Become a Generalist to excel at your finance career. Stack your skills and dominate as a finance professional.
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The other day I was dining with some friends, and they were challenging the fact of me being a manager of people older than me.
I thought this to be a bizarre thought on their part.
Why would that be inappropriate?
Age is not an indicator of professional capability.
And it got me thinking…
First, they all were Europeans. Maybe on that side of the world, the corporate world still follows that old paradigm of linking age with expertise, leadership, and talent.
Thankfully I work with an innovative American corporation. Nevertheless, their comments made me wonder. I have heard some manager’s colleagues referring to this age gap as a challenge for them to build that desired loyal following from their teams.
Whether you like it or not, age does bring credibility; those years of experience do not go unnoticed.
Age is not an indicator of professional capability.
How to use being younger than some of your team members as an unfair advantage you can tackle in your favor?
Why does being younger should not stop a promotion to team manager?
Some people are deeply focused on growing a particular specialization.
Their goal is to master a specific skill.
Let’s say becoming the best portfolio manager in the hedge fund industry.
They deepen their skills and efforts in that one area.
However, to be a manager, an entrepreneur, or a person that can succeed in different places, you must diversify your skills.
You must be MORE than an outstanding analyst and individual contributor for your boss to see you will be a fantastic manager for the company.
What is a generalist?
According to Pat Flynn in his book; How to Be Better at Almost Everything: Learn Anything Quickly, Stack Your Skills and Dominate.
A Generalist is a person that is focused on staking several related skills and becoming very good at them vs. a specialist who is focused on being the best on one particular skill.
Being a generalist will do wonders for most of us as finance professionals. You will be able to stack and be great at several invaluable skills, such as outstanding communication, problem-solving, analytical capabilities, deep research skills, and becoming a very valuable professional.
Diversify your skills to become ultra-valuable and maximize your income.
For the majority of people, it is best to be great at several skills (executive presence, project management, deep-dive analysis, problem solver, dashboarding, networking, etc.) than to be the best on one topic.
You must have great communication skills, enthusiastic energy, be an excellent builder, coach, listener, demonstrate analytical and strategical thinking capabilities, be passionate about what you do, and have a vision.
Otherwise, if you are fantastic at what you do, and, each year, you get more and more specialized in doing one thing, your boss will praise you for all your contributions and expertise, but it is unlikely they will see in you the leader of the future.
It depends on what you want from your career. But for the majority of people, it is best to be great at several skills (executive presence, project management, deep-dive analysis, problem solver, dashboarding, networking, etc.) than to be the best on one topic.
Being very good at a few skills will take you further than being the best at only one.
For example,
If you are focused on becoming the best guitarist, it will consume you for years and years, and odds are unless you are naturally gifted, there will always be someone better than you. Your audience will be tiniest, as the people who enjoyed only listening to guitarist masters are minimal.
However, if you learn to be a great guitarist and then add to that skill by singing and composing with good enough mastery, you can leverage those skills to attract a wider audience. Think about the possibilities; bringing more value to a larger community will increase your chances to make a profitable career as you will be delivering more value to more people.
What is skill stacking? How is skill stacking useful?
Skill Stacking is an approach to learning that will help you become a better version of yourself. The objective of the process is to learn and master new skills and then combine them to make yourself more efficient or valuable.
What is an example of Skill Stacking?
Let’s imagine you like math.
Then, you decide to keep someone else books.
It has been profitable enough. Therefore you study and become a CPA.
Once there, you decide to learn about the tax code and tax strategies, which allow you to save thousands or millions for companies.
Then, you become an expert by decreasing liabilities with insurance to big corps.
Each talent becomes disproportionally more valuable than the last one.
Intellectual and strategic skills staking compounds with time!
Check out this article related to skill staking for finance professional, which you may find helpful!
MAKE A VERY PROFITABLE AND FULFILLING CAREER IN FINANCE BY STAKING SKILLS STRATEGICALLY
Can you stack abilities?
Yes, find out what your talents are or what skills you want to master, then practice, study, and commit to acquiring, building upon, and refining them.
Be strategic, and add skills that will make a more valuable or efficient professional or entrepreneur.
How do you master a skill set?
Define the level of mastery you want to attain and how you will measure success.
Think ten times bigger than what you expect and plan accordingly.
Ensure you are setting enough DAILY time aside to meet your goals.
Track your progress, weekly or daily to raise accountability and connection with your goal.
Get a mentor if needed. Find a community to buid the visualization and required mindset.
Challenge yourself!
What are the best skills to learn as a financial professional?
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1. Communication Skills.
Being a great communicator will do wonders for your career. Learn how to sell, communicate and write in a convincing, respectful, and efficient way.
As a financial professional, you must showcase your analysis, ideas, recommendations, and conclusions to a knowledgeable audience.
Ensure you are well prepared by mastering the art of delivering messages right.
Learn how to sell, communicate and write in a convincing, respectful, and efficient way.
2. Analytical Skills.
There is nothing worst than financial professionals who only limit themselves to processing numbers without building business acumen or connecting the dots of the whole picture.
Stand out, do not fall into mediocrity, be analytical, do your research, educate yourself.
Stand out, do not fall into mediocrity, be analytical, do your research, educate yourself.
3. Problem-Solving Skills.
Being a proficient financial professional in any specialization requires the capability to solve problems.
Propose solutions, challenge the status quo, be creative, fearless and push your organization to reach the mountaintop in your areas of expertise. Be accountable and do not be afraid to propose innovation and solutions with clear benefits, ROI, and a clear roadmap to success.
Propose solutions, challenge the status quo, be creative, fearless and push your organization to reach the mountaintop in your areas of expertise. Be accountable and do not be afraid to propose innovation and solutions with clear benefits, ROI, and a clear roadmap to success.
4. Strategical Thinking.
Having a clear vision of what you need to attain is critical for strategizing with mastery, purpose, and strong execution. Being a strategic thinker will position you in leadership and influential positions.
Think above your daily tasks, understand the whole picture so you can strategize master plans.
Think above your daily tasks, understand the whole picture so you can strategize master plans.
I was inspired by the book: How to Be Better at Almost Everything: Learn Anything Quickly, Stack Your Skills, Dominate by PAt Flynn.
I loved the ideas he wrote, a lot of inspiration, and easy-to-read stories across the whole book.
Kindle:
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Author:
Ruth Valverde A.
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