Effective Communication for Management Accountant - Essay Example

Effective Communication for Management Accountant/ Financial Analyst at the Workplace Accountants are stereotyped as bean counters1 or number crunchers. After recording all of the company's transactions and completing the financial report, the accountant prepares the financial analysis and presents his report to management, stockholders and other interested parties. This means that the accountant must develop both his writing and oral communication skills for management and clients to understand his report. Many accounting schools failed to give emphasis on the importance of effective communication in the accounting profession. The communication skills of an accountant, therefore, have to be developed in the working place. Not only should an accountant be technically proficient, he must learn to effectively explain to his co-workers, clients, and superiors his financial reports. Being a master of accounting principles and acquiring strong communication skills through the years of practice of his profession and enriching himself with the knowledge of effective communication are key ingredients for the success of his profession. Writing has become a daily routine for accountants as he drafts letters and reports to clients and writes memos to his co-workers and superiors (Kenneth, 1998). He prepares a variety of correspondences. His report must be accurate, clear and concise to reduce misunderstanding. The accountant must refrain from the use of financial jargon if he is dealing with someone that does not understand accounting terms. An effective communication skill will instill confidence in the accountant. He must be able to write and speak clearly. The accountant prepares a variety of reports. In an accounting department of large offices, an accountant is assigned to handle any of the following accounts: cash transactions, cash balances, bank transactions, revenue, sales, payment of taxes, purchases, inventory etc. produces regular report either on a monthly, quarterly or annual. He must get the needed information from the Treasury Department, Purchasing Department, Collection Department, the bank etc. He communicates either through the use of the telephone, e-mail, internet protocol (IP) or issue a memorandum of request for a particular data. By yearend, a financial report with analysis of the company's performance is prepared. This will be presented to top management and to the stockholders. In a small organization, the accountant may handle different accounts and deals with a few persons. Communication may be organization-wide, departmental, team, and individual communication. In a purely accounting business, the accountant should be able to maintain long-term relationship with his clients. He must be able to understand his client's views, concerns and expectations. The accountant provide a verbal recap of the clients needs, highlight key points of the conversation, identify the required documents from the client provide a brief conference report, complete the financial analysis and let the client review the report. An accountant can learn effective communication skills by attending courses, seminars or reading through self-help books. Basic communication skills are the same for all professions. To improve verbal communication skills, the accountant must a)learn to speak clearly and at a reasonable phase; b) make eye-contact to connect to the person he is speaking to; c) speak at the right volume; d) pronounce the words correctly so that you will not be misunderstood or judged to be less competent; and e) use the right words to gain respect and effectively communicate the idea by improving vocabulary. In a paper on "Effective Workplace Communication Skills", one of the Articles for Accountants and Bookkeepers published by Universal Accounting, the following eight tips are given to accountants to develop effective workplace communication: 1) In delivering the message, determine the exact message to the intended audience and the approach to present the message as this will determine the success of making the audience understand the message; 2) Select from a number of communication methods such as written correspondences, i.e email and business letters, and verbal correspondence through face-to-face meetings and group presentations. The choice will depend on the appropriateness of the communication method to the situation. 3) Ask for a feedback to know if your message was received and understood; 4) Listen with intent on the feedbacks and other comments of your message 5) Speak with confidence by delivering your message clearly. Practice on how you can project a more confident image. 6) Tackle the difficult topics that will require attention from the audience 7) Practice presentation skills of delivering proposals, reports, and announcements in staff meeting. You can practice in front of the mirror. 8) Allow the audience, co-workers and superiors to voice their opinions Furthermore, the same organization listed eight principles that an accounting manager must have to be an effective communicator: 1. Permit others to do their jobs the best way they can rather than telling your accounting staff how to do their jobs. As the manager, provide the necessary resources that your staff will need, eliminate unrealistic deadlines, and find ways to provide them with proper training. 2. Provide long-range vision and the necessary support to accomplish the vision 3. Practice good communication to lead your team through clear directions. Communicate your vision, your objectives, and your expectations with clarity and facilitate communication with your team. Remember to listen well and engage in productive discussions. 4. Pilot your team, take charge, and steer the team toward the goals of the department 5. Plan for success by looking ahead, seeing opportunities and anticipating possible difficulties and make plans for improvement. 6. Pose questions such as "How could we change this procedure to save time What about the current system is/isn't working What can we do this year to increase the company's tax deductions" 7. Learn to solve problems and resolve conflicts through use of good communication skills in mediation 8. Protect your employees by defending him to your superiors. Again, good communication is needed here to be able to explain to your superiors Based on the foregoing, a successful accounting manager needs effective communication skills. Effective communication will increase efficiency of operation. He must formulate strategies to encourage his accounting personnel to communicate effectively. Effective communication is very essential not only managers but also for the accounting staff to be effective communicators to perform well. To be able to communicate effectively, accounting managers and supervisors have to understand their staff. An effective accounting manager should be able to eliminate tension, friction and misunderstanding with effective communication across different levels of his department. 1) Know your workplace negativity due to loss of confidence, control, or community and talk to your staff and ask for feedbacks on your management style and workload. 2) Give your workers control over their job and give them security to prevent resentment. Always include them in the decision-making process. 3) Establish venues for opinions so that the workers can air their opinions about the company guidelines and policies, and make them feel important and significant to the company. 4) Recognize the effect of changes such as benefits, salaries and work hours and discuss directly with the workers. 5) Ensure fairness and consistency in applying rules and guidelines. Have reasonable expectations of your workers and make this known to them. 6) Make information known to the workers to make them feel important in the workplace. 7) Create trainings, team-building seminars and workshops to give the workers opportunity to grow and have career advancement opportunities. 8) Give rewards and recognition to hardworking and performing individuals. 9) Make mission, vision and goals known to the workers so that they will learn to incorporate this to their attitude towards work and their colleagues. 10) Give break times and avoiding overtimes to prevent fatigue from work. 11) Treat the workers as adults and communicate with them with respect. Common barriers to effective communication are: a) making too many assumptions and making this the basis of your action; b) getting used to behaving and responding in the usual way and forgetting to think of other ways; and c) the need to be right and for other persons to be wrong. Learn to present information or point of view and not as basis for arguments. To resolve conflict, find something in the other person's argument that you can agree with and listen to what the other person is saying. There are also four basic elements in communication that accountants must remember: 1) Win the attention of the person with whom we wish to communicate by eliminating distractions such as noise, physical or emotional discomfort, personal problems, negative attitudes, or distracting mannerisms or dress. Express respect for others. 2) The communicator must be able to change the aspect of "fear" into that of "understanding". 3) Make sure that your audience has assimilated the message 4) The originator of the message must act play his part with abundant support and encouragement. The accountant must remember that in a working place, everyone communicates differently and has different perceptions. There is no right way to communicate. To be able to communicate with your fellow workers, you must understand the other person's point of view and perceptions and adjust. Bear in mind that the easiest way to improve the communication with others is to change your own style to suit to the situation. The accountant can make a big impact by changing his language and developing verbal skills. Use affirmation and affirmation to get the best from other people. References BOMI International, Effective Communication in the Workplace, October 2006 Johanssen, Rob, Tips for Effective Workplace Communication, September 05, 2006. Whitehead, Bob, Effective communication skills are critical to improving your work environment, October 15, 2005 Winnett, Azriel, "Communicating Effectively in the Workplace: Four Essential Steps" Universal Accounting, Effective Workplace Communication Skills Read More