Soft Skills Are Essential For Today’s Accountant
Any qualified accountant has the technical skills required to do the job. Those that rise to senior positions set themselves apart by their soft skills.
If you invest the time and effort in developing your soft skills then you will:
- Set yourself apart from the competition
- Prepare yourself for senior positions
- Be more effective at work
- Get greater recognition and appreciation
- Communicate clearly and make yourself understood
- Develop strong relationships and allies.
If you want to be promoted to run the finance team, or become more effective in your CFO role, then you’ve come to the right place.
Technical Skills
Soft Skills
We help accountants develop their soft skills so that they can make a greater contribution to their organisation, fulfil their potential and enhance their career prospects.
Good Communication skills are essential to get your message across effectively.
Learn to deal with problems that have no right answers.
Managing people in your team for improved performance.
Leading larger teams, setting the direction and inspiring others to follow.
Seeing the big picture, thinking and planning for the long term. Create an inspiring vision.
Presenting your insights effectively in a persuasive manner.
Which soft skills for accountants do you need to work on?
There are a wide range of soft skills that employers and colleagues look for in a senior finance professional.
Some you will be naturally good at and others may seem difficult to grasp and a bit fuzzy - what do people mean and what do they expect from me?
Which soft skills to prioritise
Whilst there is an endless list of soft skills that you could develop, we have identified that there are some key soft skills for accountants.
For instance, these are the ones that appear in job adverts and that employers most frequently site as important.
In addition they are highlighted by the accountancy institutes in their competency frameworks and by recruitment agencies on their websites.
Fortunately there is a broad consensus around the soft skills for accountants that are necessary today.
Therfore these are the ones that you need to focus on first.
Benefits of soft skills
The benefits of developing your soft skills fit into two basic categories – benfits for your organisation and benefits for you.
Organisations invest a lot in their accountants. However they want the benefit of that great thinking, analysis and insight. They want you to share it with the wider organisation. Soft skills enable that to happen. They have the potential to create an enormous return on investment for organisations investing in their accountant’s soft skills.
You will benefit from developing your soft skills but increased satisfaction at work. In particular, you will deliver greater value for your organisation and put yourself in a good position for promotion. If you want to move to more senior levels, investing in your soft skills is a great way to achieve it.