The CFO As Compass: Navigating Turbulent Times With EY’s Myles Corson

[00:00:00] Melissa Howatson: Welcome to the CFO Show. I'm your host, Melissa Howatson, CFO of Vena. The last few years have been full of economic uncertainty, making it difficult for senior leaders to balance short-term needs with long-term vision and strategy. CFOs are uniquely positioned. Both in terms of their skill set and their 360-degree view of the organization, to act as a compass for their business during these challenging times.

Joining me is Myles Corson. Myles leads the Financial Accounting Advisory Services for EY and is also the host of the Better Finance podcast. He contributes to the organization's DNA of the CFO Research and served as a member of the steering committee for EYs Global CFO program. He is an expert on CFOs and understands the crucial role that they play in navigating organizations toward their long-term objectives.

Myles, thank you so much for joining me on the show.

[00:01:15] Myles Corson: Hey, Melissa Howatson, great to be here.

[00:01:17] Melissa Howatson: Let's start talking a bit about your role with EY and the Better Finance podcast. Can you share a bit more of insight about that and what got you interested in becoming an expert on the CFO role?

[00:01:31] Myles Corson: Well, yeah, thanks Melissa Howatson, I'm fortunate to have a role coordinating EY's activities across the globe, serving CFOs and the finance function.

So, as a firm, as you'll be aware, obviously, we do a lot of work across a number of dimensions. And so be able to bring together that full spectrum of services and experience to help CFOs solve some of the biggest challenges they have and address some of the great opportunities are out there. So, as part of that for the last 15 years, I've been responsible for a lot of our thought leadership on the role of the CFO and also the future of finance to the DNA program.

That we've been running. And more recently, we've launched the DNA of the financial controller. So again, looking at some of the ways that as the CFO, the role expands and changes, how are the direct reports of the CFO being expanded? How do they need to step up? And then about six years ago, we launched the Better Finance podcast.

And, so that's been a fantastic opportunity to engage with a lot of thought leaders and, you know, people about what the future finances is looking like. So, it's a little bit different to be on the other side of the microphones. They are answering the questions rather than asking them.

[00:02:47] Melissa Howatson: Well, and it's been great, you know. I just find I love learning from the experiences of others, hearing what are others are up to. Are they feeling things the same way that I'm feeling them or different? Are there things, maybe blind spots, things that I'm missing? And so really appreciate the material that you're putting together.

I’ve listened to a number of episodes of the podcast and have read a lot of the literature that's coming out of UI as well. And I think it's great. I'm finding myself running with doing the podcast. I'm learning so much more as well from our guests as we're going, and that just keeps on making it better.

So, great to have you here.

[00:03:24] Myles Corson: I agree. It's such a wonderful learning experience. So hopefully I can distill some of this learning into these 30 minutes or so.

[00:03:32] Melissa Howatson: And so. What are you hearing about the environment that we're all operating in right now, and how that's affecting CFOs?

[00:03:40] Myles Corson: Sure. Yeah, I mean, I think everyone is experiencing disruption in their personal and professional lives, and the word unprecedented is kind of bandied around a lot.

I think yeah, to me, what is a little bit different at the moment is, this compounding effect of all of these disruptions coming at the same time, this concept of the poly crisis is, I think, an academic has turned it and just the scale and the pace at which these disruptions are happening, I think, is, you know, is different.

And, so, CFOs, particularly, how do you prepare your organization to manage through that disruption and having a very clear and well-articulated vision is important because again, that the scale and pace of those disruptions mean that particularly for large, complex organizations. You can't be everywhere all the time.

And, so, it's about empowering your people, so they understand the vision and are empowered to enable you to make effective decisions as they experience these disruptions firsthand and stay on course.

[00:04:48] Melissa Howatson: You've described the role of the CFO as the compass of the organization. Can you elaborate on what you mean by that?

[00:04:57] Myles Corson: Sure. And I think about it in two different ways. ways, really. So, the first one, I think many people would recognize that the CFO plays an important role as the compass within the executive team. And particularly now, as again, we go through these disruptions as organizations try to balance short-term performance with preparing for the long term, investing in sustainable performance.

It's really important that you know, leadership teams are aligned. And in our research, we found that one of the challenges that CFOs face, 67 percent of them said, you know that they'd experienced disagreements in the executive team. And, you know, I think we'd all recognize that it's important to have diversity of perspective.

To have good debate and discussion. But at some point, leadership teams need to come together and commit to a path. And again, I think CFOs play an important role. In helping to drive towards that commitment and drive the accountability to then execute against those commitments and again, you look at some of the challenges organizations face, particularly now, with the way that I am enabling the analysts and other stakeholders to analyze much broader data sets across the organization where they see those, you know, those slight rifts or differences in what organizations are saying and across that can undermine confidence in value. So, that's, you know, one side of it. The roles here play within the executive team, and the other one is in this context of disruption, right? I use the analogy that I read in Adam Grant's book, “Hidden Potential.”

The idea that the compass is really important when you're going through a transformation, not the road map on again. You think about the pace of change. We don't know what the future is going to look like. And so, when you're embarking on significant transformation, having a compass bearing of the direction you're heading is really important again.

So, you're your team concourse. Correct. You understand where you're trying to get towards, because frankly, the detailed roadmap doesn't exist and will continue to change because frankly, the, you know, the roads and the infrastructure being built now, the new technologies we need are going to evolve and change.

And, you know, makes the point that, you know, like, when we grew up when we had, we had roadmaps physically, we didn't all just rely on the sat nav. And, you know, you never needed the roadmap when you left your home, because obviously, you know, the environment around you, you're very comfortable getting to the major arterial road to take you in the general direction of your destination.

And, it's really the roadmap you need is that last few miles in an area you don't know to get to that final, final point. So that's, again, I think an important sort of mental model for me, set the compass bearing early. Enable your team to understand where they're going to course correct as things evolve.

But then as obviously we get closer to the execution, that's when you need a more detailed roadmap and using the available technologies at the time to kind of really lock on to the destination.

[00:08:17] Melissa Howatson: I think that's such a useful mental model because it's easy to understand and a good reminder for us as CFOs of the importance that we have in those, especially in those moments of disruption.

How have you seen CFOs leverage that position to help drive both the innovation and the adaptability that's required in their organizations?

[00:08:41] Myles Corson: Yeah, and innovation is such an important term, Melissa Howatson, right? And if you're going to get through disruption, how do you innovate? And one of the key challenges we've heard consistently through the DNA of the CFO research is how do you balance innovation and driving transformation with innovation?

Yeah, still maintaining a focus on legacy risks and challenges. And I think for many finance organizations and finance people, we've grown up with this zero tolerance for failure because finance had to get things right. And so, there's that conflict with then, you know, this idea of innovating, failing fast and all the things that we hear about in terms of driving successful growth.

Innovation. So how do you get that balance right? And I think it's important for CFOs and finance leaders to set guardrails, and on the one hand, there are going to be things that we have to get right in the compliance, financial reporting, all those things that are non-negotiable. But there are clearly things that actually… Increasingly finance leaders are responsible for particular value creation where there is an opportunity to experiment and to do things differently. So how do you kind of create the environment where people in the finance team feel confident, they have the psychological safety to be able to innovate, make mistakes, learn from them and move on?

And, interestingly, we've seen this in our data that there's a Microsoft report on future trends of finance that picks up a similar theme in the Microsoft survey. One of the things they talk about is nine out of ten of the survey respondents for finance would say they want to be more involved in innovation across the organization, across the enterprise.

So, there is definitely this appetite for finance leaders to be more involved innovation to have a seat at the table, and then conversely, nine out of 10 of them also say they're struggling to actually really drive innovation change in finance processes. And so, despite all of these technologies that are available to us, they're still actually struggling.

So, how do you build the muscle memory and the proof point to show that you are able to innovate within your own 20 square feet within what you're responsible for? Because that's what's going to then build the confidence in the rest of the organization to bring you into these broader innovation programs.

So, again, I think that’s, and we found this in our, you know, the financial controller survey recently as well. It was interesting to me that very few of the controllers actually said they were lacking resources, either in terms of technology investment or in terms of the talent. But it's how do you unlock the current capabilities you have?

And, I think finance leaders need to rethink about how do we deploy resources differently and Bring the capabilities we have to solve the problems that we face because we all understand the pressures of cost pressure, cost reduction, and so it's really important that again, you're able to unlock the potential of what you currently have to do new things and to stop doing some of the things that are of less value, having that clarity.

[00:11:58] Melissa Howatson: It's interesting when you talk about that, you know, we want to innovate. We have these intentions, and I hear that often, you know, amongst my team. But then. I also think coming with that is that responsibility then to deliver. Once we are given that opportunity, you know, we can open up the doors, but we aren't going to keep getting invited back or getting that seat at the table unless we really earn it.

And that is sometimes in how we show up, we have unintended consequences, depending on what parts of the conversation and how we lean in on those. If we seem like we're shutting down the ideas that are early stage, because we're already putting up the objections down the road. You know, that makes people a little less ready and willing to have you there.

And, so, I sometimes have to check myself and say, okay, what is the conversation and the nature of it? So that I show up in that, Right frame of mind to contribute to the type of conversation. Okay, we're “blue skying” right now. You know, anything's possible. Let's contribute there. Whereas, okay, we're getting close to the decision here.

We already have decided not to do those things. So, we have to keep this a little bit more directed. And I love how you say, you know, we really have to show the proof points by looking in our own backyard first. And how are we innovating? And what examples do people see that are going to make them have confidence, because everyone's busy and you only have time to bring so many people along.

You need people who can really just roll up their sleeves and pitch in and help you get things done quickly. So, I think that's great advice.

[00:13:34] Myles Corson: No, no, it's a great point. And yeah, I love the word you use, confidence. I think it's confidence as a team that you can be successful in driving this transformation.

It's how you inspire confidence in the broader executive team that you're working with. And, John McCulloch, you may be aware of the president of the CFO leadership council who came on, talked about this, right? And I think the brand of finance and the personal brand of finance leaders is really important in establishing that confidence.

And, I think it's kind of an underappreciated skill in finance. You know, I think we've always had this kind of, you know, seat at the table because finance, you know, obviously drives the numbers. It spans across the business, but it's more about, you know, what is your license to operate? In these other areas of value creation of innovation, you need to demonstrate that, and you need to build some brand for your team and for yourself as to why the rest of the organization wants to bring you in.

[00:14:34] Melissa Howatson: Well, and along those lines, in your experience, what distinguishes those CFOs who are really able to lead their organization through transformational changes versus those that struggle? What are some of the key leadership qualities you see?

[00:14:49] Myles Corson: We did some work with Oxford Saïd Business School, around what drives successful transformation.

And, interestingly, when we sort of looked at the data and looked at it specifically to the CFO lens, 75 percent of the CFOs that were responding to the survey said they'd experienced a failed finance transformation in the last five years. Wow. And, I mean, that, that's a, you know, a big number and it's not, not off kilter with, with some of the other data that we have in terms of, you know, successful transformation.

What was interesting though is that about 10 points higher than other executives. So, it was clear that finance leaders are doing something different that is driving potentially worse outcomes in transformation. And when you drill into it, a lot of that comes down to the human aspects. And again, you could sort of, you know, refer to some of the cliches of finance people, people being much more analytical, much more left-brain than right-brain, but it's clear that to do transformation well, to do it successfully, you have to get the human aspects right. So, I think we, again…the data tells us consistently as we look across these surveys that CFOs that get the human elements right are likely to be more successful. So that clearly involves things, as I mentioned earlier on setting a vision.

Right. Many of the people in the survey, you know, CFOs would say, “Oh, we think we've got a vision.” But less than half of the people that worked for the CFOs actually felt they understood the vision or were bought into it. Right? So there, there's a big gap there. I think the clarity and consistency of communication is really important and that communication can't be asymmetrical.

It has to be two-way, right? And again, one of the things we heard was a lot of people within finance didn't feel listened to, right? And again, as a leader, you know, with many of us, we sit at the top of organizations. You know, we're very focused on the big picture issues, the strategy, but we have this huge resource sitting in our teams.

People that are doing the day-to-day work. People are interfacing with customers and clients experiencing firsthand the day-to-day challenges, and if we're not listening to them and actually acting on what they're telling us, that's a huge missed opportunity. So again, there's a lot we can talk about there, but I think those, you know, kind of elements to get in the human aspects right are really important.

And, I think tied to that, it's really understanding the cultural transformation piece, right? You know, again, we talk about this journey of where finance is going to be future finance. That requires a culture shift, and CFOs have to be leading that. And I think the other thing I would just wrap this up with is we all recognize there is a massive war for talent out there, attractiveness of the profession, attractiveness of finance as a destination.

So, it's really important that where we have high-quality talent, we recognize it earlier, celebrate it, promote it and provide experiences because again, attracting, retaining, developing talent is absolutely critical for successful CFOs.

[00:18:10] Melissa Howatson: You know, you touch on so many great pieces of advice there. And when I reflect myself on even my own growth through my career, in the early days, there's a couple skill sets that I think I underestimated the importance of even project management.

And that is something you have to work at and learn. It's not just inherently something we know how to do. And yet good project management helps us get through these things a lot more efficiently and keeping things on task. Another one is change management, and you touched on that, you know, when you're about to make a change, you do have to take the time.

And, I think sometimes we're trying to move through it so quickly, and we know where we want to go. We have this idea in our head, but that human aspect and how are we going to actually affect this change? That's learn skill sets that we have to, and sometimes you have to lean on others to help with that.

And, you know, bring them in. Hey, how could I do this better? Or do you have any advice for how we could affect the change, and communication absolutely is another one. As you mentioned, how do you think what are some of the most effective strategies that folks have used in terms of communicating, especially in times of crisis when you're trying to move quick and get some things done?

What are some tactics that work well?

[00:19:36] Myles Corson: Yeah. So, it's a great question, Melissa Howatson, and I think, you know, I sort of do refer back to the pandemic and COVID as, you know, trying to draw some positive lessons. And I think, you know, to your point, you can either react to crisis or you can be prepared and be proactive.

And, I think, you know, in a lot of ways, what people experienced with the pandemic was a situation that was unprecedented. And I think there are some really positive lessons that could be learned in terms of the way executive teams came together through that. And it was obviously a very different environment, but you know, the daily stand up calls with a full executive team, just that agility in responding to this, this kind of unprecedented, again, experience I think was, was, you know, obviously it was challenging, but I think there's some really positive lessons to be, to be taken from that.

And, I think, you know, again, as we sort of get back to business as usual, our leadership teams taking what was effective through that period and applying it in how they now operate in this new world with their executive teams rather than just reverting some of the ways of operating previously. So that would be one example, but again, I come back to the point, I think, you know, we know these disruptions and these crises are going to come at us.

The best way. To is to be prepared and to have that vision, and I think, you know, I used the Amazon example, right? And I think if you read, read about Amazon, Jeff Bezos was not a…is not a big PowerPoint fan. And you know, there's, I think it's well publicized that in all of his executive meetings, he has a six-page memo that the team sits and reads at the start of the meeting.

And, again, I think that discipline of making sure everybody's on the same page and that they've digested the full, you know, content rather than, you know, what happens when you're jumping around PowerPoints and everyone's jumping in and the what about-isms is a really important discipline. And so, you know, you see this with finance teams, large, complex teams, people have differences of opinion.

I think that discipline of actually really articulating in a sort of a memo format. of what the vision for finances is a really powerful tool. And particularly in whereas a leadership team, it's really important that you're communicating consistently with your team. So, creating that kind of artifact that everybody in the finance organization can reference your external, you know, functional stakeholders within the organization could also reference it.

Everyone understands, I think, is a really powerful tool. And one example, again, where the clarity and the consistency come together. And that's just one thing that, you know, I've worked with a number of clients to try and do and articulate, because it's a very, I think helpful exercise from a communication perspective.

But it also helps you articulate how the tactical steps that you're taking line up with that broader vision. So, yeah, a lot of, I think, organizations confuse cost reduction programs with transformation. They confuse technology implementation with transformation. You have to have the vision. You have to understand what the outcomes you're trying to drive towards are, and therefore be able to articulate, yeah, we're going to stop spending in these areas because we need to focus in these areas.

And, we understand very clearly how the technology is a tool and enabler for the outcomes that we're trying to drive in terms of the finance organization we want to be in the future, particularly focused on value creation and business partnering.

[00:23:17] Melissa Howatson: What's interesting about the idea of the memo, for example, is in going through the process of creating that, It forces you to get yourself clarity on what you're thinking and not just sort of be shooting from the hip and having to synthesize that and go just through that thought process, I find can be such a helpful part because if I start out not quite clear or a little all over the place.

How could I possibly then expect that the team is understanding clearly where we want to go? And I think secondly, having put that out there, it helps everyone understand, get alignment on, okay, this is what we agreed. This is what we said, but also holds you responsible for sticking to what you said. And it's sometimes helpful to go back and look at it.

And, check yourself if you're off course or maybe your things have changed in a different way, but have you communicated what's now in my own head to others because it is so easy to get misaligned along the way.

[00:24:23] Myles Corson: Yep. No, you got it. That's exactly the point. And so again, to me, it's a very easy tool potentially.

It doesn't require money. It just requires some thinking. And again, as leaders, we're all super busy. We have so many things coming at us, but taking that time to step back and actually, can I articulate, Things into your point as a leader, if you know, if I can't articulate it to myself and I can actually see, oh, there are some gaps here in my thinking, what do I need to do?

What's the data or what's the, you know, the conversation I need to have to clarify my thinking so I can articulate it and memorialize it.

[00:24:58] Melissa Howatson: You recently released the inaugural “DNA of a Financial Controller” report, and it's got some interesting insights about what the future of the controller role is looking like and how it's going to evolve over the next five years.

That will obviously also have impact in terms of the Office of Finance and how the CFO and the controller work together. What were some of the key insights that came out of that?

[00:25:24] Myles Corson: You're absolutely right. The, the, the, again, this interface with, with other roles, I think is really important. And what was really interesting for me, having been tracking the way the CFO role has evolved over 15 years, is very clear that now is cascading and transmitting down into the controller role as one of the key direct reports.

And, I mean, a couple of data points from that nine outta ten of the controllers that responded to the survey. See the controllership role. Changing very significantly over the next five years. So, there is clear recognition of the change that is coming now. Not all of them are clear on what it will look like.

So, again, comes back to that, you know, compass versus road map, right? Do you understand the general direction of where things are heading? And very clearly, many of the controllers we surveyed see the role they will need to play in supporting that value creation agenda as, as being a priority. And again, I think that's, you know, clearly something that's been on the minds of CFOs and how they do that.

And, so, it's good to see that is now permeating down into controllers. Controllers understand, you know, this is what my CFO cares about. I need to be aligned with that. And then I think the couple of other just interesting data points. It was, yeah, I think reassuring to see that the vast majority of controllers are taking significant advantage of you know, analytics and visualization.

So, and I think coming back to that storytelling, you know, how we're using different ways of communicating to non-financial audiences within our teams. So again, using. The access to the data we now have to drive more analysis, but also how you represent that. And interestingly, more than 60 percent of the controllers said they were using AI, which again, on the one hand, is really positive because it shows that they are understanding the need to embrace new technology.

Yes, we don't always get into the detail of how are you using it? Is it, you know, you typed a couple of questions into ChatGPT or whatever your, you know, your AI engineers, or are you actually using it in a substantive way as part of your finance processes? And again, I think we're generally seeing that there are some powerful use cases across other parts of the business, I think we're seeing some interesting finance innovation in that space around the edges.

I don't think we're at the point where AI is really transforming how we think about finance processes, which I think is where the real breakthrough will come. So, we're at that point in the kind of the development and the hype cycle where you're going to think Bill Gates uses the term you sort of overestimating the short term and underestimate in the long term.

So, again, I think we're sort of applying this new technology to existing mental models, right? You know, so is the question, how do I use AI to do reconciliations quicker and do better matching? Or is it actually, how does it enable me to have reconciled data at source and high-quality data when I first record transactions? So, actually, I don't have the downstream reconciliation challenges. So again, I think, you know, there's a quote from a guy called Tom Goodwin, who wrote digital Darwinism and was responsible for the, he made the quote around, you know, who would imagine the world where Uber, the biggest transportation company, you know, no vehicles and Facebook, the world's biggest content company, produces no content.

There's a very good quote that he did around, you know, are we really imagining what the potential for AI could be, or are we, you know, kind of stuck in this model of just trying to make incremental change. So, yeah, I think, you know, we need to take advantage and build confidence and start to build understanding of the power of AI to these shorter-term incremental use cases. But we need to keep an eye on what is the potential big disruption and the exponential change that this could enable.

[00:29:38] Melissa Howatson: Well, it's encouraging to hear that 60 percent are at least trying because we tend to be a little more risk adverse and there has been some hesitation, but we all know it's something that we have to embrace so that we actually understand it better, better clarity on what the risks are so that we can protect our organizations and then leverage it for the power that it can provide to us.

Because I do agree. I think it’s going to do a lot for us, and it's going to help us move ourselves up the value chain in terms of being able to focus more of our time on driving value in our organizations. So, there will be a win that comes out of it as we navigate it. As we look ahead, are there any emerging trends or challenges that CFOs as they're looking to navigate their companies through the future?

Thank you.

[00:30:39] Myles Corson: Yeah, I think we've touched on a lot. I think, you know, there's so much disruption geopolitically, macroeconomically, environmentally in terms of the major climate events that no one can predict what the next thing is. And I go back to where we started the conversation. I think, you know, for me, the opportunity for CFOs is to really understand what it is they want their finance organization to be, have a clear, you know, vision that they can articulate and help their teams to navigate through the changes that will inevitably happen.

And, I think, you know, again, I made the point earlier. I think too often we see technology as a panacea, as a silver bullet. It's a tool. And I think, again, the danger is if you just think that by implementing a technology solution, you're going to solve problems. I think, again, that's where transformation fails, because we don't understand the outcome that you're trying to drive towards.

You don't understand how you take your people on that, on that journey with you. That's where, again, you get into trouble from a transformation perspective. So, you know, my, my advice is, is really, you know, work with your team, understand the vision, make sure you're aligned on it and keep executing because at the end of the day, there is so much, we were all faced with the consistency, you know, of, of, you know, The execution focused on the things that matter is what I think drives organizations to be successful.

[00:32:21] Melissa Howatson: Miles, so many great insights you shared with us today. What two pieces of advice would you want the audience to remember on how they can be the best compasses possible for their organization?

[00:32:38] Myles Corson: Yeah. So I'm a big fan of Tom Peters, and we were lucky enough to have Tom Peters come speak at an event, and Tom summed it up really well, business is people, business is people, leaders, serving people, employees, serving people, customers, and Tom is the, you know, sort of the, you know, godfather or grandfather of business literature, you know, from in search of excellence way back in the seventies has continued to tell that story and it was interesting when he spoke at the event we had he was probably in his mid-seventies at that point and starting to wind down, but the so the energy that he still has about saying.

I've been saying this for 50 years again. It's simple. Excellence is what you do in the next five minutes, and it's a focus on people and having lived through so many of the sort of technology cycles. It was like it doesn't matter what the technology is. It's if you don't get the people aspect right, you're not gonna be successful.

So, again, at that point, I can't overemphasize enough.

[00:33:47] Melissa Howatson: Excellent. Now, whenever we have a guest on, we do have two rapid-fire questions that we like to ask. So, are you ready for those?

[00:33:54] Myles Corson: I'll give it a go. Yes.

[00:33:56] Melissa Howatson: All right. One, in your opinion, what is the hallmark of mature financial teams?

[00:34:03] Myles Corson: Maturity, I think can be defined in many different ways.

And, I think what I would say is to me, it's about agile teams, right? Because maturity implies, you're towards the end of the journey when you're established. So, I think we would all recognize where we are now, steady state is the past. So, to me, it's actually more about how do you really demonstrate that you've created that culture?

Of agility. That growth mindset in your team demonstrates they are consistently able to adapt and respond to the challenges that they're coming at. So again, I would say to me, it's about demonstrating consistently that agility and part of that is, as we talked about the ability to innovate and be ready for disruption and comfortable adapting to it because you see it as an opportunity, not a threat.

[00:35:03] Melissa Howatson: And the second one is a little more on the personal side. What is your go-to strategy to stay productive during the workday?

[00:35:10] Myles Corson: Yeah, no, there's this one I love. And again, you probably tell I'm a reasonably prolific reader of, sort of business literature and productivity is a key part of that.

And, like I'm a point put in my life, my career where I have a lot of responsibilities and the sort of the, the tread wheel just gets faster and faster. So actually, my focus has been more about what do you not do? And there's some, there's some great books that I think have helped me sort of formulate personally, you know, how to prioritize things.

And the first of those is Oliver Berkman’s “4,000 Weeks” which if people haven't read is fantastic. And Oliver used to be the productivity writer, column writer at The Financial Times. So, he tried all of the, you know, the techniques, all of the tools. He was like a, you know, an absolute productivity geek.

And, at some point, and I think it was after the birth of his son that he realized actually, yeah, we're chasing an unattainable goal. And we're always, you know, trying to do everything in search of some unachievable outcome. And so, the title of the book, “4,000 Weeks” is basically if you live to 80, that's the number of weeks you have on the planet.

And, so actually, it's more about how do you make sure each of those weeks is meaningful and impactful. So that is sort of, you know, I think is an important one. I read a lot of Cal Newport, who's written “Deep Work, World Without Email” more recently, “Slow Productivity.” And again, one of the things, he's a computer science professor at Georgetown University.

But one of the things he focuses on is, he's actually doing less. Working in a natural place and really focusing on excellence, and it ties back to that Tom Peters conversation. So, those are kind of two things that really forced me to challenge myself. Do I spend my time doing the right things, focused on the things that I can bring the most value and most impact for both my clients, my firm, the teams I work with and my family?

In the community I work with, and then just practically, I'm a big fan of James Clear, Atomic Habits and actually how you turn this into systems because again, you know, it's very difficult to drive change if you don't have a systematic approach. Sorry, long-winded answer to your question.

[00:37:25] Melissa Howatson: question. No, you've given me some great ideas on some books to read, and it's interesting you talk about those, like, what are you not going to do?

I remember getting that advice even in my personal life when, you know, when my kids were young. And it felt like, oh my gosh, how do I balance all the things at home and feel like you're being successful and not letting your family down and doing your work? And somebody said, listen, at home, you got to figure out who you want to be and what are…play to your strengths, figure out those things that you don't have to do.

And, you know, outsource whatever that is, whether that's buying the groceries or. cleaning the house or mowing the lawn, but like, just find the things that, you know, are not the things you're going to do because otherwise you will not get it all done and you won't show up as well at the things that you really do want to do.

And, you know, whether that's the spending time with your kids or the cooking or whatever it is, that's your personal thing. So, and that's always stuck with me along the way. So, I definitely want to read that book. Miles, thank you so much. It's been great to have you on the show.

[00:38:32] Myles Corson: Well, thank you for having me.

And, I'd love to return the favor and have you under the spotlight on the other side of the mic at some point on the Better Finance podcast.

[00:38:40] Melissa Howatson: Absolutely. Look forward to it. If you enjoyed this episode and want to learn more, sign up for our free newsletter, where each week you'll get a roundup of exclusive resources designed to help you grow your leadership skills and drive strategic transformation across your business.

Visit thecfoshowpodcast.com to sign up now. For The CFO Show, I'm Melissa Howatson. Until next time.