While some professionals and entrepreneurs have a degree in finance and accounting, many do not.
Are you an aspiring leader who has never had practical financial management training?
If so, you should know that gaining a basic understanding of finance practices can help you lead more confidently and capably. A foundation of financial literacy, or an understanding of key financial areas that affect your area of business, can be the most critical skills you add to your professional toolbelt.
Financial literacy is about a lot more than simply reading balance sheets. Below, discover how valuable this knowledge can be for your current and future career.
An understanding of financial management can:
- Give you access to key conversations: Once you understand the language used in finance, you can keep up with and contribute to conversations around the financial issues in your organization. Since money lies at the heart of everything (whether it’s updating a department budget or making changes based on last year’s income statement), you need to have a seat at the table when financial conversations occur. Doing so opens the door to positively impacting your organization’s bottom line.
- Guide decision-making for the best interest of your organization: You don’t have to be a CPA to make smart financial decisions; once you’ve gained a clear understanding of finance and accounting practices, you can use that knowledge to become a more confident manager. Financial literacy adds depth to your leadership, giving you quantitative feedback on how your decisions are affecting the financial well-being of the business.
- Spot valuable trends or insights: Once you’re involved in key conversations and are making informed management decisions based on financial analysis, you can start digging even deeper. Finding insights or detecting trends will help you ensure your business is making the most of every dollar — and seizing lucrative opportunities when they occur.
- Advance your career: With financial literacy in your toolbelt, you can start strategizing and managing in a whole new way; something that will benefit not just your business but your own career. Your ability to competently manage finances will be invaluable when it’s time for a promotion, or when you’re ready to find your next challenge.
Now that you know the benefits of financial literacy, give yourself the time and the tools to learn it. The Executive Education department in the TCU Neeley School of Business offers a two-day course on “Finance for Non-Finance Professionals.” Faculty leader, TCU accounting professor Dr. Janice Cobb, is a celebrated instructor for her innovative teaching practices and wide knowledge base of accounting and finance. Dr. Cobb helps create an approachable, non-intimidating environment for learning the fundamentals of finance. You will leave the course feeling empowered to join the financial conversations at your organization the very next day.
Ready to learn financial literacy in a fast, interactive way? Head here to sign up for the course, or go to our program brochure for more information on the range of resources offered by our Executive Education department.