{"id":35515,"date":"2025-12-15T08:58:21","date_gmt":"2025-12-15T14:58:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bbrown.com\/?post_type=insight&#038;p=35515"},"modified":"2025-12-15T08:58:21","modified_gmt":"2025-12-15T14:58:21","slug":"andy-watts-forbes-council-next-evolution-of-leadership","status":"publish","type":"insight","link":"https:\/\/www.bbrown.com\/us\/insight\/andy-watts-forbes-council-next-evolution-of-leadership\/","title":{"rendered":"Andy Watts on The Next Evolution of Leadership"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"wpb-content-wrapper\"><p>[vc_row row_style=&#8221;page-hero&#8221; row_padding_bottom=&#8221;pb-5&#8243; full_width=&#8221;stretch_row_content&#8221; css=&#8221;.vc_custom_1742336923113{padding-bottom: 200px !important;}&#8221; el_class=&#8221;bg-brand-linear-gradient-vertical&#8221;][vc_column]\n\t<div class=\"hero hero--wrap    \">\n\n\t\t<div class=\"hero--background-image hero--background-image-blur\">\n\t\t\t<div class=\"hero--overlay\"><\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"hero-background\"><\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t<div class=\"hero--container\">\n\t\t\t<div class=\"container\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"hero--inner width-100\">\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\n  <div class='content-heading  100% content-heading--ruled '>\n    <p class='text-brand-light-blue subheading'>Thought Leadership<\/p>\n    <h1 class='text-white    h1'>\n      Andy Watts on The Next Evolution of Leadership\n    <\/h1>\n\t\n  <\/div>\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t<\/div>\n\n\t\n[\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_section section_padding_top=&#8221;pt-5&#8243; section_padding_bottom=&#8221;pb-5&#8243; full_width=&#8221;stretch_row&#8221; el_class=&#8221;overflow-visible&#8221;][vc_row row_padding_top=&#8221;pt-4&#8243; el_class=&#8221;overflow-visible overlapping-row&#8221;][vc_column el_class=&#8221;overlapping-column&#8221;][vc_single_image image=&#8221;32674&#8243; img_size=&#8221;1082&#215;439&#8243; alignment=&#8221;center&#8221; css=&#8221;&#8221; el_class=&#8221;brand-rounded-corners-right&#8221;][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][\/vc_section][vc_row row_padding_top=&#8221;pt-0&#8243;][vc_column][vc_column_text css=&#8221;&#8221;]<\/p>\n<h3>In his latest Forbes Finance Council article, Andy Watts, Executive Vice President &amp; Chief Financial Officer, explains the importance of evolving leadership by creating teams of business partners to drive strategic impact across organizations.<\/h3>\n<p>&#8220;One of the biggest challenges to this ideal I\u2019ve witnessed during my career is simply mindset: Professionals consider themselves only through the lens of their title or role: marketing manager, bookkeeper, special counsel, etc. Helping them understand what being a business partner truly means\u2014personally and to the company\u2014has been essential to shifting their viewpoints toward the true impact and influence their specialization and experience have on our business.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Andy shares three key practices for evolving leadership into true business partnership:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>Redefine roles from functional support to strategic partnership<\/li>\n<li>Build cross-functional trust through shared accountability and outcomes<\/li>\n<li>Empower business partners to think, act, and lead with enterprise-wide impact<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>Read the full Forbes article <a href=\"https:\/\/www.forbes.com\/councils\/forbesfinancecouncil\/2025\/12\/10\/the-next-evolution-of-leadership-creating-teams-of-business-partners\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">here<\/a>.[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row]<\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Andy Watts, Executive Vice President &#038; Chief Financial Officer, explains the importance of evolving leadership by creating teams of business partners to drive strategic impact across organizations.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":50,"featured_media":32674,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"insight_category":[133],"class_list":["post-35515","insight","type-insight","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","insight_category-thought-leadership"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v27.0 (Yoast SEO v27.0) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Andy Watts on The Next Evolution of Leadership - Brown &amp; Brown<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Andy Watts, Executive Vice President &amp; Chief Financial Officer, explains the importance of evolving leadership by creating teams of business partners to drive strategic impact across organizations.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.bbrown.com\/us\/insight\/andy-watts-forbes-council-next-evolution-of-leadership\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Andy Watts on The Next Evolution of Leadership\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Andy Watts, Executive Vice President &amp; 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