One small chair habit, kept up consistently, adds roughly a year to the average tenure of the CFOs who report to that chair.
It takes 20 minutes a month. Most chairs do not do it.
The habit is a monthly one-to-one with the CFO, private, no CEO, no agenda. Consistently held even (especially) when there is no immediate reason to hold it.
Why the habit works
Three reasons, all reinforcing each other.
It creates a channel the CFO can use without escalating. Most CFOs have concerns that are not big enough to raise formally but material enough that they build up over time. Without a monthly private conversation, those concerns accumulate for a year and then present as a resignation. With the monthly conversation, they get named and either resolved or absorbed as they arise.
It signals value. A chair who books a monthly 20 minutes with the CFO is telling the CFO, without saying it, that the CFO matters. That signal is measurable in retention behaviour. CFOs who feel valued stay longer, all else equal.
It gives the chair a running read on the state of the CFO. Formal reviews at 12 months are too infrequent to catch the signals that predict a departure at month nine. The monthly conversation provides a much finer-grained read. Chairs who do it can usually see a departure coming three months out and have time to intervene.
Why most chairs skip it
Three reasons chairs give for not doing it, all understandable, none persuasive.
"I do not want to undermine the CEO." The concern is that the CFO having a private channel to the chair creates a triangulation risk. It does not, if the channel is used well. The chair does not act on what the CFO shares without discussing it with the CEO first. The channel is for information gathering, not for going around the CEO.
"I do not have anything specific to talk about." The absence of a specific topic is the point. The whole value of the habit is that it happens without an agenda. The CFO learns that the conversation is not about a specific issue, so they use it to raise things they would not raise otherwise.
"I already have a good relationship with the CFO." The good relationship is what makes the habit possible, not what makes it unnecessary. Even strong chair-CFO relationships benefit from a formal cadence.
What the conversation should look like
Twenty minutes. In person if possible. If not, video call, not phone.
The opening question that works consistently: "What is on your mind that we have not talked about yet this month?"
Then be quiet. The pause is important. Most CFOs will pause because the question is unusual. Then they will answer honestly about something that has been on their mind that they had not planned to raise.
Sometimes the answer is nothing substantive. That is fine. The habit still works.
Sometimes the answer surfaces something material. That is when the value shows up. Cases we have seen surfaced in these conversations:
- A CFO who was frustrated with a specific board member's behaviour in meetings, but did not want to raise it formally. Chair adjusted the seating and topic order at the next meeting and the frustration resolved.
- A CFO who was two months into a conversation with a competitor about a bigger CFO seat. Chair asked directly, CFO answered directly, chair offered a specific structural change that made staying more attractive. CFO stayed two more years.
- A CFO who was flagging that the Head of FP and A was showing early signs of burnout that the CEO had not noticed. Chair adjusted quietly with the CEO and the second-tier hire that had been planned for Q3 was accelerated to Q2.
None of these would have been raised in a formal review. All of them were raised in the monthly private conversation.
The specific practices that matter
Three details make the difference between a habit that works and one that quietly dies.
Keep the cadence even when things are quiet. The value of the habit depends on it being reliable. Skipping a month because "there is nothing to talk about" trains the CFO to see the conversation as event-driven rather than routine. Once that happens, the CFO stops using it to raise things.
Do not tell the CEO about specific content unless you have permission. The conversation only works if the CFO can trust that what they say does not automatically flow to the CEO. Chairs who breach this once find the conversation stops producing anything useful thereafter.
Do not turn it into a review. The instinct to use the 20 minutes to check on specific deliverables should be resisted. The value is in the space, not in the specific questions.
What good looks like at year two
By year two of the habit, the chair should be able to describe:
- Which parts of the CFO's mandate they find most rewarding, and which most draining.
- Which specific relationships in the executive team are strong for the CFO, and which are strained.
- Whether the CFO is happy in the role or edging toward looking elsewhere.
Chairs who can answer those three questions have CFOs who stay materially longer. Chairs who cannot are usually surprised by CFO departures that happen despite their best efforts.
If you are the chair of a business where CFO retention matters and you want to think through how to set up the monthly cadence, get in touch.
