The CEO should spend time with those CFOs, decide for herself whether she comes to the same assessment of a skills gap, then—and this step is critical—decide how important those skills are for her company. If the skills are vital and the difference in skills between her CFO and the external CFOs is real, she can go back to her CFO, tell him where he stands, and let him know that he’s not going to make it. She can be herself. If she disagrees with the board member, she can be herself with him, too. And she’ll have done the work to back up her response.
