Are you a finance or data professional?Do you need to boost your English communication to move forward in your career?
Let's Change That ⬇️
A successful finance or data professional today can't just do the work, they need to be able to communicate it too.
Your technical skills will provide a strong foundation in your career...
-> Excel // SQL // Analysis skills // Modelling // Power BI // Knowledge of finance statements.But if you want to keep advancing and building confidence, you must be able to...
-> Influence decision-making
-> Show your value in interviews
-> Deliver engaging presentations
-> Effectively manage key relationships
-> Communicate your ideas clearly and conciselyOnly this way will you get the credit you deserve.
What Are Your Goals?
Improving your English as a Finance/Data Professional
If you find it difficult speaking up in meetings, delivering presentations, making an impression in interviews, or discussing the data, what can you do to improve?
Challenges you may be facing right now- Difficulty finding the right words to express yourself in stakeholder meetings.
- Managing the pressure and making a lasting impression in interviews at multinational companies.
- Taking leadership, influencing decisions and being engaging when speaking with management.
- Structuring your thoughts concisely in the moment.
The "Deeper Problems"I’ve noticed 2 central problems (drivers) that are causing each of the problems above.#1 An Inefficient ApproachMaybe you have a good foundation for your fluency thanks to working through English, or having conversations, or maybe listening to podcasts/reading the news etc. But this doesn’t help you move forward as a finance/data professional.#2 Changing Priorities
Maybe the above methods were enough when you worked in a national company. Or when you were more junior. But now if you really want to progress in your career, you need to be more focused on the exact skills you need in order to see real progress.
What Clients Are Saying
Steps to Improve
We need an approach that helps you improve in the most important areas of your work (meetings, presentations, interviews, etc.). Ultimately, a tailored approach will help you advance in your communication and your career much more quickly.Here are some areas that are most beneficial to focus on:1️⃣ Building Confidence in Meetings
How do you make recommendations, explain your ideas concisely, answer questions on the spot , or express technical finance/data ideas to a non-technical audience?2️⃣ Learning to Manage Stakeholder/Client Relationships- When you are making suggestions in meetings and you face a disagreement, how do you handle that situation?
- When you have to change your tone in tense situations, from casual to formal & polite. Again, how do you manage that?3️⃣ Taking Control of Your Voice
Once you improve at communicating clearly and concisely, we need to advance your ability to communicate in an engaging way. This involves taking control of your rhythm, pitch, as well as your intonation. We also practice this in a finance/data context.4️⃣ Developing your Confidence In Pressured SituationsIn presentations, we need to engage with the audience, clearly structure our ideas, transition smoothly between slides, answer questions we didn't expect, use our body language effectively. All of this while we are under pressure. This requires specific role-playing, practice, and feedback.In interviews, we need to focus on common questions, telling your story, discussing your experiences, and communicating your value concisely.***In other cases, it can be more beneficial to focus on your ability to express yourself clearly, concisely and confidently on finance, data and business strategy topics. This is especially effective in a 1-1 context where you can receive feedback, be put on the spot, and improve on your weaknesses.Again, it's important to focus on vocabulary and topics that are relevant to your day-to-day work, and ask questions that will force you to express yourself in a relatable context.
What Some Other Clients Are Saying
Developing Confidence & Influence for
Professionals in the UK/US
I've tailored two separate approaches — one for finance and investment professionals; another for data analytics professionals.This is a short-term intensive programme (usually lasting between 6 - 8 weeks, varying based on the client's needs)The goal in this case is refining your communication skills and building confidence, focusing on areas like...
- Professionalism with clients, stakeholders and management.
- Confidence structuring and expressing your ideas in meetings.
- Engaging & influencing your audience in presentations/pitches.
- And refining your rapport management and leadership skills.The key steps to this approach is as follows:1️⃣ Expressing Your Ideas Effectively
This addresses how you make suggestions, recommendations, disagree and share your ideas in meetings.Depending on your needs, it may include role-playing exercises, practice structuring your ideas on the spot, navigating tricky situations with stakeholders/clients, explaining technical ideas concisely and more.2️⃣ Controlling Your Speech
You likely have a moderate control over your speech in meetings and presentations. We want to increase this control to make you a more engaging speaker, and more confident communicator.We may look at your rhythm, your pitch control, how to avoid going monotone, your volume control to create suspense, how effectively you use your body language, and more.If English isn't your first language, it can also be helpful to highlight the challenges in pronunciation to feel more comfortable in your speech.3️⃣Engaging the Audience
In presentations, your audience's attention is your most valuable asset. We will explore how to manage that asset to improve your leadership and persuasion skills.This will likely include how you interact with slides, how you apply your speech control (from section 2) to presentations, how you structure your thoughts for audience questions, how you explain the story of the business, and more.4️⃣ Making It All NaturalOnce you gain control over your speech, learn to how engage the audience, manage relationships and deliver compelling presentations, we need to make this natural.So we will spend plenty of time practising these skills in order to find your own voice, to lay out a roadmap for continuous improvement, and so you don't have to think about any techniques in important situations.***Throughout this process, we will highlight your strengths and weaknesses and adjust our focus accordingly in order to find the most efficient path to improving your confidence.
What Some Other Clients Are Saying
Developing Confidence for Upcoming Interviews
This is a short-term intensive programme (the duration is typically 2 - 5 weeks depending on your needs). It is tailored for finance, banking and data professionals.The goal is focused on building confidence for interview skills to either break into finance/data or advance your career towards mid-level and senior roles.The structure is tailored to address the key communication aspects of both junior and senior interviews
- Personality and fit questions
- Technical and direct questions
- Deal/Project experience (if appropriate)
- Rapport-building, and preparing questions of your ownThe key steps to this approach is as follows:1️⃣ Storytelling for InterviewsTelling “your story” to both highlight your qualifications and show your human side.
Using your experiences to show (rather than tell) your valueThis will include structures for your answering questions, practice applying those structures, and feedback on ways to highlight your value.2️⃣ Technical QuestionsTackling some relevant technical questions and explaining your train of thought clearly and effectivelyThis will include practice answering a series of technical questions from different categories. In particular, we will look at how you structure your answers, gather your thoughts, and clearly and concisely express technical ideas.3️⃣Advanced Interview SkillsWe will walk through a preparation process to find the right questions to ask about the company and the role.We will also discuss and practise ways to build rapport with the interviewer. This will both help put your nerves at ease and make you a more memorable candidate.If appropriate to you, we will also practise discussing your past project or deal experience to highlight your involvement, your industry knowledge, and again to show the value you are able to contribute.4️⃣ Role-PlayingWe will look to integrate what we have covered in previous weeks through a more intensive mock interview.
This will include the storytelling, handling direction questions, technical questions, building rapport, etc.We don't want you trying to balance too many things on the day of an interview. So we need to make your interview skills come naturally to you.***Depending on your needs and agenda, this may be a very short or a longer interview preparation process. We will also adjust the process to ensure we focus on the key areas to improve your confidence.
What Some Other Clients Are Saying
Figuring Out What Your Team Needs
Question: What do you need to think about if you want to upgrade your team's communication skills?The most important thing is to find an approach that suits their needs and their duties.This is where general business English training can fall short. It often focuses on situations and skills that aren't specific to finance or data professionals.Whether your team spends their time discussing sales forecasts, company valuations, or strategies to improve employee performance…They need to develop confidence discussing those metrics, expand vocabulary speaking about those topics and developing fluency with their stakeholders/clients. That will allow them to perform their jobs better in a short space of time.
Advancing Your Team's Communication Skills
When deciding what will be the most efficient training method, I find it helpful to distinguish between improving communication skills for finance/data professionals and English fluency in a finance/data context.In the first situation, I recommend a kind of group training programme. This allows for engagement, interaction with each other, lots of role-playing in realistic scenarios, putting each other on the spot with realistic questions and learning from each others' mistakes.The main skills we can focus on are:1️⃣ Building Confidence in MeetingsHow do you make suggestions, make requests, , express technical finance/data ideas to a non-technical audience, as well as communicate your thoughts concisely?2️⃣ Learning to Manage Stakeholder/Client Relationships- When you are making suggestions in meetings and you face a disagreement, how do you handle that situation?
- When you have to change your tone in tense situations, from casual to formal & polite. Again, how do you manage that?
- How do you manage pressured situations to support your stakeholders, clients or management?3️⃣ Presentation skills
There are a lot of factors that determine whether we are an engaging and influential or boring presenter.We need to engage with the audience, clearly structure our ideas, transition smoothly between slides, answer questions we didn't expect, use our body language effectively. All of this while we are under pressure. This requires specific role-playing, practice, and feedback.Note: Throughout the process, I will organise a variety of workplace scenarios and exercises to work on as a group, as well as individually, to practise communication techniques, expand vocabulary in realistic finance/data situations, and I (as well as the rest of the group) can provide feedback on strengths and weaknesses to learn from each others' mistakes.***In other cases, it can be more beneficial to focus on the finance/data professional's ability to express themselves clearly, concisely and confidently on finance, data and business topics. This is especially effective in a 1-1 context where they can receive feedback, be put on the spot, and develop their individual weaknesses.This is useful over a longer period when you don't specifically need to work on your presentation or meeting skills, but you need to be prepared for conversations with stakeholders, colleagues or clients, related to business performance, making suggestions, and communicating your thoughts clearly and concisely.Again, it's important to focus on vocabulary and topics that are relevant to their day-to-day work, and ask questions that will force them to express themselves in a relatable context.
What Some Other Clients Are Saying
Take the next step
All it takes for your team to start communicating more fluently and effectively with stakeholders or clients is a tailored, structured approach.If you want to see them improve their interpersonal skills and work more productively, reach out to tailor an approach for your team.