Consideration of your audience is fundamental to the success of any message: understanding how your audience thinks and what your audience needs, greatly enhances your chances of successful communication.
Having worked in both multinational corporations and with family run businesses, I have observed a few key nuances in communicating successfully, which are good skills to transfer to most situations.
The first nuance, which is intrinsically linked to trust, is the necessity to divulge everything and be completely transparent. Related to this, is ensuring you present all possible options, even those you deem infeasible. Entrepreneurs often view things differently to how an outside manager would view the situation, and may end up reaching a different conclusion or solution.
Secondly, wear your entrepreneur’s hat. Owners tend to be nimble at decision making so you need to have your communication suited for their way of thinking. Entrepreneurs do not typically encourage layers of approval and bureaucracy that may come with larger multinational corporations. This allows them to fast track the decision making process and therefore the case for clear and actionable communication.
Thirdly, know what your audience expects of you. Executives today expect corporate treasurers to be aware of market trends and view any risks on a holistic basis. Business leaders are focused on enhancing and protecting their balance sheet and P&L, therefore Treasurers need to proactively inform the business of risks that could negatively impact the P&L or have an impact on their business strategy. These could range from financial risks (foreign exchange risk, interest rate risk) to emerging technologies to the risk of fraud. It goes without saying that if you are communicating a risk, you should also propose a risk-averse solution (or preferably, solutions!).
Finally, keep it simple. Whatever advice is given, it must be brief and concise. Business leaders and your other customers expect both speed and diligence in their decision making process and they want to ensure that they easily understand the message. There is a likelihood that good ideas will not be considered with due importance, if the message is not conveyed in a lucid yet comprehensive manner. The solution may be complex, but the communication does not need to be.
If you practice the above - be transparent, think like an entrepreneur, know what your audience expects of you and keep it simple - you will naturally foster a relationship of trust. Your acquired technical competence is not your greatest asset when dealing with a Board or an entrepreneur, it is your ability to build trust.
You can hear more from Sonal Gupta, Corporate Treasurer, Alghanim Industries at the ACT Middle East Annual Conference
