#052: The Importance of Communication in Driving Results

What can finance professionals learn from hairdressers? The actress Andie MacDowell said "talking to your hairdresser is almost like talking to your therapist," which in effect means if we wish to have our customers, clients and business partners share with us their challenges and issues we must similarly be good at our communications as well as building a trusting environment for open conversations. In fact our guest mentor, Michelle Gasson is a former trainee hairdresser come finance leader, and she shares an amazing career story, as well as some great tips on improving our communication skills. Specifically in this episode Michelle shares: • Practical advice on how to prioritise time between building a career, work, studies, kids, partner, and other activities. • How we can improve our communication leveraging her prior experiences with scientists. • With the rise of robots in our profession how we can future-proof ourselves. If you enjoyed this episode, check out our time-stamped show notes, key quotes, resources and ways to connect with our guest mentor and more at sitnshow.com/podcast/052.

Om Podcasten

The #SITN Show (www.sitnshow.com) is a popular accounting & finance podcast listened to in over 150+ countries around the world. Getting an accounting qualification or finance certification is one of the best things to do to make a difference in our society. It potentially gives us a position from which we can help businesses make better decisions for the good of their customers, suppliers, communities, colleagues and yes owners and other financiers too. We can help increase the opportunity for all. So #SITN was established to leverage the value of mentoring: 1. To elevate the influence, impact, value, and difference we make for our organisations; and 2. To have more fun, rewarding, and meaningful careers in accounting & finance. In this way we make it more accessible to everyone in our profession, regardless or geography, professional affiliations, status, gender, etc… The fundamental premise of #SITN is that despite for all the challenges our profession is facing into, the seemingly accelerating rate of change, the new digital technologies and business models, we still have the ability to share with each other practical advice & experiences on what works well and what doesn’t, so that we can all plot better paths forward. Every Thursday we release a professionally produced podcast with a 30- to 40-minute interview that has been recorded with a guest mentor relevant to the finance & accounting profession. These guest mentors share their real success stories and hard-won lessons which are not found in any textbooks or on LinkedIn profiles. Together with the interviewer they deconstruct their experiences into the key strengths, qualities and practical ‘baby’ steps that others can also follow. On Mondays there is the popular #SITN Monday Memo which is a 5-minute debrief on a topical issue or useful piece of practical advice in accounting & finance. The show is accessible via: iTunes; Stitcher; Spotify; YouTube; and Soundcloud, with detailed time-stamped show notes, key quotes, resources & ways to connect with guest mentors at www.sitnshow.com.