Change consultant and executive coach Nicola Hopes shares several tips and tricks for crafting intentional business projects that can facilitate meaningful changes for organisations.

Hopes explains the fundamental questions that help ensure projects achieve intended outcomes, the importance of knowing what good looks like throughout the process, and how leaders can better balance project demands alongside their day-to-day responsibilities.

"I've seen lots of organisations passionate about doing a great project," Hopes said. "And, at the end of it, what's delivered doesn't quite solve the problem they were trying to solve, or it doesn't quite realise the opportunity, because they just weren't clear enough about what good looks like. Unless you've painted that picture really clearly, you don't know how to navigate the problems as you go through."

Resource: Nicola Hopes' UK & Ireland ENGAGE slides.

What you'll learn from this episode:

• Crucial areas to understand before taking on a business project.
• How to improve your approach when pitching initiatives to stakeholders.
• Digital tools that can help organise key information.
• Strategies for improving interpersonal skills.
• How leaders can help stakeholders find common ground during disagreements.
• Three ways leaders can save time and resources on projects.

In celebration of CGMA Week, the FM podcast welcomed two CGMA designation holders who recently spoke at UK & Ireland ENGAGE to discuss the lessons they've learned throughout their careers, how their mindset has shifted over the years, and the advice they would give to finance professionals navigating opportunities in a challenging era defined by potential and uncertainty.

Simon Ritchie, ACMA, CGMA, founder and CEO of Blox Software, and Olcay Yilmaz, FCMA, CGMA, finance director–Rail Infrastructure at Siemens, explain the importance of continuous learning in a time when knowledge has a faster expiration date for finance professionals.

Ritchie and Yilmaz highlight the ways finance professionals can position emerging technologies as innovation drivers in the finance function and how to fully embrace those tools in their roles.

CGMA Week is a global celebration designed to showcase the value, pride, and achievements associated with the CGMA designation.

What you'll learn from this episode:

• How an early start in technology can prevent finance professionals from working "backwards".
• The importance of learning to love learning — and why it pays off.
• Key areas Yilmaz and Ritchie expect AI to optimise within the finance function.
• Strategies for harnessing structure and embracing change through uncertainty.
• Their advice for professionals preoccupied with career ladders and titles.
• Tips for professionals struggling to map their learning and growth journeys.

Executive coach and author Nick Robinson illuminates the challenging traits of work colleagues and shares strategies from his book — The 9 Types of Difficult People: How to Spot Them and Quickly Improve Working Relationships — that professionals can employ to improve relationships on the job.

Robinson, a speaker at UK & Ireland ENGAGE earlier this month, explores the interplay between organisational pressures, psychological stressors, power dynamics, and how those factors can influence the development of traits and behaviours that make people difficult to work with.

He also shares strategies managers and professionals can explore to help get to the crux of performance issues, improve communication skills, and gain a deeper understanding of peers.

"When you ask a difficult person why they're doing what they do, they don't think they're difficult," Robinson said. "They're trying to do something that they think is right."

What you'll learn from this episode:

• Four pressures that can negatively affect our ability to work with others.
• Three common types of difficult people in the workplace.
• Advice for managers and employees to navigate challenging relationships and dynamics.
• Steps for surviving a difficult boss.
• Tips for "unlearning" bad habits that make you appear more difficult to work with.