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10 Skills Financial Professionals Need To Acquire
nonprofit-alliance

You see two important words on almost every job posting and position description – problem solving. While everyone has their own methods of getting the job done, there are elements to making the process work.

In fact, there are 10 things you need to do to be a problem-solver and not the problem itself, according to Jennifer Elder, CPA, founder of Sustainablecfo.com in Pasadena, Md.

Elder made her comments during a session at the recent AICPA Not-for-Profit industry conference in National Harbor, Md. Her session was titled: “Future Finance: 10 Strategic Skills for the 21st Century.” Here are the 10 skills:

  • Problem Solving: Why? Why Not? How could we? What if we could?
  • Simplify: If you can’t explain it simply you don’t understand it well enough, according to Albert Einstein. There needs to be continual business process improvement.
  • Alignment: Remove the pain points
  • Communication; Know your audience
  • Creativity: Yes, accountants can be creative.
  • Listening: You have two ears and one mouth. Listen twice as much as you talk
  • Curiosity: Leave the confines of your office. Visit other departments and maybe even job shadow.
  • Customer Service: Please rate your experience. Know how to be outstanding.
  • Promotion: Share the accomplishments of your team
  • Emotional Intelligence: You need self-awareness, self-management and motivation. You need to understand your effect on others being socially aware and handling relationship management. Remember, you have only seven seconds to make an impression. How do you come across to others?