Career Action Plan for an Accountant - Essay Example

CAREER ACTION PLAN Student’s Name: Course Code: Tutor’s Name: Date of Submission: CAREER ACTION PLAN Section 1: Individual Accountability Accounting profession is one of the critical departments in any organisation. Accountancy is a tool that is significant in ‘sense making’, decision making process and corporate governance for added organisational competitiveness. As a young accountant, I am a firm believer in authentic in authentic leadership at whatever level of responsibility I am mandated to undertake. In this regard, I believe that the buck stops with me irrespective of good or bad/ success or failures result within my jurisdiction. Equally I do not shift goal post or blame game by making flimsy excuse. Instead every challenge experience whether negative or positive acts as a learning lesson for me for the betterment of the future. As such I strive to churn out strategies that enhance the quality of my work since it is these simple actions, but bold ones that contribute to organisational success. Indeed this enhances control mechanism since I am accountable of my actions; it gives me moral authority to demand accountability from colleagues. For instance, I am that individual who will go out of her way especially in looking at root cause of a problem or a probable problem in the organisation even without being prompted by my seniors. Through a collaborative effort with my colleagues, I am able to design solutions, advice colleagues and seniors about the best way possible. In undertaking my duties, I adopt hands on approach coupled with of and technical skills instead of a laid back approach of wait and see. Thus, I am a proactive individual instead of a reactive one who owns every decision made within my capacity. Additionally, I take feedbacks and criticism from co-workers and immediate head as quality improvement process that leads to creation of value to customers and thus market leadership of the organisation. To be accountable to immediate seniors and the organisation at large, I hold certain tenets that I believe are critical in ensuring individual accountability. This includes management by objective & performance management. This two allows for goal setting in a collaborative manner. As such to be accountable I am able to establish expectation and gain commitment so that in any circumstances I am accountable. Additionally, I believe in inspecting what you expect as that would guarantee accountability. The third is on provision of feedback so as to enhance individual’s capacity and overall organisational accountability. These three tenets are anchored on my communication skills as I am able to influence other individuals and reduce resistance to what might hinder my performance and subsequently accountability. In this regard, ensure both vertical and horizontal communication. The accountability pledge that I bring to the organisation include being available at my work station as per the employment terms unless something urgent emerges such as disease that calls for sick leave. In the organisation, I intend to complete the tasks assigned to me on daily, weekly or monthly basis. In line of my duties I ensure and will ensure that I go extra mile to be responsible for duties that go along with my duties that are not necessarily paid for such as team work, interpersonal skills and motivation. Fourth, I strive to be consistent in undertaking the right things in all engagements. Lastly, since the output of an organisation is as result of collaborative work and convergence of mind, I ensure and will ensure that I dedicate a good chunk of my energy to team work and diversity awareness for enhanced synergy so that no performance gap emerges. This is anchored on the systems approach where my input alone is enough since the overall input is what matters. For instance, to attest my belief in accountability, while pursuing my degree at Higher Colleges of Technology, in hands on approach as group leader, I constantly offered feed back to my group members so as to enhance our academic output without thinking of any reward. Additionally, while working in school library in 2010, I ensured consultation so as to clarify the problem and create sustainable solution. For instance, I managed to detect the complexity of layout facility, which was representing one of the major issues that impact on the ease of accessing books on shelves and thus reducing the required standards of academic library. Section 2: Personal Weaknesses Personal development matrix Before I outline my personal weaknesses, it is integral to outline my skills and competencies since it is in these that the weaknesses emerge. Knowledge based skills Transferable skills Personal traits Bachelor’s degree in Accounting Computer skills: proficient in Microsoft Office and Internet. ICDL qualification on computerized accounting such as Microsoft Excel. Proficient in Arabic (first language) and English (excellent written and spoken). Self management style/ learning style Pragmatist/ Solution oriented individual Critical/ reflector Theorist self development competency Receiver of feedback Personal leadership competency Motivational Team builder/ player Influential Trust builder Engaging with others competencies Ethical Non discriminatory / appreciates diversity Confident Positive arousal Aggressive/ go getter Outspoken and abrasive mindfulness Empathetic Strict time manager Trustworthy Full of pride Personal weaknesses One personal trait that is equally the source of my weakness is being aggressive. I naturally find myself a go getter who will go to any extent to achieve whatever I desire. This is a positive trait for an organisation since I am self motivated individual who can attain whatever the organisation desires, evoke critical debates that would spur action and positive deviance. Nevertheless, this is equally a minus in my professional relationship since I can go overboard and overstep my mandate and responsibility to others in order to attain the desired ambitions or be a lone ranger in attempt of attaining my ambitions. This at a time cannot fit well within the team as may cause mistrust, discontent and division. Along with my aggressive nature, I am outspoken and abrasive and I never shy away from expressing my opinion. This is equally a good trait. However, at times it is a great disservice especially in scenarios where sober mind or retreat approach is required. it has been found out that those who are aggressive and abrasive at time might be full of pride. This at a time might not augur well with especially in areas where meekness as means of understanding other individuals is required. Moreover, being joyful at time might make me overlook certain facts that require keen observation. To overcome the negative side effect associated with aggressiveness, I prefer to work as team, this tone down my ambitions which I can then relegate to group ambitions. Equally, I prefer working with a critical team that injects rational thinking so as to churn out well informed positions. Section 3: Continual Improvement Strategy Accounting a profession that is integral in ‘sense making’ is a dynamic profession with emerging knowledge and best practices that calls for constant upgrade. To be useful to UAE workforce, the guiding framework for continual improvement would be individual capacity development under knowledge acquisition model. Three stages exist in the Anderson (1982 & 1983) knowledge acquisition model. These include the declarative stage, knowledge compilation phase and lastly, the procedural phase (Dillard-Eggers & Roberts, 2010, p.92). According to Matsuo & Kusumi (2002, p.842), “this model proposes that knowledge is acquired as a set of facts at the verbal level (declarative stage) and that the knowledge is then converted into a procedural form with practice (knowledge compilation). Subsequently, there is fine tuning of the knowledge so that it can be applied more appropriately, and there is gradual process of acceleration (procedural stage)”. In a nutshell, this model observes that learning starts with knowing facts, practicing them and applying them in real life. Skill acquisition and perfection is important for employee’s success. An employee who is able to acquire and build a perfect knowledge is an asset to the organisation. Following my graduation, I intend to continually improve my technical and social skills under the context of ‘deliberate practice makes perfect’. Alexander and Winne (2006, p.258) in their work argues that deliberate practice is the principal determinant of building expertise. Moreover, Sternberg and Grigorenko (2003, p.19) indicates that “attaining expert, even elite performance in any domain is not related to innate talent or ability. Rather, expert performance can be acquired by anyone through focused effort and hard work”. This is what he terms as ‘deliberate practice’. The process I intend to take so as to be useful to UAE workforce under continual improvement is anchored on Pietersen (201) work. Pietersen (2010, p.48) provides five steps that lead to excellence. The first step for an individual is to conduct situational analysis. This is what he terms as the learning stage. Under this stage, for me to attain excellence, I will analyse the situation so as to gain insights, implications and challenges. The second step is to define the choices and vision. Under this stage, my clamour will be on focusing by outlining winning propositions, priorities and sealing of performance gaps. The third stage I will strive to align my aspirations with externalities like measure and rewards, structure and process, culture and people. The fourth stage I will engage in the real action by implementing the plan. Lastly, is to monitor and review and if there is ant need then one start at step one. Section 4: Evaluating Personal Performance From pragmatic perception, my performance at the college was to the standard. As an individual I never used be at the bottom or top, but towards the higher end of the top. In a summary, I would rate my performance as a second class upper output. My performance can be rated equally as a distinction that is marked by excellent performance or grade six. I believe I performed best to my ability. Nevertheless, since success is not limited to individuals, I had room for improvement so as to go top of my class by attaining first class degree. To a great extent I would say that I attained my desired personal goals while in college. The rationale behind this thinking is first related to the scores per unit I have been receiving at the end of every academic year which range from grade 5-7. These constitutes either credit which a very good performance; distinction which is an excellent performance and high distinction which constitutes an outstanding performance. Secondly, I would say I attained my objective because while enrolling for business course, my intention was to come out as a holistic critical thinker who can develop solutions to organisations and serve humanity at large through accounting. Indeed this is what I have gained and I am able to see thing in different dimensions, interrogate issues, conceptualise them in theoretical paradigm and offer pragmatic solutions to issues. In regard to this, I appreciate the approach in the university as a whole, the units and deliverable within the course and mode of delivery by lecturers and students in my class. To succeed in my academic work, I applied four significant components while at the college. First, in any work or engagement, I strived to exhibit higher levels of technical/ professional knowledge and understanding by indulging in in-depth expert discourses backed up by theoretical models. Secondly, I strived at any moment to exhibit and enhance my research skills by utilising various scholarly articles, relevant sources and data. Thirdly, I worked on my communication skill so as to enable me cover topics adequately; deliver clear, concise and fluent discourses; application of scholarly language and application of correct referencing styles. Fourth, I applied critical thinking skills that allowed me to show my proficiency in pragmatic application of relevant arguments and scholarly justification of concepts using diverse materials and sources. Additionally, I had close working rapport with instructors and my classmates thus offering me a chance to gain more knowledge and interrogate issues. However, when I did not perform well, the source of my failure would usually be my inability not to engage in critical thinking leading to works that have not advanced relevant concepts or applying them inappropriately; not justifying the ideas or justifying them with narrow source. Following my graduation, the steps I will take so to evaluate my overall performance so that I can get better position and maximise my income is that of objective setting under the context of management by objective. In a collaborative manner within the context of my responsibilities and resource provided, I will outline the deliverable expected of me say at the end of every month or annually. After setting the deliverables, I will outline the measurement methods, means of evaluation and possible indicators that the same have been attained. Thus, at end of the time span provided, I will review my performance against the indicators provided such as reduced income leakage, increased quality, reduced processing time and so on. Section 5: thoughts on professional behaviour and development when entering work place My detailed plan of displaying professional behaviour in the work place is three faceted approach anchored on the relationship between me and the employer/ managers, relationship with colleagues and relationship with clients. Under my plan, the first point of action is on effective communication. Communication allows to sharing of ideas and exerting of influence. This I intend to do it at vertical and horizontal through formal communication channels and informal ones so as to enhance my social circle. The second is reflective practice where I engage in critical thinking any activity so as to enhance my output, quality of work and decision making. The third is professional demeanour where I intend not to express anger, conform to formal and informal expectations, not to be arrogant, adhere to acceptable dress code and show respect for every one irrespective of their background. The fourth is to perfect emotion maturity where if angered or challenge I manage my emotions and channel them through right protocol. Fifth entail being an individual of integrity beyond reproach. Additionally, to enhance my relationship at work with supervisors and colleagues, I intent to accept feedbacks as positive critiques both from supervisors and colleagues; I will strive to show high level of dependability and appropriate initiative so as to enhance my accountability and self responsibility role; and lastly ensure team work by interacting with other group members in professional manner. The above are critical in my professional life since they will spur me to leadership position based on my interpersonal skills because of the ability to team work, navigate social world at work place within professional boundaries, ensure I exert influence and create followership through a team of the willing. Secondly, if observed, my output will be high and thus being able to meet the objectives as stipulated in performance contract. This will equally lead to higher performance of the firm which in turn allows it to create value for the customers and thus market leadership. In attempt to differentiate myself from other applicants and existing colleagues, the comparative advantage I bring to any organisation is not only the technical skills I poses, but the soft skills/ interpersonal skills or peoples skills that I poses as outlined in section 2. The significance of this argument is anchored on belief of leadership as means of driving organisational change and the critical role of strategic management accounting in ensuring organisational growth and market leadership. References Alexander, P. A. and Winne, P. H. eds (2006). Handbook of educational psychology. Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge. Dillard-Eggers, J. & Roberts, M. L. (2010). An efficient method for acquiring auditing procedural knowledge in Lynnette, B. Erickson & Nancy, W. (eds). Tension in teacher preparation: accountability, assessment, and accreditation, vol 13. WA, UK: Emarald Publishing. Matsuo, M. & Kusumi, T. (2002). Salesperson’s procedural knowledge, experience and performance: an empirical study in Japan. European Journal of Marketing, 36 (7/8): 840- 854. Pietersen, W. (2010). Strategic learning: how to be smarter than your competition and turn key insights into competitive advantage. Hoboken, New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons. Sternberg, R. J. and Grigorenko, E. L. eds (2003). The psychology of abilities, competencies, and expertise. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Read More