Up for a challenge? Driven to be a strategic leader? Crave responsibilities that go beyond developing financial goals, objectives and budgets? Are you ready to be interrogated and held to sometimes unattainable standards for every decision? Can you hold your ground defending fiscally sound decisions against a maverick, risk-taking CEO?

Welcome to the world of today's chief financial officer.

The path to CFO is not without challenges that lead to great rewards. Let's look at some of the pitfalls and how you can position yourself to achieve your goal.

If you think your current boss is tough, difficult to please and increasingly demanding, imagine trying to keep a seven-member board of directors happy. Clashing with the CEO while satisfying the board could account for a large part for the six-percent increase in CFO turnover during the past two years. The executive management team is just that — a team. Whether you nurture a collaborative relationship with the CEO or become the obstacle that gets in his way may be directly related to your communication skills, interpersonal strengths and business savvy.

Skilled communicator

Financial executives tend to be left-brained and more introverted by nature. Left-brained communicators may be to the point, no-nonsense types whose delivery can often be misunderstood. A marketable CFO must have the ability to understand and partner with all business units. This often necessitates developing a more congenial communication style, one inviting participation and synergy.

Perception is critical

One way to determine how you are perceived by bosses, peers and subordinates is through a 360-degree assessment. If you believe your straightforward communication style gets results, but the perception of those you work with is that you are an arrogant dictator, that might not be a characteristic that furthers your career goals. Conversely, if you are perceived as soft-spoken and unassertive, despite the fact that you get results, it might mean you are passed over as potential CFO material.

Strategic importance

It's not just about the numbers. As a strategic partner, it is crucial for future CFOs to understand the bottom line across all divisions from an operational perspective. Partnering with managers and working collaboratively to improve the bottom line creates a win/win for everyone and cultivates a well-rounded, better contributing finance executive.

Collaborator

Hand in hand with cultivating a more collaborative and strategic operational partnership is the difficult task of balancing visibility and notoriety for your contributions, while giving the unit managers the accolades. Do you take all the credit? Most of the credit? Work in the background and accept whatever recognition the manager is willing to give you? It is critical to your corporate climb to keep detailed records of your measurable contributions for your performance evaluations and resume.

Credentialed

CPA CFOs are the candidates of the future. According to Spencer Stuart, the number of CFO-CPA's among Fortune 1,000 companies has almost doubled in the past two years. The trend to recruit CFOs with more technical accounting backgrounds will most likely continue into the next decade. Not being a CPA will make it increasingly difficult to compete for top CFO positions.

So, what's next?

That question depends on you, your career objectives and whether the people who need to know about you actually know about you. Now could be the best time to begin cultivating a visible, online presence that leverages your bottom-line contributions and positions you as a valuable, in-demand competitor.

A CFO can become the trusted advisor and confidant to the CEO in creating and executing strategic growth initiatives and benchmarking world-class finance performance measures, all while becoming a very visible face of the organization through liaisons with investors and lending institutions. Simultaneously building visibility could position you for the next stop — CEO.