Is Your Effort-to-ROI Ratio Working for You?

CFOs are some of the hardest-working people I know.

Long hours, back-to-back meetings, team management, problem-solving, modelling and reporting. It's relentless. But let me ask you this: are you delivering the maximum possible return on the time and effort that you're investing at work?

I'll share with you what I shared with her; effort alone doesn't equate to effectiveness.

Just because you're giving it everything, doesn't mean you're getting the right returns. Not unless that energy is being invested in the right places.

Abraham Lincoln famously said:

If you were to draw a straight line between activity and ROI, sharpening the axe seems like wasted effort. No trees are being felled. No progress is visible. But when the time comes to swing, every cut is cleaner, faster, and more effective. The ROI on sharpening the axe is only visible right at the end of the process.

'Sharpening your axe' is a catalytic action - an effort that doesn't just create an immediate return, but instead triggers disproportionate returns over time.

Three of the most impactful types of catalytic, intangible capital that the CFO can help create within their businesses include;

● Strategic Capital: The time and energy spent on gathering market intelligence, supporting innovation, minimising risk and generally positioning the business for long-term success.
● Leadership Capital: The effort spent on developing and empowering your team. A CFO who builds a strong leadership pipeline and decision-making autonomy amongst your direct reports will ultimately scale their impact beyond what they could ever achieve alone.
● Organisational Influence: CFOs who focus on cross-functional alignment and build trust with key stakeholders before they need to leverage that trust to obtain buy-in will execute far more effectively when the time comes.

If you want outsized returns, you cannot measure effort purely in terms of immediate financial gain. The smartest CFOs sharpen the axe before they swing.

To help you determine whether your effort to ROI ratio is working for you, you might like to ask yourself the following questions;

1. Are you investing effort in what scales?

Some CFOs spend their days solving the same problems over and over. Others build systems that solve problems permanently. Which one are you?

For example: If forecasting errors keep cropping up, you could spend hours manually correcting them every quarter. Or, you could design a system, through automation or better cross-functional alignment, that eliminates the errors at the source.

Effort is finite. The question is: Are you applying it to work that compounds over time?

2. Does your effort build optionality?

Every decision you make today either expands or restricts your future choices. The best CFOs invest their energy in activities that increase their options over time.

For example: Investing in automation today doesn't just save time; it frees up capacity for higher-value strategic work and allows your team to scale without additional headcount. Similarly, investing in cross-industry partnerships opens doors to future revenue streams that may not exist yet but may in the future.

3. If you had half the time to do your job, what would you focus on?

Imagine that your circumstances changed and you suddenly had to fit your current deliverables into two weeks a month instead of four. What would need to change?

It's a confronting scenario to plan for, but one that prompts ruthless prioritisation and forces you to focus on your highest-leverage activities. You know intellectually that not all effort delivers equal impact, but have you ever actually built a plan to address the busywork that currently fills your schedule?

Ultimately, your effort is only as valuable as the impact it creates. If your time and energy aren't driving long-term organisational value, then it's time to reassess where you're investing them.

This week, challenge yourself: actually track where your effort is going and ask yourself whether you are delivering your maximum ROI on your time.

If not, what needs to change?And what's stopping you from making that change today?

I'd love to hear your thoughts.

This is the trusted guide for CFOs to lead with IMPACT and create VALUE.

It's time for women in finance to find power in their purpose!