I would like to decide specifically to ignore certain things so that I can get other things done, because I admit to myself that I will not be able to get everything done. And when you admit that to yourself, it's a profound moment. It means you have an opportunity to be strategic about what you're going to get done and what you're not going to get done.

You're going to lose certain things anyway. Why not choose the right things to ignore? It opens up a world of possibilities and lets you be in control.

CFOs need to be very clear about what they want to spend their time on. That's the most strategic decision they can possibly make. And as C-level executives, CFOs have the opportunity and the authority to delegate. If I have a really good team and I'm really strategic about where I'm going to spend my time, then I'm going to have the time to work on company strategy.

Handing off the details to the team can be hard for CFOs -- detail-oriented financial analysis is in large part how they became CFOs. So now we're telling them, "You have to let go of handling these details" -- and that's very counterintuitive for a CFO. So it's important for CFOs to schedule check-ins with the team members they delegate to, at long enough intervals to allow the team to make meaningful progress. This way CFOs aren't micromanaging, but they can still feel they have control and can intervene if they need to.