“Stories and lessons from an unexpected journey in finance.”

When people ask me what makes a great CFO, they often expect me to say something about capital strategy, M&A, or scaling operations. Those matter, of course. But the truth is, none of them work without one foundation: integrity.

Integrity is not about perfection. It’s about alignment—between what you say and what you do, between the story you tell and the numbers that back it up, between short-term wins and long-term trust.

As CFO, you become the organization’s truth-teller. The numbers don’t care about ambition, wishful thinking, or ego. They reflect reality. And your responsibility is to ensure leadership, the board, and employees understand that reality—even when it’s uncomfortable.

Here’s how I think about it:

👉 Integrity is consistency. People should know that when you say something, it reflects your best judgment, not spin.

👉 Integrity is courage. Sometimes it means delivering news no one wants to hear—but needs to.

👉 Integrity is long-term. A deal closed on shaky assumptions might win applause today, but credibility lost tomorrow will cost far more.

I’ve seen companies succeed beyond expectations because leadership trusted each other enough to operate from a shared baseline of truth. And I’ve seen companies falter because “optimistic” forecasts and convenient narratives eventually collided with reality.

The lesson is simple: integrity isn’t optional. It’s what makes everything else possible. Without it, strategy turns into storytelling, numbers turn into noise, and leaders lose the most valuable asset they have—trust.

The Accidental CFO takeaway: Integrity is the quiet discipline that sustains credibility. Without it, nothing else sticks. With it, everything else becomes possible.

👉 When have you seen integrity (or the lack of it) change the course of a company?

#Leadership #Integrity #CFO #Finance #TheAccidentalCFO #Trust #inersec