The 7 Habits Of Highly Effective Accountants

As accountants, we are smart people doing smart things.? But when was the last time you really assessed how effective you are???

You might be juggling the demands of your accounting career and managing your personal life, but is the life you're living the balanced, successful, and happy one you dream of? If you’re being completely honest, I’m going to bet the answer is no.

That’s why I think it's time for us all to take a look at our personal and professional effectiveness.

How To Recognize Ineffectiveness In Your Life

Recognizing ineffectiveness is the first step toward improvement. Indications of ineffectiveness include:

• Unmanageable workloads
• Constant overwhelm
• Repeated mistakes
• Stagnant professional development
• Procrastination
• Poor time management
• An obsession with perfection
• Chronic stress

These are just a few of the indicators that your current approach may not be as effective as it could be, which is why being aware of these signs is essential.?

To break free from autopilot mode, you need to deliberately examine your routines, identify inefficiencies, and be willing to make any purposeful changes necessary for achieving both a more balanced and sustainable career and a life.

The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Accountants

Becoming a highly effective accountant is all about adopting habits that not only improve your professional life but also improve your overall well-being. Let's dive into these seven habits:

#1 - Live and Work More Intentionally: Setting clear intentions for decisions, big and small, guides you towards a more purposeful, effective, and balanced professional and personal life.? A highly effective accountant does not continue to do things because it’s “how it’s always been done.”?

#2 - Learn Better Time Management: Understand that managing your workload with purpose is more about utilizing your time wisely than having more time.? A highly effective accountant doesn’t need to complain that there isn’t enough time.?

#3 - Delegate More: Delegation is not a sign of weakness but a strategic move towards efficiency, preventing burnout and maintaining a sustainable pace.? A highly effective accountant sees the value in delegating and does it strategically.

#4 - Take Charge of Personal and Professional Development: Create a development plan based on your values and priorities, set realistic goals, and take intentional action to achieve them.? A highly effective accountant doesn’t let others determine their personal and professional goals.

#5 - Implement the Decision Matrix: Prioritize tasks based on their ease and impact to avoid decision fatigue and enhance productivity.? A highly effective accountant understands that their brain is wired to think everything is urgent; they instead intentionally choose the highest impact items to work on first.

#6 - Leave Work at Work: Recognize the importance of separating work and personal life for overall well-being and improved productivity.? A highly effective accountant knows how to set and stick to boundaries, improving the sustainability of their accounting career.

#7 - Improve Emotional Intelligence: Acknowledge the role of emotional intelligence in success, understanding, and managing emotions for better control, focus, and motivation.? A highly effective accountant understands that their feelings drive their actions, so they are keenly aware of how to manage their emotions.

Hopefully, in adopting these seven habits, you can pave the way for a more intentional, balanced, and successful professional and personal life. It's not about reinventing the wheel but recognizing the power of choosing to become more effective in your actions.

Becoming a Smarter Accountant: The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Accountants In Action

Now let me share how some of my coaching clients have implemented the 7 habits of highly effective accountants and how their careers and their lives improved:

• By being more intentional about her decisions, one client got a promotion within a year, helping to improve both her financial growth and job satisfaction.
• Another client learned effective time management techniques and prioritized tasks based on their ease and impact.? This not only reduced his stress levels but also allowed him to complete projects more efficiently.??
• By recognizing the need to delegate, one client worked on overcoming her discomfort with delegating and started distributing tasks among her team.? Although it was uncomfortable at first, this not only prevented burnout but also helped to develop her team members.
• Another client was a young accountant who wanted to take the CPA exam and create a development plan for his career.? By working on a proactive approach, this not only improved his knowledge and technical skills, but also opened doors to networking opportunities, paving the way for a more rewarding career.
• Another client is a forensic accountant with her own firm.? She felt constantly overwhelmed by the volume of cases she handled. By managing her time around the Decision Matrix, she not only improved the quality of her investigations but also found herself with more free time for personal pursuits.??

Adopting the seven habits of highly effective accountants is not about reinventing the wheel but recognizing the power of intentional choices for a more balanced and successful professional and personal life. By taking these steps, you can pave the way for a more fulfilling and sustainable accounting career.?

Remember, you worked hard to become an accountant; it's time to make it easier to be one.??

If you’re interested in becoming a Smarter Accountant, you can take The Smarter Accountant Quiz at www.thesmarteraccountant.com.??

If you want to learn more about how to successfully overcome the habit of failing ahead of time, check out this episode of The Smarter Accountant Podcast ?? https://thesmarteraccountant.com/podcast/the-7-habits-of-highly-effective-accountants/