Getting buy-in can be the trickiest part when your company hasn’t done any real FP&A yet. You must convince your cross-functional business partners that investing time and energy into the FP&A process is worth it. Here is a tip to do just that.

Finance leaders don’t always have the chance to impact major company decisions. That happens when the finance team is seen as the department that only produces standard reports and cuts budgets. But FP&A leaders can and should have a seat at the decision table. In this article, I’m walking through six approaches you can start today to grow your influence.

Without knowing the business inside and out, you can only do so much as FP&A Manager. Sure, you can create reports about the current performance of the business and attempt to forecast its future outlook. But to increase your value, you need to know more about the business model than where the revenue comes from.

You can only become a strategic advisor to the business if you understand how your cross-functional partners turn inputs into sales. Here is what I learned works best to build business understanding.

Suggesting what other leaders should do is a part of every FP&A role. So, improving your influencing skills can easily 2X your impact. But if you overdo it or challenge them too directly, your relationships suffer. I summarized what my mentors taught me in three Dos and three Don’ts.

“Analysis paralysis” can happen to anyone. Not even senior leaders are immune. Rather than getting stuck in a spreadsheet, they run from endless meeting to endless meeting without a clear decision at the end.

The culprit is often simply that roles and responsibilities aren’t clear or decision-making powers are shared too liberally. KcKinsey advocates for the use of the DARE framework to counteract these issues.

Many see listening as the top leadership skill. To be a successful Finance Business Partner, it’s certainly essential. The reason many aren’t good listeners is that we aren’t taught the right techniques in school. This post introduces three ways to immediately become a better listener.

Influencing skills are important not just for FP&A leaders but for anyone who has to convince others to achieve their goals. Here is some concrete and easy to apply advice on what you can do today to grow your influence.

There is a secret to how Elon Musk was able to learn how to build rockets from scratch and beat NASA and other government organizations at their own game. It’s “reasoning from first principles”. Let me walk you through how it works and how FP&A managers can apply it.

Many projects fail because people aren’t prepared for failures. Fortunately, there is something FP&A can do about that. “Premortems” work because they create a safe space to share concerns. As a result, blind support for ideas gives way to creative problem-solving. Read on to learn what they are and how to use them.

Politics means people do only what’s best for themselves. Here are 3 common issues and what to do in each situation.

Read on to learn why taking meeting notes is the secret to having more impact as an FP&A leader.

Politics at work doesn’t only harm productivity. It can also lower team morale. Read on to learn what you can do about it as a Finance Business Partner.

Become a better Finance Business Partner by focusing on the activities that make a difference. Read on to find out what they are.

Without accountability, a company is destined to fail eventually. That’s because problems don’t get resolved if no one feels responsible and opportunities get ignored.

FP&A has a role to play in raising accountability. Read on to learn more.

In FP&A, a lot of our impact comes from others following our advice. Our financial model may suggest a certain conclusion or our analysis of month-end results may have unearthed an opportunity.

Here are some thoughts on how to improve your influencing skills.

Finding creative ways how to get a better understanding of how the business is doing is a core part of FP&A’s role. Here are some simple things you can try.

As Finance Business Partners, we rely on the strength of our professional relationships with our cross-functional partners. We can’t be successful without their willingness to share information with us.

So we need to build relationships continually. Read on to learn how to do that by having a support mindset.

Silos prevent the free flow of information and can harm employee morale. Here is what FP&A can do to prevent them.

We can and should do more than listen when we are part of discussions about making business decisions. Fortunately, there is a framework that enables us to add value when we know less than our business partners.