Rarely does a new employee in a finance department receive praise for the clarity of their management update.
However, Susan did when she presented her first report to her GM. Her GM said that Susan's five-minute update was the best and clearest ever! How did she do it?
Susan provided the GM with a crystal clear storyline rather than the spreadsheets and tables that her predecessor had used. Here's what she did. She:
- Analysed her audience. Susan thought through who would be in the briefing, what they wanted and what she wanted them to do as a result of the briefing. She realised the GM and leadership team were missing the “story” and couldn't see the wood for the trees – she had to make sure the real story was clear in the update.
- Built a clear storyline. She realised she needed to explain that the BU financials were on track with forecast but that could have been because of some one-offs that needed attention. We developed a simple one pager to explain the story (using neosi of course).
- Practiced. Susan practiced delivering the story and had the key numbers attached as back up.
The result – a five-minute update to the BU with the GM saying it was the best and clearest ever!
Learn how to get these kinds of results yourself.