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If we were asked to boil down our discussion with CFO Gary Golden to a single word, our answer would be: \\u201cjudgment.\\u201d

It perhaps goes without saying that having good judgment is a prerequisite for every finance leader, and the quality frequently tops the list of reasons that CEOs give when asked to describe what sets apart one CFO candidate from another.

Still, the word comes to mind not because Golden uses it\\u2014which he does multiple times\\u2014but because he routinely draws our attention to the \\u201cdecision-making\\u201d central to every CFO position and the experiences that have helped to shape the judgment that he uses to make sound business decisions.

Golden\\u2019s professional life began as a lawyer in a Dallas law firm, where his goal was to become a top mergers and acquisitions attorney, but along the way he jumped to American Airlines.\\xa0

\\u201cOne of the reasons I left private practice for American is that they had a reputation for moving lawyers onto the business side of things,\\u201d explains Golden, who says that attorneys frequently found finance to be a convenient door-of-entry at American.

\\u201cInterestingly, at American, my mentors were not really attorneys, but I found mentors inside the finance organization,\\u201d remarks Golden, who says that his legal experience has served him well as he has taken on a number of different CFO roles.

\\u201cWhen you start training as a lawyer, you have a very detailed \\u2018what can go wrong?\\u2019 orientation that I have found to be very helpful to me as a CFO because you\\u2019re always thinking about what can blow up and you want to have this orientation that forces you to anticipate next steps,\\u201d comments Golden.

\\u201cMany times, you find yourself making judgments on things, and you decide not to do things even though you would really very much like to,\\u201d remarks Golden, who frequently uses the word \\u201cjudgment\\u201d interchangeably or alongside \\u201cdeciding\\u201d or \\u201cdecision-making\\u201d\\u2014as in the sentence \\u201cAs a CFO, your decision-making judgment is critical.\\u201d\\xa0\\u2013Jack Sweeney

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