The Collaborative Accountant

Personal Development
The Collaborative Accountant by Ben Rawal

by Ben Rawal

As an accountant, we rely on our individual skills and training to be effective in our role. After all, becoming a qualified accountant relies on strong levels of resilience, dedication and at times, compromise. But how can becoming more effective in a team environment make you a better accountant? Ben Rawal explores the importance and value of developing your collaboration skills.

Time to collaborate?

Arguably one of the most overused phrases in recent times, ‘collaboration’ or ‘working collaboratively’ is now used on a daily basis. Frequently confused as a phrase that equates to good teamwork, collaboration goes beyond these skills into aspects of relationship building, trust and vulnerability.

Most commonly used in an environment that requires the successful interaction of at least two teams, collaboration has become increasingly important during the past 15-20 years. As a concept, it now has the potential to expand into other team-based areas, including accountancy and finance.

At its simplest level, collaboration covers the ability of two or more individuals to work towards achieving a common goal, through mutual trust, support, and challenge. Individuals and teams must be prepared to accept and even encourage conflict, whilst recognising that the objective(s) of the team is always more important than the needs and contribution of the individual.

Why collaborate?

You’d be forgiven for asking the obvious questions around why collaboration is so important, and what benefit(s) it can really bring to an accounting team. After all, if everyone does their job, what value can building relationships and trust actually offer within a team?

To answer these questions, we need to understand some of the basic dynamics that occur when we bring people together.

These dynamics usually take place at an unconscious level, but frequently relate to whether we feel a sense of belonging and whether we perceive that we can add value and make a difference. Often cited as the source of an unhappy employee, how an individual feels about working within a team is often a key factor around retention or resignation.

With this in mind, high performing teams use collaboration as a way of ensuring that each individual understands how they can add value to the team – through using both their strengths and weaknesses. In turn, this builds a sense of trust as each team recognises that they don’t need to be perfect to have their contributions recognised by others.

Notwithstanding the points above, some members of a team can also create a toxic environment, if they are not truly bought in to the benefits and value of collaboration. This increases the importance of selecting the right people to fit your team’s objectives, culture and style – not a task to be taken lightly.

“How an individual feels about working within a team is often a key factor around retention or resignation.”

Working as a team

Before we can begin to understand the mechanics of collaboration, we need to consider the basics of effective team working and why it’s important. The true value of an effective team will always provide more than each individual working on their own. Although this is commonly understood, it is rarely appreciated when teams are created.

It is often the case that organisations pay more attention to the individual skills and attributes of an employee, rather than how they will fit within the dynamics of a team. Accountancy practices are no different in my experience – they will often concentrate on the employee’s technical abilities to ‘do the job’, rather than the value they can add to the team. This becomes even more important when we consider the other interactions that our employees are likely to have – both internally within the firm, and with external stakeholders – clients, government bodies and other firms.

One of the common reasons for ignoring the team dynamic is the level of expertise required to create a high performing team of individuals. This is often seen as being beyond the boundaries of the accountancy profession, yet it is just as relevant as any other environment such as sport or in a larger team setting.

Overcoming these challenges begins with a firm understanding of not only what each individual brings to the team – but also whether these individuals complement one another. This equates to strengths and weaknesses cancelling each other out, but also requires each team member to be suitably skilled at the ‘basics’ – communication, self-awareness, empathy, and when it comes to the team – altruism.

“It is often the case that organisations pay more attention to the individual skills and attributes of an employee, rather than how they will fit within the dynamics of a team.”

The added value of collaboration

The ability to understand how to perform effectively as a team clearly provides an excellent opportunity to add value to your approach. Collaboration offers an attempt to progress team working to a higher level, introducing skills and attributes that require different mindsets and behaviours.

Trusting each other

Although trust is an important aspect of team working, collaboration extends the remit of the relationship beyond a single team.

For example, as an accounting firm or team of finance professionals, you may have already created a strong sense of trust amongst your teams individually. Perhaps your tax team is high performing, or you have an award winning assurance function?

Genuine collaboration considers the relationships in place across different teams, and whether each team recognises that for organisational success, all teams must work together for a common goal. In my experience, this is one of the most difficult arrangements to achieve due to each team often becoming overly focused on their own goals and objectives, rather than supporting (and trusting) other parts of the firm or organisation.

Trust also extends beyond the internal boundaries of a firm to other key stakeholders, including clients. This may appear slightly perverse given the effort that is usually undertaken to ensure that your clients are trusting of your firm, rather than the other way around!

However, when you develop a high level of trust in your clients, you can rely on them in the same way that they rely on you – you will have faith that they will supply all necessary documentation, to the right level of quality and on time.

“Genuine collaboration considers the relationships in place across different teams, and whether each team recognises that for organisational success, all teams must work together for a common goal.”

Letting go of the past

As most of you already know, creating a trusting relationship takes time. Although many of us will take a chance (and a risk) at one point or another, most of us have experienced the feeling of being let down after placing a level of trust in another individual.

When this occurs, our natural response is to become more cautious in the future, especially if we have experienced a breakdown or loss of trust on more than one occasion. Imagine one of your clients that has been let down by other accounting firms. Perhaps they were overcharged or the firm was negligent. Regardless of the situation, your client is likely to be apprehensive in trusting another accounting firm, even though the partners and team are completely different. The client has now created the association between the behaviours of a minority, and the remainder of the profession.

This example highlights the human tendency to generalise across a group of similar individuals, based on past experience or events. Letting go of the past is incredibly difficult, especially when you have experienced a negative emotional response elsewhere. I always encourage my accounting clients to understand as much about prospective customers as they possibly can – how do they feel about becoming one of your clients, and what reservations do they hold about the accounting profession?

This information can provide excellent clues into how you and your firm can adapt its approach to dealing with particular customers.

“The client has now created the association between the behaviours of a minority, and the remainder of the profession.”

Developing trust

Whether your focus is building trust internally across your firm, or externally with your clients, the way individuals behave holds the key to developing and maintaining trust.

Notwithstanding our past experiences and beliefs, which can potentially ‘blind’ us from what is happening in reality, trust is created through an emotional connection. One of the key aspects of this connection relates to whether we feel psychologically safe when interacting with other team members or clients – this is a simple matter of self-preservation – if we feel safe, we are more likely to survive.

Psychological safety is achieved from a variety of sources, including how others behave or react when we display vulnerability. If we show weakness and get ridiculed, the future risk of similar behaviours may now be too much to accept.

This ultimately aligns to whether your teams are prepared to promote the needs of the firm above their own individual concerns. Are you ready for true collaboration?

Ben Rawal

BSc MBA FCCA

Ben is the Lead Consultant and owner of Soft Skills, experts at providing behavioural, emotional and leadership training and coaching to compliance professionals

www.soft-skills.co.uk

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