Monday, August 11th, 2008
JOURNAL OF ACCOUNTANCY ARTICLE BY RITA KELLER
Want to read more about mentoring and coaching in a CPA firm and how they both are important? Check out the August issue of the Journal of Accountancy – Page 77. Click here for the on-line version of the article.
I am excited and honored to have an article published in the Journal. I have been featured in the Journal of Accountancy on three separate occasions over the years (September 1997, September 1999 and April 2007) but this is the first time I have actually authored an article that was accepted.
The most important message is that firms have to look for mentoring programs that fit their culture and they need to be creative and not just accept a cookie-cutter approach. Firms must keep their mentoring programs alive and healthy!
When I work with firms to develop mentoring programs, I always encourage the mentoring committee to be very thorough and to begin with the end in mind. What do they want to happen as a result of their mentoring program? While it’s smart to start with samples from other firms or from various articles, it is important to be flexible.
In the article you will see how two firms approached mentoring in very different ways. Thanks to Wilkin & Guttenplan PC in New Jersey and Burr, Pilger & Mayer in the Bay Area for sharing their approaches to mentoring.
“Stop trying to grow your organization. Work on people’s attitudes. If you do that, your organization will experience 10 percent growth overnight.” – - John C. Maxwell
