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How CFOs and COOs can own their hours
In the second instalment with executive coach and former COO Cressida Hamilton, we explore one of the toughest challenges facing finance and operations leaders in private markets: managing time, energy and competing demands in roles that never stop.
Drawing on 26 years in financial services, Cressida offers practical, real life advice for CFOs, COOs and senior ops professionals who want to take back some control of their day. This is a conversation about the real work: dealing with crises, making meetings matter, managing stakeholder demands and designing routines that reduce overload.
If you or your team are regularly stretched, reactive or working into evenings and weekends, this episode will feel highly recognisable and genuinely useful.
In this episode:
Why ops leaders lose so much time
Cressida identifies the two biggest time drains in finance and operations roles: constant crisis management and meeting overload. She explains why both are so difficult to avoid in private markets, and what you can realistically do to reduce their impact.
Handling crises without burning hours
How to stay calm when everything around you is reactive; the importance of asking the right questions before jumping in; why getting the right people on a call matters; and how to update stakeholders without creating more work for yourself.
Making meetings purposeful
Cressida’s simple three question test for any meeting: what do you want, does the other person know that, and what do they want? She sets out how this approach cuts down time wasted and improves alignment across the firm.
Prioritisation in a world where everything is a priority
Why CFOs and COOs struggle to control their own priorities, how to deal with conflicting demands from different stakeholders, and how to bring people together to agree the order of work instead of absorbing all the pressure yourself.
Energy management for senior leaders
How your chronotype shapes your productivity; why matching tasks to your energy is more effective than classic time management; and how small adjustments can lead to significantly better output and less exhaustion.
Time blocking, planning and the Friday reset
Cressida’s preferred approach to structuring a week, why planning becomes more important the busier you are, and the Friday routine that helps reduce overwhelm and avoid the Sunday night dread.
Strategic time management without the jargon
A practical explanation of what it actually means, plus how to run a simple time audit using the urgent/important matrix to understand where your hours really go.
Who this episode is for: CFOs, COOs, finance directors, operations leaders, rising ops talent, and anyone in a high demand support or oversight role within private capital firms.
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By Alice MurrayIn the second instalment with executive coach and former COO Cressida Hamilton, we explore one of the toughest challenges facing finance and operations leaders in private markets: managing time, energy and competing demands in roles that never stop.
Drawing on 26 years in financial services, Cressida offers practical, real life advice for CFOs, COOs and senior ops professionals who want to take back some control of their day. This is a conversation about the real work: dealing with crises, making meetings matter, managing stakeholder demands and designing routines that reduce overload.
If you or your team are regularly stretched, reactive or working into evenings and weekends, this episode will feel highly recognisable and genuinely useful.
In this episode:
Why ops leaders lose so much time
Cressida identifies the two biggest time drains in finance and operations roles: constant crisis management and meeting overload. She explains why both are so difficult to avoid in private markets, and what you can realistically do to reduce their impact.
Handling crises without burning hours
How to stay calm when everything around you is reactive; the importance of asking the right questions before jumping in; why getting the right people on a call matters; and how to update stakeholders without creating more work for yourself.
Making meetings purposeful
Cressida’s simple three question test for any meeting: what do you want, does the other person know that, and what do they want? She sets out how this approach cuts down time wasted and improves alignment across the firm.
Prioritisation in a world where everything is a priority
Why CFOs and COOs struggle to control their own priorities, how to deal with conflicting demands from different stakeholders, and how to bring people together to agree the order of work instead of absorbing all the pressure yourself.
Energy management for senior leaders
How your chronotype shapes your productivity; why matching tasks to your energy is more effective than classic time management; and how small adjustments can lead to significantly better output and less exhaustion.
Time blocking, planning and the Friday reset
Cressida’s preferred approach to structuring a week, why planning becomes more important the busier you are, and the Friday routine that helps reduce overwhelm and avoid the Sunday night dread.
Strategic time management without the jargon
A practical explanation of what it actually means, plus how to run a simple time audit using the urgent/important matrix to understand where your hours really go.
Who this episode is for: CFOs, COOs, finance directors, operations leaders, rising ops talent, and anyone in a high demand support or oversight role within private capital firms.