What CFOs Can Learn from Great Storytellers

I recently attended a session hosted by the CFO Leadership Council called CFO as a Storyteller. With a title like that, I knew I was in the right place.

The speaker, Alan Haughie, CFO of Louisiana-Pacific Building Solutions, didn’t disappoint. In a room full of finance leaders, he reminded us that the most effective CFOs do more than report results. They use numbers as supporting characters in the story of the business.

Alan reframed the role of the CFO as a storyteller, not of numbers, but of the business itself. And that distinction matters.

He emphasized that our reports, dashboards, and board decks aren’t about the numbers. They are about the business, the decisions we’ve made, and the direction we’re heading. When done right, financial storytelling doesn’t just inform. It inspires alignment and action.

One of his key points was the importance of being deliberate. Have a specific message in mind before building a single slide.

That immediately took me back to a Duarte training I attended. Their advice was to start with the message. Only then do you bring in data, charts, and graphs to support it. Unfortunately, many finance professionals do the reverse. They put up a chart and then try to figure out bullet points to accompany it (and unfortunately these people will read the bullet points to you during the presentation).

Alan also spoke about building a narrative arc, which I especially appreciated because it ties directly to the Hero’s Journey concept I often incorporate in financial storytelling.

Every presentation or report is a journey. The information shared should plot the course of the vision the CFO is communicating. To keep the audience engaged, CFOs must be strategic about what they include and what they leave out.

Irrelevant details, tangents, or data overload can derail the story. The best CFOs act as curators, spotlighting the key moments of the business journey while leaving room for contrast, tension, and resolution.

Alan closed with a focus on one of the most underrated skills: genuineness. Connect with your audience. Engage them, even entertain them, but don not overdo it. You want the audience to remember the message, not the performance.

In a world overflowing with dashboards and data, the CFO who can tell a clear, strategic, and human story stands apart.

Storytelling is not fluff. It is the skill that transforms financial leadership from reactive reporting to proactive influence.

As Alan reminded us, great CFOs don’t just recite numbers. They illuminate the future. And that future is best understood through story.