The Beginner’s Mind: Rethinking the Accounting Skills You Already Know

A fresh perspective on the skills you thought you mastered.

The Trap of Being an Expert

It may not surprise you that accountants are really good at becoming experts, but you may be surprised to hear that’s not always an asset (#UnintentionalAccountingPun).

Expertise can lead to overly confident decision-making, resistance to new approaches, and difficulty communicating complex topics.

A foundational concept from the practice of Zen, the beginner’s mind (called “shoshin”) has something to teach us. The beginner’s mind is an effort to intentionally focus on opening our perspective, questioning and doubting what we think we already know in order to make room for accepting new possibilities.

The Accounting Skills You Already Know

In many classes, I find myself saying, “No one person is naturally skilled at everything this profession asks of us.” We all bring areas that are natural strengths and other areas where we might need time and effort focused on growth: someone who is great at accounting research might be weak at project management, or someone who is great at delegating might need help with business development.

Our profession’s (appropriate!) focus on quality means significant training time gets dedicated to technical topics. But that can also mean communication, feedback, delegation, and project management get less attention, because we feel like “we already know it.”

We’re experts! Of course, we know how to delegate, communicate, and lead teams.

The beginner’s mind invites us to question that assumption and be open to the possibility that we can learn new ways of doing familiar things.

What Teaching Feedback Taught Me

Throughout my career, I’ve struggled to provide constructive feedback to the professionals I supervise. It felt like one of those accounting skills I should “just know” how to do.

But without a clear process to follow or safe chances to practice, I avoided it or stumbled my way through without effectively delivering my message.

One of the first training courses I was asked to deliver for 20-20 Services focused on delivering feedback. The content centered around a simple 4-step feedback model.

• Step 1: State the Facts
• Step 2: Link to the Impact
• Step 3: Open the Dialogue
• Step 4: Agree on a Plan

In teaching the model and repeatedly practicing with participants in class, I’ve found myself using it to prepare for and navigate feedback conversations. I feel more equipped to initiate feedback conversations and clearly communicate my message. Having a model to follow combined with practice repetitions has made a real difference in my skill set.

The 4-step model seems simple – but it provides an anchor for critical reminders. Step 3 (Open the Dialogue) makes me pause and seek the perspective of the individual I’m giving feedback to. Of course, we all know we should do that – but the model holds us accountable in the midst of a high-stakes conversation, when our logical brain might not be in charge completely.

And the value of practicing in a psychologically safe training environment cannot be overstated. Getting better at high-stakes conversations takes practice, including saying the wrong thing sometimes so you learn to say the right thing more often.

Remaining open to new ways of providing feedback (a skill that I felt like I should have been an expert at) allowed me to find a new and better way.

Practicing the Beginner’s Mind

The challenge often lies in developing the self-awareness to recognize which accounting skills we need to develop. Here are some simple, high-impact ways to practice the beginner’s mind to rethink the skills you might already know:

• Reflect on what being new to the profession felt like. Reconnect with your sense of curiosity and creativity and remember what it felt like to not know many of the answers.
• Treat feedback conversations as a source for new information and perspective. After each conversation, run a quick Start, Stop, Continue on your skills: what will you start, stop, and keep doing next time?
• Ask for feedback from others – both direct reports and supervisors – related to the skills you’re focused on building. For example, try asking, “What’s one thing I could do differently when I give you feedback?”
• Seek training opportunities focused on professional development skills to gain practical resources and “safe” repetitions to practice.

In the beginner’s mind there are many possibilities, but in the expert’s there are few.

• Shunryu Suzuki, Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind