Is communication one of your power skills?

By Peter Margaritis, CPA

I grew up in a gregarious Greek-American community where everyone communicated — maybe not consistently well, but they communicated. However, when I started at what was then a Big Six firm, I felt like someone had sucked all the air out of the room. No one communicated well. I couldn't understand why we weren't communicating better with our clients, and no one was communicating with the staff.

That poor communication with staff made me feel unwanted. It was like being given a constant cold shoulder. So, I left public accounting, and I bet I'm not the only one who left for that very reason.

What are power skills? 

As it has become especially clear in the post-COVID world, where so much of our lives have moved online, the most challenging part of being an accountant is the ability to communicate effectively within a firm and with our clients. Communication is a key power skill for success as an accountant. However, the silver lining behind the pandemic is that we were forced to learn a different mode of communication. The need for improved communication is becoming more apparent in our increasingly remote and virtual world.

Communication is much more than writing and presentation skills. Yes, we all need to write better; and to present financial information as a story. Communication skills also include understanding body language, emotional intelligence, giving and receiving the gift of feedback, and building a professional network, just to name a few.

One huge power skill is understanding your audience. Your audience is business leaders who don't have the time or mental bandwidth to decipher complex memos. And most accountants could benefit from some training in presenting financial information in ways that don't put the audience to sleep but engages the audience.

And remember—communication isn't just me explaining my points to you and you saying something back to me. Accountants are in the information-gathering business but don't always listen deeply to what their clients say. Too often, we come to conversations with our agenda firmly planted in place. But if we're not listening to the conversation, the person might say something we didn't know we needed to hear. But we didn't listen, so we might never get to the core of what's happening.

Beyond communication 

Power skills include networking, empathy, emotional intelligence, and negotiation. We also need to learn how to negotiate deals where both sides win.

Emotional intelligence is a big one. Many CPAs need to be more aware of how they come across to others. I've had several coaching clients this year who were brash. They were Sheldon Cooper on "The Big Bang Theory," squared.

Now CPAs are smart, but we need more than our IQs. We're trying to develop relationships to build our accounting businesses. We need to find ways not to be brash, sarcastic or gruff, but to come across with a service attitude of "How can I help?" We need empathy, so we take notice of the fears that keep our clients up at night and which we can help with, even if just by listening. 

Another challenge I'm hearing from employers nationwide is that new accounting graduates write like they're text messaging. I recommend that recent accounting graduates take a business writing course. Invest in yourself if your firm won't invest in you. A simple online search will turn up many choices for affordable classes in business writing if your university doesn't offer anything that works for you.

Seek out this type of training and ask your firm to bring in people who are either in the accounting profession or familiar with our world. The American Institute of CPAs has several thought leaders who can help your people become better communicators.

You might want to improve your power skills even if you're a partner. Yes, you made it to partner, but things are different today. We all need to learn to write, speak, and lead better.

If you want to become a better presenter, there's no better place to start than Toastmasters. They'll teach you how to write a speech, and they will knock the umms and ahhs right out of you by the second time you do it. Many people have difficulty with public speaking. I used to have a tough time because I was born naturally shy, and I've learned to control that shy tendency. But right now, we need it more than ever because that's how we communicate with our clients.

Just like most of us learned what accounting is when we got our first jobs as accountants, the best way to improve our power skills is to seek out opportunities to write and speak. For example, offer to write articles for your firm's newsletter. Give presentations about the latest Tax Code changes or how to read and understand financial statements to local business organizations.

Oh, and by the way, you will make mistakes when you do a presentation. Nine times out of 10, you will be the only one who knows you made a mistake, so don't focus on the mistakes. Just park them in the back of your mind, keep moving forward, and assess your presentation later. And then, the next time, you'll do a better job.

Before you send out any correspondence, take a moment and read it out loud. Make sure you're using spellcheck plus some grammar checker such as Grammarly to check your spelling, grammar, and common usage. There's nothing that will slow you down more in your career than a poor memo, a poor email, or a poor presentation that you weren't prepared for.

When you speak, say "we" or "us" instead of "I" or "me." When I hear someone repeatedly saying "I," I ask them if they have an ego problem. Most people aren't at all aware of how often they are saying "I" until they pay attention. Next time you're talking to someone, and you're about to say "I," say "we" instead, and look at the faces of those you're communicating with. If they're used to you saying "I" all the time, you'll see a change in how they look at you.

Not counting the beans but advising about them

Technology today takes care of much of the tedious work of compiling and organizing our clients' data. And recent innovations with AI like ChatGPT may become a serious threat to our businesses if we can't communicate how we provide better and deeper insights than a chatbot. Our work has rapidly transformed from simply counting the beans to advising our clients about those beans.

The new generation craves a more collaborative and communicative environment, and that goes for our clients and staff members. We have an opportunity to build a new accounting model and work environment that's more dynamic and agile, and that's a more attractive place for people to work in and for clients to work with.

But to get there, we need to elevate our power skills to become the accountants the world needs today and in the future. Now I can't predict the future, but I can guarantee that these power skills will be essential to survive and thrive wherever this journey takes us.

It's an exciting journey ahead but will require changes from all of us. Are you coming with me?

This article originally appeared on AccountingToday.com.