I work for a supermarket chain. I started at 16 as a bagger in one of our stores and looking back I’m convinced that the experience I got dealing with a broad group of people shaped my personality for the better. Let me explain.
One of the first things we’re taught is the ’10-Foot Rule’: If you’re within 10 feet of a customer, smile and say hello. It couldn’t get any simpler. So many conversations were sparked by following that rule because I didn’t confine myself to just using it while I was on the clock. Not only do you feel good about initiating an interaction, the other person feels good because they got noticed in a positive way.
Empathy is another trait we’re taught: put yourself in the other person’s shoes. How would you react to this situation if you were them? It’s easy to assume the other person is wrong and to discount what they’re saying, but as is usually the case, the easy path is not always the best path to follow. Just like yours, the other’s view of the situation is shaped by experience and what s/he needs or is trying to accomplish right now. You have to understand the differences between your two approaches in order to find common ground and come up with a mutually-agreeable solution.
Finally, I remember hearing that someone in senior management, it may have even been our CEO, say something to the effect of, “If you’re not laughing when you’re at work you’re doing something wrong.” What a great line. Now, we can certainly take this too far and spend our days cracking jokes at all the wrong times (e.g. sales came in under budget this month? guess we won’t be buying that yacht after all!), but of course that’s not the idea. The idea is to have fun at work, to create an atmosphere that people want to be a part of, and in doing so everyone will be more enthusiastic about the work they do.
Now on to accountants. If we behave like the stereotype says we do, then we’re almost perfectly the opposite of the three traits I described above: head down and keep to ourselves, employ the approach of Dragnet’s Sgt. Joe Friday and focus on the “just the facts, ma’am," because we need to be unwavering in our reporting of our company’s operating results, and stoic in the face of a joke, unable to crack a smile for fear that our objectivity may be called into question.
Of course we’re not all like that - what a terrible existence. But my aim here is to simply get the young accountants out there to realize that being able to quote the FASB codification just isn’t going to get you very far in your pursuit of the C-suite or even a manager’s role if you can’t have a reasonably comfortable interaction with people.
You need the soft skills - you need to be able to laugh with colleagues at the right times because those are the people most likely to seek you out when they need help with a problem. To help them effectively, you should be able to understand how they view the problem before you apply your own experiences to it so that you can work effectively on a solution. You can’t be afraid of an interaction with others.
How do you develop these skills? Unfortunately it’s not so quick and simple, but there are ways: find and work with a someone that possesses these traits, network with people outside of the finance and accounting community to broaden your experience and to get yourself comfortable speaking about areas in which you might not be an expert. Simply be aware of how you approach interactions with others. And push yourself to get out of your comfort zone.