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.