Lack of Financial Confidence as a new CoS…

What is the number one concern I hear from students wanting to succeed as a Chief of Staff?

Lack of confidence in their financial acumen and because of this, worry that they can’t hack it in the role.

I get it.

It can be intimidating to step into a new role, often knowing very little about it, and assume responsibility for quickly learning a new business. Especially when numbers and performance are usually a critical component.

So, how do you learn it all?

My approach? You don’t.

Instead, you focus on the MOST important things, you NAIL them, and you have trusted RESOURCES for the rest.

Here’s how to build financial acumen as a Chief of Staff, industry agnostic:

Do this...

➖ Identify the key levers of the business: what’s the business trying to do and how does it do it? How is this measured?

➖ Start to compose a list of the top 5-10 key performance indicators (KPIs) for the business.

After a few weeks on the job, you’ll start to recognize which KPIs are talked about the most, which are your leader’s focus, and what’s being reported on or “bubbled up” to leadership most often. Pay attention during meetings, review those financial email summaries, and notice which questions around KPIs are being asked by leaders.

Also, do this...

➖ Very early on in your role (first 2-3 weeks) figure out who your finance resource will be. This won’t necessarily be given to you. You will probably have to identify this person and you should definitely plan to nurture the relationship.

➖ Set up a "[insert company name] Finance 101" session with your identified resource - have fun with it! It's ok that you don't know what they know, I promise. Approach this humbly and curiously. Focus on learning the business levers and KPIs. Schedule a follow-up in a month.

If you do these FOUR things, you will be on track to building a highly proficient financial acumen in the most important areas of your business. And you'll have a resource to reach out to when something comes up that's less familiar.

Easy enough? Get started and report back.

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