Wednesday, April 30, 2008
A truly successful accountant in the business world has certain characteristics. The accountant who has all the characteristics listed below is rare, but most truly successful accountants have many, if not most, of these characteristics.
In terms of Expertise:
Technical Aspects: Knows accounting principles, accounting standards as well as taxation related to the location.
Management Aspects: Knows the principles and techniques of business management and administration. Ability to provide tactical information to increase efficiency and productivity.
Language: Speaks well and writes well. Spells accurately and has good grammar. This is essentially needed for financial reports.
Personal Characteristics
Dress: Dresses for success, wearing conservative, formal clothing. Polished shoes.
Personal image: Well groomed, clean. Moderate length or short hair, clean fingernails.
Integrity: An accountant sells two things: time and integrity. Has high personal standards of honesty and lives by the organization's high standards. Personal life is consistent with working life's standards.
Confidence: Has self-confidence but is not overbearing. Relaxed.
Service orientation: Always looking to serve others and help solve their problems.
Office/workspace: Neat, organized, inviting. Comfortable.
Personal hygiene: No smell, no bad breath. Good posture. Moderate, pleasant voice. No loud or expansive gestures. Looks healthy and full of energy. Is not sleepy or bored on the job.
Attitude: Positive. Willing to work. Excited to solve problems.
Pleasant personality: Gets along with everyone, including difficult personalities.
Disciplined Resource Management
Money: Not extravagant with company funds or personal funds. Personal finances are in order to create trust.
Time: Uses time effectively and efficiently. This is absolutely essential. Accountants sell their time; expertise and knowledge help, but there must be time to use it. Those who are not good time managers will not be successful accountants.
Etiquette
Sends thank-you notes.
Introduces people.
Uses common courtesy at all times.
Punctual; does not make others wait. Shows time management.
Knows when to stand up in respect of others. Be assertive.
Able to manage meetings and end them gracefully on time.
Attends to details; merticulous.
I may not have all the attributes but I am working on it. In terms of expertise, I am not there yet and I would work hard towards it and this is the area I would on through my ACCA course and hopefully in a temporary job that I could do during my vacation or something.
Labels: accountancy, accountant in business, accounting, business accounting, career, grooming, management accountancy, managerial accounting
what we could have been, 11:50 PM.
Sunday, April 27, 2008
It was an insightful day yesterday as I attended my F1 course on motivation and performance. In time to come, if I entered into the corporate world or assume any leadership role, this lesson could be the most useful lesson I ever attended. Therefore, I decided to share with you some of the things I learned during this lesson.
Many would ask: Why motivate people? Have we not pay them enough? A recent survey conducted and published on a local newspaper had suggested that Singaporeans are not motivated by pay to work. They seeked opportunities and personal development and assume more managerial roles. This is what motivates Singaporeans. Singaporeans are no longer contented with a fat pay check, they wanted more. How we give them? This is why this lesson is important to me.
A well trained, experienced but unmotivated individual is unlikely to be committed to his job, doing only the bare minimum. Likewise, a young and enthusiastic trainee may learn very fast and produce a return on the organisation's investment quickly initially but would lose steam or leave the organisation if he felt unmotivated. I also had an experience with my present organisation whereby everyone wanted to leave because they felt unmotivated. Everyone is only looking forward for their next pay check and they would just do the bare minimum leaving those who are motivated their left over work. Soon, the motivated ones became unmotivated and do just the bare minimum and this became a deadly cycle. Although, every now and then, the organisation would have fresh trainees and recruits, they would have a high labour turnover which is not healthily at all. Therefore, it is in the manager's best interests to have a good motivation throughout a company, from sales office to the production line. With motivation, your staff will definitely be more productive and committed, making fewer mistakes and convey a more positive and enthusiastic air to customers.
There are three keys areas for using motivation as a tool to get work done. They are:
1. Giving employees freedom to achieve an objective. (NOT MY PRESENT ORGANISATION) Let them learn and grow from their job experiences. Guide them in the right direction but do not interfere in the way they are doing or carry out the tasks. I love my previous superiors. They allowed me to do what I wanted to do like studying for my ACCA, sleeping if I am tired or anything as long as I completed the jobs they needed me to do. They also would like interfere with the way I do things but most importantly if I did a mistake, they would guide me instead of scolding or treating me like shit like my current organisation did.
2. Recognition and genuine appreciation for good work done. (DEFINITELY NOT MY PRESENT ORGANISATION) Many companies took for granted that employees getting a good job done is a right as they paid them to do so. What companies do not see is that employees took overtime, skip lunches or breaks just to do a report for their bosses. If the bosses do not appreciate that, the employee may think why should I skip lunch or breaks and do overtime and instead may just do the bare minimum which is happening to all companies, including mine. My previous superior would buy somethings like cookies or anything and he would just gave it to us, making us feel appreciated and definitely, we would not screwed up. I would do just the bare minimum in my current organisation because I do not feel appreciated. From day one, I got this feeling that we are crap and they wanted to kick us to a curb. Definitely not good for my heart so I started to ignore a lot of things and not to care so much, unlike my previous organisation which I loved to help.
3. Good interpersonal relations. (CONFIRM PLUS GUARANTEE WITH WARANTEE NOT MY PRESENT ORGANISATION) From day one, I did not had a good relationships which anyone in the current organisation. I started not to care and I hated each and everyone of them. I still do though although I was just good at conceding them.
This is why up till now, I still hate my organisation. Back to the topic....
Understanding Motivation
Motivation is ' a decision making process through which the individual chooses the desired outcomes and sets in motion the behaviour appropriate to aquire them. This is a definition by Huczynski and Buchenan. In pratice motivation are used in many different contexts. Here are some:
1. Desirable goals and outcomes. (money, power or friendship)
2. The mental process of choosing desired outcomes, deciding how to go to them and setting in motion the required behaviours. This is like internet marketing, you choose your niche areas and your techniques (Search Engine Optimazation, social networking) to increase traffic and you kept doing it.
3. The social process by which other people motivate us to behave in the ways they wish. Motivation in the sense usually applies to the attempts of organisations to get workers to put in more effort.
Motivation is about getting the extra level of commitment and performance from employees, over and above mere compliance with rules and procedures. If individuals are motivated, by one means or another, they might work more efficiently or produce a better quality of work.
More on Accounting in Business.
More on Management Accounting.
Many would ask: Why motivate people? Have we not pay them enough? A recent survey conducted and published on a local newspaper had suggested that Singaporeans are not motivated by pay to work. They seeked opportunities and personal development and assume more managerial roles. This is what motivates Singaporeans. Singaporeans are no longer contented with a fat pay check, they wanted more. How we give them? This is why this lesson is important to me.
A well trained, experienced but unmotivated individual is unlikely to be committed to his job, doing only the bare minimum. Likewise, a young and enthusiastic trainee may learn very fast and produce a return on the organisation's investment quickly initially but would lose steam or leave the organisation if he felt unmotivated. I also had an experience with my present organisation whereby everyone wanted to leave because they felt unmotivated. Everyone is only looking forward for their next pay check and they would just do the bare minimum leaving those who are motivated their left over work. Soon, the motivated ones became unmotivated and do just the bare minimum and this became a deadly cycle. Although, every now and then, the organisation would have fresh trainees and recruits, they would have a high labour turnover which is not healthily at all. Therefore, it is in the manager's best interests to have a good motivation throughout a company, from sales office to the production line. With motivation, your staff will definitely be more productive and committed, making fewer mistakes and convey a more positive and enthusiastic air to customers.
There are three keys areas for using motivation as a tool to get work done. They are:
1. Giving employees freedom to achieve an objective. (NOT MY PRESENT ORGANISATION) Let them learn and grow from their job experiences. Guide them in the right direction but do not interfere in the way they are doing or carry out the tasks. I love my previous superiors. They allowed me to do what I wanted to do like studying for my ACCA, sleeping if I am tired or anything as long as I completed the jobs they needed me to do. They also would like interfere with the way I do things but most importantly if I did a mistake, they would guide me instead of scolding or treating me like shit like my current organisation did.
2. Recognition and genuine appreciation for good work done. (DEFINITELY NOT MY PRESENT ORGANISATION) Many companies took for granted that employees getting a good job done is a right as they paid them to do so. What companies do not see is that employees took overtime, skip lunches or breaks just to do a report for their bosses. If the bosses do not appreciate that, the employee may think why should I skip lunch or breaks and do overtime and instead may just do the bare minimum which is happening to all companies, including mine. My previous superior would buy somethings like cookies or anything and he would just gave it to us, making us feel appreciated and definitely, we would not screwed up. I would do just the bare minimum in my current organisation because I do not feel appreciated. From day one, I got this feeling that we are crap and they wanted to kick us to a curb. Definitely not good for my heart so I started to ignore a lot of things and not to care so much, unlike my previous organisation which I loved to help.
3. Good interpersonal relations. (CONFIRM PLUS GUARANTEE WITH WARANTEE NOT MY PRESENT ORGANISATION) From day one, I did not had a good relationships which anyone in the current organisation. I started not to care and I hated each and everyone of them. I still do though although I was just good at conceding them.
This is why up till now, I still hate my organisation. Back to the topic....
Understanding Motivation
Motivation is ' a decision making process through which the individual chooses the desired outcomes and sets in motion the behaviour appropriate to aquire them. This is a definition by Huczynski and Buchenan. In pratice motivation are used in many different contexts. Here are some:
1. Desirable goals and outcomes. (money, power or friendship)
2. The mental process of choosing desired outcomes, deciding how to go to them and setting in motion the required behaviours. This is like internet marketing, you choose your niche areas and your techniques (Search Engine Optimazation, social networking) to increase traffic and you kept doing it.
3. The social process by which other people motivate us to behave in the ways they wish. Motivation in the sense usually applies to the attempts of organisations to get workers to put in more effort.
Motivation is about getting the extra level of commitment and performance from employees, over and above mere compliance with rules and procedures. If individuals are motivated, by one means or another, they might work more efficiently or produce a better quality of work.
More on Accounting in Business.
More on Management Accounting.
Labels: accountancy, accountant in business, accounting, business accounting, career, management accountancy, managerial accounting
what we could have been, 6:25 PM.
Friday, March 21, 2008
Get hired before stepping into the office!Story from a Yahoo Group:
One member from UK had applied for some job. Before she went for a final interview before the Managing Director of the company, he had typed her name in the google and looked for the search results. She is one of the active participants of one yahoo group. Google returned lot of her writings in prpoint and image management groups and in the ezine. He was highly impressed with her writings.
The candidate was really surprised when she went for the interview. The Mg. Director had already seen all her writings in the group. He was enquiring more about the yahoo group and ezine. (that was the only interview) These writings reflect the real personality. She was given immediately the job, against good competition.
A CEO of one of the Indian PR Agencies told the author of the group few weeks back that whenever he interviews the candidates, he used to ask for the details about the candidate's membership of various PR Groups in the net. Like this group, lot of International groups are functioning. These groups provide network and updating of knowledge. The CEO told him that he always prefers the candidates who are having membership with various PR and communication groups. (yahoo, google, etc)
This is the power of social media. Employers are constantly inventing new ways to sieve the interviewees' list. It is not uncommon for them to check their background before even deciding to allow them for the interview. One of the way is checking through search engines (eg. Yahoo, Google), social network system (my space, friendster, facebook...) and even blogs (word press, blogger). The blog author advises that you should get one of these social network system and a blog. The more you contribute to these professional sites, magazines, the more employers know about you, the higher your chances of acing the interview.
The yahoo group author's tip: I have studied many of the blogs, social networking sites of various young people. Since they are not aware of the power of search engines, almost 90 percent of them are very casual. Now spare some time and look at all your social media networking sites. Remove unwanted and casual writings. If you are a "linkedin"user, try to get many testimonials that reflect your personality. Try to reflect your strength through these social networking sites. You can give your blog URL in your resume.
This is just one part of the strategies to ace an interview, learn to find out more!
what we could have been, 11:32 PM.
A well-chosen interview outfit is important and is crucial to getting the job you want. You may not realise it but employers' first impression make up ninety percent of his decision to employ you. No one is going to hire people who dress sloppily to work. Therefore, it is better to dress a notch higher than the standard for the job for which you are applying. The type of clothing to wear for an interview also depends on the type of job you are seeking. If you are not certain about the appropriate dress standard, call ahead to find out the dress code. As a rule, it is always best to dress above the standard that you would normally wear on the job, even if the every day attire for the job is casual.There are three types of clothing styles to choose from.
Formal Business: A clean, pressed suit is the best way to go. If this is not available, a suit jacket with coordinated slacks to match is the second choice. Always go for light coloured shirt that will compliment the suit. As for the ties, a general rule of thumb advises you to select a tie which has patterns or colours that blends with the colour of your shirt and suit. Dress shoes, black or brown only. Dark socks.
This clothing style is appropiate for jobs such as:
Manager
Retail sales
Financial manager
Teacher
Medical assistant
Informal Business: A sport coat with coordinating slacks is the first choice. If this is not available, slacks with shirt and tie are the next choice.
This clothing style is appropiate for jobs such as:
Office clerk
Counselors
Physical therapist
Security guard
Artist
Casualwear: This category is for persons who work strong manual or industrial work.
This clothing style is appropiate for jobs such as:
Construction
Maintenance
Repairman
Recreation counselor
Taxi driver
Clean and pressed khakis are recommended. Try to avoid wearing jeans on the job interview. A shirt with a collar is recommended, maybe knit. Complementary shoes, such as bucks can be worn. It is not recommended to wear sports shoes.
Want to know more?
Labels: career, grooming, interview
what we could have been, 7:58 PM.
Warning: Neglecting to impress the boss could be hazardous to your career! The good news is that most bosses are astute in recognizing “that special something” that makes employees stand out from the crowd. If you are viewed in this manner, you’ll progress further–faster. Have you mastered the following “boss impressers?”
Let your word be your bondIt’s common for high achievers to struggle with a tendency to over commit. Their desire to accomplish great things can cloud their ability to set reasonable limits. Unfortunately, good intentions can backfire. Many superstars’ reputations have burned out like meteors because they started dropping important balls.Employees who consistently deliver on their promises impress bosses. Reminding employees of unfulfilled commitments causes resentment from bosses–not respect. One manager described his most impressive employee with the following statement, “When I give her an assignment, I immediately mark it off on my list as done!” Could your boss make a similar remark about you?
Protect them from surprises
“Everyone loves surprises”–except bosses! Sometimes employees hesitate to share bad news with their boss, fearing it will be a poor reflection on them. In reality, if they hear it from another source, you can pretty much be guaranteed of a bad reaction. If this happens, your boss will conclude one of two things: 1) you try to hide things–and cannot be trusted, or 2) you lack the good judgment of knowing what to bring to his or her attention.Your boss will be impressed if you are honest and upfront with even bad news. Don’t forget to advise him or her of your plans to rectify the problem also.
Never assume
When given an assignment, don’t make assumptions. For instance, if asked to prepare a report, “when you get a chance,” it would be wise to request a specific target date. If you are unclear on what your boss expects from you–find out! Knowing the right questions to ask–and when to ask them–is a sign of a true professional. And it can save you from many unnecessary communication breakdowns.Bosses appreciate employees with enough concern (and common sense) to get the facts so that expectations are met. It shows you have good foresight and planning skills–two impressive qualities.
Clean up your messes
Excuse makers are a dime a dozen, and they rarely move ahead. Admitting weaknesses takes courage and self-awareness–two admirable qualities. If you don’t know, say so. If you make a mistake, admit it. Then, take the important step of cleaning it up! Employees who refuse to accept accountability are very frustrating to bosses. People generally won’t kick you when you are down. We all make mistakes, and it’s refreshing to hear someone own up to theirs. If you stubbornly deny responsibility for your mistakes, however, you can count on a rude awakening–and a displeased boss.
Look the partProfessional dress is a sensitive topic. Nobody likes to think they dress inappropriately, but in reality this shortcoming certainly does holds people back.“Dress like the position you wish to attain” is a good rule of thumb. Sure, it seems superficial. You may protest that people should not “judge a book by its cover.” In principle, you may be right. But human nature and principal do not always match. If you lack the judgment to dress professionally, don’t be surprised when people assume you have deficiencies in other areas also.To impress the boss, dress like one yourself!
Take a risk!
Those satisfied with the status quo always outnumber bold risk takers. Why? Much of the difference has to do with motivation. Ask anyone in a responsible position whether their success was achieved by being cautious and timid. It’s highly unlikely! Chances are they became visible and respected because they displayed courage and enthusiasm.Think of it this way . . .bosses are ambitious people who recognize and admire that same quality in others. Ambition requires ample confidence to stick your neck out occasionally and take a risk. For example, you can volunteer for a challenging project, or recommend workflows that are more efficient than the “way we’ve always done it around here.”Bosses cherish talented employees who demonstrate their desire for excellence in a variety of ways. . .and on a regular basis. Putting these six tactics into practice is certain to leave you with an impressed–and happy—boss.
Want to learn more?
Labels: career
what we could have been, 7:56 PM.
