The trip up the corporate ladder for accounting and finance professionals has become a broader leap. It’s no longer sufficient for accounting and finance professionals to just master the latest techniques and trends in their fields, or to acquire advanced degrees, to ensure their promotion. Instead, the promotion track now necessitates that they acquire additional hard and soft training skills. The best way for accounting and finance professionals to increase their chances for being promoted is to acquire a combination of extensive information technology experience and well-developed leadership and interpersonal skills. That’s according to more than 400 companies that participated in a recent survey on accounting and finance training and development issues by Accounting Principals, a firm specializing in the recruitment and placement of accounting, finance, mortgage, and banking professionals. Information technology skills were ranked as the most important professional skills for accounting and finance professionals to develop further in order to increase their likelihood of being promoted, followed by sharpening their trend analysis and forecasting skills. Leadership and interpersonal skills tied as the most important personal skills accounting and finance professionals should sharpen to enhance their career advancement, followed by honing their management /supervisory skills and communication skills. Adeptness in “high touch” has become as important as proficiency in high-tech for accounting and finance professionals. Companies today are placing a higher priority on how accounting and finance managers and executives manage and relate to all levels of employees , colleagues, subordinates, and superiors , especially in the critical areas of interpersonal relations and communication. In addition, a greater proficiency in non-accounting and finance skills, such as information technology, is required for accounting and finance managers and executives who consult with other departments, are members of cross-functional teams, and supervise outside vendors and contractors. According to research by Manchester Inc., a career management consulting firm with which Accounting Principals is affiliated, 40 percent of newly promoted managers and executives fail within the first 18 months of being promoted to higher-level positions. “Failing” includes being terminated for poor performance, performing significantly below expectations, or voluntarily resigning from the new position. The top reason why so many newly promoted managers and executives are failing is because they have not built partnership and teamwork with their subordinates and peers. Soft training skills such as leadership development, interpersonal skills, and communication skills are vital in building this collaboration. In addition, leadership development has become a critical training need of accounting and finance managers and executives because of the increasingly difficult time companies are having recruiting talent in this tight labor market. Companies have become more interested in developing employees they already have on board and providing them with the training required to take on additional responsibility. When companies provide training in new technology and software to accounting and finance professionals, this is most often delivered by current staff members, or through on the job training, according to the Accounting Principals survey. In addition to training in new technology and software, accounting and finance professionals most often receive other career development opportunities through attending in-house courses and being reimbursed for taking outside courses. Approximately one out of four companies have established mentoring programs for accounting and finance managers and executives, and roughly one in 10 companies offers them executive coaching, either through internal or external coaches. Among the reasons that companies set up mentoring programs are to promote the retention of valued employees, to improve employees’ leadership and managerial skills, to develop new leaders, to enhance employees’ career development, and to put high-potential employees on the fast career track, according to Manchester’s research. Executive coaching is offered to sharpen the leadership skills of high-potential individuals, to correct management behavior problems such as poor communication, failure to develop subordinates, or indecisiveness; and to ensure the success of newly promoted managers. Today’s accounting and finance professionals must be at the top of their game within their own functional areas, and must develop the personal and professional skills that enable them to better relate to other departments, colleagues, superiors, and subordinates. Susan Woods is the Area Managing Director of Accounting Principals Ltd., a national leader in the recruitment and placement of accounting, finance, mortgage and banking professionals. Accounting Principals is a subsidiary of Prolianz, the professional business and human capital management solutions division of Modis Porfessional Services, Inc. (NYSE:MPS) of Jacksonville, Florida. Visit our website at www.accountingprinciples.com.
