Angus Farr details the 7½ soft skills all accountants need in order to succeed and practical examples to follow.
For accountants, like many professionals, our technical prowess will only take us so far in our careers and in business. What really counts are our non-technical skills – our ability to manage ourselves, our teams, our clients and stakeholders. If we’re deficient in these, we’ll struggle and it’s unlikely we’ll progress any further.
In my work I see this from both sides – the prevention and the cure. Most of the time I’m training supervisors or new line managers precisely to develop these all-important skills just as they’re beginning to need them. Occasionally I coach individuals who have effectively hit their level of incompetence, so the focus here is retro-fitting some of these same skills – better late than never.
So if you’re looking to avoid, or at least defer, being tripped up by the Peter principle, you’re in the right place. Set out here are the 7½ soft skills I think all accountants need and also a suggestion of something to do or think about for each one.
1. Networking
Develop a solid introduction. We usually default to our job title – “Hello, I’m Angus, I’m a financial controller”, but if you want to stand out, try saying what you do, rather than just your title, for example, “Hello, I’m Angus,I give the directors the financial information they need to run the business”, or “Hello, I’m Angus, I help our shareholders sleep soundly!”
2. Presenting
This is to present your ideas, research or recommendations to a group of people. Together with networking, this can fill people with utter dread. The main concern is how to deal with nerves. It’s fine to be nervous – it’s acting as if you’re not that’s the trick. The biggest help is simply to know your stuff and realise that your audience is there to listen and learn, not to will you to fail!
To prepare, use the acronym INTRO:
- Introduce yourself: who are you? What is it about you that will build your credibility the most?
- Need: Why do they need to listen to you? What are they going to find out or be able to do as a result?
- Timing: How long will you take? Will there be a break? Are people welcome to ask questions as you go or would you prefer them at the end?
- Range: What media will your presentation range across?
- Objective: What is the main purpose of your presentation? If you cover these elements in your first few minutes, you’ll not only give your audience everything they want to know at the beginning, but by rehearsing it you’ll also give yourself a flying start.
If you cover these elements in your first few minutes, you’ll not only give your audience everything they want to know at the beginning, but by rehearsing it you’ll also give yourself a flying start.
3. Negotiating
Avoid spending too much time mapping out your ideal and realistic bargaining positions, however tempting. You’re unlikely to get your ideal, and you shouldn’t be too strict on what you feel is realistic – this will ebb and flow as the negotiation progresses. You need to be very clear about your walk away point – the worst deal you’d still be happy to strike.
4. Personal impact
If you’ve seen the much-quoted figures that words comprise 7% of impact, voice 38% and non-verbal 55%, then unsee it. It’s a misrepresentation of the original research, which was focusing on how we understand other people’s emotional states. It’s still useful to bear these three elements in mind, but assume they are about equal in importance.
In terms of voice, if you spend quite a bit of time on the phone, then be aware of how you actually sound. Leave yourself a one-minute message on your own voicemail; talk about anything you want – those last quarter’s income variances, your summer holiday plans, what signature dish you’d prepare for the MasterChef final... Now listen to it. That’s what others hear.
If you are balking at the mere thought of listening to yourself for just one minute, have some sympathy for your regular phone colleagues! And if this dose of self-realisation encourages you to vary one or more elements of your voice – speed, pitch, tone, volume – when you’re next on the phone, then that’s a minute well spent.
5. Business partnering
I am a particular fan of Ansoff ’s growth matrix. It’s a simple way of helping people think about options for growing a business and can prompt good questions about how we understand markets (Geographic? Demographic? Psychographic?) and what new products or services could be developed.
6. Managing performance
Most mangers’ inability or unwillingness to have difficult conversations is the biggest skills gap in many organisations. It may be daunting to give negative feedback when we want to be liked by the people we work with, but the cost of not doing this properly and promptly can be huge.
However, it’s not just bad news we’re sometimes poor at delivering, it’s just as important to catch people doing something right. Central to giving constructive feedback, whether positive or negative, is to follow SAC:
- Situation: give them context – what was the task, project or client they faced?
- Action: what did they do or not do that you want to address?
- Consequence: what happened as a result of their (in)action? Sometimes junior staff don’t have the perspective you have and so don’t ‘see’ the knock-on effect.
7. Managing time
The key here is making better use of our diaries. Commit three of your important tasks to your calendar and stick to them. Don’t defer them more than three times when the reminders pop up.
7.5 Taking responsibility for your own skills development
If only professor Peter had known there was such an elegant solution!
Download pdf article
About the author
Angus Farr - director, Training Counts
Further reading
You are permitted to access articles subject to the terms of use set by our suppliers and any restrictions imposed by individual publishers. Please see individual supplier pages for full terms of use.
More support on human resources
Read our articles, eBooks, reports and guides on HR and employment law
Human resources hubeBooks on human resourcesCan't find what you're looking for?
The ICAEW Library can give you the right information from trustworthy, professional sources that aren't freely available online. Contact us for expert help with your enquiries and research.
-
Update History
- 16 Feb 2017 (12: 00 AM GMT)
- First published
- 19 Dec 2022 (12: 00 AM GMT)
- Page updated with Further reading section, adding further resources on enhancing your soft skills. These additional articles provide fresh insights, case studies and perspectives on this topic. Please note that the original article from 2017 has not undergone any review or updates