As accountants, we are in the business of helping people. This begins with the function of our jobs. Clearly, if we are effective in the functional aspects of our jobs, it is helpful to our company and clients. For our day-to-day tasks, it takes a serious analytical brain to be good at what we do. However, if you want to take your career to the next level and truly help your clients both internal and external, then it is going to take a healthy dose of creative brain.

Using Both Hemispheres

Our brains are divided into two hemispheres and both are necessary in communicating effectively. Each side has a distinct job to do and people tend to use one side more than the other. Traditionally, people who enjoy working with numbers, problem solving, and technical aspects of their job use the left side of the brain. Those who are generally good at music, art, and even teamwork, use the right side of the brain. Those creative and intuitive juices flow from the right and make spontaneity and feeling the highlight of life. While it can take effort to cultivate certain aspects that don’t come naturally to you, an effective communicator and leader taps into the strengths of both sides of their brain.

Improvisational Skills Provide the Bridge for Better Communication

The good news is that the principles of improvisation provide a framework to help cultivate those communication and creative skills. Learning to implement aspects of respect, trust, support, listening, focus and adaptability allows us to take the first step in becoming effective communicators. When people in the accounting profession can take these principles and apply them in the way they relate to their clients or even within the workplace, they become leaders.

Effective communication is what sets the stage for better leadership. People look to the accounting profession for leadership in the area of finances. You don’t have to be funny to apply the principles of improv, but using them to communicate effectively will set you apart. Ultimately, presenting information in a way that makes sense to your customers, whether they are left brained or right brained, will enable you to help them further and advance your career.

Are you ready to form better relationships and create greater positive results in your business?