The Art of Effective Supervision

As early as one year into a career in public accounting, you will likely be expected to train and supervise the newest class of staff. Whether it be interns or recent graduates, the on-the-job guidance you will be expected to provide should not be given without occasional direct performance assessments. I say this because many professionals who are new to oversight responsibilities do not realize the need to directly communicate their expectations and approval (or critique) of the supervisee's performance. I have seen countless examples of audit seniors and staff who provide the same instructions to their interns or staff repeatedly. The staff continue to make mistakes, but because they are never directly corrected or further advised, they have no idea they are making mistakes. The senior is often frustrated because they falsely believe their instructions are intentionally ignored by the staff (who is understandably unaware of their missteps). Unfortunately, many seniors often vent such frustrations to other coworkers, when all along, the supervisee has no idea their professional performance is being trashed. This makes them powerless to improve themselves. You can see the downward spiral in professional development from which many new staff suffer, merely because their seniors do not know how to appropriately manage supervisees.

Even if you are informally asked to "show someone the ropes" on the job, the responsibility of teaching them and helping them to improve their job performance falls upon you. Therefore, that new person is the first person you should talk to if you have a concern about their performance. Complaining to your coworkers does nothing to help your supervisee improve. Even if your charges do not solicit feedback from you, you should sit down with them and directly discuss their performance on a regular basis. Do not be afraid to tell them how they can improve their work, but also encourage them to continue doing those things at which they excel.

Some staff will take longer than others to catch onto the way an audit is executed, requiring a significant investment of your time as a coach. I once had a staff working under me who was highly intelligent but struggled socially. Every day he asked me how he could have done something differently to be more effective. He regularly asked me to walk him through his workpapers and crique them. It was a large investment of my time to keep him on my team because he required so much direct supervision in order to adequately fulfill his responsibilities, but in the end I was satisfied to see him overcome his professional hurdles and become a better auditor. Other seniors had given up on him out of frustration. While trashing his job performance to my coworkers may have helped alleviate my personal frustration, it would have not only discouraged him, but would have been unfair.

Regardless of your formal level of supervision, you need to be willing to invest the time needed to develop your charges and give them an opportunity to learn from their mistakes and improve their professional performance. After all, you would not be the accountant you are today were it not for the patience and instruction of more experienced professionals.

New Management Accounting Designation

The American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) and the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA) based in London, vote next month to create a joint venture that would issue a new global management accounting certification. According to both organizations, the new designation is designed to promote the CPA designation as a high standard of accounting excellence internationally, as well as highlight the global importance of management accounting. While requirements for obtaining the new designation vary, AICPA members with at least three years of managerial and financial accounting experience would be eligible to complete an accelerated track to certification.

It is important to be aware of the various designations required for positions or industries included in your future career plans. If a career in financial, managerial, or global accounting is on your radar, you may want to further investigate the new AICPA/CIMA designation and align your experience and education with those required to earn the designation.

Developing Your Communication Skills as a CPA

When jump starting your career as a staff member in a CPA firm, it's easy to feel that you have light years ahead of you before you need to worry about things that partners do, such as providing consistent client service, bringing in new business, and building up the firm's network. While you focus on your daily responsibilities as a staff, senior associate, and eventually manager, it's easy to get lost in the details and forget that your upward mobility in the firm hinges on your ability to communicate.

While working in the Big Four, I felt that the firm was often negligent in developing the communication skills of their less experienced staff, forcing them to focus their attention on the details of workpapers and audit execution. These skills are no doubt important, but an unintended consequence of this focus was that many new staff committed major gaffes when interacting with clients. There were several instances of staff on my audit teams who didn't realize that it was inappropriate for them to march into a senior VP's office and demand they provide information that someone else on the audit team had already collected, or staff who paid no attention to the client's repeated requests for updates and time lines as to the progress and completion of the audit, resulting in a shock when unexpected audit work was subsequently billed.

In the aggregate, such experiences erode your firm's relationship with their clients, and over time result in a loss of business and reputation. That is why the AICPA posted a poignant video in the Journal of Accountancy, discussing the importance of developing the communication skills of CPA staff at the earliest stages of their careers. Even if your firm does not set such standard for you as a staff person, you should hold yourself accountable to them, as a means of measuring your progress in developing your communication skills and nurturing your potential to be a leader in your firm. In the video, Troy Waugh, CPA, provides three great suggestions for developing such potential in CPA staff:

1. Assign every staff member a certain number of hours in their first year to provide great client service. Make them accountable for those 100 hours, or whatever the number may be. Ask them to document what that time entailed and how they feel they best served the client's needs. Make this measurement a part of their annual performance evaluation. By holding them accountable for client service, it reminds them of the important role they play in developing the firm's relationships, since they are on the front lines regularly interacting with the client.

2. Require every staff person to join a Toastmasters club for the duration of their first year with the firm. These weekly clubs provide an encouraging environment for professionals to develop their public speaking skills. From prepared speeches, to class room facilitation, to impromptu discussions, Toastmasters will make you a better communicator in every professional situation.
3. Staff should understand their clients' hierarchy. They should be familiar with the people in the C-suite, the accounting managers, controllers, treasurers. By making these points of contacts and knowing how to navigate the organization for information as you conduct your audits, you will be building a strong network that will serve you well when those people move to other companies. This will enable you to bring in new business to your firm in the future. Having a pipeline of contacts will be a boost to your professional potential as you are eventually considered for promotions.

It's never too late to think about the next few steps in your career. If your ambitions include advancing within your firm, you cannot neglect the importance of being a good communicator. Following these suggestions will help you stay on track in your personal development, and will undoubtedly set you apart from your peers.

Selling a Nontraditional Background to Accounting Employers

I recently received an interesting inquiry from a student who is pursuing her master's degree in accounting. She found her way to the field after spending more than a decade in the seemingly unrelated field of theater design and production. She wondered if she should even divulge her "creative" background on resumes when applying for accounting positions. Would employers be able to see past her unique experience and recognize her potential to be a successful accountant? Given the dynamic and copious opportunities available to accountants, it is not uncommon for people from many different professions to find a second or even third career in accountancy. The key to selling your potential to employers is all in the presentation. No matter what your experience, frame it in a way that emphasizes the skills needed in the accounting profession, specifically for the job to which you are applying. If you too had been a theatrical production designer, you likely had to work with teams, supervise team members, manage your time appropriately to meet production deadlines, and even manage budgets for productions. These are all experiences that can be framed to highlight your skills relevant to the business environment. You may not realize it, but your seemingly obscure experience may have given you a lot of client-service skills. Even as a theatrical production designer, one would have to consider the demands of differing production companies. On a job application or resume, present such experience in a way that illustrates your understanding of the needs of a client-service professional.

If you are currently pursuing an accounting degree before kicking off your second or third career in the field, don't wait until you are finished with your degree to apply for your first accounting position. I suggest considering an internship or volunteer accounting work first because often professionals try to make a major transition from a completely different field into accounting. They present their many years of experience in their previous fields, evidently having been successful. However accounting employers sometimes question if the person would be a good fit in their profession since they have no related accounting experience. They may think that perhaps such candidates might not find accounting as interesting as they had thought, and might quickly get bored or switch to yet another field. If you can demonstrate that you've already gotten your feet wet with some real accounting work, it will show them that you understand what it takes and are committed to succeeding in accounting.

For more ideas on how to gain internship experience, see my blog post dated April 8, 2010. Even if companies aren't hiring interns, you can still create your own internship experience and impress employers with your dedication to joining the profession.

Don't be afraid to present your background and experience to employers, no matter how much it may seem to diverge from accounting. Just be sure to frame it in a manner that will make them appreciate all you have to offer the profession as a great accountant.