Expert Communicator
As an ambitious finance professional, clear communication is vital in propelling your career forward. This pathway explores best practice in communication, and how you can work more effectively with colleagues to persuade and influence people.
£500 +VAT
Communicating clearly and concisely is a core skill for successful accountants. If you can’t listen to and understand your colleagues’ needs and concerns, and effectively convey your knowledge, messages, and data, you’re not going to be adding real value to your organisation. Whether your role involves presenting complex data, collaborating with clients, or building rapport with your colleagues, your communication skills are essential in driving your career forward.
Becoming an expert communicator will raise your profile, improve your professional credibility, and ensure that your advice has a positive impact. This pathway helps you develop the strong communication skills needed to carry out organisational strategies, use best practice to work more effectively with colleagues, and persuade and influence people. You’ll employ key concepts to communicate with impact and create a lasting impression in situations and forums that matter.
- Covers the crucial skills for “Collaboration”, one of the core capabilities underpinning the ACCA qualification and key at all 3 levels of ACCA Career Navigator’s Capabilities for Success.
- Addresses the communication capability of the “Business” domain in CAANZ’s Capability Model.
- Develops the key employability skill of communication, listed as fundamental to a successful career by ICAEW.
- Explores why ‘Communication is the second most wanted skill companies need right now’ as discussed in the 2023 Workplace Learning Report.
- Looks into why 86% of employees and executives cite the lack of effective communication as the main cause for workplace failures. Workplace communication statistics 2022.
In this pathway
Learning
Supporting your journey to the next stage of your career
Communication
The tools, techniques, and skills you need to provide valuable and clear communication
Flexibility
Learn where you want, when you want
Certificate of Achievement
21 verifiable hours of CPD, an assessment and a Certificate of Achievement
Learning resources
Immerse yourself in the rich variety of articles, videos, activities, quizzes, discussions, and more, to develop your understanding and skills.
Expert interviews
Find out what effective communication looks like in the real-world from our prestigious team of experts in the areas of writing and reporting, presenting, visualising data and influencing others.
Action plan
Build up a practical plan of how you will put your new skills into action, and download a convenient summary of all the learning to take away.
Assessment
Achieving 75% on the multiple choice assessment is required to complete the career progression pathway. The assessment features two questions on each topic that has been covered.
Secure certification
Once you’ve finished the programme, you will receive a unique and secure Certificate of Achievement as evidence of your new understanding and capabilities.
This Career Progression Pathway is divided into six sections corresponding to the key communication skills and expertise you will need to develop. Complete all six to unlock the end of pathway assessment and access your Certificate of Achievement.
The importance of communication
Effectively communicating information to those who need it is the core skill for accountants in business. This section considers the role of communication in business, communication as a process, and some common areas where miscommunication arises.
- Professional communication
- Communication process
- Common mistakes
Writing and reporting
Presenting information in monthly reports and other analyses is a major part of an accountant’s role. This section looks at written communication skills, and how to make sure your reports add value and are worth reading.
- Communicating in writing
- What to report monthly
- Best practice in reporting
Meetings and presentations
If you can speak confidently and clearly then your opinion or advice is much more likely to be listened to, and acted on. Here we explore success factors for in-person communication, and getting your preparation right for meetings and presentations.
- Communicating in person
- Delivering presentations
Sharing data
Accountants share data and information all the time, and people will be using that to manage the business. This section looks at how you can create impactful data visualisations that highlight your key points and speak to your audience.
- Interpreting and visualising data
- Dashboards
- Supporting decision making
Colleague collaborations
Working effectively with other people is an essential business skill, but building rapport with colleagues is something many accountants find hard. Here we cover some topics that will enable you to successfully collaborate with people in a variety of situations.
- Cultural considerations
- Building rapport
- Social media
- Coaching
- Managing conflict
Influencing others
If you want to become the go-to person for financial advice on strategic decisions, you must gain the trust and respect of senior management. This final section helps you to get your voice heard, and make sure that your advice is compelling and persuasive.
- Your authoritative voice
- The art of persuasion
- Storytelling
- Negotiation
Assessment
Once you have completed all the elements of the pathway, you can take the assessment to access your Certificate of Achievement.
Lead Consultant
Anna Faherty
Anna Faherty is a writer, editor, researcher and educator who has written extensively for accountingcpd on topics as diverse as ethics and strategy. She is an expert in the communication of complex ideas. Anna has delivered numerous workshops and webinars for ACCA and the AIA and has lectured at City University, Kingston University, Oxford Brookes University and University College London.
Other contributing faculty
Ross Maynard
Ross Maynard is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants. He has worked as a consultant and trainer for over 20 years, specialising in process improvement and lean for finance teams. He has presented at lean conferences in the UK, Australia, Italy and Denmark and has written many articles and blogs on process improvement.
Ben Rawal
Ben is a Director and Lead Consultant with Soft Skills, a business providing leadership development, team dynamics improvement, and emotional intelligence services for accounting and finance professionals. He is a chartered accountant (FCCA) and has an MBA from Warwick Business School.
Alan Nelson
After studying economics, Alan began his career in accountancy before moving into senior management positions in the book trade. After a successful stint as CEO of Thomson Learning, a major international textbook publisher, he founded Nelson Croom, the publisher of accountingcpd.net which he has run ever since. He has been at the forefront of the developing elearning industry and his company has twice won the prestigious award for eLearning Development Company of the Year. He retains a keen interest in economics and in management skills training. He is currently Chair of ICAEW’s Practice Assurance Committee and a member of IFA’s Regulatory Committee.
Neal Whitehead –
A very interesting course with many useful tips on improving communication and presentation skills.
Alan McCartin –
Good course. Comprehensive and practical.
Yang Li –
Very useful material
Anastasija JankauskaitĖ –
.
Russell Millard –
Excellent content
Suzanne McGowan –
Very engaging course, interesting & practical. Lots of good advice & tips, would highly recommend.
Vera Athousaki –
n/a
Nyasha Mkombo –
Great course packed with valuable nuggets!
Simon Lee –
#ERROR!
Josiah Bature –
Because good goods needs no advertising
Wing Ho Yiu –
Nice course for us to meet the tide deadline
Joanne Hegarty –
Good course, lots of helpful advice and mix of presentation types keeps one engaged in the process.
Natalie Tull –
This course covers a wide range of topics that you can use in your profession and personal life. Would definitely recommend.
Sandra Ziauberyte –
Great course, lots of tips
Thomas Neis –
Very interesting, practical, good balance between videos and written explanation, fair test
Trevor Tully –
Extensive coverage of aspects of communication, explaining their benefits and providing a basis which canbe referred to and developed.
Richard Ndhlovu –
I found the content very helpful. I would like to recommend it to all my colleagues who are in leadership positions or aspire to be leaders.
Leya Kasalwe Musunga –
Amazing course, very interest topics where covered to aid in communication. Really enjoyed it. Took it module one day at a time just so I could think deeply about the information I was going through.
June Moyihan –
.
Japet Castillo –
Useful and informative
Chris Jeggo –
I enjoyed the course, the mixture of how the content is presented and the section quiz maintained my focus
Andrea Vargova –
I have to say that I have really found some good advice for my communication. Especially I have to point out learning how to communicate to non-financial people, first key points and then provide details. I was using the same technic regardless who I was communicating with, first explain ending the key points. Thank you, Andrea
Daragh Maccabee –
I liked the breath of the course content and the structure of the modules.
Dawn Mullen –
This course covered a wide area around communication. It has given me areas and tools to use both in formal and informal settings. The GAMMOC model is now noted in my journal for future reference, along some other parts of the course. I would definitely recommend this to others.
Joseph Lau –
Very good pathway which opened some new learnings for me in a way that was clear, logical and engaging.