The Unlikely Journey of a $3 Billion CFO, William Washington III

Welcome back to the Diary of a CFO podcast. I'm your host, Wassia Kamon, a sitting CFO with a background in accounting and FTNA. And I started this show because I believe the way companies build and lead their finance function determines whether they scale or fall apart. Each week, I sit down with CFOs, CEOs, and strategic business partners to talk about what that actually looks like in reality.

Building the right teams, getting systems and controls in place, partnering with the business, and doing all without burning out. Today, I'm super excited to have with me William Washington III. He's a global CFO at Baker McKenzie, one of the world's largest global law firms working with major companies around the world. Think Baker McKenzie as a big four -scale firm, but on the legal side.

William oversees $3 billion in annual revenue across 76 offices in 45 countries and brings a rare combination of financial acumen and operational expertise shaped by senior roles he held at Hogan Lovells, Accenture, and Fannie Mae. He's a certified Lean Six Sigma Master Black Belt and a Bloomberg New Voice on the Future of Finance. Welcome to the show, William. Thank you, and thank you for having me.

What a great introduction. Oh, thank you. It's only a partial intro. I didn't mention how you were on the board of the EFP and all that good stuff.

Yes, yes. We have busy lives these days. Awesome. Well, that's the right busy life.

And, you know, when people hear the term global CFO, it sounds impressive, but sometimes it's unclear in simple terms. What would you say the job actually looks like day to day? And where do you spend most of your time and attention? Yeah.

Well, first of all, thank you for having me here. I'm always excited to give back and to share my experiences. When I think about the role of global CFO, I think about a role that's mostly about leadership. You know, I've spent most of my career doing spreadsheets, doing analysis of spreadsheets and, you know, at some point starting to lead teams.

But really, when you move into the role of global CFO. It's about the ability to lead a team, to be able to develop people and to make sure that you have a seat at the table and that your voice is heard so that you can take the numbers and align them with the strategy. Wow. And so when you became global CFO at an organization that's in more than 40 countries, how did you first evaluate the finance organization?

Like what were the first thing you looked at? at, for example, or people you spoke to, to understand what was working well and what needed to improve? Well, that's the first thing is you have to go around and speak to people. But more importantly, you have to go around and listen.

You know, you have to ask questions and then just sit back. And the experiences that I've had, people are very forthcoming, especially when you're new, you know, and it gives you a great opportunity to get in there and find out what's working and what's not working. And for me, it starts with my leadership team. Most importantly, my number two and number three direct reports.

You know, they really help to drive the strategy and drive the execution. And if you don't have the right people sitting in those seats, you know, you're almost set up for failure. And a lot of times those are the same people who also apply for your role prior to you getting there. So you really want to let them know that that you want their success.

You want the team success to align with their success and the overall success of the organization. Because as global CFO, I'll only go as far as my team can take me. Very true. And you brought up such a good point, right?

You're number two and you're number three. So I'm assuming you're probably mentioning your controller in your head or FPNA? Yeah, you know, when you have an organization the size of mine, it's a lot of... different direct reports and I don't like to separate who's actually the number two and number three.

But also I've found it also helpful to have someone who may have a unique title. For me, it's my director of global finance administration who really steps in a gap when I'm unavailable, when I sit in all day meetings or all day conferences or otherwise not available. Someone who can think like I think and execute like I execute is a really key member of the team. And so when you start, when you step into a leadership role like that, like you mentioned, especially when you had people who probably applied for your role and you get there, how do you start building trust and alignment, especially with those that were there long before you got there?

Yeah, well, that trust goes both ways, right? You know, I'm coming in new. I know I'm new. One of the things I say to teams as soon as I start is, you know, don't try to compare me to the prior CFOs because we weren't raised by the same parents.

We didn't work at the same jobs. We don't have the same innate personalities and we may be completely 100 % different. And so I really try to come in early on and share with people who I am as a person and how I lead and build trust in them by showing trust, allowing them to do what they do best and figuring out what those things are. One of the first things that I learned when I went into a leadership position was.

I'm going to have five, six, seven different direct reports and their communication styles are going to be different. How they want to work is going to be different. What their home lives are going to be different. And to allow for that and for me to be able to adapt to them as much as they're adapting to me really allows your team to be to operate at its full capacity.

And so I really I've really worked hard. at changing my communication style, depending on which one of my direct reports I'm working with or speaking with. Wow. And would you say you also apply the same thing with people, with your peers, right?

Also on the executive leadership team, like when you get there, how do you typically build that trust and alignment, whether it's the CEO or with your other peers? Oh, absolutely. I mean, it's probably even more important with them because we don't tend to work together every single day. And they have their strategic priorities and finance has theirs.

And a lot of times finance overlaps with every other function, right? Because we build the budgets and they operate and they have to operate in line with those budgets. So when I'm working with the CEO or the head of HR or the head of marketing or the head of IT who's executing a lot of my technology projects, you know, it's really important to understand. not just how they communicate, but also their stress points and how to make time to be available for them and have them be available to me.

And really to also make sure you take time to get to know them as people, you know, because I think once you have a relationship, it makes the work go a lot smoother. At Baker McKenzie, I inherited or came in with a great team of leaders. And over time, we've been able to both work hard together and also find ways to, you know, share a good meal or go on a great run or a walk or do other things to get to know them personally. Wow.

That's very enlightening because sometimes we don't, at least when I became a CFO, I didn't realize how much time I would spend outside of finance versus. in finance i don't know if you feel the same sometimes yeah i mean you probably areas you know i think when i was like a manager of finance you know i just got emails from the HR to like do my annual reviews and comp increases and things like that it was very uh functional and tactical in a way that we operated now we almost have to operate like like brothers and sisters or you know colleagues we have to move together in a in a way that helps the organization to be successful.

And I think that's also where my Lean Six Sigma, my operational background come into play. I really do think every day I wake up with a focus on how the pieces all fit together, right? How marketing may be helping to drive demand for our business and how people may be supporting a talent that's going to deliver on that business and how IT underpins everything. You know, when you really start to look at the organization as a whole and as everyone's a piece of that whole organization, then you really get a feel for why teamwork and working together is so critical and important.

Wow. And I'm also I was always curious, like what led you to go for the Lean Six Sigma all the way to master Black Belt, especially with a finance background? First of all, I'm a geek. So, you know, like.

Someone says something to me like Lean Six Sigma and I immediately think, oh, my gosh, you know, I need to learn about that. To be honest, it was a pivot moment in my career. I was working at Fannie Mae. I was doing finance the way I've been doing it for 15 years.

And someone told me that we were forming a new Lean Six Sigma department and they needed a finance person to come in and almost be like the CFO of the Lean Six Sigma department. and calculate how much the firm was saving through this new initiative. And when I joined, it was the early days of their Lean Six Sigma program. So there was nothing to calculate.

There wasn't a single member who had been trained. There wasn't any ongoing projects. And it was just me and the leader of the Lean Six Sigma department. And so as we started training employees at Fannie Mae, I started sitting in on a training.

And that training gets you to the first stage. And once I was through the first stage, I then started helping people execute their projects because we still hadn't saved any money. And that almost takes you to the second stage where you're helping develop projects. And then it was just this evolution where even the team members that we had hired needed to get the Black Belt certification.

So I volunteered to go take black belt training at the university. Then I would come back and teach the team what I was learning in the classroom. And then from there, I just I can never stop. If there's another level to attain, which was the master black belt certification that required me to take a lot of statistics classes.

I was not a statistics fan, but I was determined to get that master black belt. And I just kept working at it. And so I did both jobs. I worked on the finance portion, but I also worked on the implementation programs at Fannie Mae.

That's amazing. And you mentioned it was a pivotal moment in your career. So what would you say that perspective, that background have helped you since as a finance executive? Oh, my gosh, that was everything for me to make it to the level of being a CFO, because it gave me.

an understanding of the operations of the business. Up until then, I was a finance manager level person who received the numbers, who made sure that they ticked and they tied and sent out reports and analysis. And I had never really sat in the business. And when I did the Lean Six Sigma role, it required me to really get a strong understanding of the business.

I had to read policies and procedures. I had to learn how to process map the business. I had to be able to identify opportunities and risks on a process map. And that operational experience tied to my background in numbers really gave me a holistic view of the business that I think everyone would benefit from.

And I often teach my team to think about the business and put yourself in the boat and in the seat of the business owners. When you start sharing with them the numbers, because that's when they start being responsive to what you're trying to communicate to them. Yeah. And I think, you know, now the mandate is for everybody to be a strategic business partner.

Right. So it's like everybody, accounting, finance, tax, whoever is there, you are going to be a strategic business partner. So I'm curious for you leading an organization that spends thousands of countries and hundreds of people. It's impossible to work directly with everyone.

So how do you ensure your team is performing at the level you expect? That's a great question. I mean, I think, you know, when I think about leaders, the first thing I think about is being someone people want to follow. You know, you really have to be.

someone who cares enough about the team. And when I say the team, it's not just my direct reports. It's my direct reports, reports, or as I often say to people, I'm often thinking about that young person who's in their first day on the job because when you're in your first day of your first job out of college, you often look to the CFOs for the culture and the tone. and the inspiration to go further in your career.

And so I think that's what it takes to be a leader. And for me to be able to get my message out to people in 47 different countries who have language differences, right? Like one of the things I do is I produce a monthly video and I also do town halls, but I can sometimes tell by people's reactions that My jokes aren't landing or the nuance that I'm saying isn't landing. So it's really important to be able to figure out how to touch every member of your organization, which requires constant communication, the ability to reach out in different ways, whether it's visiting an office or visiting a country or sending out a message or making sure I say things to my team like, get me.

Help me to recognize members of your team by sharing with me the successes and failures. And then let's make sure we get that out to the whole team so we can set the culture around a high performance team that recognizes our top employees and also builds a dynamic where there's a back and forth communication between them and me. And I learned that early in my career where I was a member of like a special committee that advised the CEO at Fannie Mae. He would bring us in once a month.

I was a low level manager. And just having access to leadership gives you a feel for the pulse of the organization or gives them a feel for the pulse of the organization. Oh, yeah. And it's also a great way to to learn.

Right. Because I feel like the more time you spend with the executive, especially if you're on that executive journey, the better off you are. Right. Iron sharpens iron.

Yeah. And we get excited by the young people. You know, I've been doing finance now for 30 years. The numbers are the numbers.

The business is the business. It's really all about the people, you know, and the legal industry. It's a people business to begin with. But also, I think when you're the leader of a finance organization, if you can make it about the people, then you can have a much stronger team based organization and the numbers will take care of themselves.

Yes, that's such a great way to see that. And I'm curious to hear how was your transition from being in the financial industry to being in the legal industry? What was that transition like and what did you learn in the process? What maybe you had to shift maybe in your thinking or some of the things that applied?

Well, transitions have been part of my journey. You know, I started my career at a cottonseed company. From there, I went to a real estate investment trust. From there, I went to Accenture and professional services, Panty May, and now into the legal industry.

So multiple transitions throughout my career. And each of those transitions required a different kind of... adaptation or learning of the business. And there's a good book out there called The First 90 Days that most people know about and they still don't read it.

But like I told you earlier, I'm a geek. Tell me that the most important thing is to understand an organization. When I go in, I'm going to read a book that's going to help me to understand an organization and reading about the first 90 days, really doing your research and being prepared. And one of those mentors I had.

When I was in Lean Six Sigma, Lean Six Sigma required you to go into every part of the business and learn about that part of business and be as smart as the people who may be in that part of business for 30 years. And that just takes preparation and work. So when I was in the Lean Six Sigma area, I would read all those policies and procedures. I would try to learn as much about the business.

that i was helping and those skills helped me as i transitioned to industries so when i came into the legal industry i knew i had to learn it i knew i wasn't going to be a lawyer and so um one of the things i did was i took a class at george washington university uh it was a master's in law firm management and in that program they walked you through every part of the legal industry it was a two -year program i had already gotten my undergrad and mba It was an additional master's.

But like I said, I'm a geek. And I want to be successful. And to be successful, you have to be able to transition when the business changes or your industry changes. Wow.

And I like that you are literally that living testimony of lifelong learning, like from being a black belt and now going to a master in law management to learn the business. Because I saw a study that was saying that one of the skills that will still be there, despite AI, is lifelong learning. And that we have to continuously learn. Yeah, absolutely.

And when I say I'm a geek, it's only because that's what my... resume or life skills says. When I was a teenager, I was like any young man. I wanted to play football and basketball and be outside.

And if a teacher gave me a book to read, the thicker it was, the more I was like, oh, no. But as I got older, I realized it's a necessary habit to build. Just like practicing my jump shot or practicing my golf swing, I have to practice my mental acumen. Practice being a professional finance person.

And if that takes reading a big, thick book, I may not read the whole thing, but I have to go after my career and my profession the same way I go after anything else I pursue in life. getting mentally prepared, preparing my mind. I can tell you about a hundred different things I've done over my career in order to make sure I was ready for that next opportunity. And I encourage everyone, every young person I ever meet.

Read three books, you know, read a book that helps with your mental health or your spiritual development. Read a book that helps with your profession and the thing that you care about the most in terms of your career. And then read a book just for enjoyment, just so you can practice the muscle of reading. in an environment where you enjoy the topic you're reading about.

So I may be reading a book about Seth Curry, and then I may be reading a book about the financial markets. Then I may be reading my Bible or a book about being a good husband on a spiritual side. And all three of those things combine to make me a more well -rounded person and be better at my job. Wow.

I'm definitely stealing that. Because it's true to have that balance, right? It doesn't have to be all boring, quote unquote, all about learning. But yeah, the Steph Curry book, yes, for sure.

Thank you so much for sharing that. I appreciate it. And thinking about you being a well -rounded executive, you are also sitting on different boards. So I'm curious, how does these board roles...

really probably improved you as a CFO or a finance executive? Because I'm always curious to see, because I feel like all these experiences we accumulate outside of work tend to make us better at work. So curious to hear how that the board experience may have helped you. Yeah, I think sometimes when people look at board roles, they look at it for prestige or or some ulterior motive.

But for me, board service is really about the opportunity to give back. It also gives me a chance to sharpen my skill sets in ways that my day -to -day job may not. So by sitting on different boards, I have a seat at the table with insights to the challenges that other businesses may face. And as a board member, I get all those challenges that you talked about earlier.

I'll hear about their IT challenges. I'll hear about their marketing challenges. I'll hear about the CEO and what challenges he or she is facing. And by sitting at the board seat and being asked to make decisions quickly, I sharpen another skill set in terms of leadership and executive presence and things I need to know in order to be a leader.

And quite frankly, the organization that's giving to me is also getting me, in some sense for free, getting my 30 years plus experience in finance in order to help them to make better decisions as well. So I see it as a two -way street. It allows me to give back. It also gives something to me in the process.

And they generally tend to be with organizations. that inspire me or that I respect what they're doing. And I feel like I'm blessed to have the opportunity to even have a seat at that table. And I continue to look and seek new ways to get back through that medium.

Wow. Again, on that flow of being well -rounded, thank you so much for sharing that because all these experiences end at the end of the day. And when you think about how we are trained from a finance background, right, we think about precision, control, risk management. Do you think that that training by itself sometimes holds finance leaders back from being effective leaders?

Well, I definitely think that. There are different facets to finance and most people see it as just numbers and they get that numbers training. And especially on the accounting side, I don't have an accounting background. I have an FP &A background and I intentionally steered away from accounting because it was too structured, too numbers focused.

And to me, it was pencils down and not heads up. And I always want to be heads up in understanding the business. So I do believe that finance training can sometimes be an inhibitor. And in particular, when you're going through school, you know, to me, university and school is about proving that you're teachable.

When I came into the business world, the skill sets I needed were different depending on which company I was working with and what the role was. And when I went back to my university for the first time and I went to my favorite professor, the one who had taught me, who seemed like the smartest and had taught me the most things. And I said, I remember telling him I have this job at Fannie Mae and I'm doing X, Y and Z. And then he said something.

And for the first time, I realized he's never worked in a company. He has no idea what I do at Fannie Mae on a day to day basis. He's not a manager who also teaches a class. He's a teacher who teaches book knowledge.

So I do think that the training that they give you in school is super, super important. It gives you a way of thinking about problems and challenges and finding solutions to those problems and challenges. But transferring that to the workplace is a whole different skill set. I don't know if I was always the smartest person in a classroom, but for some reason, I believe my ability to really be a problem solver in a workplace is what's helped me to reach the levels that I reached.

Yes, I I remember after school and I because I graduated in accounting from Georgia State and I remember going into my first internship at PWC and I almost wanted to go back and say I want my money back because I was not ready. It is hard. It's a big transition. Yes, it is.

And even the transition from, you know, being a manager or director to the CFO role, that's a brutal transition, too. It is. It is. And and it's interesting as I watch people interviewed to make that move and I watch the interviewees try to assess who's ready.

You know, it really is a unique transition that you really. need to be prepared for so one of the things i did i remember when i was ready to be a cfo i talked to my then cfo i was a director and he said i think you'll be ready to be a cfo and i want to help you get ready and i think it'll be about five years out and i was like oh no i plan to be a cfo in a year not five years and i need to understand what it is that that's holding you back or me back from being seen as someone who can be in that role.

So I hired an executive coach. And boy, let me tell you, his name is Gideon Coleman. He's with K Street Coaching. His approach and the things he showed me about myself were career altering, life changing, developmental things that I had no idea.

weren't present. So to simplify, what I learned was the skills that got me to be ready for the CFO weren't the skills I needed to be a CFO. And he had this will where he showed me all my strengths, my ability to get the job done, my ability to do all these tactical things. And what I really needed to do was to build these leadership traits that were on the top of the will.

And in essence, he was like, we're going to have to pull the skills up into the top half of the chart. And we spent time working on each piece of the pie. And needless to say, a year later, I was a CFO and I attribute the work that he and I did. And in particular, his approach that really changed that trajectory for me.

Yeah. Now I want to hear all about it. Give us one or two examples. Well, at one point he put the wheel on the ground.

He had this big rollout, like kind of, I call it like a twister mat. And we had to take our shoes off and like almost do the twister mat. But really one of the key things was, was integrity and working with my team. When he showed me he had done a 360 with my team and the leadership of the firm I was working for.

And when he showed me where I was on integrity, it was much lower than I still don't even like talking about it because it was very humbling to read. But it was the reason the score was low was because I was a type of leader who would come in and be like, leadership has asked us to do this by next week. We need to get it done. This is your part.

This is my part. Everybody understand? Go. You know, and I was and I was good at delivering because I was good at understanding the deadline and being driven to get it done.

But for my team, they were like, well, it just comes in and just like that was all they knew was these were the requirements and this is a job. Instead, I now come in in a different way. I generally start my meetings with how are you doing? Because how are you doing and where you're currently at is going to determine how we meet that deadline much more than I can send out bullet points as to what we need to do.

But it's the how we do it and doing it together that makes a difference. So now when I come in and I start with a share, oh my gosh, I had a rough morning. My daughter didn't want to get up for school and my coffee was cold. You know, how are you doing?

Now I'm starting to build integrity with my team because I'm authentic and I'm building relationship and they want to follow me and they want to work with me in order to deliver on this deadline. And it's a beautiful thing to see when you have a team that's ready to go to war together because you have that dynamic in play. And I had to learn that before I thought I just needed to drive, drive, drive. And it did help me to get from manager to director, but it wasn't going to help me be a CFO.

Yeah. And you are an introvert, so I can only imagine how hard that could be, too, to be in those chit -chat, these meetings and all those things, because I know you've spoken openly about being an introvert while working at these high levels of leadership. What would you say something that are some of the things that are helping you in that, like showing up as an effective leader and yet being an introvert? Because people tend to think it's easier when an extrovert to do those things.

Maybe it doesn't apply to me if I'm an introvert. Yeah, I think people get introverts confused, you know, and at the very basic level, I say introverts are people who need to be alone to recharge and get their batteries to the highest level. You know, when we look at people who are great leaders, you know, you can't tell who's an introvert or extrovert. You know, is Barack Obama an introvert or extrovert?

He speaks so eloquently, you know, or pick another person. And you really can't tell by just seeing someone present. When I stand up to present to a large audience, my battery is at the highest level. I'm going to bring the energy.

I'm going to work with the team. I'm going to be one of the best versions of myself when I'm asked to perform. But the way I recharge for that is by spending time by myself. And I use the weekends or I use my time off or I use the mornings in order to get that recharging.

Other people that are extroverts may recharge differently. They may get recharged by getting with a group of friends and singing kumbaya or whatever they may do. And they get their energy through different sources. So for me, the most important part of that understanding of being an introvert is making sure that my calendar and my schedule and my boundaries are set appropriately so I have time to recharge.

I cannot be in meetings all day from 7 a .m. to 6 p .m.

, go to dinner from 7 p .m. to 11 p .m.

, get in bed, do it all over again. I will quickly burn out and you will see a guy whose skin looks different, whose smile isn't quite as bright, and who isn't ready for work the next day in order to deliver. So what I do is I put in pockets of time, whether it's in the middle of a meeting schedule or just to meet in my regular schedule. to make sure I'm alone, I can meditate, I can read my book, I can talk to my kids, you know, or do the other things that are important to me.

And then when I show up, I'm ready to go. I love working with teams. I love being a leader, but I also need to recharge and be ready in order to do that. And I think it helps my teammates because I'm ready for them.

Yeah. And you're not grumpy or. I mean, we've all had those people who explode or this. Yeah.

You know, we all know there's people who need to use alternative substances in order to keep their energy levels up. You know, you know, I say, you know, I don't drink, I don't smoke and I don't do anything illicit in order to get my energy levels up. I exercise and I eat right and I meditate and I pray. And I spend time with people that are important to me.

That's how I get my energy level up. And I go on a nice ride on my motorcycle and take this long road out the backside of my house. And when I come back, I'm ready to rock and roll. So we all do it differently.

And I do think some of the best leaders in the world have been introverts, but you just may not know it. That's very true. But I'm curious, you know, growing up, were there maybe a moment where you realized that being an introvert could actually help you lead instead of holding you back? I think two things.

One is. I wouldn't say at 13, 14, 17, maybe even 21 that I knew what an introvert was. Okay. I think I knew I liked to spend time alone.

I would often take long walks, you know, whether it was to school or football practice or just around. I took really, really long bike rides. But I was trying to figure out. Who I was, which is one of the reasons I speak so openly about being authentic, being an introvert, because I believe there's someone in their career who needs to hear it and who needs to have permission to set boundaries, because I didn't always set boundaries in my career.

And sometimes even now, when I speak to young adults, they say, well, you're the CFO. You could set boundaries. You know, all I can say is if you're in a lower level position. And you're working for an organization or in a role that doesn't allow you to set boundaries, doesn't allow you time to recharge and be your best version of yourself.

Then you should consider, is that the right role for you? Or and or you should be able to take time, not in a busy moment, not when your boss is coming to you asking for something right away. In the pause time to speak to your leader or your manager openly about how you recharge and how your best version shows up. And I think a good leader will receive it, you know, because I told you earlier and it was through executive coaching that I've learned to deal with my direct reports differently depending on who they are.

And to me, that's what good leadership can do. If you expect everybody to be the same personality, well, that doesn't allow for diversity and for the best results for a team. True, true. And, you know, I'm so inspired by your own story, right?

Because you also openly share that you were a high school dropout. At some point, you were a single father. Now you're a global CFO. You sit on so many boards.

You mentor so many people. So grateful to have you on my podcast. But when you look back on your journey, what would you say are some of the moments that helped you really through those transition? Like at what point did you, like you said, matured or what are the things that helped you, you know, grow to be at that level?

Yeah, look, to me. During the dark days or the hard times, it seemed dark and it seemed hard and it was hard to keep hope and be optimistic because at those points in time, I didn't know where things were going to go. You know, now looking back, I realize that those dark times and those hard times created a resilience in me that you won't see in most people. You know, I can walk 100 miles if I have to in the dark with no shoes on.

And I wouldn't even be upset about it because I've walked 100 miles in the dark with no shoes on before. You know, and whether it started with my paper route early on as a kid or whether it was during those times where my financial situation or being a single parent was testing my resilience. All of those things have built in me a muscle and a gene that I appreciate and that I welcome now. I even welcome hard times now because, you know, when I go through hard times in my career now, part of me says run for the hills, like go find a different opportunity, go do something different, like escape, escape, escape.

Part of me says when I get to the other side of this, I'm going to be even badder than I was before. So watch out, you know. And I realize now through prayer and meditation and other things that, you know, there's really not much that life can throw at me that I can't handle. You know, you know, it's just God's given me the skills and the qualities in order to get through it.

And, you know, because I have an almighty God and that's my faith, you know, I'm able to know that that there's something bigger and better than just this moment in time. Wow. I love that perspective. For me, one of the biggest thing for me was coming to the U .

S. from West Africa. And that was a big transition as well. And you tend to it tends to build resilience in you because like if I could do this, like if I could slay the bear and the lion, like I can do this.

Like it gives you that perspective. But then I wonder how as leader or even parents, can we instill that to our kids? Right. Because I look at my kids and I'm like.

Like I'm doing everything to help them or I look at my team and I'm doing everything to help them. How do you build that resilience in the next generation? Yeah, I mean, it's a very tough task because, you know, here I am sitting here fortunate to be in my role and ability to provide for my kids. They don't necessarily have to work a paper route or do some of the hard things I did.

And surely being a father of four. including three amazing daughters and an amazing son, you know, I don't want to have to see them struggle, you know, but I think for me, one of the things that's been most helpful is, you know, you may not have to struggle like I did, you know, but at least sit down and listen, you know, let me share my story with you. Let me share with you some of the challenges I've overcome and how I've overcame them. And then you have a choice as the next generation or as a young person.

You can follow the path that I follow or you can follow the path that, you know, you know, and I'll use examples for my children and they get to choose, you know, and sometimes my daughter, you know, says. You know, like they know I get up at 5 a .m. or before every morning and my daughter tries to do it.

My 25 year old daughter tries to do it. And then she goes, Dad, you know, do I need to get up at 5 a .m. on Saturday, too?

You know, I'm like, well, you don't have to. But I am, you know, you know, you don't have to show up every single day, but I am. And so it's just living that living by way of example. And being able to really share authentically and realistically with the people you care about.

And same thing with my team. You know, trust me, when some of my direct reports come to me and they say, oh, I need to recharge. I'm taking off the next seven days. The first thing that raises up in me is this anxiety like, oh, my gosh, what am I going to do without this key person for seven days?

You know, but I often think back to what I need in terms of boundaries, what I need to recharge. And I realize everything's going to be OK. So if someone sends me a long vacation request or a long request for a time off, I just click the button because I know everything is going to be OK. You know, and if I think too hard, I'll try to say, oh, but we got this, you know.

And and so, you know, it's about being authentic, being real, telling people. uh about some of your struggles everyone does not have to immigrate over from another country in order to build resilience they will have challenges in life trust me we don't have to give them to them we don't have to give them to them the world the world will knock them down and beat down on them and they just need to know it's okay you're going to be okay and you just have to keep getting back up Wow, that is so true.

And I'm also curious, how do you stay grounded? How do you build, I don't know if it's a community or people around you to support you in what you're doing or maybe clean up your surroundings? No, I mean, it's important to people that you have around you. And over time, that community changes a little bit, right?

And I saw it with my parents. And it's happened in my life. I mean, when I was, you know, doing one thing in life, my group of circle of friends was one thing. When I moved to being a CFO, the circle of people around me is different, you know.

And what you want are the right balance of friendships, relationships, resources that you can draw upon. For me, I'm always reaching up. but I'm also always reaching back down to lift up, you know, and I get the most gratitude reaching down, but I never stopped reaching up, you know, and everybody that I reached down for can't come up and everybody that I reach up to won't receive me. And, and I'm okay with that.

You know, I'm okay with that. You know, I, I have a wonderful, amazing wife. four amazing children, five, if you include my daughter -in -law, which I do, you know, I have a grandchild that I'm, that I'm happy with. And I have friends who both support me and friends that need me.

And I'm happy with the balance of that, that balance in life. And I set my own balance. Like I'm an introvert. So if I had nobody, you know, I mean, unfortunately I would be fine.

That may not work for everyone. You know, I have, I have the one thing in my home that my wife let me design, which is my basketball hoop. It's outside the house. Everything inside the house she designed.

Boundaries. I see the basketball hoop. And like I said earlier, I have a motorcycle in my garage that in D .C.

you don't get to ride every day. But just seeing it there, it's one of my sources of joy. And it brings joy to me just to pull in and see it. Oh, yeah.

Oh, that is so amazing. So I'm always like to end with like, what's your favorite thing to do outside of work? I know you mentioned your motorcycle, your basketball. What are other things that you enjoy doing besides work?

Yeah. So I need to start with saying I like to exercise, you know, which is super important to me for my physical health and mental health and emotional health. You know, but I also like my coffee and donuts. So I didn't want to start with coffee and donuts.

But I love a good cup of coffee to start the day. I do almost the same routine. I get a cup of coffee. I read my Bible.

I do a Peloton meditation. I exercise. And if I can get two or three of those four things in in the morning, then it starts my day off right. And then I like to experience life and whatever life may do.

I say I'm not one of those people who does the same thing every day. I mean, sometimes I play basketball. Sometimes I play golf. Sometimes I play tennis with my middle school friend.

You know, sometimes I go for a walk. Sometimes I go for a run. Sometimes I ride a bike. Sometimes I ride my motorcycle.

So what you'll see in me is someone who does like the decathlon of life. I keep moving. I keep moving, you know, and everything pivots around this career and life that I've built. in terms of the job I have.

And I never forget where I came from so that when 5 a .m. hits, I'm happy to get out my bed. You know, I'm still the first one in the office because I'm still thankful for my job.

During COVID, when people wanted to stay home, I went into the office every day. I was like, I worked hard for this office. I'm going to go in. And now I have the whole office because nobody else is here.

And I walked in there and made the coffee every morning and saw the one or two people that were in there because I have an extreme amount of gratitude. I do not take for granted the opportunity to be the global CFO of the largest law firm in the world. It's a blessing and I'm thankful for it. Wow.

Thank you so much for being on the show. Your story, your work ethic. Oh, thank you so much. Thank you.

Thank you. It's a pleasure. And like I said to anyone who wants to follow me on LinkedIn, please look me up. I'm William McKinley Washington III.

For a couple parting words, I did mention that, you know, making sure you have those three books that you read. you know, a spiritual one, a one on your profession and one just for fun is probably the best tip that I can leave everyone with. Thank you so much. Thank you.

Thank you for your time. And that's all for today's episode of the Diary of a CFO podcast. I hope it was as insightful and enjoyable as it was for me. If so, please leave a review and subscribe on whatever platform you are listening on.

It really helps this conversation reach other financiers who need them. As always, if you have any questions or want to go deeper on anything, reach out at ask at thediaryofacfo .com or visit thediaryofacfo .com.

Thanks for tuning in and I'll see you in the next one.