It's Good to be Nervous

As I sent my son to preschool for the first time this week, I had a momentary pang of regret that he should feel so apprehensive about being away from me in a new environment with a bunch of strangers. I wished I could spare him from the feelings of anxiety and uncertainty that we all have when leaving a comfortable and familiar environment. Then I realized that if I did take those feelings away for him, I would be doing him a great disservice.

It is said that nothing worthwhile is easy, and it is absolutely true. If I sheltered my child from every challenging social situation or academic gauntlet, he would never know the thrill of rising to the occasion to conquer his fear and succeed in making new friends or learning new things.

We need to approach our careers with the same eagerness for a challenge if we are to experience professional growth. I've never met anyone who does not experience that momentary panic right before a job interview or public speaking engagement. But it is feelings such as these that help us perform our best. Beyond such short term challenges that end relatively quickly, it's also good for our professional health to experience regular rushes of adrenaline when asked by our boss to perform a task we've never done, or to give a presentation in a meeting through which we would normally sit silently. If you don't have the type of job where you regularly feel a mix of excitement and nervousness when faced with a new challenge, perhaps you should consider moving out of your comfort zone and looking for something new.

Even though I am currently taking a break from my full-time accounting career to raise a family, I still challenge myself in order to avoid losing my professional edge. I work part-time as an online tutor for several accounting courses, and I find my heart races with a mix of eagerness and nervousness every time a student asks me for assistance with a technical accounting topic. I meticulously research their question and review my solution over and over again before submitting it, for fear that I guide a student in the wrong direction. I constantly check my classroom to ensure I address any new questions in a timely manner, and I schedule out the due dates of items on the syllabus so I am aware of when questions might arise on particular subjects or assignments. Managing my tutoring obligations and course deadlines while trying to raise a toddler and infant who make a regular schedule impossible to keep provides just the challenge I need right now to keep me on my professional toes. As the semesters go by, if I find myself losing that bit of nervousness and getting comfortable, perhaps I will need to tutor a new course or play a different role in the classroom.

If you are completely comfortable with each and every professional responsibility you have right now, it may be time to rekindle your adrenaline and take on a new challenge. After all, nothing worthwhile is easy.

Are you biased toward your clients?

In a recent speech by the PCAOB, the organization noted that they are willing to consider auditor term limits to overcome the inherent bias in auditing. James R. Doty, Chairman of the PCAOB asked questions that all audit firms need to consider: "Do auditors read the literature? Do young auditors learn to hold onto skepticism and look for fraud regardless of long association with management?" If the answer is more frequently "no," then perhaps there is a loss of professional skepticism in the culture of the audit profession.

When I started as an auditor with one of the Big Four, some of my first clients were among the largest financial institutions in the country. This was in the early 2000's, before our current financial crisis. Many of my audit team members considered the length of our firm's association with certain members of management to be adequate audit evidence that the accounting decisions they made were valid. New audit team members were often intimidated by the confidence management exuded about their areas of accounting expertise, backed by decades of experience in the industry. However, as we now know what these financial institutions were hiding, we can appreciate the importance of pushing back when sufficient audit evidence is not provided, or if management's explanations to your inquiries as an auditor raise concerns.

Does anyone have an experience in which they or a colleague allowed their professional skepticism to wane in the face of a long-standing relationship with client management?