The Details Are Your Superpower & Your Kryptonite
If you’re a finance leader, you’ve been trained your entire career to master the details and to deliver perfect numbers.
Forecast accuracy.
Budget vs Actual reconciliations.
Creating operating plan waterfalls.
This precision is your foundation. It’s why CEOs, boards, and teams trust you. Details are your superpower.
But they’re also your kryptonite.
Because when you lead with the details, you lose people. Fast.
Why Details Lose the Room
Most audiences don’t start where you start. They don’t want the 50-slide board deck or the 7 column waterfall slide. They don’t want the caveats, footnotes, and reconciliations… at least not at the beginning.
They want the headline first. The Why and “So What.” They want to learn an insight from you that creates the hook and engages their brain. They don’t want a report card.
When you open with details, watch for them picking up their phone. Keep going with details, and you are too far ahead and begin to overwhelm. Your credibility of “master of the details” goes up but your influence goes down. They don’t know where to start because you didn’t lead them with your key headline insight. So they start slinging questions that mostly aren’t relevant and sometimes are rabbit holey.
You then get frustrated that they are missing the point. Can’t they see what I see… I gave them all the details! It’s obvious.
I’m here to remind you (you already know it) so I’m reminding you… IT’S NOT OBVIOUS! And even if it is, it’s even more important to lead with the headline (short key statement) so you can lead the discussion and quickly begin engaging on next steps, next decisions.
Otherwise, you will simply be the reporter, recorder of the conversation, and go back to being reactive to the conversation.
This is the paradox of the finance seat: the very skill that makes you credible (the details) can also make you mostly invisible as a key part of the real conversation.
Lead with Engagement
Influence comes from engagement, not information. Engagement starts with a headline. Headlines spark curiosity. Curiosity invites dialogue. Dialogue creates influence.
So as a CFO, you must do the opposite of what you’ve been trained to do. Instead of giving all the details upfront, give just enough information to spark the next question.
Think of it like this:
Headline: Share the bold, simple statement or key insight
Pause: Let the audience react.
Question: Anticipate what they’ll ask next.
Provide key pieces of evidence: (1 detail at a time and only 3 at a time per the dozens of details you have)
Shut up again: ok that was harsh - but stay silent again to let the Headline Statement and Evidence sink in.
Recognize this framework as a prior reader? Yes, it’s my SECS talk key framework:
Statement
Evidence
Conclusion
Shut Up
Don’t let your years of habitual training try to provide the whole spreadsheet at once. The roommate inside your head says you are withholding key information… you are NOT!
You must think of this as sequencing your critical information for maximum impact and ultimately influencing the next step… the next decision.
Why This Works for Finance Leaders
As a finance leader, you sit in a very unique position. You sit at the unique intersection of all the companies activities and most of those are translated into numbers and dollars.
The best finance people already know the next question since you’ve been living in these details and have journeyed to the answer. You’ve rehearsed the scenarios. You’ve run the sensitivities. You’ve got the back pocket slides.
That’s your edge, your superpower. But it’s also your kryptonite because by definition you are too far ahead of everyone else on this “data journey”.
While others wing it and hypothesize with opinions, you’re already two moves ahead…but you must slow down and bring the room (the audience) along.
When you lead with engagement, you’re playing both sides of the game:
Drawing your audience in with simplicity.
Backing it up with credibility when the questions you know are coming result in an engaging conversation that you are now orchestra conducting.
You’ve seen this mastery from a select group of great finance leaders and CFOs. These people are thought of as “detail-keepers” - though they are… they are viewed as strategic partners and influential leaders.
Practicing the Skill
This is not about dumbing down. It’s simply about pacing the flow of information.
I encourage you to reframe how you communicate everything you know and practice flowing out your information in different forums:
Your Team: Start with your team. It’s small, comfortable and a mostly safe place to practice this new skill.
1:1 Executive Partners: Now practice this communication technique 1:1 with your most trusted peers.
Executive Team: When you are ready, start showing up this way with your weekly exec team meeting. Start with the powerful trade-off question (“Are we willing to sacrifice X to achieve Y?”) or only one Key Insight (“Our Engr. Launch Date is critical. 50% of next quarters revenue assumptions rely on this launch date.”).
All-Hands: Translate details into narrative. “Here’s the story the numbers are telling us…”. “Here are the 2 key areas we are winning and the 1 key area we are losing.” “Here’s Why.” “Here’s Where We Need To Focus.” Yes, I’ve capitalized those since Headlines are normally capitalized to get your attention.
Boardroom: When you are ready, it’s game time. Start with the only 1-3 headlines that matter. Have your SECS talk in your pocket. Anticipate the next question or pushback and be prepared with the next right data details when the questions come. By all means, don’t drone on for 10 minutes and end with “Any Questions?”… Stop doing that!
Over time, you’ll retrain yourself to engage first, explain second… not vice versa.
Closing Thoughts:
Details are your credibility. Engagement is your influence.
When you put them together, you create the CFO superpower that drives real leadership impact.
Give just enough to spark the next question. Anticipate it. Then answer with confidence because you already own the details.
This simple shift/hack? Communicate with headlines first, details second.
Catch their attention before you double click into details.
Make sure your audience cares what you have to say before they care how much you know.
And practice your SECS talks.
