Why HR Leaders Get Shut Down in CFO Meetings (And What to Do Months Before)

Speaker 1 · 0:00So there's a phenomenal question that I'm looking at right now that my guy, Denzel, put together that I would love to answer. He says, you've talked about how CHROs walks into the CFO meetings and get shut down, But I wanna go deeper into the night before that meeting. I wanna understand what they're rehearsing, what they're thinking about saying. I wanna understand what they're not saying, what they're afraid to say, what they're emotionally feeling. And he goes on to say, I wanna understand how they may what they might be feeling as they're preparing to gather data and gather perspective heading into that meeting.

Speaker 1 · 0:39Here's a few things. As I think about that, I'll take it from a different angle. I won't get super technical because, again, I think there are better people in the world to do that. But what I will say and what I will do is I will share a very unique perspective. When I think about CHROs preparing for a CFO meeting, I'm thinking about a couple different factors.

Speaker 1 · 1:01First and foremost, I'm thinking about when's the last time they've fully understood a couple different parts of the business? When's the last time they've met with the sales team and the leaders of that team? When's the last time they've had a very deep strategic conversations with the product team? When is the last time they've really sat into a very strategic pocket with their CFO? When is the last time they've just really at a macro level analyzed the tech stack, analyzed the tools, analyzed who's using what within every single part of the business, what's doing well within the business, what's not doing well, and really just had that macro viewpoint and lens.

Speaker 1 · 1:45When is the last time would be my first thought that night before. And it really doesn't start the night before. We know that. Preparing for that CFO meeting should probably start months before. And that's kind of the point of this HR diagnostic tool and what we're thinking about here at Pulse HR, which is I'm trying to get HR leaders to, frankly, change their entire way of being and showing up as a professional inside of the organization on a month by month by month basis.

Speaker 1 · 2:14And it's because HR leaders, first and foremost, I have lots of empathy here. Right? A lot of your work and a lot of your focuses are so ingrained in the workforce responsibilities. Right? You have your recruiting team members reporting to you.

Speaker 1 · 2:30You have certain things on the policy side that you have to update. You're managing so much data in your HRIS tools. There's so much that you have, and I get that. But I think we have to start to elevate. We have to start to evolve the role, the relationship to a part of the to a part of their day to day that is a bit more focused on leaning fully in to how a revenue leader may be seeing their workforce data and how that might be playing out.

Speaker 1 · 2:59Like, I would love to know the last time an HR leader really sat down with a CRO and understood, okay, not only what is our recruiting plans, because I think they had that conversation, but how are we doing when it comes to learning and development within this particular team, in this particular part of the business? We've seen our numbers drop quarter after quarter after quarter. We have not had successful months. And I'm very curious to understand how you as a revenue leader are thinking about learning and development. Now that is an exact time that I think number one, you can bridge the gap of having more of a learning and development mentorship type relationship with your revenue leaders, which I know for a fact is not happening between an HR leader and a revenue leader.

Speaker 1 · 3:43But more uniquely, when you start to have those conversations and you start to track those data points, what you'll find is you'll start to find your mind wandering into the, okay, what would more development, more learning, more continuity, more micro learning, more day to day learning, more macro, big, bulky, next six months learnings? What would it look like for this particular division of business? And how can I think about technologies and tools that can really support that? And how can I potentially find technology tools, services, support for this revenue leader that would a 100% make a big impact today? Like, I often think about how HR leaders could very easily influence, depending on the price points of the product and the services, another 6 to 7 figures in revenue and actually generate that revenue and be a and be and be part of the reason and the cause of generating that revenue.

Speaker 1 · 4:49If they were to just help the the revenue leaders understand internal communications to better understand how to analyze and how to keep track of all of the unique human capability data of that particular revenue team, how to be more contextual as a leader, and to understand that every single AE, every single SDR, every single BDR thinks and breathes and activates and leans into their day to days differently. I mean, if we were to see our HR leaders get into a very strategic pocket with that revenue leader for just a few weeks around those topics, whether that's bundling and and and recommending technology technology to do some of those things, whether it's a bit more of a mentorship, strategic, impactful relationship with the CRO where they're just taking away change management, taking away human capability, taking away l and d best practices and initiatives, whatever that looks like. If we were to just see that shift with those two stakeholders within the organizations, I believe heading into a CFO meeting with that update, with those new data points, with these technology suggestions that might fall into the l and d, that might fall into their internal internal communications, that might fall into the human capability bucket, I believe will be I believe you'll see a much different response from our revenue leaders if the HR leader were to prepare the night before, the weeks before, the months before with that data point, with those deliverables, with that tangible information in mind.

Speaker 1 · 6:32And it starts with the action. It starts with the continuity. It starts with the alignment. It starts with the not the intent, not the wish, not the want, but the actual execution of sitting down in multiple pockets with your CRO, sitting down and fully understanding the full story of the data, the full story of why things have gone well, why things have not gone well, what's been causing the most retention issues, and and and really finding the the root of that issue within that particular business and potentially finding micro tools or potentially finding consultants or finding best practices or doing what you know how to do best to help that revenue leader think, expand, grow, and make change. And we know that's not happening.

Speaker 1 · 7:19We know that the revenue leader is going to probably their network to talk to another revenue leader, or talk to another CFO or talk to another COO or talk to another entrepreneur or talk to another stakeholder that they feel like they have a bit more continuity and respect even and just empathy around and for when the HR leaders naturally have the tools, the answers, the skill sets to actually solve the root of what the revenue leader's problem really is from a technology perspective and just a leadership perspective that I know for a fact, if communicated in the right structure and the right junction for that CFO, I believe we would then see our revenue leaders and our financial leaders look at the HR role in that human being at a personal level, one on one level, drastically differently. So this is, again, just another outside the box way of looking at it, and tangible practical things that can happen tomorrow. Like tomorrow, the HR director of a 600 person organization can sit down with the head of sales and can really diagnose some problems and figure out a few different technology plays, AI plays, and best practices plays from strategic adjustments of leadership to generate another 6 figures, to generate another million dollars, and the revenue leader will go to back for that HR leader and say they had a lot to do with this, and here is why.

Speaker 1 · 8:49So this is some of the pre work that I believe needs to happen heading into a CFO meeting. Hope this was helpful. I hope this was valuable. And I hope I answered your question, Denza. Thanks so much.