There can be no more frustrating experience than when a person you are relying on fails to deliver as promised. It’s called missing deadlines – the place that is forbidden to the CA(SA)! There is one particular aspect of the Big 4 auditing firms: they teach their people about the importance of meeting deadlines. Deadlines are non-negotiable. The real […]
There have been some surprisingly shocking revelations made recently. The scientific world went through a tremulous transformation some 70 years ago. Don’t get me wrong. I’m not a scientist in any form or fashion. I’m a CA which just makes me the kind of individual that queries ideas and concepts in order to establish how it affects my picture of the […]
When it comes to personal branding, time keeping could be one of the most critical components. Don’t kid yourself. Arriving late might pre-brand you as slovenly and off purpose. And then there are those who fail to show up at all! Usually this type is too embarrassed to face the consequences and make it worse by not even calling […]
I don’t know about you, but discipline has always been a dirty word to me. Somehow when I hear the word it has a draining effect on my energy – probably something going back to my childhood. Now you are not talking to a person who has no discipline. I have an enormous capacity to exert willpower. The only […]
Every budding CA has to, at one time or another, face the prospect of taking the bold step of moving out of the auditing profession. There’s a big wide world out there and the transition can look look quite daunting. But it need not be so. If you really consider the number of skills that you have developed in […]
I was asked an interesting question recently: is there a difference between a CFO (Chief Financial Officer) and FD (Financial Director)? Well, for a minute I was stymied. I had to give it some thought. CFO is definitely a relatively new term – financial director has always been the classic description of the most senior financial executive. But there now […]
As you probably know by now, I am a great proponent of the CA(SA) brand. One of the most impactful sessions in my coaching program is the one on personal branding. That is personal branding in relation to being a CA(SA). (CA(Z) and CA(NAM) fit it the same glorious category). Usually when I ask clients what their brand […]
Considering the stuff that really creates success, it is actually a lot more simple than you might think. The overriding ingredients are sourced from places other than pure brains and intelligence. In fact, they emerge from two basic character traits: perseverance and determination. Now don’t let me confuse you. Simplicity does not mean ‘easy’. Easy and simple are very different ideas. […]
Being in the career advisory space I often encounter clients who are stuck – they just don’t quite know which way to go. Using a few searching and hard-hitting questions it becomes apparent that usually they are avoiding what needs to be done. What do you think you are being called out to do right now? In other words, in the […]
Don’t you often find that you are asking yourself the question “I’m a qualified CA, but am I making it? Am I where a CA with my years of experience, should be?” It does not seem to matter how many years you have been qualified, there is always this nagging uncertainty that you are not as successful as […]