Only one in 50 accountants ultimately becomes a partner. If you ask most accountants what it takes to make partner, they’ll say it takes intense dedication to the job, outstanding technical skills, great leadership skills, outstanding communication skills, client development skills and maybe having a friend or mentor in senior management.

However, our research and skills assessment tests show there are five personality traits that significantly make or break your chances of becoming a partner. Some are inherent, some can be learned, some can be corrected. The list may surprise you.

1. Conscientiousness done differently

Overly conscientious persona: Taylor got promoted into a management role at a midsized accounting firm six months ago. Her diligent commitment to getting clients’ accounts done on time and exceeding the firm’s expectations of quality and attention to detail played a big part in Taylor getting that promotion. But, she has very little experience managing teams and it’s beginning to show.

Most people think conscientiousness is a positive attribute since conscientious people tend to be reliable, prudent, dependable folks who value planning, organization and structure. They typically adhere to well-established policies and processes. They not only meet deadlines but do so with quality output to meet their high personal standards.

It’s no surprise that conscientious employees are prized by accounting firms when the role requires meeting immovable external deadlines and producing quality output. But when highly conscientious accountants start moving up the ranks and begin managing people, they often struggle. Their rigid mindset can make it difficult for them to think outside the box and adapt when complex challenges arise — challenges that can’t be solved by sticking with the firm’s longstanding policies and procedures.

Since they’re hesitant to take shortcuts or look for “workarounds,” they generally don’t mind working late and coming in on weekends. But expecting team members to make the same sacrifices often creates resentment, erodes firm culture and can spike a rash of resignations and mental and physical health issues. 

When I speak to firms and organizations about “Conscientiousness Done Differently,” I tell them it’s not about setting immovable deadlines and work quality expectations; it’s about questioning the way things are done at one’s organization to see if their rigid mindset is adversely affecting their team in a profession that’s perpetually short of talent.  

Solution: With a preference for valuing and adhering to established methods, highly conscientious people who aspire to become partners must be trained to ask themselves if their adherence to old methods still adds value — or where the process could be streamlined and still deliver results. The Taylors of your firm must also be trained to ask themselves if they’re contributing to an unhealthy “long hours culture” at the firm. Help the Taylors keep the focus on results, not on maxing out billable hours. 

2. Let it go! Trusting and delegation

Trusting/delegation persona: Chris is a team leader who prides himself on the quality and accuracy of the accounts produced by his team. He spends considerable time performing quality assurance checks on all work produced by his reports.

During his last performance review, Chris was asked to reduce the time spent reviewing his team’s work so he could focus on developing his staff to be self-sufficient and grow their careers. Chris is clearly struggling with this request. 

Most accounting tasks require careful attention to detail and forensic levels of fact-checking and verification. Employers tend to hire accountants who have a healthy degree of skepticism to ensure they’re not accepting everything a client shares with them at face value or letting fraudulent or misleading data find its way into financial statements. But what happens when these wary accountants start moving up the ranks and managing teams of their own? They often struggle to delegate and evolve into micromanagers who scrutinize every single task their team members do. This naturally breeds resentment and erodes firm culture. 

Solution: If you think people like Chris have partnership potential at your firm, help them see the benefits of delegation and allow their reports to make their own mistakes — if mistakes occur — as long as those mistakes don’t irreparably harm the firm. 

3. Emotional Intelligence

We designed our firm’s Accountants Personality Profile Questionnaire to prioritize traits linked to EI. This allows accounting firms and corporate finance departments to assess the degree to which their emerging leaders build deeper, more meaningful relationships with their teams and clients. Our research shows most accountants would rather join a people-first culture than a me-first culture. 

Emotionally unintelligent persona: Wayne is a technical genius when it comes to accounting. Soon after joining the firm two years ago, he became the “go-to” person for solving complex accounting matters. Because of his technical acumen, the firm’s partners want to keep promoting Wayne, but the firm’s administrator and HR manager have reservations. Wayne would rather be right than make friends at work, and his personality has led to several tearful interventions by management and even a resignation or two.

Without improving his people skills, Wayne’s personality will likely do more harm to firm culture and retention than his technical expertise will add value.

Solution: From a coaching perspective, EI can be developed for professionals like Wayne, but it’s not a quick fix. He can start by showing more empathy toward his colleagues and take a genuine interest in their lives outside the office — remembering team members’ birthdays, kids’ names or favorite hobbies, and chatting with them about things other than work. When people feel their manager is genuinely interested in them, they are much more likely to stay at their firm and report satisfaction with their job. Widely used personality tests such as 16PF, Personality Assessment Inventory and Big 5/OCEAN call this the “warmth scale.” 

4. Self-confidence and resilience

Insecure persona: Ella has been with a large accounting firm for six years but has never hinted at wanting to progress her career. As a new hire, she recorded some of the highest critical reasoning test scores ever recorded at the firm and consistently produces high-quality work. But her manager and the HR team have seen her stymied at times by extreme anxiety when asked to take on new tasks. 

I’m guessing you have people at your firm who are trustworthy, reliable and highly competent at their jobs, but don’t have the confidence to seek out promotions or advocate on their own behalf. This reticence could have been caused by toxic bosses undermining them at previous jobs, or it could go back earlier in life to parents reminding them they weren’t as smart as their siblings, vindictive teachers not recognizing their talents or “friends” who betrayed them in childhood. 

As much as you feel for the Ellas of the world, they won’t make good partners or help you move your succession plan forward if they’re still haunted by ghosts of their past failures and embarrassments (real or imagined). Also, widely used personality tests such as MBTI and DISC don’t measure a respondent’s coping style or stress tolerance. However, our personality questionnaire (APPQ) extensively measures a team member’s stress tolerance, self-confidence and emotional stability, which combine into their coping style. 

Solution: Resilience-based coaching can help the Ellas of your firm address their fear of failure and lack of confidence. Addressing emotional instability and apprehension may also require the help of an outside mental health professional. We’ve found that most employees are receptive to coaching if it shows them how much the firm or company values them and wants them to succeed. And when the highly competent Ellas of the firm have more confidence to be leaders, this tends to improve the motivation and morale of all those around them. 

5. Assertion and social boldness

Non-assertive persona: Sam is being considered for promotion at a Midwest accounting firm with many clients in the agricultural sector. Clients are experiencing challenging conditions. They’re straight talkers who often question the accounting advice and don’t mince words. If Sam gets promoted, he will move out of back-office support into an advisory role in which he will need to communicate persuasively with clients and sometimes challenge the accounts they submit.   

As accountants move up the ranks, they must spend more time interfacing with clients, massaging egos, defending the firm’s work and challenging clients’ business practices. Without being assertive and confident, accountants like Sam could be coerced into doing something unethical or not addressing questionable behavior or risk losing the client unless their unreasonable demands or expectations are met.

Solution: Provide Sam with the coaching he needs to get comfortable with these situations when much of his early career has been back-office support should be an early coaching priority.

Becoming an accounting firm partner requires more than long hours, personal sacrifice and technical expertise. By recognizing and addressing the five personality traits above, accountants can overcome hidden obstacles and significantly improve their partnership prospects.