Harness Your “Soft Skills” — Build Your Accounting Career— Before Next Busy Season!
Executive presence. Public speaking. Critical thinking. Business development. Negotiating. Time management. Branding. Marketing. These are abilities you may not immediately associate with accounting and auditing, but they’re exactly the sort of skills that will help propel your accounting and auditing career. A recent report from The Institute of Internal Auditors (IIA) and Robert Half proclaimed, “Soft skills are the new hard skills." As the accounting field continues to grow, with more than 96,000 new accounting and auditing jobs expected to be created by 2030 (according to estimates from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics), a strong portfolio of soft skills will set you apart with others in the field and help you take the next step in your career.
And now is the perfect time to focus on getting the training you need to build those skills. While many accountants and auditors use the summer and fall months to earn their Continuing Professional Education (CPE) credits, many view this training merely as a way to maintain their license and stay up-to-date with respect to the technical aspect of the field. This is a mistake! Instead, accountants and auditors should view training as an opportunity to build important soft skills that will help them advance their careers.
Depending on where you are in your career — and where you want to go — here are some soft skills you should develop to the next level.
If you want to become an in-charge auditor: Get training in critical thinking.
Most organizations view critical thinking as a necessary skill for auditors. Think of it this way: When you see a spreadsheet, does your brain automatically begin calculating the numbers on it, or do you spot a deeper story? When it comes to audit planning, the ability to think critically can help you determine the most important areas for audit capability to focus on given limited time and resources. And when it comes to reporting, those same critical thinking skills can help you determine which issues should be included in the report and which can be safely excluded. Simply put, critical thinking can help auditors provide actionable insights on how their clients can mitigate risks and reach their objectives.
If you’re thought of as a critical thinker on the team, your value increases exponentially. To build your critical-thinking skills, invest some time taking in person or e-learning. Also, consider working with a mentor or coach, who can provide exercises for you to learn how to think “outside of the box.”
If you want to rise to the level of manager: Hone in on your public speaking and persuasive skills.
Great auditors need to be great communicators. Indeed, a recent study by PwC revealed that good communication is one of the keys of successful leaders in the profession. The report concluded that communication is crucial because auditors must relay key messages to both internal and external stakeholders who may have different expectations.
At the same time, it’s been shown that auditors with strong persuasive skills are able to reduce push-back during the auditing process, promote a greater understanding of the audit’s important role in the business, and increase the speed at which information is shared in response to audit requests.
Also, strong managers need persuasive skills to get team members to work together and achieve a goal. The upshot: Invest some time in public speaking courses, focusing in particular on the art of persuasion.
If you want to become an audit partner: Build your business acumen and executive presence.
It’s a fact: Audit professionals with the strongest career paths do not just do their jobs with excellence, but they’re able to connect the dots and understand the business impact — and convey that information to the other stakeholders. In a survey conducted by the Institute of Internal Auditors, “business acumen” was ranked as one of the most desirable skills by chief audit executives.
As an audit partner, in addition to overseeing all financial audits of the firm, you’ll need to develop additional skills, such as business development and negotiation and have executive presence. An understanding of business ledgers and tax procedures is also an important part of your job.
The bottom line:
Invest in yourself! Spend the next few months working on some of these skills via in-person or e-learning courses, or contact Collemi Consulting at (732) 792.6101 so we can develop a training program suited to your individual needs. By strengthening your soft skills, you’ll put your accounting career on a faster trajectory to the top!
Collemi Consulting provides customized, one-on-one and group training to help members of the public accounting profession build their skills and stay up to date on the newest accounting and auditing standards. We regularly develop courses and training materials customized to each client and can help spot and correct training deficits. Contact us so that we can survey your firm’s training needs and offer a customized solution.
