The Invisible Skillset of a Finance Leader | Next Level Careers

Ask most people to describe a finance career, and you'll get some version of the same picture. Spreadsheets. Quiet focus. Being right, consistently, in a role built around precision. It isn't wrong, exactly. It's just incomplete.

Janice Fitzpatrick has spent forty years in gaming finance. If you ask her what actually separates a competent finance professional from one who moves a business forward, the answer has almost nothing to do with the numbers. The technical work is the entry point. The rest of it, the parts that don't show up in a textbook, is where the real work lives.

Forty Years That Started With an Audit

Fitzpatrick started college in Nebraska, finished in Nevada with an accounting degree, and earned her CPA working at a regional accounting firm. Gaming found her almost by accident. A client she was auditing offered her a job, and that pivot turned into a four-decade run across some of the largest properties and openings in the industry. She's held Controller and CFO roles across Las Vegas, helped open casinos on multiple continents, and led finance through IPOs, acquisitions, and system overhauls.

She'd tell you the throughline across all of it wasn't the numbers. It was the people.

The Moment She Stopped Trying to Do Everything Herself

Early in her career, when Fitzpatrick took on her first roles overseeing multiple departments, something shifted. She realized she couldn't do all the work herself. Her job was to work with everybody and make sure the work got done. That meant delegating, trusting people, and letting go of the idea that being effective in finance was about being the most technically capable person in the room.

Once she stopped trying to hold everything herself, she started paying closer attention to the people around her. She treated her teams well, gave a lot of feedback, and prioritized real relationships. Her belief, stated plainly: “There's no reason we have to come to work and be miserable all day.”

That approach has produced a network of people she watched grow. One former employee is now the CFO of a casino in Australia. Another, an entry-level analyst who volunteered to help her open a property overseas, eventually became the Chief Casino Officer. She gave him the shot when nobody else would. He kept the promise he made her.

"The people that work for you are the most important people," she says. Four decades in, that's the part of the job she talks about with the most pride.

When Communication Is the Actual Job

There's a stereotype about finance and accounting professionals that Fitzpatrick acknowledges without hesitation. Many are introverted. Some, she says, chose the field because they thought it would mean not having to talk to people. It doesn't work that way if you want to lead.  “Some people majored in it because they thought, oh, I won't have to talk to anybody," she says. "That's not the case."

You can sit at your desk and be accurate all day, but if you can't communicate across departments, you're going to struggle. Finance touches nearly every operational function, and the person running planning and analysis has to serve as a resource, not a gatekeeper. The job is to give operators the information they need to make better decisions, when they need it.

That skill sharpens even further when the room includes people from different backgrounds. Sitting in board meetings with executives from multiple countries taught Fitzpatrick that how something is presented can matter as much as what's being said. Small differences in tone or framing could either open a conversation or shut it down entirely. One of her directors abroad once told her that she led differently than any boss she'd ever had. It made her nervous at first. Then she realized she preferred it. That kind of feedback, Fitzpatrick says, only comes when people feel safe enough to give it.

Knowing When to Push Back

Gaming is a heavily regulated industry, so pushback is part of the job. Some of it is technical. Some of it, though, is about protecting people.

Early in one role, Fitzpatrick inherited a property with a workplace culture that had gone unchecked for decades. Certain departments felt entitled to bully the women working in cage operations. It had been that way since the property opened. When she found out, she went straight to the president and made it clear it had to stop. It did.

Having the support of her boss made the difference, but the lesson stayed with her. Pushback is easier when it's grounded in what's right, and when the leaders above you back the position.

What Makes a Great Finance Leader Now

The role of a finance leader has evolved. It's less about being the numbers person and more about being a partner to the rest of the organization. Fitzpatrick has seen the version that doesn't work. The CFO who treats a yearly review like an "I gotcha" meeting, embarrassing operators in front of the room. That kind of behavior serves no purpose and only breaks trust.

"Being a partner means we're all in this together," she says. "That other approach serves zero purpose."

The same principle applies inside her own team. Errors are like numbers. Even systems make mistakes. Yelling at someone who made an honest one solves nothing, and it could easily be her the next time. Staying steady in those moments is what protects trust over the long run.

The next generation of great finance leaders, in her view, will be the ones who can communicate clearly, build real trust, and make the operators around them better at their jobs. The technical work still matters. It just isn't what makes the difference anymore.

What 40 Years in Finance Actually Taught Her

Forty years after entering finance through an audit engagement, Fitzpatrick's biggest lesson isn't about accounting, forecasting, or compliance. It's that the leaders who make the greatest impact are the ones who help other people succeed.

Over the course of a career, the wins begin to blur together. Openings, acquisitions, budgets, and quarterly results all matter in the moment. But time has a way of revealing what truly lasts. For Fitzpatrick, the most meaningful achievements aren't measured in financial outcomes—they're reflected in the people who gained confidence, expanded their capabilities, advanced in their careers, and achieved more than they thought possible.

That's a powerful reminder for leaders in any industry. Your greatest contribution may not be the strategy you execute or the results you deliver, but the confidence you instill, the opportunities you create, and the people you inspire to achieve more than they thought possible. Because long after the numbers fade, your impact lives on through the people you helped build.