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Soft skills, sometimes referred to as interpersonal communications skills, relate to how well a person interacts with others. Up to now, the majority of your professional educational efforts have probably been razor-focused on hard skill, fact-based learning.
For certain, crafting the perfect pivot table and mad-fast analytical skills are awesome technical feats. However, employers want more than someone who has memorized the entirety of FASB and reads IRS updates for pleasure (BTW: Who ARE you?).
According to Jessica Donahue, PHR on Medium.com, being easy to work with is the single most underrated career skill. Employers want a human. More specifically, they want a pleasant human who is both informed and works well with others. CPA firms need team players who can solve problems, resolve conflicts and be adaptable to changes.
In this article, we outline some of the top interpersonal skills needed today in public accounting to support team management and strong client relationships for your career advancement and satisfaction. These include active listening, collaboration, adaptability, dependability, conflict resolution and the ability to use all of these skills together to serve clients.
Even though soft skills are different for everyone based on our individual personalities, they can still be learned and improved. To advance your career as a supervisor, a manager and someday a partner, these skills are essential building blocks of leadership.
Active Listening
Listening is hard. Especially when a problem or conflict is being discussed, it is our nature to be smart and fast. However, short circuiting the listening process can be problematic and lead to misunderstanding…and may even alienate those we want to help. Do you start the wheels turning when people start talking to you? Or, do you look them in the eye and focus your entire attention on the words of the person who is speaking? That is active listening.
Collaboration
Collaboration, also known as team work, requires helping everyone do their best work. Often, it means sharing the spotlight, helping without thanks and not criticizing others for their missteps. A great way to work on a team is to use your strengths and align them with the strengths of others. As a team leader, make team projects all about success of the team. Do some research on team skills or ask your HR professional, mentor or a partner for suggestions.
Adaptability
Sometimes the project calls for a shift in timelines or reprioritization of goals and tactics. Being adaptable on the job means helping out when someone goes on leave, being flexible in your thinking or timing and being able to put yourself in someone else’s perspective for a better solution.
Dependability
Being dependable means that people can rely on you, they can trust you and you’re consistent. When you say that you are going to do something, follow through on that promise. If you have a conflict, communicate it.
Conflict Resolution
Every day, real-time problems surface at work. Clients can be demanding. Technology breaks. The web goes down. Government agencies put you on hold for days and provide bad information. Co-workers could be having an off day. Your manager or partner might need something at an inopportune moment. As you might have guessed, it is not the problem, but how you react and handle problems that matters.
It would be easy to suggest that conflict resolution is a matter of holding your breath, but it is far more than that. Controlling anger is very important in a professional environment, but as an adult and a professional we need to do more. A true professional develops patience around conflict situations and is able to diffuse conflict and suggest a solution without drama.
Conflicts can often be diffused with a combination of active listening, remaining calm and having compassion for others. In addition, refined communications skills—never complaining or accusing as an answer—and the ability to see the bright side and work together with a sense of humor works like a charm.
Remember that under-promise/over-deliver idea? It also works brilliantly for diffusing conflict and collaborating!
Translation of Complex Projects into Action Steps
Work gets busy. Many of us simply talk too fast. We send cryptic or poorly crafted messages without meaning to, especially via message or email. Particularly in a remote environment, your communications skills serve as your calling card. If you are not a good wordsmith, have dismal spelling habits (this includes the tendency to “fat finger” responses on those tiny phone keyboards), these poor communication skills will be harmful to your advancement.
When you put all of these skills together, you’re not only leading by example and setting a precedent for peers and mentees, you’re also showing up for yourself and your team! Example: Let’s say an engagement doesn’t go the way you planned and the client is struggling to understand a particular project or paperwork. You can change tact and give them scenario where you share a possible result or tell them what it looks like if they don’t submit their forms on time. Then pivot and make sure you compliment them on everything that is going well in their business. Make sure you’re using your active listening skills to pick up on any underlying issues and if there are dependencies, you should be able to plan which step comes first for them. You can also set a reminder or deadline for yourself ahead of time to make sure you’re collaborating on gathering the appropriate information so their business continues to run smoothly!
Get Started!
Soft skills are truly a life-long process. If you have a mentor, talk about soft skills and how you can incorporate milestones in your annual review. Ask which soft skills factor into the next step in your career advancement.
Look at your skills development as building blocks that lead to expertise in tiny steps. Put a plan together with weekly/monthly/annual goals or milestones. Above all, congratulations. By reading this article, you have already demonstrated your professionalism with natural curiosity for learning and self-improvement!
Interested in joining the LvHJ team? We offer accounting career development in the San Francisco Bay Area and potentially remote, but so much more as we serve affordable housing entities and nonprofits. Learn more about life at LvHJ on our careers pages.
Related: If you’re struggling with time management, read this article for tips!
