Soft skills are not enough.
Emotional intelligence was developed by Daniel Goleman in a book published in 1995. A few years later, in a seminal Harvard Business Review,xii he described emotional intelligence as being essential in making a leader. Management accountants are often told they need to develop soft skills particularly, emotional intelligence, so here is a handy checklist:
It is human nature to break complex matters down into simple checklists that are easy to handle. Unfortunately, the real learning comes from embracing complexity, making the effort to understand nuances, accepting challenges and being willing to learn from occasional failures.
Prof Carol Dweck of Stanford has developed the term ‘growth mindset’xiii to describe a more effective attitude towards learning, describing two types of mindset; fixed mindset and growth mindset.
This is fostered where praise is given liberally, and people learn to be confident in their natural talents. People with this mindset have a sense of entitlement to succeed. They find failures difficult to accept, so they begin to fear challenges.
Holders are willing to learn because they believe that qualities can be cultivated through efforts, coping strategies and with help from others. A growth mindset is characterised by a preparedness to try to learn and change, stretching oneself, tackling challenges and having the resilience to overcome setbacks. The management and control cycle (Figure 6) is consistent with a growth mindset. It makes the effort to take an informed decision but manages implementation closely and responds positively to poor performance which is corrected promptly.
Figure 6
Future-Proof Your Career: Human Intelligence Ep. 1
