There is hardly any book on human relationships and influence that is as revered as Dale Carnegie’s ‘How to Win Friends and Influence People’. A great many leaders across the world have sworn by and largely benefited from this masterpiece.  

Last week, while driving to work with a list of to-dos on my mind, I happened to listen to the audiobook in my car. It served as a refresher to those valuable principles that seem so simple but are easy to forget when actually conducting everyday business. I started wondering how I could effectively channel learnings from this book to improve my effectiveness at work and what potential lessons could be drawn for Finance professionals at large. 

In the first part of his book, Carnegie discusses “Fundamental Techniques in Handling People”. Below is an attempt to discuss the application of these techniques in the context of Finance professionals. 

1. Don’t criticize, condemn or complain 

This is the first principle Carnegie proposes. He discusses how every person in the world, even the most evil criminal, believes he is a good person doing the right thing. Criticism and condemnation are, therefore, futile since they make a person defensive and arouse resentment. 

As accountants & finance professionals, we are the conscience keepers of the organization, in charge of controls and budgets. Every once in a while, we all face those instances which make our blood boil – a bypass of processes or controls, expenditures exceeding budgets, etc. It is very easy in such situations to slip into a critical attitude and develop a perception that the concerned business teams are lazy, undisciplined, or incapable! This perception often manifests in actual confrontations and name calling leading to resentment in the mind of the other team. They, in turn, may develop negative perceptions of Finance as being impractical or bureaucratic or out of touch with on-ground business reality! Such tensions do not serve anyone’s purpose and damage the organization’s functioning.  

It is, therefore, important to be mindful of the perceptions we develop and the manner in which we communicate our concerns. The communication should be constructive and led with an open mind. We should seek to understand actual concerns, if any, e.g., a particular policy being too outdated to be able to comply with the current business scenario. Genuine efforts should also be made to eliminate such issues. Often, even lending a patient ear makes a person feel more comfortable and willing to receive feedback. The importance of compliance with a process or budget can then be stressed. This is more likely to achieve objectives than merely being critical. 

2. Give honest and sincere appreciation 

As humans, we’re all toiling and fighting our own battles every single day and what we all crave for internally is the desire to be important. We crave for genuine appreciation. Humans, really are that simple! With words of true appreciation, we have the power to completely change another person’s perception of themselves, improve their motivation, and be a driving force behind their success. 

As a function, finance has come a long way from the days of bookkeeping to business partnering on a real-time basis. However, we are still there doing all the analytics because someone is selling the product somewhere! The fact remains that a company may have the best product and systems but it’s a worthless company if its salespeople cannot sell it to customers. Selling is arguably the most vital skill and it’s a really hard job. So, let’s make sure we go out of our way and are hearty in our appreciation of Sales / Marketing teams when targets are achieved. This really means a lot to them since they’ve strived and worked hard to achieve those targets. It also goes a long way in building relationships which can later be leveraged while driving analytics and financial KPIs. 

3. Arouse in the other person an eager want 

The only thing anyone is really interested in is what they want. This principle is the absolute key in influencing others. The only way to get someone to do something is to frame it in terms of what motivates them.

This technique can be leveraged to reap great results in delivering financial KPIs. Often, when communicating our goals with business teams, we focus on what we want – reduced costs, better margins, reduced inventory and debtor days. 

These things mean either nothing or very less to our Sales or Marketing counterparts since their goals are largely based on top line achievement. But aren’t all these really business metrics and not finance metrics? Won’t these metrics, if improved, reap great benefits to the business? Well, of course. But do we communicate it that way? Mostly not. 

Every time we are having a discussion with business teams to drive improvement in financial metrics, we should set the context by stressing how the achievement would help improve their lives. For example, strict adherence to a credit management and collection policy ensures hygiene and discipline among the field teams and customers which benefits the Sales organization in the long run. Ad hoc concessions and exceptions from time to time help in achieving short-term targets but give rise to a messy and undisciplined set of customers which causes a lot of trouble to everyone eventually.  

Likewise, getting approvals from Brand Marketing teams for cost savings initiatives in Packaging can be very difficult since Brand Marketers are very careful about any potential changes in aesthetics. First of all, these are very critical concerns and should really be appreciated since affecting the aesthetics of a product can cause a serious dent in the product’s brand value. However, a good way to position such propositions would be to highlight that the reduced packaging costs would mean better margins which, in turn, allow for higher ATL investments that contribute tremendously to brand building. This is much likelier to win a buy-in! 

These kinds of small changes in our approach and interactions can contribute a long way in increasing our influence as finance professionals and can have a significant impact on the achievement of organizational goals.