Practical ideas, lessons learned and shared experiences for those in the world of CPA firm management, human resources, administration, marketing and technology.
Sure, I know that the partners at McLain, Calhoun, McCullough, Clark & Co., P.C. were not thinking of me specifically this week, but I do know that they did think enough of me to add me to the list of people who receive their annual, unique gift.
Yes, I received my box of onions and I was simply delighted. I’ve been lucky enough to receive this gift for many years now and I don’t take it for granted. It seems special every year.
You see, McLain Calhoun is located in Vidalia, Georgia – you all know what that means when it comes to onions, Vidalia onions are sweet and delicious.
How about your firm, are you recognizing your important clients and your valuable people by “remembering” them each year with a gift?
There are a lot of great ideas out there for gifts, but I met the people from Gifts On Time last fall and they make it easy for busy CPAs to schedule their gift-giving. They call it “gift management simplified.” One of the founders is actually a CPA – Ron Orleans.
I also encourage you to consider gifts for prospects. How can they refuse a phone call from someone who has sent them a nice gift. At my firm we did this all the time – - – send a letter, then a card, then a gift – then make a phone call.
I bet you never thought you would see a picture of me with onions! Maybe I should add it to my “Is that you with Rita?” album.
Vidalia onions aren't just the most famous onions in the world; I think they may be the ONLY famous onions in the world.
Inside CPA firms, the word “manager” is not very clearly defined.
For many firms it is a name they give a person who has developed solid technical accounting, auditing or tax skills over a period of time. I believe the term “manager” applies to partners, managers, supervisors and even seniors inside an accounting firm. After all, they are expected to manage the client engagement and the work of people who are more junior than themselves. They are the boss in many situations.
Google, inside their own organization, decided to explore the question, “What makes a good boss?” and called the the study Project Oxygen.
They discovered that what you might think would be the top characteristic, the ability to write computer code in your sleep, came in last. I imagine that inside an accounting firm, being a great tax mind or having extremely advanced auditing skills would also come in last as an indicator of being a great boss.
Here’s Project Oxygen‘s findings, Google’s “Eight Good Behaviors” of top managers, ranked in order of importance:
Be a good coach. Provide specific, constructive feedback, balancing the negative and the positive. Have regular one-on-ones, presenting solutions to problems tailored to your employees’ specific strengths.
Empower your team and don’t micromanage. Balance giving freedom to your employees, while still being available for advice. Make “stretch” assignments to help the team tackle big problems.
Express interest in team members’ success and personal well-being.Get to know your employees as people, with lives outside of work. Make new members of your team feel welcome and help ease their transition.
Don’t be a sissy: Be productive and results-oriented.Focus on what employees want the team to achieve and how they can help achieve it. Help the team prioritize work and use seniority to remove roadblocks.
Be a good communicator and listen to your team.Communication is two-way: you both listen and share information. Hold all-hands meetings and be straightforward about the messages and goals of the team. Help the team connect the dots. Encourage open dialogue and listen to the issues and concerns of your employees.
Help your employees with career development.
Have a clear vision and strategy for the team. Even in the midst of turmoil, keep the team focused on goals and strategy. Involve the team in setting and evolving the team’s vision and making progress toward it.
Have key technical skills so you can help advise the team. Roll up your sleeves and conduct work side by side with the team, when needed. Understand the specific challenges of the work.
CPA firms focus so much time and so many dollars on training their youngest team members. They are sent to Level I, II, III and maybe more for audit training. The firm funds their education in “beginning tax,” “advanced tax” and more. Managers and partners review their work and critique their skills in tax preparation, auditing and accounting. Why not invest in helping accountants become better bosses?
An idea: Firm owners, why not consider devoting this year’s partner retreat to the topic of how you are going to spend dollars and time training yourselves, your managers and even your seniors on how to be better managers of people? Develop an action plan outlining steps you need to take to become better leaders, as partners, and how you will develop future leaders inside your firm. Some call it succession planning; I call it running a good firm.
In public accounting firms, true leadership training rarely happens. I strongly urge you, plead with you, even beg you – begin leadership training from Day One – just like you do with tax and accounting training. Contact me if you need help.
No man goes before his time; unless the boss leaves early.
One of the best ways to enhance your reputation as being an outstanding CPA is to write. Don’t cringe! One of the best ways to attract new business is to write. One of the best ways to obtain more business from your current clients is to write
You should be writing about what you know – accounting, tax, auditing – or about a special industry you serve, where you have become extremely knowledgeable – auto dealers, distributors, high wealth individuals, non-profits. Write about a special tax situation you solved for a client.
For years, firm administrators, administrative assistants and marketing directors in CPA firms have been waiting on you to provide that article you promised.
Here’s how the story goes. At a pipeline meeting, Pete (the tax partner) mentions that he will write an article for the next firm newsletter. Sally, the firm administrator, thanks him and informs him that she will need the article in three weeks. Pete acknowledges that is enough time for him to provide her the brief (350 to 400 word) article.
Two weeks later Sally sends Pete an email to remind him that he has one more week to write the article and she even stops by his office to inquire about his progress (he hasn’t started it yet). Two days before the due date she inquires again via email and receives no reply. The next day she asks him in the hallway about the article and he explains, “I know I owe you an article but I have been too busy, maybe I’ll do it tomorrow.” Sally delays publication of the newsletter, awaiting the promised article. After three or four days of standing outside his office door to nag him, she gives up and substitutes a “canned” article. Now, repeat this scene over and over again. One of my favorite phrases applies: Good intentions, no implementation.
In today’s business environment, writing has become more and more important. CPAs should be blogging, tweeting, sending newsletters with articles written by their own partners and staff, submitting articles to their local business newspaper, starting discussions on LinkedIn andiShade. The written word is being blasted around the planet in astronomical numbers and CPAs should be part of the noise. It has become absolutely critical for CPAs to be writing on social media.
Want to learn how to write for social media and how to make it an easy natural activity? Take 6 minutes and watch this excellent video from Jeffrey Gitomer titled, Writing is Not a Mystery. It’s Your Best Chance to Achieve Mastery.
Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing.
The April due date has arrived and passed. Are your team members completely burnt-out? Will they almost immediately be thinking, it’s time to move on?
Already in 2012, I have heard about firms losing people. I continue to hear about and read about the brain-drain in public accounting when it comes to females. What are you, as a leader in your firm, going to do about it?
Maybe this year you should consider embracing a career lattice culture rather than a career ladder culture. Not everyone achieves success in the same way. Often there are may detours along the way.
Research has shown that public accounting loses a lot of good people (and many females) when they believe public accounting will not accommodate their personal and career choices. Women want to start a family so they think they must leave public accounting. Don’t let your young talent make this assumption. Most successful firms have already embraced flexibility as a formal part of their culture.
I urge you to paint a picture for your young professionals of a career lattice. Communicate to them: If there comes a times in your life whether you are male or female, when you need or want less (or more), a reduced schedule, more regular hours, less travel, more travel, less responsibility or really want to accelerate your advancement in the firm – talk to us!
Learn more about the career lattice approach from my blog post titled, What Is Your Team Members’ Definition Of Up? I posted it a couple of years ago but it definitely still applies this year.
A man has made at least a start on discovering the meaning of human life when he plants shade trees under which he knows full well he will never sit.
The two separate two-day educational and networking sessions will be held at the Marriott Detroit Metro Airport on May 8-9, 2012.
The annual Technology Fly-In has become a staple for AAA members involved in planning, implementation and management of the firms technology systems. Follow the link to learn more and to register.
The 2012 AAA Financial Management Fly-In is designed for bookkeepers, controllers, chief financial officers, financial, administrators and office managers who are responsible for the day-to-day financial operation of an accounting firm. Follow the link to learn more and to register.
If you were born without wings, do nothing to prevent them from growing.
I always want to be sure you, as a key person inside your CPA firm, are reading, reading, reading. Of course I mean CPA practice management articles, newsletters, and blogs. But I also strongly encourage you to read about a VERY wide variety of topics – anything that interests you.
For example, reading an issue of National Geographic while on an airplane gave me an idea for a recent blog post, Public Accounting Doesn’t Need Princesses. I get a lot of ideas (and helpful information) from FAST Company magazine and from their online presence. Check-out my post titled, Expand Your Universe, where I encourage you to become more creative. I reference the FAST Company blog post, Desks, Where Creativity Goes To Die.
One of the best sources of current reading and trends in CPA leadership is CPA Leadership Institute. Are you a member?
CPA Leadership Report is the monthly review of the most important management and leadership articles in the accounting press. It includes electronic links to publishers’ websites, where you can find the original, complete articles. Their editors review more than 35 publications every month and present them to you in one spot.
I recently had the pleasure of becoming acquainted with Brannon Poe, CPA. Poe is the author of a book, titled Accountant’s Flight Plan - Best Practices for Today’s Firms. I found it to be a very readable, on-point guide to some of the most pressing topics in CPA firm practice management.
When Poe got into the business of helping people buy and sell their accounting firms, he started keeping a “deal journal.” It became full of notes, anecdotes, and scribblings as he talked with firm owners. He has helped over one hundred practices to be sold. Later, it dawned on him that all of this information might be worth passing along. Thus, the book.
His findings are right on target and I certainly agree that he did the right thing in writing a book that can be shared with practitioners facing the challenges of running an accounting practice.
I like the titles of his chapters. Click the link to see a preview. Here’s a few examples of the chapter titles:
Enabling decision support and managing performance
Governing and managing IT investment/spending
Preventing and responding to fraud
Managing vendors and service providers
Here are the top technology initiatives considered having the most impact:
Information security
Remote access
Control and use of mobile devices
Business process improvement with technology
Data retention policies and structure
Privacy policies and compliance
Staff and management training
Spreadsheet management
Overall data proliferation and control
Portals (vendor and client/customer)
This information comes from the AICPA survey conducted early this year. There were 2,259 AICPA member responses.
To me, a very important observation made by Kepczyk is the fact that a public accounting firm’s technology manager/director must now become much more strategic in their focus and become the competent technology visionary for the firm.
Today’s quote says a lot about leadership, people and technology in CPA firms.
There go the people. I must follow them for I am their leader.
Working inside CPA firms, you are often pressured into thinking that you MUST multi-task in order to get everything done that’s on your plate.
Here are three policies suggested in the article that I think you should consider:
Maintain meeting discipline. Schedule meetings for 45 minutes, rather than an hour or longer, so participants can stay focused, take time afterward to reflect on what’s been discussed, and recover before the next obligation. Start all meetings at a precise time, end at a precise time, and insist that all digital devices be turned off throughout the meeting.
Stop demanding or expecting instant responsiveness at every moment of the day. It forces your people into reactive mode, fractures their attention, and makes it difficult for them to sustain attention on the priorities. Let them turn off their email at certain times. If it’s urgent, you can call them – but that won’t happen very often.
Encourage renewal. Create at least one time during the day when you encourage your people to stop working and take a break. Offer a mid afternoon class in yoga, or meditation, organize a group walk or workout, or consider creating a renewal room where people can relax, or take a nap.
My message to you today: Try new approaches to solve old problems.
Life is what happens to you when you're busy making other plans.
For the many years I worked inside a growing CPA firm, I was often amazed at how little many partners talk about fees with their clients.
I believe you talk about it, face-to-face and in depth when you bring on a new client. Don’t just put it in the engagement letter and assume they have no questions. Explain openly how it works at your firm (it doesn’t work the same way at all CPA firms). Then, have the fee discussion at least once a year before the engagement begins. The client is wondering but often is not proactive in asking.
Steve Erickson has a great blog post titled, Talk to Your Clients about Your Fees and recommends:
Stop quoting fee ranges.
Initiate the conversation about fees with all of your clients.
Yes, I received my box of onions and I was simply delighted. I’ve been lucky enough to receive this gift for many years now and I don’t take it for granted. It seems special every year.
