{"id":1312,"date":"2019-04-19T13:00:37","date_gmt":"2019-04-19T20:00:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/addison.lwh.dev\/insights\/tips-finance-professionals\/"},"modified":"2019-04-19T13:00:37","modified_gmt":"2019-04-19T20:00:37","slug":"tips-finance-professionals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/addisongroup.com\/insights\/tips-finance-professionals\/","title":{"rendered":"5 Tips for Finance Professionals"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Success for finance professionals doesn’t come easy.  It requires a unique blend of both technical and soft skills rarely found in one individual.  While technical skills are easy to identify and can then be obtained, the required soft skills are often nebulous and hard to grasp even once explained.  Below are 5 tips that have guided me throughout my successful career in finance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Think Like an Investor<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

This is what separates successful finance professionals from\nthe rest.  When you think like an\ninvestor, you care.  You care why\nproducts are not performing to forecast and you care when a new product launch\ngets delayed. You find out what caused the delay and if there\u2019s anything that\ncan be done about it.  After all, you\nwant to get the greatest return on your investment that you can!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let Me Tell You a Story\u2026<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

One of the earliest and most common ways information was\npassed between individuals was through the use of stories.  As a finance professional, you are a vendor\nof information and must utilize the power of stories to summarize and explain\nresults in a memorable way.  Second tier\nfinance professionals just recite facts and figures which, in their raw form,\ncan be disinteresting and difficult to extract meaning from.  When management starts looking to you early\nand often to tell the story, you know you\u2019re on the path to success.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cTrust but Verify\u201d<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

A finance professional without credibility will quickly find\nthemselves unemployed.  As previously\nstated, finance professionals are vendors of information and sometimes our\nsource of information is incorrect or incomplete.  \u201cTrust but verify\u201d is the attitude often\nquoted by finance professionals to reflect the fine line we walk between\ntrusting the people and processes which provide us information and validating\nthe accuracy of the information as we vet the data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Use Caution when Changing the Narrative<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Sometimes the narrative changes because you reported on bad\nor incomplete information.  Other times,\nthe narrative changes because additional factors are discovered.  Whatever the reason for the change in\nnarrative, it\u2019s going to happen during your finance career and it needs to be\nhandled very strategically.  Make sure to\n\u201cclose the loop\u201d on the narrative change, meaning you should have answers to as\nmany of the below question as possible before discussing it with management:<\/p>\n\n\n\n