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‘I can shake a tree and I’ll find

good debit and credit people,

but the successful ones

have also developed those

softer skills.’

Jim Martin, CPA, professor at Washburn University School of Business

TAKE A BASIC INVENTORY OF YOUR EXISTING
SKILLS
Avoid overthinking and start by simply listing
the skills you have accumulated over your life and
career.
“It’s a simpler process than you think, and you
need to avoid overcomplicating it,” said Gary
Cox, ACMA, CGMA, a business and individual
performance coach based in Leeds in the UK. “The
big danger is people look at roles instead of skills
and experiences, and I think you have to reverse
engineer that. Before I even think about what I
want to do going forward, let’s have a look at the
skills I’ve got.”
Cox recommended listing technical skills,
business skills, and soft skills, which he said are all About the
necessary for finance professionals. For example, author
technical skills might include data analysis and
Hannah Pitstick
software proficiency; business skills could include
is a freelance
collaborating on sales and marketing projects;
writer based in
onducting a personal skills “audit” can and soft skills could include communication and
Pennsylvania.
be useful at any point in a career, but it’s emotional intelligence.
Cespecially useful for finance and accounting If you’re struggling to compile all your current
professionals who want to move ahead, make a skills, you could revisit the job requirements for
pivot, or transition into a different industry or role. your current and previous positions to jog your
“We want to grow, develop, and become more memory about which skills were vital for those
than we are,” said Douglas Slaybaugh, CPA, roles.
performance and career coach for accountants
and founder of The CPA Coach, based in Denver. HONESTLY ASSESS STRENGTHS AND
“With better skill development we can have a WEAKNESSES
bigger impact, not just for ourselves, but on our Once you have listed your current skills, go through
organizations and culture.” them and try to objectively rate yourself as low,
The first step to improving or growing your skill medium, or high proficiency.
set is to take stock of your current strengths and It will likely be easier to measure your techni-
weaknesses and identify which gaps you need to fill cal and business skills than your soft skills, but it
to accomplish your career goals. A personal skills might help to reflect on your situational behavior
audit is one way to start. over the past year to evaluate skills such as

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