Fostering Emotional Intelligence in Accounting Firms

Emotions don’t belong in an accounting firm. Accounting is about numbers. It’s rational, orderly, logical.

Emotions are irrational, messy, and they don’t follow rules of logic. “Emotional intelligence” is a buzzword. One of those feel-good, flavor-of-the-month initiatives cooked up by marketing and HR—irrelevant to the real work of serving clients and growing the firm.

Does that about sum up the mentality of your firm’s partners? If so, they’re behind the times—and you might be just the one who can help open their eyes to the ROI of emotional intelligence.

“We have found that an individual’s emotional quotient is often more important to their success as a leader than their intelligence quotient,” says John Richter, chief strategy officer of Top 10 firm CliftonLarsonAllen (more than 100 locations, 600 principals and 4,500 professionals). “Leaders may or may not be the best technicians, but they are the ones who can motivate and engage the people around them.”

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