The Economist

Achievements:
•	Project lead – drove subscription revenue up 20% by scenario modelling price elasticities.
•	Finance lead - commercial review of entire business ahead of critical data insourcing project.
•	Implemented cloud-based planning tool, improving accuracy of both P&L and volume forecast.

Responsibilities:
•	Leading global monthly forecast, budget and strategic planning processes.  
•	Managing £60m marketing budget, using regressive model to maximise customer lifetime value.
•	Telling the story behind the figures; presenting regular trading updates to senior leadership.
•	Leading and coaching a high performing finance team to achieve their potential.
•	Project managing finance initiatives, using prioritisation skills in a fast-moving environment.

Head of Finance - Subscriptions

Finance Director (paternity cover)

Achievements:
•	Designed and embedded new processes, enabling the e-commerce team to deliver +30k subs.
•	Project lead - globalising subscriber retention processes, driving £2m efficiencies in budget.

Responsibilities:
•	Partnering e-commerce and retention teams, providing commercial insight and analysis.
•	Management of marketing (£15m) and overheads (£2m) budgets.
•	Coordinating 7 global submissions each month totalling £160m revenue.
•	Partnering social media team to maximise conversion of fans into paid subscribers.

Senior Global Circulation Analyst

EQ shortcuts

Side hustle: coaching better soft skills/EQ for finance professionals

Starbucks

Achievements:
•	Delivered £3.4m of cost reduction initiatives in 2013.
•	Starbucks head office employee of the quarter Q2 2013.
•	Modelled ROI for all initiatives, allowing prioritisation and quicker time to market for new products.

Responsibilities:
•	Presenting weekly results to EMEA board, identifying commercial risks/opportunities.
•	Creating weekly management info pack for EMEA, showing performance against strategic targets.
•	Forecasting, scenario modelling and analysis for direct costs (£100m) and marketing (£12m).
•	Project lead - partnering cross-functionally to identify and deliver £3.4m savings to UK P&L.
•	Investment appraisal for all marketing, pricing and new product launch activity.

Finance Business Partner

Quarterly budgeting and forecasting for business unit with turnover of £60m, including modelling and ownership of complex manpower costs.
Owning the month end reporting process including gap analysis and coordinating submissions from all business units.
Cashflow analysis and tracking of billing progress to ensure maximum cash liquidity.
Delivery of monthly management information packs and review with department heads to highlight commercial risks and opportunities within the business.

Management Accountant

Ernst & Young

Maintenance and review of financial performance for engagements totalling £30M working capital, including analysis and reporting of risk to senior finance staff.
Challenging senior managers and partners to ensure company revenue is maximised. 
Forecasting and budgetary analysis including setting cash collection & revenue targets.

Engagement Analyst

Dell

Assistant Accountant (7 months)
Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX) Internal Controls Officer (10 months)
Credit Controller (10 months)

Contractor: Various Finance and Audit Roles

Head of Finance with 15 years’ experience in global matrix businesses. Known for strong analytical skills and a high degree of intellectual curiosity. Most recently drove circulation revenue up 20% by partnering with specialist consultants to model subscriber price elasticity scenarios. Nine years PQE.

Soufyan Hamid and I bring you 9 Weird (but useful) presentation tips. #8 you might not even believe!

Presentations are a great way to grow your personal brand at work

But so many finance presentations are as boring as waiting for the bus!

Here we go with the 9 tips...

~1 Don't say anything! The power of silence can captivate your audience's attention
~2 Don't show anything! Instead of showing a large complicated deck, just talk
~3 Bring some snacks. Everyone has energy dips, bring some snacks for your audience

~4 You are there to entertain. Be funny, engaging and charming
~5 This one tip will change your life... Use clickbait psychology to draw your audience in
~6 Shock your audience. Bill Gates released mosquitos into his audience 😮

~7 Get people moving. Getting people out of their seats can help beat lethargy
~8 Get people nodding. Nodding makes people more likely to agree with you 🤯
~9 Use personal anecdotes. These make your presentation more relatable

What weird (but useful) presentation tips can you add?

#financesoftskills 
#presentations

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 
It was great fun working with Soufyan Hamid on this one, he really is the master of presentations. If you don't already follow him, you should!

And if you want to thrive in a world of finance automation you’ll need #financesoftskills, 𝗳𝗼𝗹𝗹𝗼𝘄 𝗺𝗲 to learn more every day

Howard Tunnicliffe 🤖

“You don’t need more time, you need more focus”

This one really stuck with me

So often I hear people say they need more time

Well, guess what?

It isn’t going to happen! Time is a constant.

But, if you have enough time for 4 hours+ screentime on your phone each day, then you have ample time to meet your goals

What do you want to achieve?

What do you want to be?

How can you get there?

#financesoftskills
#focus

Finance people: don't let the truth get in the way of a good story

The reality is: the truth is not out there

👽

Often in finance we fixate on telling the truth and we struggle to summarise details into a story

Actually there is no truth
~ Everything we see or hear is interpreted by our brain, leaving room for subjectivity
~ Eye witness testimony is notoriuously unreliable "I know what I saw" is a fallacy
~ Mathematics is often cited as a universal truth, but imaginary numbers seem made up to me! (any maths experts care to comment?)

So, let's ditch the idea of telling the truth, and realise storytelling is a much more effective way to influence your audience

How do you balance truth vs story?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
If you want to thrive in a world of finance automation you’ll need #financesoftskills, 𝗳𝗼𝗹𝗹𝗼𝘄 𝗺𝗲 to learn more every day

#financesoftskills 
#storytelling 

Building resilience is hard 👷‍♂️

You think back on past decisions and worry that you made a mistake 

Here’s a move that can help improve that:

Judge your decisions based on the process used to make them, rather than the outcome

Simply put, nothing is a sure thing. You can do everything right and still get a bad result

We can see this in sport. A top goal kicking coach in rugby teaches players to trust the process

Follow the process, kick the ball 🏉

What happens next is out of your control

We can apply the same approach to business decisions, and our lives

When looking back, it is essential to consider only the information you had at the time, not anything you learned afterwards

Ask yourself:

~ What steps did you follow?
~ What assumptions did you make?
~ What would you have done differently?

We can never know what would have happened if we made a different decision

All we can do is feed info into our decision making process to improve it for future

How do you try to make better decisions?

#financesoftskills
#decisionmaking

Here’s a good phrase to remove from your vocabulary 

“I wish …” 🪄

We live in the real world and wishes aren’t going to happen

If you find yourself wishing for
~ a better job
~ more pay
~ more opportunities 

It won’t just fall into your lap, you need to make it happen yourself

You are 42%* more likely to achieve your goals if they are written 

So, instead of wishing, commit to paper then create a plan

How do you go about achieving your life goals?

#financesoftskills
#goalsetting2023 

*study by Dr Gail Matthews

Imagine working from a laptop with 0.000001Mb of memory

It may surprise you to learn that you do this every day 

🧠

Your brain can hold 7 things in short term memory, +/-2

8 bits = 1 byte in computer storage terms

It's a painfully small number that we all need to accept and work around every day

The Zeigarnik Effect shows that we tend to fixate on incomplete tasks, which can be thought of as open loops in our mind

With so many distractions in the modern world, open loops can be a real problem

They can stop you from effectively prioritising as unimportant tasks can nag away at you, plus they can interrupt your rest and sleep periods

You can help to close your open loops by:

~ Having a system for writing tasks down. Online, or pen & paper, whatever works for you
~ Spending 15 minutes at the end of the day to review tasks and next actions
~ If something is complex, find someone to talk it through with

How do you help to close your open loops?

#financesoftskills

Be careful what you pride yourself on

🦁

Every strength has a negative side

Every weakness a positive side

You say you are:
🧮 All over your numbers
Perhaps you need to:
👷‍♂️Spend more time in the business

💐A prioritiser, should enjoy the little things 

😌A perfectionist, should ease up on themselves

📚A storyteller, should stay connected with analytics

🌅An optimist, should be more realistic

Then came ‘A networker’ and I truly could not think of a downside 🤔

Can it be true, there are no downsides to networking?

What do y’all think?

#financesoftskills
#networking

“You’ve changed!”

Ever been told that by someone?

Usually it is used in a negative sense, as in “You’ve changed! (for the worse)”

My view is that hearing this is a good sign

Changing and growth are essential

Along the way you’ll meet some new people and have less contact with some others

Some will view you more positively, some more negatively

Some may be jealous of the changes you are making, others will be happy for you 

And that’s all ok, everyone has a viewpoint

So when someone says to you 
“You’ve changed!”

Reply
“Thanks very much!”

Have you ever been told “You’ve changed?”

#Financesoftskills
#Change

When investing, we don't put all our eggs in one basket🗑️

We spread the risk

But how about in our careers?

Typically finance people have one job, and it is usually paid above the average

So far, so good 😎

But what about the day thay job comes to an end?

It could be
~ Redundancy
~ A new management team bring their own people in
~ Your company goes bust

All outside of your control

It makes sense to have a side hustle, build it up while you are in a steady job

If you are not ready for the side hustle yet, an easy way to spread your risk is to invest time in your network

Building and nurturing your network is a slow process

The gains compound over time to something magical 🔮

So, if you are looking to spread your risk

Put networking on your to-do list every day

Where does networking sit on your priority list?

#financesoftskills 
#networking 

Network - I need some help from you to answer a question

No fence sitting please - it's one or the other! 

As you enter a new year, you will likely be reflecting on the year just gone and your thoughts are turning to the new year in sight

But which should you focus more on - the big things or the little things?

The big things (completing large projects, significant process automation, writing that book)
~ Completing these will give you most satisfaction looking back
~ They have the power to change your life
~ But, they tend not to be people focused. Will you get satisfaction from cranking out endless tasks?

The little things (moments of connection, laughter, mindfulness)
~ They can compound to become amazing things (relationships, opportunities)
~ They are critical to your mental and physical health
~ But, you can get lost in the day to day and not achieve great things

Which one do you think is more important?

#financesoftskills 

Phew...the end of working day one in 2023 for many of us, how was yours?

2022 was a year of many connections and conversations on LinkedIn and I'm proud to be part of the finance community here

The rather wonderful Soufyan Hamid had a great idea to ask the community what our wish for 2023 is.

Mine was....Let's make it a year of relationships

Whether personal, professional or romantic, relationships are key for our mental and physical health, as well as our job prospects

What are your wishes for 2023?

Link to the full video to follow in the comments 👇

#financesoftskills

Building rapport is not something you'll ever learn in your finance qualification. What a huge miss! I'm here to help 👇

you by sharing 7 dos and 5 don'ts of building rapport 

What do we mean by rapport? :
Rapport is a close and harmonious relationship in which people or groups  are "in sync" with each other, understand each other's feelings or ideas and communicate smoothly ~wikipedia

Where does rapport fit in?
First we build rapport, then trust, then we deepen the relationship

What to consider when building rapport?
✅ Do use commonalities, underline where you are similar eg: "I just moved house too!" 

✅ Do have relaxed and open body language
🚫 Don't cross those arms or have hands in pockets - it kills rapport!

✅ Do try mirroring with people you know less well by slowly copying their gestures
🚫 Don't be over the top with it, subtlety is the key here

✅ Do maintain eye contact, it releases hormones creating attraction, trust and empathy 
🚫 Don't overdo it! To much or too little eye contact will be seen as weird

✅ Do make them feel like they are the most interesting person in the world
🚫 Don't make them feel like you are firing off a list of interview style questions

✅ Do show your human side, you could confide "I had a difficult start here."

✅ Do give compliments, being a positive force will draw people into your orbit
🚫 Don't be fake, only ever give genuine, personal compliments

What do you do to help build rapport?

#financesoftskills 
#rapport 


Imagine renovating your house. You are on site coordinating all the various tradespeople, keeping the project on time and on budget

Quite a job, huh?

Now imagine doing it remotely

Significantly harder

Now imagine doing it remotely with the tradespeople not picking up their phones

Almost impossible

This is how it can feel as a manger in the hybrid working era. Simply understanding how your team is doing is now a challenge

I believe it’s a key reason why managers are much less keen on remote work than individual contributors are

Whatever your role, you need to work on team communication and prioritisation more than ever before

From the manger side we need
~ More regular contact time 
~ Clarity on priorities
~ Help to field strategic queries from above

From the individual contributor side we need
~ Proactive status updates
~ Asking for help with blockers
~ A mindset of more communication not less

It’s a difficult, transitionary time

How do you communicate differently in the hybrid working era?

#financesoftskills
#communication

7 most common mistakes I see you making when applying for jobs

 #6 means I will automatically not be hiring you!

1️⃣ You apply for unsuitable roles: I get it. You want to be CFO someday, but applying for unsuitable jobs will not help

2️⃣ You follow the process exactly: You submit your CV online...it goes into a bucket with 500 others. You don't stand out because....

3️⃣ You don't engage with the hiring manager: I want to hear from you. Show initiaitive, drop me a message

4️⃣ You neglect rapport: You sell yourself on rapport before you have even started speaking

5️⃣ You don't have a career plan: Where does this job fit in for you? 
Are you the right person for me to invest time developing?

6️⃣ You have poor questions: You should have hundreds of great questions for me

7️⃣ You lack enthusiasm: If you aren't fired up by this process, it's not the right role

What mistakes do you see people making when applying for jobs?

#financesoftskills
#interview

The Sunday scaries

Will they be with you this evening?

👻

The scaries describes that Sunday evening feeling of dread about the next work week

Occasional Sunday scaries is normal, feeling it regularly means something is wrong

Your scaries could relate to:
1️⃣ Worry about a particular task
2️⃣ Workload problems
3️⃣ Interpersonal issues eg your manager
4️⃣ General anxiety 

Some ideas to help with each:

1️⃣ Create a plan, breaking the task down into manageable pieces

2️⃣ Regularly aligning on priorities with your manager is the key to managing workload

3️⃣ Talk it through with a neutral party then bring it to your manager in a 1:1. This area is deserving of a whole other post 🤔

4️⃣ Try journaling your worries, then review them at the end of the week. It will increase your awareness and put worreis into context

Meditation, mindfulness and studying stoicism can help here also

How do you help manage Sunday scaries?

#financesoftskills
#resilience

Ever had a partner in crime?

🚔

That sweet, sweet feeling of someone who just 'gets' you

Partnerships can give lots of benefits at work too

You should, of course, look to form a solid partnership with your manager. When you are aligned, it creates a powerful unit

~ prioritising together means objectives are reached
~ speaking with one voice makes the message more compelling
~ having each other's back builds trust

Outside of your manager partnership though, there are some great opportunities to partner:

~ a confidante to turn to in difficult times
~ a trusted friend who tells it to you straight
~ someone who helps bring out your creative side

I used to pride myself on solving problems on my own

Now I enjoy the power of partnerships

How do you use partnerships in your work life?

#financesoftskills
#partnerships 

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