Communicating Financials to Executives

Chapter TwelvePractical Steps to Start Improving Your Communication Skills

Theory is one thing but it is quite another to do things in real life, on the job and under the pressure of presenting to senior executives. Most finance professionals have much to improve before they can nail their executive communication of financials to non-financial professionals. In this book we have laid out a path for you to start the journey, not least by sharing our five-step framework for financial communication.

As you read this final chapter, you have likely started thinking about how to implement each of the steps and other tips we shared. That is if you are not like Sarah and have practiced each step along with reading each chapter. We know how hard it is to start working in new ways. We train hundreds of finance professionals annually in executive communication and other topics that are usually outside their comfort zone. That is also why our learning journeys typically extend across six or more months. This allows the learners enough time to digest the contents of each learning module and try their learnings on the job.

Like most others in learning and development, we believe in the 70/20/10 approach to learning: 70% of learning is on-the-job training, 20% is sparring with leaders, colleagues and other role models, and only 10% is formal training sessions. You can consider this book a training session, meaning you still have 90% of your learning to cover if you want to become an expert ...