What The Accountant Must Take Into Account

Audience:

He/she will take a lot of technical classes, particularly aimed at teaching them a new language – accounting. Communication revolves around gathering data and the financial statements. Accounting has always revolved around counting and ensuring the safety of what you have, and more recently has taken on the new dimension of cost accounting, which is essentially accounting to help make decisions. Whereas with the original purpose it was possible to be an introverted person and still be a successful accountant, with all of the relationships in modern accounting it is the extroverts who excel. Unfortunately the curriculum is focused on the technical side of accounting, as such internships are an essential part of the education process. It is there that more of the interpersonal skills necessary for the job are taught. In sum, personal communication is learned in the field through internships, written communication (the financial statements are the written communication) is learned in the classroom.

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Context:

There are a lot of form rules that must take place in accounting. Business memos must be short and to the point. Financial statements must be very concise, while being very formulaic in how they are prepared. These rules must be followed. But in the person to person interaction there is much more freedom to speak freely, to persuade. If all that you want is to crunch numbers as an entry level accountant then you need not worry about communication style, but if you want to move up to any sort of management, regardless of what type of accounting, you need to become familiar with how rhetoric can help you to persuade those around you. History is important for understanding the why of what accountants do. Understanding why people have always used accountants to help protect assets can help someone to understand and think about ways they can help protect those assets.

Rhetoric:

Before understanding what will be persuasive, we need to understand when to be persuasive. There are two very distinct parts to accounting. There are the formulaic requirements in writing and the free standards in personal interaction. In order to be persuasive for the first you must follow the rules. In order to be persuasive in the second you must adapt your approach to the person. And above all you must let the numbers do the talking.

History:

The first need for accountants was for asset protection. It was for ensuring that the workers were doing what was best for the company. Understanding that this is still a central purpose for all accountants will help to think of new ways that that purpose can be achieved.

Development Plan:

Being that there are two different categories of persuasion, I will separate the body into two parts, one about the written category, the other about personal interaction. Under the personal interaction it will be essential to help them understand that in order to progress past entry level, this must be taken into consideration. Understanding how to be diplomatic, and match your message to your audience will be essential.

As for the written, it is simple, you must follow the rules. No being extravagant, no being unique, you must follow the rules and by so doing you will gain credibility. To conclude it I will include the past of accountants and the need for understanding their purpose in history. In so doing I will be tying together both styles since each are necessary for today’s accountant.