The importance of being able to explain financial problems to non-finance team members

As a finance professional your technical skills are your bread and butter. It is, after all, your expertise that organisations are reliant on. However, the reality is that much of your time will be spent speaking with non-finance team members, so you must be able to communicate your work in a way which is easily understandable.

The power of these ‘soft skills’ – sometimes referred to as ‘power skills’ – should not be underestimated, and if you can provide solid examples of when you have used them, it may be the difference between you and another candidate securing a position.

The term ‘soft skills’ often makes these attributes sound fluffy and vague – it would be more accurate to view them as the vehicle in which to best demonstrate your technical skills. They cannot replace your core skillsets, but they will enhance them.

As the industry becomes more automated and finance teams are using more technical software, business leaders will become increasingly reliant on the skills presented by finance professionals. To sustain company growth, they will be looking to their finance departments to gain insights which will inform their strategies and decisions.

As a result, finance professionals must be able to explain and illustrate their work and findings in a way that business leaders can understand, but also be able to offer solutions or alternative processes that will solve the problem. There is often a misconception that finance team members need a tunnel vision focus on the figures, but this is not the case; giving context to those numbers is just as important.

Problem solving

Many finance positions revolve around ensuring that a company is working efficiently and that systems are running as they should be, and if they are not, deciding what can be done about it. This can sometimes mean ironing out kinks in processes that are not functioning well.

Issues may not be obvious, however, and may require you to dig a little deeper to identify the source of the problem. Speaking with different team members about their roles and any issues that they are facing will help you to build a comprehensive view of the whole company and give you a better idea of where things are going wrong.

Being able to listen and communicate with team members will go a long way to allowing you to recognise any stumbling blocks or future complications and will avoid any potential confusion or miscommunication.

Collaboration

Staying open to ideas and being able to facilitate cross-departmental collaboration within your organisation will make you a great asset to your company and will also help to strengthen your relationships and build trust with your colleagues – making your role easier.

In many organisations, teams will work independently from one another and may be operating in a vacuum, rather than sharing problems and ideas. However, in a finance role, you will often find yourself in the unique position of sitting across or at least communicating with multiple teams.

This gives you an unrivalled level of insight, not only over what challenges teams are facing, but also how departments intersect and how your role fits within this. As a result, you will often be in a strong position to see problems before they arise and be able to provide guidance that takes into account multiple factors at play.

Become a storyteller

As a finance professional you need to be able to tell the story behind the numbers or statistics in an easy-to-digest manner. Understanding the problem at hand is all well and good, but unless you can help your colleagues to see it too, your knowledge will be rendered useless.

Many of those you will be communicating with on a daily basis will not have the same technical knowledge that you have, so it is vital that you are able to break down complex financial terms in a way that non-finance team members can understand. Avoiding jargon wherever possible and using visual aids may help with this, as well as being able to link what you are saying to real-world business implications.

The ability to provide insights and recommendations off the back of your findings is also key. You cannot just present your statistics as they are, you need to be able to explain what they mean and why they are important.

Sometimes you may find yourself speaking to decision makers who are focused on targets and company growth. Unless you can make a convincing argument about why something needs changing or can highlight how something may be negatively impacting the business’s success, then they may not be willing to do anything about it. Being persuasive will come with experience. If you are confident that you know your stuff, it will shine through.

Ultimately, learning to trust your judgement is crucial – after all, you will likely have a much better lay of the land than many and can provide informed insights grounded in your experience and technical know-how, so you should shout about it!

If you’re looking to take on a new role, whether it be permanent or temporary, we know the industry inside-out and can help you to find a role that fits your skillset – get in touch with our team today: https://www.robertsonbell.co.uk/