If I had to pick one skill for the majority of accountants I work with to improve, it would be assertiveness. I am often asked how to get staff to be more accountable. Often the cause is a result of not dealing with the small stuff in an assertive manner from the start. Effective accountability is a direct result of assertiveness, and assertiveness is the catalysts in enhancing so many other leadership strengths.
Assertiveness gets a bad rap when people equate it with being pushy and cranky. But that shouldn’t stop you from learning to apply it productively (that is — in service to your strengths). More harm is done when people aren’t assertive enough than by being too assertive. At least you know what pushy people think, but those who don’t assert themselves can be keeping vital ideas hidden and useless when they don’t speak up or speak too softly. So I’d assert that when you are able to balance this critical skill with your other leadership abilities, you greatly amplify your power and impact, thus creating better accountability within your practice.
Here are some specific ways in which assertiveness complements a wide range of the critical leadership skills you may already have:
- Creating a culture of innovation: A recently conducted study was completed to determine the characteristics of the most innovative accountants in the world. It was discovered that one of their most powerful traits, their peers and direct reports reported, was their ability to push back on the hierarchy. These leading accountants were perceived to be fearless. Coupling assertiveness with their ability to foster innovation enabled them to take on difficult issues — to fight for the introduction of new services or openly disagree with others about policy changes that created better clarity. Being challenged required people to think more deeply to justify a course of action, which frequently produced much better ideas.
- Being customer focused: We typically think of accountants as being good at, and focused on, building relationships. But the most successful professionals, as Matthew Dixon and Brent Adamson point out in their blog and their book, The Challenger Sale, are not the ones who build relationships. They’re the ones who push back, challenging their clients to see problems they hadn’t anticipated. Essentially, Dixon and Adamson’s research finds, assertiveness creates more value for clients than conciliatory relationship building does.
- Fostering teamwork and collaboration: It might seem like assertiveness has little to do with the skills you need to be a team player. But teams thrive when their members are able to express their not-always-popular points of view. Excellent team players (who generally are already inclusive and able to defer to others) would improve considerably by learning when to assert such views. And managers, who are assertive in standing up for intermediates and junior team members rights and ideas, will make their teams stronger by increasing all team members’ ability to participate fully.
- Leading change: Constructive change rarely happens passively. Change requires an accountant to challenge the status quo and find new ways of doing things to create better efficiency. It’s nearly impossible to lead change without some measure of assertiveness because in most cases, even when change is generally viewed as positive, some kind of resistance still needs to be addressed.
- Acting with integrity: There are plenty of highly principled people who are too timid to speak up in meetings — to question a decision that appears not to be in line with the firm’s goals or is not in the best interests of the clients. Assertiveness doesn’t cause honesty or vice-versa, but when the two operate together they give people the courage not only to know what is right but to stand up for it as well.
- Communicating effectively: Assertiveness adds power and conviction to a message and enables a leader’s voice to be heard. You can clearly tell the difference between a message communicated with passion and vigour as a leader asserts his or her point of view and one that lacks the energy of conviction. Assertive accountants also tend to communicate more often as their passion leads them to capitalise on every opportunity they can find to deliver a message.