty, rapid technology advancements, and supply chain volatility are all becoming the norm for modern enterprises. Skilled CFOs bring structure to ambiguity by leading agile planning and forecasting practices, including:

• Rolling forecasts: Continuously updated projections to replace static annual budgets, rolling forecasts allow CFOs to adjust financial plans regularly as new data comes in and create a more responsive, resilient planning process.

• Predictive analytics: Using historical data and statistical models, AI-powered predictive analytics can anticipate business outcomes, spot cost trends early, identify patterns in performance data, and forecast future revenue.

• Scenario planning: CFOs use scenario modeling to anticipate how strategic choices could play out across best-, worst-, and most-likely-case situations in the future, helping the business stay agile and ready for change.

The Workday Global CFO AI Indicator Report found forecasting and scenario planning at the top of the list for most transformational areas driven by AI and ML in the enterprise, underscoring the continually increasing importance of this skill for CFOs and their teams. 

2. Data Fluency

Deep data fluency is a must-have skill today for CFOs and their teams when managing financial information. When finance teams know the business implications behind the numbers, they can turn data into actionable and relevant insights for leaders across the business.

CFOs lead this shift by working to connect company data into a single source of truth. Today, more than half of CFOs report using both financial and non-financial data to make decisions. Working with the CIO to implement unified data platforms, like modern ERP and analytics systems, is helping finance leaders break down those silos and see the full story their data is telling.

Integrated enterprise software platforms offer important data fluency support features:

• Integrated dashboards: Data visualization tools that turn detailed financial data into digestible insights everyone in the business can understand.

• Data harmonization engines: Tools that standardize data from multiple systems, ensuring consistency and reliability across the enterprise.

• Predictive analytics modules: Advanced capabilities that model future scenarios and flag risks or opportunities before they surface.

CFOs who build data fluency elevate the entire decision-making culture, and with analytics embedded across teams and into everyday decisions, finance teams can help leaders act smarter in any scenario.

3. Cross-Functional Collaboration

Building meaningful relationships across business lines is a core responsibility for modern CFOs. While in the past their focus was primarily on financial performance of other business units, they now also need a clear understanding of how they operate, what they're trying to achieve, and the ways finance can support them in reaching those short- and long-term goals.

In practice, CFOs are finding ways to embed finance collaboration into the everyday rhythm of the business through:

• Embedded finance partners: Analysts or managers who work directly with business units to guide planning, evaluate investments, and connect financial insights to daily operations.

• Shared performance metrics: Joint KPIs that tie short- and long-term financial goals to operational results, keeping teams aligned on what success truly means.

• Collaborative planning cycles: Forecasting and budgeting processes that bring business leaders into the fold, grounding financial plans in real-world context.

When finance becomes an ongoing partner to other departments, it transforms how organizations can make decisions, builds trust across teams, and transforms financial data into a shared company-wide resource.

4. AI Readiness

Finance is leading the charge for AI adoption in many enterprises, and CFOs must be prepared to steer its strategic direction. Today, 77% of AI pioneer organizations have embedded it into daily operations and have higher confidence in their agility, data-driven decision-making capabilities, revenue potential, employee experience, and cost effectiveness.

CFOs should be ready to lead by understanding where AI for finance can be most impactful (i.e. how it practically fits within the use cases and workflows of their organization) and helping finance teams embrace it more readily with the right training and resources.

When it's well-implemented, AI contributes major performance-driving capabilities for effective financial management:

• Deeper, data-driven insight: AI enhances forecasting and planning through large-scale data analysis, revealing real-time patterns and risks that guide proactive decisions.

• Stronger decision intelligence: By unifying data across finance and operations, AI turns fragmented inputs into connected insights that inform smarter, faster choices.

• Greater business agility: AI models scenarios and simulates outcomes on demand, helping CFOs pivot quickly and steer the business with confidence.

As AI continues to reshape financial operations, clear vision and direction from the CFO play a critical role in how it makes an impact. With smart planning and strong leadership skills, finance teams can take advantage of AI’s benefits to elevate the strategic influence of finance across the enterprise.

5. Proactive Risk Management

The days of linear planning are gone. In today’s business environment, CFOs must prepare for disruption proactively. In fact, managing risk was identified by a recent Travelers survey as a top-three skill for CFOs today, alongside related skills like managing complex stakeholder networks and planning for resiliency.

This requires embedding scenario thinking into everyday decision-making to keep financial plans flexible. Leading CFOs operationalize smart risk management to promote strong financial health using a mix of systems and strategies that include:

1. Dynamic forecasting models: Continuous scenario modeling that tests how shifts in markets, supply chains, or policy could affect financial outcomes.

2. Real-time risk signals: Integrated data dashboards that track leading indicators, giving CFOs visibility into emerging issues before they escalate.

3. Response frameworks: Clearly defined decision paths—like spend adjustments or capital reallocation triggers—that enable fast, coordinated action when risks materialize.

In combination with other important skills, like a broader strategic lens on the business and collaboration with other leaders, CFO-led risk management is a powerful contributor to organizational resilience.

6. ESG Insight

Environmental, social, and governance (ESG) metrics have become top priorities for investors and customers alike, who increasingly want to see alignment between a company’s operations, its stated values, and long-term sustainability commitments.

CFOs should understand how ESG priorities connect to financial value and how transparent reporting builds trust with stakeholders. To lead here, CFOs must bring the same rigor to ESG data as they do to the P&L. They can do it with:

• ESG data governance: Creating clear ownership and validation protocols for sustainability metrics, from emissions to DEI.

• Integrated reporting: Combining ESG and financial results into a unified narrative that tells a full story of performance.

• Value linkage: Quantifying how ESG initiatives contribute to cost reduction, risk mitigation, or brand value.

As ESG reporting matures, CFOs are uniquely positioned to turn compliance into competitive advantage. By framing sustainability metrics in financial terms and embedding them into core decision-making, they help the organization not only meet stakeholder expectations but define what responsible growth looks like for the future.

7. Change Management Leadership

No transformation sticks without strong change leadership. And in most companies, the finance function is at the heart of change—whether it's new systems, business models, or performance expectations. CFOs are best positioned to lead when they embrace the reality of change and provide tools, resources, and insights to help others do the same.

They can do this by establishing practical frameworks that bring structure to uncertainty:

• Narrative clarity: Crafting and repeating a compelling story about why change is necessary and what it makes possible.

• Empathy-driven leadership: Anticipating friction points and creating space for honest feedback and support.

• Adoption metrics: Tracking behavioral shifts, engagement, and usage—not just go-live dates or milestones.

Finance may manage the numbers, but it’s people who drive performance. CFOs who lead with empathy and clarity give transformation its best chance to succeed.

8. Executive Communication

Strong communication is one of a CFO’s most practical tools for impact. The ability to translate complex financial ideas clearly—and tailor them to different audiences—helps build alignment and credibility across the organization.

CFOs refine their communication through practices that build trust and sharpen understanding:

• Executive storytelling: Framing financial performance in terms of strategic impact, future risk, and opportunity.

• Audience adaptation: Adjusting language and content to best serve each unique stakeholder group.

• Listening as influence: Asking questions that surface helpful insight, uncover concerns, and guide others toward the right decision.

Communication is how CFOs turn financial insight into action. When they can effectively share what the numbers mean and why it matters, they empower other leaders to make decisions that move the business in the right direction.

9. Strategic Workforce Management

The talent landscape is rapidly changing, and finance is feeling the impact. Many finance roles are demanding by nature, and without strong leadership that’s in tune with the employee experience, many of the best employees are looking elsewhere. 

The Workday Global Workforce Report found that high-potential turnover is increasing across all industries, and 40% of finance professionals on the job market applied totally outside their field.

That means CFOs aren’t just competing with other finance departments, but a plethora of other career paths and opportunities available to skilled professionals. To retain strong teams and mitigate turnover risk, CFOs need to think like talent architects, managing existing teams while also planning for the workforce, skills, and growth paths they’ll need to stay ahead of new business demands.

Leading CFOs take an active role in upskilling their people and redefining roles to reflect where the function is headed in the future. That means making practical investments in learning, coaching, and stretch opportunities such as:

• Skills mapping: Auditing current capabilities and identifying gaps relative to emerging finance and tech trends.

• Upskilling programs: Offering targeted learning in areas like data science, business partnering, and AI tools.

• Stretch roles and rotations: Rotating finance talent across business units to broaden experience and strategic thinking.

When CFOs invest in developing financial talent with intention, they create teams that can adapt, innovate, and lead through change. That turns finance into a lasting source of strength for the business.

10. Continuous Learning and Curiosity

The most effective CFOs are leaders and learners. In environments that are always shifting, curiosity is becoming a strategic asset. It drives innovation, challenges assumptions, and keeps finance plugged into the bigger picture.

Curious CFOs read beyond their function and seek out new perspectives across industries. More than that, they model curiosity for their teams—building a culture where questioning, testing, and iterating is encouraged. They make space for exploration and reward learning in action:

• Trend engagement: Staying informed about economic, workforce, and tech trends shaping the future of work.

• Peer learning: Exchanging ideas and challenges with other CFOs and leaders to refine thinking and expand perspective.

• Cultural permission: Encouraging smart experimentation and intellectual exploration as part of everyday work.

When CFOs stay open to new ideas and invite their teams to do the same, they turn uncertainty into opportunity. Continuous learning strengthens adaptability and foresight, and in an era defined by constant change, that mindset is what keeps finance leading conversations instead of reacting to circumstance.

Looking to the Future

The future of finance is constantly evolving, and CFOs who lead best will be those that expand their perspectives, collaborate with their peers, and commit to continuous learning for themselves and their teams. The skills we covered in this guide reflect a true shift for CFOs from simply supporting outcomes to truly steering them.

From mastering AI to building stronger teams and partnerships to enhancing the strategic impact of finance across the business, today’s CFOs are setting the pace for how modern organizations adapt and stay resilient.

More and more, CFOs are required to be strategic figureheads for their organizations. Learn how the FAME framework can help you achieve your business goals, with case studies from two enterprise-level organizations.