The change taking place in the workplace and across the accountancy profession has been well-documented and discussed.
At times, the pace and extent of the change underway, and speculation about the future of the profession, can feel all-consuming – and the noise can distract us from focusing on managing our own careers, arguably at a time when it is needed most.
It is crucial that you take stock and invest time in intentionally managing your professional future, however. Here is a four-step guide to planning for a successful and fulfilling professional future.
1 Protect and grow your career
Your instinct when everything is changing can be to chase every trend and try to become an expert in every new tool or technology.
Resist this. Focus instead on understanding what is changing and deciding what matters most from your own career perspective.
Take stock on a regular basis and then devise a deliberate plan of action. Focus on small steps that incrementally build capability and visibility.
• Consider evolving career structures: It helps to let go of the idea that your career will follow the traditional “career ladder”, solely comprising an upward trajectory. Career paths today are evolving and now often follow a non-linear “lattice” structure with lateral moves throughout. There is real value in lateral career moves as they can support the development of new skills and capabilities, create new connections and relationships and enhance your visibility, all of which can be genuinely career-enhancing. In an evolving market, it makes sense to be flexible and open to new opportunities as they arise. Roles that may not immediately result in greater seniority can deliver other valuable benefits – they are always worth considering.
• Building your network: As your career progresses and you take on more senior roles, your next opportunity is more likely to come through your network than an advertised position. It therefore pays to build your network from an early stage, investing time deliberately and strategically in developing professional contacts that can support your career ambitions. Start small and build your network gradually, setting goals and objectives along the way. These could be as simple as planning one coffee meet-up each month to help you develop a network that can facilitate your career growth. It’s important to think broadly and look beyond your own area of expertise to ensure a wider reach within your network, and access to expertise you can draw on. The mantra of “quality over quantity” applies to your network as much as to anything else. A tight, carefully crafted network of contacts can be more beneficial than a larger, less developed group. Authenticity and reciprocity matter and will ultimately enhance the effectiveness and value of your network and how you feel about it. Networking can strike fear in many. Shifting your mindset away from networking as an activity for “self-promotion” and instead viewing it as a personal development habit you can develop over time will make it more palatable and potentially even rewarding. The best networks will accentuate your strengths, mitigate weaknesses and increase your visibility as a trusted business leader.
• Importance of visibility: Career success is often more about visibility than ability. Harvey Coleman’s PIE model sets out the three drivers for success. He suggests that just 10 percent of our career success is based on our performance in our role and that exposure and image are actually the determinants of success. Your own career progress will often be much less about your day-to-day performance and more about who knows about you and what you do – and whether decisionmakers understand the value you add. Your image and personal brand will also determine what opportunities arise for you. If you are ambitious and want career progress, it is therefore essential that you increase your visibility and build relationships with decisionmakers, get involved in projects, showcase your achievements, focus on outcomes rather than activities and build your network. In hybrid working environments, it can be more challenging to increase your exposure. This makes managing the time you are in the office effectively all the more important. Use the time to good effect – make the effort to meet with people face to face and focus on building relationships.
2Stay relevant and future-focused
In a rapidly evolving profession, technical excellence remains essential – but it is no longer sufficient on its own, particularly as your career advances and you move into more senior roles. The finance professionals who stay relevant are those that actively evolve from technical accounting excellence into trusted business leaders. They understand systems, question outputs, interpret data and trends, explain implications and help organisations make better business decisions.
• Evolution to trusted business leader: Evolving into a trusted business leader requires technical expertise combined with other skills, such as digital confidence, data interpretation and ability to analyse. Equally important is commercial awareness and the ability to tell the story behind the numbers to support robust business decisions.
• The importance of your personal brand: Your relevance is also shaped by your personal brand. A combination of how you see yourself and how others see you, our personal brand is often described as what people say about us when we leave the room. Your brand is very much about others’ perception of you. As we know “perception is reality”, so it is important to strategically manage your brand and not allow others to do it for you. To ensure you are successful, you need to be clear about what you stand for. It’s equally important to understand your strengths and how to accentuate them, including communicating the value you deliver. You can boost your visibility by upgrading your LinkedIn profile, getting involved in projects and other initiatives outside your immediate responsibilities in and outside work, and purposefully building your professional network. Your personal brand is how others experience your value, so take the time to shape it deliberately.
• Stay future-focused: To ensure career success in a rapidly evolving profession, it is essential to be focused on future trends and developments. Scan the horizon and invest time in being curious. As part of this process, you should be looking beyond your current job specification and asking where future opportunities are likely to arise. Consider what problems business leaders will be required to solve in the future, the skills they will need and the type of work employers will consider valuable. When you understand emerging opportunities and risks, you can make deliberate choices about the skills you require and how to manage your career effectively.
3Build skills that enhance your impact and value
lls throughout your career will ensure you remain relevant and equipped to maximise your career potential.
Build your skills strategy around four questions: Where is my profession moving? What skills does my current role require? What skills will my role require in the future? What strengths can I build on? Which skills gap should I close first?
Your approach to developing and updating your skills should be aligned with your career goals and ambitions.
• Find a mentor: Engaging with a mentor will support your skills development, boost your confidence and provide you with the opportunity to learn from the lived experience of an experienced professional. A good mentor will motivate you to accomplish more as well as providing support, direction and feedback. Ideally, they will be someone whose hindsight becomes your foresight.
• Changing value equation: Being the fastest person on the team is no longer enough; artificial intelligence (AI) can do that now. What is more important today is being able to identify what tasks can be handed to AI, so you can focus on adding more value and prioritising the work that deserves your focus. AI has created opportunities for professionals, such as accountants, to; assume more strategic roles; apply and develop skills that can add value, such as critical thinking, judgement and decision-making; and build relationships with key stakeholders.
• Managing AI is itself a new skillset. Knowing what tasks should be allocated to the technology, and how to direct it in the completion of these tasks, are new leadership skills. AI is another resource for you to manage. The smartest application of AI is freeing up your own time to focus on applying your skills to work that can move your career forward.
4 Adapt with confidence and resilience
A lack of self-confidence can be a significant career blocker. Even the most experienced and senior professionals are regularly impacted by feelings of low confidence and self-esteem. The good news is that self-confidence is a skill you can build and maintain.
• Protecting your self-confidence: Set clear goals for yourself, be strategic and leverage your key strengths and skills. Make the effort to challenge and change negative self-talk. Celebrate your successes; doing so will help to embed the memory and counter those moments when you feel your confidence wavering. A sure way to deplete your confidence is to compare yourself to others. Always remember that you could be comparing how you feel inside with what others are displaying on the outside. Equally, perfectionism rarely serves us well. Instead, learn to accept that good is good enough. This will better support your self-esteem. Bear in mind that confidence doesn’t come from certainty; it comes from adapting, taking control and positioning yourself for the opportunities change creates.
• Building your resilience: Career resilience follows the same logic. Focus on what you can control. Keep learning, build your network, adapt and try new things. Trust in your transferable strengths. Resilient professionals are not unaffected by change; they are proactive in responding to it.
5 Self-care and sustained career success
A positive mental attitude means making your wellbeing a priority. This isn’t an optional extra; it is essential to sustaining a successful career. Making your wellbeing and mental health a priority is fundamental to your professional success.
Setting and maintaining clear boundaries is crucial, as is ensuring that you dedicate sufficient time to rest and recuperation and invest time in doing things you enjoy outside work.
And remember to always to reach out to friends, family and your wider network for support when you need it.
The bottom line
By taking a deliberate approach to career planning, you can respond to change with greater clarity and purpose.
Make the effort to focus on the future, build the skills that can enhance your value, strengthen your confidence and grow your professional network.
At a time of change for the profession, following these steps will help to position you for continued career growth and progression well into the future.
Karin Lanigan is Executive Head of Member Experience with Chartered Accountants Ireland