When I was in high school I wanted to be a teacher. But when it came time to think about college, my guidance counselor told me that there would be no teaching jobs when I graduated so I should think about some other career I could actually make a living at. I asked her opinion since I had no idea what else to be when I grew up. She looked over my grades and found I was pretty good in math and got all A’s in my bookkeeping classes, so she told me I should become an accountant. She thought I would do very well in college and you can always find a job in accounting. So, that’s what I did and after I graduated; I got a job in public accounting.

I was good at it. I moved pretty quickly in the firm, but after 2 years, I realized that if I had to look at another piece of green bar paper (not excel spreadsheet,) or punch another number on the adding machine, (not calculator,) I was going to jump out the window. I begged my supervisor to put me on more interesting accounts, please don’t make me do another tax return, etc., but as a staff accountant you had to do all of that. And I really grew to hate my job, and my boss, and my company, and Mrs. Schnyder, my old guidance counselor.

I quietly did some job searches, looked for opportunities that involved interacting more with people, and shortly landed a job as a staff accountant for a wine and liquor company. Mrs. Schnyder was right about one thing. It was pretty easy at that time to find a job as an accountant. But a wine and liquor company sounded a lot more enjoyable than doing auditing and taxation for the rest of my life. I could go into management, maybe sales, who knows, the sky is the limit!

When it came time to give my notice, I sent a letter of resignation and one of the big partners in the firm, whom I had worked on many accounts with, called me into his office. He was so disappointed that I wanted to leave. I explained my reasoning and that I loved the people there, etc., but auditing and taxation just wasn’t what I wanted to do for the long haul. My new job was offering way more opportunity.

He proceeded to tell me about all the plans the accounting firm had for the future. Times were changing and clients wanted more of a personal approach. They didn’t want a firm to just do their auditing and taxes, they wanted a financial partner to consult with and get advice from. He told me I would be perfect in that role in a few years, but first I had to really understand the inner workings of the firm and all the services we provide. He explained how the audit was so important when the client needed funding for a new project. How business decisions were made based on our work. He also explained how tax planning was essential to the cash flow of the business and more things that were actually interesting to me.

I told him I wished I would have spoken to him sooner because maybe I would not have been so frustrated if I knew how everything I was doing fit into the big picture, and that there were things on the horizon that I may have actually been interested in. Maybe I would have stuck it out there, and ended up in a better place than in my new job.

The partner had it right. The only problem was, my immediate boss never shared any of that information with me. Maybe he wasn’t privy to it, or maybe he was just too busy to notice or care if left. As a manager, one of the skills you need to hone is the ability to think conceptually. You must be able to see the relation of the parts to the whole and to one another. Everyone has tedious parts of their job that they hate to do. But those tasks still must get done. You need to be able to explain to your people, how they fit in to the big picture. Why this tiresome tasks is valuable to the organization, and why they are important to the organization. You must keep your staff motivated, and conceptual thinking will help you do that.

This blog was originally posted at: http://iamtechnation.com/abbe/get-the-picture/