Best Business Advice that they don’t teach you

You look at a class of 30-40 Finance trainees

Have you ever wondered what will separate the successful from the not so successful in the longer term.

All receive the same or similar training from the same team of lecturers using the same books.

At least 50% have a will, hunger and ambition to succeed.

So what’s the secret ingredient ?

It often comes down to the little things that they don’t teach you in class

: Developing and maintaining mutually beneficial relationships at all levels. Mutually beneficial means its not one way traffic. You must do something for the other person even if they can do nothing for you. This builds reputation and relationships that last.

: Dealing with and managing and leading….people. None of the courses in Finance that I have encountered have a people module. I believe they should have. Numbers don’t change…a debit is a debit and a credit is a credit. However the junior accountant you are managing today who has received some bad news overnight or partied too late last night is not the same person who you worked with yesterday and therefore you need to interact differently with them today. You need to be their boss, friend, confidante and leader all at the same time!     Easy isn’t it ?

: Under promise and Over deliver…..much more effective than over promise and under deliver !

: A job worth doing is worth doing well.  For example if you are going to put in 80% effort to get the figures right why not put in another 10% to have it well laid out as well. The user then finds data that is easily understood as opposed to having to search for the kernel in the jungle of numbers on the page.

The extra 10% earns many more percentage points in kudos.