Soft skills are critical in the finance sector and we explain why in this week’s blog. It’s easy to focus on technical skills when finding the ideal role in finance and making yourself invaluable to your employer. Various hard skills, from mathematical competency to digital literacy, are crucial to finance professionals.
However, employers aren’t just looking for hard skills in the top candidates. Soft skills are becoming increasingly crucial as the finance landscape grows more complex.
Business leaders must hire well-rounded professionals with the soft skills necessary to adapt quickly to new challenges, work cohesively as a team, and remain productive.
According to a recent post on LinkedIn, 92% of hiring managers consider soft skills to be just as, if not more important than, technical skills.
Here are the seven soft skills you should focus on as you invest in your finance career this year..
1. Communication Skills
Exceptional communication skills are essential in every industry and role. Most business leaders rank communication as the most crucial skill they look for in any new candidate. Financial employees need to excel in various areas of communication, including:
Verbal Communication
There’s a significant amount of technical jargon in the finance industry. While finance professionals might be familiar with these terms, they need to be able to translate them into more accessible words for colleagues and clients.
Knowing how to explain complex topics with clear, simple language and enhancing communication with visual aids and graphs during presentations will help finance professionals thrive in their roles.
Written Communication
Finance professionals are also regularly involved in a lot of written communication. Aside from interacting with colleagues and clients through email and messaging apps, they need to be able to create clear, concise reports for stakeholders. Leveraging strategies like data visualisation and knowing how to format reports for easy reading is critical in most roles.
Active Listening
Great communication isn’t just about speaking or writing. Finance professionals need to be able to listen to colleagues and clients actively. Asking clarifying questions during a conversation can help to build rapport and emotional connections while strengthening understanding.
2. Emotional Intelligence
Emotional Intelligence (EI) can be extremely valuable for financial professionals who must work cohesively as part of a team and connect emotionally with clients. Finance can be complex, and showing emotional intelligence can help minimise disputes and conflict.
Additionally, emotional intelligence has a significant impact on your decision-making abilities. Individuals with strong emotional intelligence are more likely to invest in ethical decision-making processes, considering their actions’ short- and long-term impact on others.
To develop emotional intelligence, you’ll need to work on concepts like:
- Self-awareness: Your ability to recognise your emotions and their impact on your behaviours, thoughts, and attitudes.
- Self-regulation: How well you can control impulsive behaviours and feelings and maintain composure in difficult situations.
- Motivation: Maintaining a strong drive to ensure you progress towards your goals with energy and focus.
- Empathy: The ability to understand and share the feelings of others, fostering stronger connections and deeper understanding.
- Social skills: How well you can build and manage relationships with your colleagues, clients, and stakeholders.
Practising mindfulness can help you develop all these skills, pushing you to pay attention to your emotions and behaviours, and the feelings expressed by others. Regular social interactions and seeking feedback can also help boost your social skills.
3. Adaptability and Flexibility
The rapidly changing nature of the finance industry has made adaptability and flexibility increasingly crucial for modern team members. Not only do financial professionals need to adapt to changing regulations and economic issues, but they must also be prepared to embrace new technologies and processes in their day-to-day work.
Around 80% of larger enterprise finance teams already believe they’ll be reliant on AI and automated technologies by 2026, and innovations are always emerging. Ensuring you can adapt quickly to changes in your environment will make you a more resilient employee and a valuable asset to your team.
Build your adaptability and flexibility by staying current with new trends and regulations. Actively seek educational opportunities, like new courses and webinars, engage with thought leaders, listen to podcasts, and attend industry conferences.
A growth mindset can be extremely helpful, too. With a growth mindset, you can take a positive approach to embracing change, learning from your mistakes, and developing your skills. Constantly review your strengths and weaknesses, and commit to experimenting, learning, and confidently exploring new opportunities.
4. Critical Thinking and Problem-Solving
Critical thinking and problem-solving skills are essential in many industries and roles but are particularly important in finance. Your ability to overcome complex financial challenges, help businesses maintain a healthy cash flow, and avoid budget issues depends on these skills.
Experiment with various frameworks for analysing financial problems. For instance, you might conduct a SWOT analysis of a scenario to evaluate strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. Some financial professionals also use the PESTLE analysis framework. This involves looking at each decision’s political, economic, social, technological, legal, and environmental aspects.
While the experience you gain in your finance role will help you make decisions based on intuition, remember that data is often crucial to making the right choices. Additionally, ensure you’re considering ethical concepts when solving problems in finance.
Using an ethical decision-making model will ensure you can avoid common issues in the finance sector caused by problems like a lack of transparency, honesty, or fairness.
5. Leadership and Teamwork
In many finance roles, professionals must know how to thrive as a crucial part of a team and when leading others throughout a project. Your communication and emotional intelligence will help you operate well in a wider group.
When leading those groups, you must determine the right leadership style for each situation. Transformational leadership styles can inspire and motivate teams by focusing on experimentation, innovation and long-term vision. Transactional leadership, focusing on structure and results, can be crucial in scenarios where precision and accountability are critical.
Building and managing high-performing teams will require clear, consistent communication, goal alignment, and a consistent feedback loop in all environments. Additionally, you may need to practice your conflict resolution skills, work out how to empathise with different parties in complex scenarios and preserve positive relationships.
6. Time Management and Organisation
No matter what type of finance role you pursue, excellent time management and organisation will be crucial, from a management position to a contractor role. The finance sector is fast-paced, and an inability to adhere to deadlines can lead to disastrous results.
To ensure you’re making the most out of your days, experiment with different time management methodologies. The Pomodoro technique, which involves working in focused intervals separated by short breaks, is excellent for preserving high concentration levels.
The GTD (Getting Things Done) technique focuses on organising tasks into actionable steps and regularly reviewing priorities. This is ideal for complex, multi-faceted projects.
Various tools and software solutions can help you manage your tie effectively. Project management tools help organise tasks and boost collaboration between distributed teams. Calendar apps are great for tracking deadlines and meetings. Even AI software and automation tools can help you streamline routine tasks.
7. Cultural Competence and Global Awareness
Finally, in today’s increasingly globalised financial space, cultural competence and global awareness are becoming essential to success. If you or the organisation you work with works across various landscapes, you’ll need to understand how financial processes work in different regions.
You’ll also need to understand how to communicate and collaborate effectively with team members from different cultures, fostering inclusivity and diversity. Suppose you’re working in a contractor position. Knowing how other business cultures work is crucial so you can infuse yourself into different settings quickly and professionally.
Educating yourself boosts your chances of demonstrating exceptional cultural competence and global awareness. Read up on financial regulations and guidelines in different international markets.
While technical skills will always be essential in any finance role, it’s important not to overlook the importance of developing the right soft skills. Prioritising the soft skills mentioned above will help you to become a more well-rounded, valuable employee in the finance sector.
If you’re struggling to assess your soft skills or determine which areas to focus on in your development strategy, speak to a financial recruitment company.
A recruitment agency like Rebus can offer insights into the current trends in the hiring landscape, the priorities employers have, and the resources you can use to optimise your skillset.
Thanks
Rachel
About Rebus Financial Recruitment
Rebus Financial Recruitment provides a specialist and focused recruitment service to its customers, ranging from various organisations, including SMEs, to large PLCs.
We strive to offer both the client and candidate a seamless recruitment experience. Using our expertise, we get to the heart of employer and employee needs, and, in doing so, we match the two perfectly.
To learn more, contact one of our team members today or call us at 01282 930930.
