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When Robert Alvarez first joined the finance team of one venture-backed start-up, he was thinking that one day he might like to be a CFO. However, upon further reflection, the young finance analyst realized that he had little idea what a CFO did.

Being part of a start-up team afforded him the opportunity to have one-on-one meetings with different senior leaders, including the company\u2019s CFO, Alvarez recalls. Of course, access to leadership has little value unless you are willing and able to undertake the responsibility of shepherding a future deliverable.

For Alvarez, the task of identifying such a deliverable was best left to its intended recipient.

\u201cWe were together going down the list of items that I was working on, and I stopped and asked the CFO, \u2018So, what\u2019s on your list?\u2019\u201d remembers Alvarez, who says that the CFO subsequently began listing one item after another.

Alvarez says that he asked if he could \u201ctake a stab\u201d at tackling one of the items and told the CFO that he would have it for him by the next day.

Having identified a valuable action item and promised to deliver it promptly, Alvarez asked the CFO not to fix the item if it ultimately fell short. Instead, Alvarez says, he was eager to discover what mistakes may have been made to learn from them.

\u201cWe began with that one item, which quickly became two\u2014and soon I was working on parts of board presentations and different materials for investor relations,\u201d comments Alvarez, who notes that the experience was contingent on a finance leader willing to give up something.

Says Alvarez: \u201cHe gave me the gift of letting me do his job, which was critical because I\u2019m not smart enough to just read how do things\u2014I\u2019ve always had to do the work.\u201d \u2013Jack Sweeney