In our previous episode of the Confessions Podcast, we discussed the importance of smart risk taking with Mark Buthman, CFO Emeritus at Kimberly-Clark Corporation. In that discussion, Mark revealed an interesting fact about himself – he doesn’t possess the normally dominant Business Chemistry traits of a CFO.
Whereas most CFOs identify as Drivers and Guardians – driven and analytical personality types – Mark is an Integrator and team builder. It’s a dominant trait that gave him a unique perspective on the need for diversity within a team, and which he believes led to much of his success over the years.
“Over time, as I built teams, I tried specifically to look for complementary skills. One of the risks in finance, and [on] any leadership team—there’s a lot of analytical, decisive leaders around, but that doesn’t make for such diversity.”