Nicole Ortiz

Like many finance professionals, my career started with a textbook-perfect vision: the beautiful symmetry of a balanced ledger. For every debit, a credit. It was simple, organized, and felt like solving the universe's most delightful puzzle. I thought I was headed for a career in an accounting or audit firm, blissfully crunching numbers.   Then, I actually started working in Finance, and my cozy vision got tossed faster than a line item in a year-end restructuring.   The universal, persistent...

If you’re a finance professional, you know the feeling. The annual budget process often feels like a consuming, compliance-driven task that, ironically, can leave the Finance function feeling less connected to the day-to-day activities of the business. Yet, the budget remains the single most comprehensive record of where every dollar goes and why. It is time for finance leaders to stop viewing the budget as merely a historical tracking document. We must activate its true potential as the...

You have a high-functioning team, the kind that delivers results, often striving to exceed expectations. These individuals are a leader's dream: self-motivated, driven, and their own toughest critics. They hold their work to an incredibly high standard, learning and growing from any misstep long after others have forgotten it.   But managing these individuals comes with a unique challenge: the delicate art of delivering feedback .   If you've ever managed a top performer, you know that their...