How to Build a Better You - KPMG

At this week’s professional meeting, Stacy Surgeon, a National Managing Partner for KPMG, came and gave a great presentation titled “How to Build a Better You” about soft skills. She gave us ten attributes that can help us become better professionals:

10. Demonstrate your knowledge with questions.  It does not reflect poorly on you to ask questions to make sure that you understand your assignment, and learn new subject matter.  Stacy told us that we are not expected to know everything, especially on our first day on the job.  Even as partner, she still asks questions when she is auditing a new industry, and when she cannot answer clients questions.

9. Accept the company expectations.  Get to know the culture at companies you are recruiting for.  Always dress professional for on-campus interviews and one level higher in situations later with clients.  She highly recommended that the women invest in getting a suit and that everyone make sure that their suit is tailored.

8. Quality is everything.  It is important to work quickly and efficiently but never sacrifice quality to get the job done quicker.

7. Demonstrate superior written and oral communication skills.  Make sure that your communications in recruiting and the work place are professional.  Keep emails to the point and effective at getting your message cross.  We need to always make sure that our business and cell phone voice mail are appropriate in case a client or a recruiter calls.

6. Exercise professional conduct.  Be pleasant to work with and learn to deal with difficult personalities.  She explained how we need to be aware of our surroundings.   This will help us to keep good relations with the client, and their employees

5. Be a team player.  It is super important to be cooperative with all those that you work with.  Let your teammates know where you are going to be and do your fair share of the work.  The greatest tip in this section was to be courteous and helpful to the administrative members of the team and client employees.  The secretary can help get you into see the top executives and help you coordinate more efficiently with them. 

4. Set personal goals.  Have a vision and be proactive at reaching goals that will stretch you.

3. Undersell and over deliver.  Only promise what you can deliver, what you will be able to make happen and finish by the dead line.  Prioritize your assignments to use your time effectively and do not procrastinate.

2. Take time to listen.  It will pay off a lot to practice listening skills.  Show them that you are listening, reword what they said to make sure you understand and use acknowledging gestures.

1. Attitude is everything.  A positive attitude makes tedious tasks seem bearable, and interestingly enough, success seems to follow positive thinkers.

All of these things will help us become better when we get to our careers and through the recruiting process.  Although the presentation was given mainly from an auditor’s perspective, if we apply these skills to the recruiting process and our future corporations, we will be able to become valuable parts of that company.

Another great book on attributes to help us become better is a book written by Stephen R. Covey, 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.  A summary of the book can be found at http://www.quickmba.com/mgmt/7hab/.