3
COMMUNICATION SKILLS

Chapters 1 and 2 highlighted the importance of strong communications skills at every level of management accounting. This chapter addresses listening, speaking, and writing skills as the basis for strong communication skills. As you read this chapter, ask yourself, ‘Am I an effective communicator?’ It’s an important question. Your communication skills will determine, to a considerable degree, whether you get a job, advance in your organisation, and find the career opportunities you want.

Do you agree with the following statements?

• ‘In the end, the most successful [accountants] are usually the ones who manage to combine a solid technical knowledge base with top-notch communication skills.’¹

• ‘It is no longer sufficient to simply present figures and comments in a report. Finance experts need to be able to explain their meaning and relevance to an audience that could be based in Birmingham or Beijing.’²

• ‘There is a lack of creativity, adaptability, and developed interpersonal communication skills among job seekers today.’³

• ‘In today’s highly competitive environment, ‘soft skills,’ such as written and oral communications, interpersonal skills, and leadership ability have become so important that companies hiring accounting students often place more importance on these skills than they do on technical accounting skills.’⁴

These statements underscore the importance of developing communication skills as soon as possible. Communication skills give accountants an advantage in the workplace, sometimes more than technical skills. Even prospective management accountants can set themselves apart from other candidates by demonstrating exceptional speaking, listening and writing skills during the hiring process.

How you are viewed in a company is partly determined by how well you speak and write.⁵ If you make mistakes in grammar, spelling, and word choice, your colleagues may view you as careless, indifferent and not serious about your job. Sending misspelled e-mails or submitting a disorganised resume may keep you from being hired in the first place.

In an article in the Harvard Business Review, Kyle Wiens, CEO of iFixit and founder of Dozuki, says people who apply to either of his companies must take a grammar test. He won’t hire people who use poor grammar. ‘If you think a semicolon is a regular colon with an identity crisis, I will not hire you. ... [I]f job hopefuls can’t distinguish between “to” and “too,” their applications go into the bin,’ Wiens writes.⁶ Wiens is not alone in his concerns about grammar. The Wall Street Journal observed that many managers feel there is an epidemic of poor grammar in the workplace. Managers attribute this trend to the informality of e-mail, texting, and Twitter, where slang and shortcuts are common. Poor grammar is worrisome to managers because looseness with language can make a bad impression on clients, ruin marketing materials and other documents, and even cause errors through miscommunication.⁷

Management accountants themselves are well aware of the importance of communication skills. In a CGMA report, finance professionals were asked to rate the importance of specific business and technical competencies to the overall success of an organisation. The results of the survey are summarised in box 3-1. Interestingly, communication skills were ranked first in importance, far above technical accounting and risk management.⁸

Box 3-1: Importance of Skills to the Finance Professional (ranked in order)

Skill Communication Problem solving Business Interpersonal Strategic Leadership Change management Risk management Technical accounting IT

Description Written, oral and presentation skills and communicating effectively with nonfinance people Taking a critical and methodical approach when problem solving Good understanding of the organisation’s objectives, operations, market environment, and ethical issues Team-working, conflict management, and influencing and negotiating Flexibility and ‘thinking on your feet’ Leading others, managing resources and delegating effectively Assessing and facilitating change Understanding the sources of risk and evaluating risks and methods for their control and mitigation Broad understanding of the technical issues and ability to keep up with new accounting rules and regulations Ability to keep up with new concepts, techniques, tools and technologies

The rest of this chapter examines the purpose of communication and how it is used in business. It examines the core communication skills: listening, speaking and writing, as well as nonverbal communication. It also offers some suggestions about how you can improve your communication skills. Additional suggestions on applying these skills to writing reports and giving presentations are provided in subsequent chapters and the bibliography lists articles and books on business communication, managerial communication, communicating effectively, effective writing and related topics.

PURPOSE OF COMMUNICATION

The word ‘communication’ derives from communis, a Latin word meaning ‘to share’ or ‘to make known.’ It is the process of sending and receiving messages. In its basic form, communication seems simple enough. The communicator—a person or persons or an organisation—sends a message to another person or organisation. The receiver interprets the message and may provide feedback by sending a return message.

In today’s world, a message may be sent through various channels. A person may speak face-to-face with another person or group of people. A person may speak by telephone or video conference to another person or a group of people located across the globe. Written communications can take multiple forms. They may be printed communications, such as letters, reports and memorandums. They could also be sent electronically through e-mail, text message or fax, posted on the Internet or relayed by other electronic means. A complete list of forms of communications is included in the following section.

With so many different channels of communication, the risks of miscommunication are many. ‘The infinite number of breakdowns possible at each stage of the communication process makes us marvel that mutually satisfying communication ever occurs,’ write Carol M. Lehman and Debbie DuFrene.⁹ How can communication go wrong? Here are just a few of the many ways:

• The sender uses vague language, jargon, poor grammar or otherwise impedes communication.

• The receiver doesn’t understand the message because of the sender’s choice of words, body language or other reasons.

• The receiver thinks he or she understands the message when, in fact, the sender intended something different.

• The receiver chooses to ignore the message, assuming that it is too difficult to understand, uninteresting or disagreeable.

• The sender did not think about how to phrase the message, so the receiver accepts and understands it. The receiver may still block out the message, but the sender has made the effort to communicate.

• The sender has used a channel inappropriately, such as a manager using e-mail to communicate an important announcement to his or her employees. The manager could have spoken to employees directly. This would have emphasised the importance of the announcement and shown that the manager appreciated its impact. It would also have given employees the opportunity to question the manager.

The consequences of miscommunication could be relatively minor, such as a colleague saying he or she didn’t understand your e-mail. Or the consequences could be quite serious, such as a loss of a client, failure to get a promotion or a disastrous job interview. Communicating poorly has genuine risks, which reinforces the importance of proper communication.

FORMS OF COMMUNICATION

Because of advances in technology, people in business today have more choices than ever before in communicating. They include the following, arranged in the order they will be discussed throughout the rest of the book:

• Face-to-face communication: In the 2009 film Surrogates, American actor Bruce Willis plays an FBI agent investigating a murder in a future world in which people stayed home and connected with society through remotely-controlled androids. In the end, the androids were shut down forever, and people began venturing out of their homes to resume life in the real world. If nothing else, the film showed the importance of person-to-person communication. In today’s world, technology is evolving into a substitute for personal communication. People are e-mailing colleagues down the hall rather than speaking to them. Personal communication builds the relationships that are the foundation for all other forms of communication. It also can reduce the risks of miscommunication. People can meet, discuss issues, resolve differences, plan a new project and move on. Bottom line: When communicating, start with people, not technology.

Writing emails, letters and memos, and talking on the telephone are activities you will likely do daily as a management accountant. While one method may seem faster or easier than another, consider the actual advantages and disadvantages of each.

• E-mail. E-mail is a quick, easy, and informal way to send messages and files inside and outside your company. Although e-mail has the advantages of speed, efficiency and convenience, it also has its risks.

  Miscommunication between you and the receivers of your e-mail can result if

  • you are not sensitive to how receivers will perceive your e-mail, for example, you use language they consider rude or offensive.

  • you write hastily and send an e-mail without insuring that it is complete, accurate, and free of spelling and grammatical errors.

  • you write in a moment of anger or frustration (only to later regret your action).

• Instant messaging and text messaging. These are fast and convenient ways to carry on conversations on computers, tablets and mobile devices. Like e-mail, they carry risks of miscommunication. E-mail and instant messaging are discussed further in chapter 4.

• Memos. People in companies and businesses routinely use memos (memorandums) to communicate internally for a variety of reasons. Memos use a standard header format of To, From, Subject and Date. They may be one or two paragraphs or several pages. They may be transmitted electronically, either separately or as e-mail attachments. They may be printed and distributed by hand, internal mail or other means. As with e-mails, you must give careful thought when composing and sending memos. Memos are discussed further in chapter 4.

• Letters. Companies use letters as a formal means of communication with clients and customers, vendors and suppliers, public agencies, regulators, professional organisations, and others. Like memos, they have a standard format, and they can be sent electronically or printed and delivered by mail or other means. As with everything you write, letters require careful consideration. Letters are discussed further in chapter 4.

• Faxes. Memos, letters and documents can easily be transmitted electronically, but sometimes faxes may be the preferred means of communication. A client or customer may want to receive certain communications by fax. When a document scanner is not available, documents may be sent by fax.

• Telephone. The telephone provides more of a human connection than e-mails, letters or memos. People can speak with one another and be attuned to the feelings expressed in speakers’ voices. The telephone is especially useful for discussing questions, issues and problems at length; exchanging ideas; resolving issues and making decisions. If a record of the call is desired, it may be recorded, or someone may be responsible for taking notes.

• Voicemail. Compared with the telephone, voicemail provides more flexibility. People can call from office or home phones (or computers) or from mobile devices and leave messages at any time. To ensure their messages are understood, they should follow a protocol: Speak slowly and clearly, leave a detailed but brief message, and give their name and phone number at the start and the end of the voicemail. Like e-mails, voicemails can become part of the permanent record of the receivers and be available for retrieval for future use. And, like e-mails, they are subject to legal disclosure.

Reports and presentations may be a more infrequent but no less important part of your job as a management accountant. Knowing how to create, design and present these formal communications can set you apart and give you an advantage over your peers.

• Reports. A report is a document that provides objective, factual information. It usually is written for a specific audience, such as investors or shareholders; the CEO, CFO and other senior executives; a business line manager; or an account supervisor or others. Reports are discussed further in chapters 5 and 6.

  There are many different kinds of reports, including the following:

  • Formal report. A formal report is thoroughly researched, well organised, objective and detailed. It provides strategic, business, financial, economic, demographic or other information a company’s leaders and managers use in managing the business, addressing risks and identifying market opportunities.

  • Informal report. An informal report usually is a short document that focuses on a specific topic, such as the cost of buying a specific piece of equipment or contracting for a service.

  • Progress report. A progress report informs those overseeing or managing the project about whether it is on schedule and on budget. Project reports are issued regularly over the course of a project and help managers to manage projects efficiently.

  • Investigative report. Management may ask accountants or others in an organisation to investigate a problem or issue, such as certain costs that are over budget, and report their findings. The investigator may also make recommendations about how to address the problem.

  • Feasibility report. A feasibility report examines whether a proposed project, such as development of a new manufacturing plant, is necessary, practical and achievable and whether the benefits justify the cost. It also recommends whether management should approve the project.

• Presentations. A presentation is speaking to an audience and using visual aides to illustrate your points. Presentations can take many forms, but they generally are used to inform, analyse or persuade. A CFO might make a presentation to the CEO and other senior executives about plans to consolidate business operations to increase efficiency and reduce costs. An accounting manager might make a presentation to a business manager that analyses the business line’s production costs. A business manager might make a presentation to the CFO and other senior executives that argues for the company’s expanding into a new market. Presentations are discussed further in chapters 7 and 8.

• Videoconferencing. A main benefit of videoconferencing is that it reduces or eliminates the travel required to attend a conference. Also, videoconferencing today is cheaper, of better quality and easier to use. More people may be able to participate in a conference through videoconferencing than if a company paid for only a limited number to attend a meeting. With more participants, more ideas may be shared, and more people may feel vested in company decision making.

Online forms of communication are evolving rapidly. Connecting with clients, colleagues and investors through social media may require specialised tools and skills.

• Blogs. More companies are discontinuing public blogs and concentrating their social media strategies on Twitter and Facebook.¹⁰ A survey released early in 2012 by the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth found that the percentage of companies that maintain blogs fell to 37% in 2011 from 50% in 2010. Blogging requires a commitment of time and resources to provide a stream of fresh content, and companies must address liability and other issues. However, blogging enables a company to promote its brand, connect with clients and customers, and reach a broad audience, including prospective customers. Companies that do blog have policies saying who may blog, rules for blogging, and so on. Some companies also have private or internal blogs for sharing information, announcements and ideas.

• Social media. More companies are establishing robust presences on Facebook, Twitter and other social media outlets in order to build stronger relationships with clients and customers, broaden exposure to their products and services, increase their market visibility, and develop new sources of revenue. Many tools and resources are available to companies to develop, manage and realise the maximum value from their investment in social media. But other companies have yet to embrace social media, among other reasons because top management does not see the benefits, planning and budgeting for social media adoption is in its early stages, or management wants better information on the financial return to companies from investing in social media. Companies also have developed internal websites to facilitate communication amongst senior executives, managers and employees. Communicating through the web and social media is discussed further in chapter 9.

• Web content. As with blogs, more companies are shifting their focus from developing web content to building a social media presence, whereas other companies continue to invest in content development. Market demand for fresh, original, thoughtful content is increasing, and strong content attracts viewers to company websites, enables a company to build relationships with viewers, learn what kinds of content most interests viewers, and build relationships with current or prospective customers or clients.

• Webinars. Companies use webinars for conferences, meetings, training sessions, thought leadership discussions and other purposes. Some webinars are interactive, allowing participants can see and hear presenters and a moderator, ask questions and answer polls. Others are one-way communications, meaning that viewers can see and hear the presenters but cannot participate in discussions with them.

USING COMMUNICATION IN BUSINESS

Now that you have refreshed your memory of all the various forms of communication, let’s consider their uses in business:

1. Reporting. Presentation of facts. Providing of information. Everyone in an organisation, from a worker on a shop floor to an entry level management accountant, to the CFO or CEO, is continually providing information about a company’s operations, products or services, finances, accounting, human resources and more.

2. Marketing and selling. A company’s ability to sell its products and services depends on the communication skills of those directly engaged in marketing and selling. However, others in the organisation can help promote the company’s brand, and the company might create a training programme for this purpose.

3. Persuading. Employees, middle managers and top executives of a company at one time or another may try to win over someone. An employee may try to convince his or her boss to give him or her more time off, a manager may try to negotiate a bigger salary increase, or a CFO may try to convince the CEO of the merits of an acquisition.

4. Influencing. Having an effect on the perceptions or decisions of others. For example, the executive of a company that manufactures solar panels might write an editorial column for a national newspaper that argues for continuation of a tax credit for solar energy. The purpose is to convince lawmakers to extend the credit.

5. Motivating. From the CEO to the team leader of a project, leaders try to motivate others in ways large and small. An example of this would be a company celebration for managers and employees on the company’s meeting its sales goals for the year and inspiring them to meet next year’s target or a manager stopping an employee in a hallway to tell her she’s doing a great job.

6. Directing. Most everyone in a company is directing or being directed. The CEO might direct the CFO to have a plan ready by tomorrow on reducing overhead costs 10%. The CFO directs his or her finance department to prepare a plan. A finance manager creates a team to stay up all night developing the plan. A member of the team calls a local pizzeria just before midnight and directs its manager to send over six pizzas right away.

7. Recruiting. Companies recruit prospective employees directly through recruiting programmes and other initiatives and indirectly through marketing, advertising, social media and other communication channels.

8. Education and training. Communication is at the heart of the training of a company’s management and employees. Companies train and educate people on the job; in company meetings, workshops and seminars; through professional education courses and many other ways.

9. Evaluating. Most people in a company go through an evaluation process, either conducting or receiving evaluations or engaging in both activities. Many communication tools are used in evaluations, such as conversations, meetings, performance reviews, examinations and more.

10. Negotiating. Negotiations go on at every level of a company over everything from the CFO’s pay and benefits package to a purchasing manager’s negotiations with a supplier over office supplies.

11. Innovating. Whether over coffee or in a meeting or as members of a task force, people often discuss ideas for a new product or service or a new line of business. Ideas can, and do, come from anywhere in the organisation.

12. Consulting. A person asks the advice of another person or a group of persons. The director of marketing might ask senior management’s opinions about a proposed marketing campaign. The CFO might ask the director of human resources about improving an organisation’s career development programme.

13. Collaborating. People in a company work with others in achieving a goal, solving a problem, or evaluating an opportunity. The director of marketing might collaborate with a division head on developing a campaign around a new product launch. A line manager might form a team to collaborate on developing an idea for improving the manufacturing process.

14. Entertaining. Depending on your corporate culture, this might also be on the list of business uses for communication. It should always be used as a means to help accomplish a purpose, such as training employees or selling a product and not as an end in itself. Some examples of techniques that both entertain and inform include using dancers to illustrate the message of PowerPoint slides or presenting your business card using a magic trick.

What do these many uses for communication in business mean to you as a management accountant? Over time, while working for a company, you will communicate in many of the previous ways, and you will have to develop the necessary skills to report to, consult or collaborate with, train, direct, persuade or motivate others.

MEASURING RESULTS

Regardless of how communication is used in business, the intent is to produce results. ‘Managerial communication is different from other kinds of communication,’ writes Mary Munter. ‘Why? Because in a business or management setting, the most brilliant message in the world will do you no good unless you achieve the desired outcome.’¹¹

Thus, to measure the effectiveness of its recruiting programmes, a company might survey job candidates as to how they first heard about the company and the career opportunities it offers, or ask recently hired employees what convinced them to work for the company. To measure how well its training programmes are working (or not), a company might design a system for evaluating the overall effectiveness of its training or specific training such as a class or workshop. To evaluate its marketing programmes, the company might hire an outside marketing consultant. As a management accountant, you might be asked to help the company to design programmes, for example, to quantify the company’s investment in training and the benefits.

Of course, not all communication fits into neat categories and distinct, measurable goals. Communication goes on all the time, in all corners of the company, concerning just about anything. And there is the far larger universe of communication occurring outside the company, some of it about the company. There are company-related conversations in the media, on social networks, in the offices of outside directors or shareholders, in the offices of a company’s competitors, and many other places, on many different topics, often with consequences for the company, such as the shaping of its public image in the media and on social networks.

CORE SKILLS

The core communication skills are listening, speaking and writing, as well as nonverbal communication skills. The core communication skills are the foundation for the development of specific skills, such as the essential business communication skills discussed in the rest of this section.

Expressing ideas is a fundamental part of any business communication. As a management accountant, you must be able to communicate your ideas, starting with the day you start your first job at a company. At an entry-level position, you may, at first, be speaking mainly with other accountants about technical questions and issues. But as you work more and more with people outside of accounting, such as in operating divisions or units to support division managers, you increasingly will be required to express your ideas to people who are not accountants. As you advance in the organisation, you must have the ability to discuss increasingly complex ideas, and a wide range of ideas, with the senior people in the company. If you work for a small business, you could find yourself advising management much more quickly and much earlier in your career than in a large corporation. In any event, you need to know how to express yourself.

Asking the right questions is another important type of communication. ‘We are trained from grammar school that what is important is the right answer—we didn’t get any credit for asking questions,’ said Greg Conderacci, a marketing consultant and instructor. ‘But the right answer starts with the right question.’ (In interview 7 in appendix A, Conderacci discusses the communication issues that management accountants face.)

By asking thoughtful questions—the right questions—you help management to clarify its thinking on issues, identify unexpected risks in a business strategy, spot a new business opportunity, or see ways to more efficiently manage the business. Through the questions you ask, you show that you give issues serious thought, have thoroughly researched issues, considered the pros and cons, and are helping management to achieve its strategic goals.

Finally, without being able to influence others, you will not be able to make an impact in your organisation or turn your ideas into action. You must have the ability to make informed, passionate, persuasive arguments to support an idea, discuss not only the opportunities but the risks in implementing the idea, back your arguments with thorough research, and be prepared to answer questions—and more questions from management.

‘There is an argument that you either have communication skills or you don’t, but these are skills that can be developed, improved and refined,’ said Thomas D. Foard, Executive Vice President and CFO of Publishers Fulfillment Inc. (In interview 8 in appendix A, he offers some suggestions about how management accountants can improve their communication skills.)

Listening

Do you sometimes find yourself pretending to be listening to someone, but your mind is elsewhere? Because you’re not listening attentively, you don’t grasp what the speaker is trying to communicate, or you misinterpret what the speaker is saying. You come away with only fragments of the conversation in your mind. You have a listening deficit, and you are not alone.

Hearing and listening are not the same thing, even though many people think because they can hear, they automatically know how to listen. ‘[H]earing is passive, whereas listening is active.’¹² We hear throughout our waking hours, regardless of where we are, people chattering away, dogs barking, phones ringing, horns honking, and much more. It is the background noise of daily life, and we do not always pay attention to it.

The Swedish writer Henning Mankell spent part of his life in Africa learning to listen. An African parable muses about why human beings have two ears and only one tongue. Probably because we are meant to listen twice as much as we speak.¹³ In Western culture, the reverse seems true. Talking is celebrated. In business settings, people are often praised for being terrific speakers or giving great talks. It is much rarer to hear someone being complimented as a great listener. People are not going to fill an auditorium for a great listener.

You may have great speaking skills, but if your listening skills don’t measure up as well, you could find yourself at a disadvantage as you advance further in your career. Ram Charan writes that American company General Electric redefined its most desirable traits in leaders and considers listening to be among the top four in the list. Charan contends that ‘listening opens the door to truly connecting and is the gateway to building relationships and capability.’¹⁴

Through frequent, personal communication with employees, leaders come across as more transparent, authentic and concerned than if they stayed behind their desks, remote from the everyday work of their organisations. For senior management, building stronger relationships with employees has taken on added importance as more companies adopt a flat organisational structure with an emphasis on collaboration and teamwork. Communication flows more freely up, down and across the organisation than in the traditional hierarchical structure.

So what does it mean to be an active listener? There are several things you can do before, during and after a conversation, meeting or presentation to be a considerate listener.

Before a meeting, prepare as much as possible so that you are focused and ready to consider the speaker’s words. Some ways that you can prepare before a meeting include:

• Have a clear purpose. Is your purpose to obtain information, acquire knowledge, get the speaker’s opinion on an issue, respond to the speaker’s request for a meeting, discuss a problem, find a solution or other purpose? If you’re clear about why you listen, you are more likely to want to listen.

• Know the speaker. What is the speaker’s background? Views on business or other issues? Career history? Position in a company or other organisation? Even if you know the speaker well—your boss or a colleague, for example—you should think about these questions. Like you, the speaker brings to the conversation a set of assumptions, beliefs, hopes, fears, and values.

• Know the context. What is the context of the conversation? Context includes background information, assumptions by speaker and listener, the professional relationship of the speaker and listener, and more. For example, an employee might suggest an idea for a product improvement to a manager, who knows from experience that this is an idea that has not been proposed before and is worth pursuing.

• Know yourself. Be aware of how your assumptions, biases or misconceptions might colour what you are hearing. Learn to keep these from distorting the speaker’s message. Observe how the speaker is responding to you. Is there something in what you’ve said and how you’ve said it that is making the speaker show annoyance, confusion, relief, happiness? Watch for nonverbal signals.

• Remove distractions. Examples of this include noise coming through an open window, blinding sunlight pouring into a room or someone talking loudly in the next room. These and other annoying distractions interfere with communicating. Eliminate them, if possible, and try not to add any with your own behaviour.

Once the meeting or presentation begins, be attentive and focused. Take notes if appropriate. Other ways to demonstrate active listening include:

• Be attuned to the unspoken message. Does the speaker appear to be angry, sad, pensive, bewildered? You can tell the speaker, ‘You seem upset about this.’ Suppose the speaker is an employee who has just been told she is being promoted. Maybe she’s happy about the promotion, but apprehensive about taking on the responsibility of the new position. What does the speaker’s tone, speed, volume or pitch tell you? Be patient. It takes time to truly listen to, and empathise with, a speaker. This is not easy in today’s fastpaced business world, where communication sometimes seems to be at lightning speed, with not enough time for a thoughtful exchange of information and ideas. Just be patient, and you will receive messages correctly.

• Show respect for the speaker. Maybe you disagree with the speaker about certain issues, or you don’t like the speaker. Never rudely interrupt or cut the conversation short. Wait for the speaker to finish a thought, and then make a brief comment or ask a question.

• Make a deliberate effort to focus on the speaker. Let the speaker know that he or she has your full attention through your expression, posture, language and eye contact. Imagine she’s telling you that you’ve just won $5 million in a lottery. If that doesn’t get your attention, nothing will.

• Appreciate the speaker’s perspective. What is the speaker’s goal in the conversation?

• Empathise. An original Star Trek episode¹⁵ featured a powerful ‘empath,’ a being who could absorb not only the emotions but also the physical pain of others. You don’t have to go that far, but try to empathise with the speaker. Can you relate to the speaker, their point of view, their passion?

At the end of the meeting or presentation, you should be able to demonstrate that you have been an attentive listener in the following ways:

• Summarise the speaker’s message. Show the speaker that you are trying to understand. One way is to paraphrase or summarise the key points in the speaker’s message. You show the speaker that you were paying attention and you grasped the substance of his communication. The speaker can then validate or correct your summation.

• Ask thoughtful questions. Ask questions that help the speaker to clarify a point, provide more details, strengthen an argument, offer new insights or otherwise improve upon what they are saying. Learning to ask discerning questions will serve you well as you advance in the organisation. Your peers and superiors will value your ability to use questions to crystallise an issue, look at a problem in a new way or offer a new solution.

Now that you understand the importance of being an active listener, box 3-2 offers some specific activities you can do to improve your active listening skills.

Box 3-2: Learning to Listen

Speaking

Like listening, speaking is a skill that you can develop if you weren’t born with a silver tongue. As part of your job, you will have to speak in many different situations. In this section, I will briefly discuss some considerations for verbal communications. Presentations are discussed further in chapters 7 and 8.

• Purpose. What’s your reason for speaking? To propose an idea? To suggest some course of action? To argue for or against something? To learn something? Some other purpose?

  Suppose you’re a management accountant who has been moved out of the finance department to one of your company’s operating units. You’re meeting your supervisor for the first time. Your immediate goal is to learn generally about the unit’s operations and the specifics of your job. Your long-term goal is to perform well in your job.

• Audience. Whether you are speaking to another person, a group of people, or hundreds of people, think about your audience.

  Let’s say you’re the leader of a newly formed team that’s meeting for the first time. The purpose is to decide on project assignments. What do you want to know about team members that will help you make assignments and help them complete their assignments? What does the team want to know about you? You need to know this information so you can make well-informed decisions in matching up team members and assignments. Then, the team is more likely to perform well during the project.

• Planning. Like listening, speaking requires planning. You know your purpose in conversing or presenting, so what do you want to say?

  Planning can be as simple as taking a second to think about what you are going to say before speaking to a colleague. It can be as complex as taking hours to prepare a 20-minute presentation for the senior management of your company.

  Of course, you won’t have a plan every time you speak. You may encounter a colleague in a hallway and engage in a spontaneous conversation about improving a company product. It is out of such spontaneous conversations that ideas can come for new or improved products, new services, ways to reduce costs or other ideas. But take every opportunity to plan. Then, you will get in the habit of planning and not regret failing to plan.

• Be concise. If there is one speaking skill that management accountants—and accountants in general—should develop, it is conciseness. Conciseness comes from planning. If you plan, you will be clear in your own mind about what you want to accomplish with a simple conversation or a formal presentation. If you plan, you will say only what is necessary to make your point, convey information, ask a question, and nothing more.

  To economise on words, imagine that you have to pay a dollar for every word you speak. You might start with 100 words, which, if you said them all, would cost you $100. By eliminating 60 words, you cut the number of words to 40, for a $60 savings. And people can still understand you.

• Avoid jargon. Like every profession, accounting has its jargon. Within the profession, it may be acceptable to use terms without explanation. However, if you lapse into jargon in speaking to people outside the accounting field, you will most likely be met with blank stares.

• Be respectful. Do not come across as arrogant, superior or condescending. ‘A good communicator never makes their listener feel like they just left the principal’s office,’ says Sarah Stevens, a human resources consultant.¹⁶

• Be attuned to your choice of words. After you’ve explained something to someone, do you ask, ‘Do you see my point?’ or ‘Got it?’ W hat these questions imply is that your listener should understand you. They put your listener on the defensive, ready to disagree, argue or debate. The burden is on you to be understood. So, a better choice of words would be, ‘Please tell me whether I’m being clear about this,’ or, ‘I had trouble understanding this myself, so if I’m not being clear, please let me know.’

• Use concrete words. ‘I need this delivered in ten days’ is not as precise as ‘I need this delivered to my office at 8am on January 9.’ Use strong words. ‘We can do better than our biggest competitor’ is not as strong as ‘We will sell twice as many units as our biggest competitor.’

• Be authentic. Be open, transparent and authentic. You will win the confidence and respect of your peers, supervisors and others. They will trust your judgment, respect your opinions and hear what you have to say. Conversely, if you are seen as pretentious or deceitful, people will mistrust you, lose confidence in you, and be circumspect in communicating with you.

• Be confident. Regardless of your level of skill as a speaker, show confidence when you are speaking. Your audience, whether just one other person or a room of people, is more likely to trust what you say than if you come across as uncertain and insecure. This does not mean that you should pretend to have a higher level of skill than you do but that you have confidence in your ability to communicate, develop your skill, and become a better speaker.

Writing

There is no shortage of advice on how to write more effectively. In 1998, the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Office of Investor Education and Assistance issued ‘A Plain English Handbook: How to Create Clear Disclosure Documents.’¹⁷ Although the handbook was intended for the investment community—investors, securities dealers, etc—its guidance could equally apply to documents and other writings of management accountants and financial executives.

First, what is ‘plain English’? The SEC handbook explains it this way:

We’ll start by dispelling a common misconception about plain English writing. It does not mean deleting complex information to make the document easier to understand. For investors to make informed decisions, disclosure documents must impart complex information. Using plain English assures the orderly and clear presentation of complex information so that investors have the best possible chance of understanding it.

In that last sentence, instead of investors, you could fill in any audience: the CEO, CFO, the board, shareholders, employees and others. The handbook goes on to explain plain English in further detail:

Plain English means analyzing and deciding what information investors need to make informed decisions, before words, sentences, or paragraphs are considered. A plain English document uses words economically and at a level the audience can understand. Its sentence structure is tight. Its tone is welcoming and direct.

As discussed in chapter 1, CFOs must have the skill to explain complex information in language that others can understand. That’s true not only of the CFO but every management accountant. Yet, when they start with a company, management accountants don’t necessarily have this skill.

‘Companies expect management accountants to support management decision making by making sense of complex data,’ said Andrew Harding, managing director of the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA). ‘Very often this is a challenge for the management accountant, who is trained as an expert. The language of the expert doesn’t always make for effective communication.’

Harding said large companies are addressing this issue by having management accountants work alongside line managers to learn a company’s businesses. Some also have training programmes to help management accountants learn about a company’s businesses. In the process, they are learning how to communicate with managers and employees across the organisation. (See interview 9 with Harding in appendix A.)

See chapters 4, ‘Communicating in the Workplace,’ and 5, ‘Writing the Report,’ for a more detailed discussion on writing business communications.

NONVERBAL COMMUNICATION

Listening, speaking and writing may be the core skills of communication, but sometimes, what isn’t said can be heard loud and clear. Nonverbal communication had been a subject of study since the naturalist Charles Darwin wrote The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals in 1872. Psychologists and other professionals have been researching and writing about the subject ever since, and it’s no wonder. Long before humans developed language, they used—and still use—nonverbal communication. It is as important to communicating as verbal communication. Why? Because it’s not just what you say, but how you say it. The how is expressed in your body language, tone of voice, volume, rate of speaking and other nonverbal signals.

Despite its importance, people give about as much attention to nonverbal communication as they do to listening. Joe Navarro, an ex-FBI agent and expert in nonverbal communication, writes that ‘...when it comes to the silent language of nonverbal behavior, many viewers might as well be wearing blindfolds, as oblivious as they are to the body signals around them.’¹⁸ They don’t know what they’re missing. Navarro says that careful observation of body language gives you critical insight in the same way that mindful listening is vital to truly understanding speech.

Management accountants need to develop skills in kinesics, or body language interpretation, which includes the skill to interpret how people communicate through facial expressions, as well as nonverbal communication using the movement of the hands, arms, legs, feet and torso. In fact, Navarro describes the feet as the most honest part of the body.

Understanding your own body language is just as important as knowing another’s. You can use your body language to help make an effective presentation, or, in a negotiation or team meeting, to help communicate your position or keep your intentions hidden. Showing your enthusiasm for your proposal could help to win over your audience. Remaining impassive in negotiations over the price and other terms of an acquisition could keep the other party guessing about what terms you will accept and, perhaps, help you to negotiate the best possible terms. Showing your disappointment at a team’s poor performance on a project could incentivise them to do better on the next project.

METACOMMUNICATION

Accountants also need to develop skill in metacommunication, or detecting the hidden message in a spoken message. Together, a person’s body language and metacommunication can reveal much about how they truly feel, and this can be useful in a variety of situations, for example, in everyday conversations, phone calls, meetings, presentations, evaluations and negotiations.

Thus, if a boss praises an employee’s work, but the boss’ arms are crossed, his or her tone is flat, voice soft, and face expressionless, the boss is signaling that he or she is not at all enthusiastic about the employee’s work. The boss might not be aware that there’s a disconnect between his or her words and actions, but the employee certainly is. The employee may not show it, but he or she is annoyed, angry or hurt by the boss’s actual indifference.

Then again, there are times when a person’s words and body language are in alignment. A team leader says she’s excited to tell members of her team that they will receive a 10% bonus for exceeding their goals, and the team can see that she’s excited.

CROSS-CULTURAL COMMUNICATION

As a management accountant, you may work in your home country with people who have relocated from other countries. In addition, you may communicate with people in your company who are located abroad. On the other hand, maybe you are working, or have worked, at one of your company’s offices in another country. In an increasingly global business environment, you will communicate more and more with people from other cultures and to communicate effectively, you need to understand and appreciate their cultures. This section offers some general considerations to keep in mind when communicating across cultures.

In every culture, first impressions matter, and being able to properly greet and introduce people of other cultures can make a favourable impression on them. For example, ‘How are you?’ is a perfunctory greeting in the United States. In other cultures, it is taken seriously. In Mexico, if someone asks, ‘How are you?’ they really want to know.¹⁹ In the United States, people usually exchange business cards only if they expect to communicate later. In Japan, business cards are exchanged at every opportunity, and the exchange follows a formal protocol. For example, Japanese treat business cards with respect, and writing on a card is not acceptable.

One fundamental cultural difference that can greatly affect communication is whether a person comes from an individualist or collectivist culture. People who identify with the cultures of the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom see themselves mainly as individuals who pursue their own goals. If you need help, a person from an individualist culture may decide whether to assist you based on what you’ve done for them in the past. People in the cultures of China, Japan, Korea and Mexico tend to see themselves as part of wide social groups that pursue collective goals. If you need help in these collectivist cultures, having a relationship with others in a social group, especially someone in authority, may make a difference.²⁰

When working with colleagues from different cultures, be aware that your differences in experience may lead to unintentional misinterpretations of each other’s actions. Young Americans who have gone to China to work in recent years come from a society where directness and openness is part of the culture. But that directness can be seen by Chinese workers as rude and overbearing.²¹ Young Chinese workers were brought up in a society where deference to authority and indirect ways of expressing opinions are the norm. But to Americans, they can be seen as indecisive. The differences can lead to misunderstandings in the workplace, but these can be resolved through mutual efforts at understanding cultural differences. In some societies such as the United States, people are encouraged to deal directly with conflict through face-to-face meetings and other ways to resolve differences. By contrast, open conflict is considered embarrassing or demeaning in many Eastern countries, and differences are resolved quietly.²²

Multicultural teams are common in global business. Remember to be sensitive to cultural differences when working in teams, as well as one-on-one. On teams consisting mainly of Western managers or employees, team members from non-Western cultures can have difficulty participating. Team members from China are used to discussions in which the boss speaks and others politely wait their turn, and they may be reluctant to jump into the free-for-all discussions of Western colleagues. While they may see this as the mark of a team player, others on the team may see them as unwilling to contribute.²³

One of the largest and most obvious barriers to cross-cultural communication is language. English is the language of global business, and more people are learning English as a second language. Proficiencies vary, and you have to be sensitive to this when speaking or listening to non-native speakers. Pay close attention when listening. Speak slowly and in short sentences. Enunciate clearly. Chris Rogers, vice president, Finance and Administration, of Infragistics Inc., a global software company, says that while travelling in other countries, ‘Above all, you must listen. It shows respect and a willingness to learn. And you will learn from listening and observing.’ (See interview 10 with Rogers in appendix A.)

In many cultures, it takes time to build relationships and trust and get things done—more time than you may be accustomed to. But patience can be rewarded with new connections, deeper relationships, and new insights into other cultures.²⁴ This section covered only a fraction of what you need to know when interacting with other cultures in a business setting. There is much more to learn. Andrew Harding, FCMA, CGMA, managing director of the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA), says, ‘To work globally, you must always be open to learning. It requires focus and hard work, and you will never stop learning.’ (See interview 9 with Harding in appendix A.)

CHAPTER SUMMARY

• Your skill in communicating will determine, to a considerable degree, whether you get a job, advance in your organisation, and find the career opportunities you want.

• You will have to develop the ability to communicate in a variety of ways: reporting, persuading, directing, training, motivating and much more.

• Don’t fail to work on your listening skills. They are as important to communicating as your writing and speaking skills.

• If you demonstrate an ability to explain complex topics in simple terms, you will be highly valued in your company.

• Acquiring strong communication skills requires focus, discipline and hard work, but these skills are essential to your career success.

• In an increasingly global business environment, you need to learn how to communicate with people of different cultures and have the dedication to keep on learning. It’s a life-long process.

Endnotes

1 Louis Grumet, ‘Quantity Over Quality: How to Improve Accounting Education,’ The CPA Journal, Jan. 2007 www.nysscpa.org/cpajournal/2007/107/perspectives/p7.htm

2 Neil Wolstenholme and Simon Bennett, ‘Sharpening an FD’s soft skills,’ Financial Director, Jan. 2012 www.financialdirector.co.uk/financial-director/feature/2142534/sharpening-fds-soft-skills

3 David Bolchover, ‘Plugging the skills gap: Shortages among plenty,’ The Economist, Economist Intelligence Unit, 2012 www.managementthinking.eiu.com/sites/default/files/downloads/EIU_SuccessFactor.pdf

4 Claire B. May and Gordon S. May, Effective Writing: A Handbook for Accountants, Ninth edition (Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 2012).

5 Kristyn Schiavone, ‘Hone Your Business Communication Skills,’ Chicago Tribune, 4 Aug. 2012 www.chicagotribune.com/classified/obs/chi-business-communication-skills-20120804,0,5670679.story

6 Kyle Wiens, ‘I Won’t Hire People Who Use Poor Grammar. Here’s Why,’ Harvard Business Review, Jul. 2012 http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2012/07/i_wont_hire_people_who_use_poo.html

7 Sue Shellenbarger, ‘This Embarrasses You and I,’ The Wall Street Journal, 19 Jun. 2012 http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303410404577466662919275448.html

8 ‘From ledgers to leadership: A journey through the finance function,’ Chapter two: the competencies required of finance professionals, CGMA.org www.cgma.org/Resources/Reports/Pages/ledgers-to-leadership.aspx

9 Carol M. Lehman and Debbie D. DuFrene, Business Communication, 15th edition, (Mason, OH: Thomson South-Western, 2008).

10 Roger Yu, ‘More Companies Quit Blogging, Focus on Facebook Instead,’ USA Today, 20 Apr. 2012 http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/tech/news/story/2012-04-19/corporate-blogging/54419982/1

11 Mary Munter, Guide to Managerial Communication: Effective Business Writing and Speaking, Ninth edition (Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 2012).

12 Gerald J. Alfred, Charles T. Brusaw and Walter E. Oliu, The Business Writer’s Handbook, Tenth edition, (New York: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2011).

13 Henning Mankell, ‘The Art of Listening,’ The New York Times, 10 Dec. 2011 www.nytimes.com/2011/12/11/opinion/sunday/in-africa-the-art-of-listening.html

14 Ram Charan, ‘The Discipline of Listening,’ Harvard Business Review, Jun. 2012 http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2012/06/the_discipline_of_listening.html

15 ‘Empath, The; Star Trek: the Original Series,’ 6 Dec. 1968 www.startrek.com/database_article/empath-the

16 Sarah Stevens, ‘Doing Business Better—Critical Communication Skills,’ Oregon Society of CPAs [website]. Stevens is Human Resources Consultant, AmeriBen/IEC Group. https://secure.orcpa.org/about/doing_business_better/3/1229-critical_communication_skills.

17 ‘A Plain English Handbook, How to create clear SEC disclosure documents,’ U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Office of Investor Education and Assistance [website], Aug. 1998 www.sec.gov/pdf/handbook.pdf

18 Joe Navarro with Marvin Karlins, Ph.D., What Every Body is Saying, (New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 2008).

19 Jeanette S. Martin, Lillian H. Cheney, ‘Communication Skills Needed for Successful Integration With America’s Largest Trading Partners,’ Association for Business Communication [website] http://businesscommunication.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/PABC-2009-03-MartinandChaney.pdf

20 Steve Martin, ‘Being Persuasive Across Cultural Divides,’ Harvard Business Review, 7 Dec. 2010 http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2010/12/being_persuasive_across_cultur.html

21 Hannah Seligson, ‘For American Workers in China, A Culture Clash,’ The New York Times, 23 Dec. 2009 www.nytimes.com/2009/12/24/business/global/24chinawork.html?_r=0

22 Marcelle E. DuPraw and Marya Axner, ‘AMPU Guide: Working on Common Cross-cultural Communication Challenges,’ PBS.org [website] www.pbs.org/ampu/crosscult.html

23 Andy Molinsky, ‘Leveling the Playing Field on Cross-Cultural Teams,’ HBR Blog Network [website], Apr. 2012 http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2012/04/leveling_the_playing_field_on.html

24 David Livermore, ‘How impatience undermines cross cultural effectiveness,’ management-issues. com [website], Jun. 2012 www.management-issues.com/2012/6/19/opinion/how-impatience-undermines-cross-cultural-effectiveness.asp