Tuesday, February 14th, 2012
Happy Valentine’s Day To CPAs & Their Teams!
A picture is worth a thousand words…
- A pair of powerful spectacles has sometimes sufficed to cure a person in love.
Archive for the ‘Partner topics’ Category
Thursday, February 9th, 2012
Employee Engagement
I’ve been thinking a lot about CPA firm staff surveys lately. I’m working on some ideas that could possibly make them more meaningful.
Rather than getting hung-up on how much they like the benefits, the work hours, and the food you provide, wouldn’t it be much more valuable to know who, on your team, is really engaged and passionate about what the firm stands for and its goals and values?
Image from Gallup
Employee engagement can be described as the level of commitment the team member has towards the firm. Do they speak positively about the firm to coworkers, potential employees, family and friends? Do they exert extra effort to contribute to the firm’s success? Or, do they whine and complain to each other at lunch everyday?
In case studies about employee engagement, it is often discovered the the organization’s management style is at the heart of the problem.
Maybe this is something that firm leaders should explore in the spring to find out if your team is actually engaged and passionate about the firm and public accounting.
Gallup has done a lot of research in this area. Check out – Gallup Study: Engaged Employees Inspire Company Innovation.
- The only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones who never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn, like fabulous yellow roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars and in the middle you see the blue centerlight pop and everybody goes “Awww!”
Tuesday, January 31st, 2012
The CPA Firm Partner Retirement Timeline
If your CPA firm, like so many others across the country, is facing the succession challenge try this simple Retirement Timeline Exercise and use it as a tool at your next management retreat.
Do you have too many clusters of partners reaching retirement age? How many younger partners are also in clusters?
I suggest doing two time-lines – one based on the year that partners reach age 65 (in many firms this is when you have to sell your stock) and one based on when the individual partner thinks he/she will actually “retire.”
One of the major issues you will be facing is that many partners will reach retirement age, sell their stock and then want to stay active in the firm for many years to come. You have to decide if that’s a good thing or a bad thing. It’s often a downer for the young partners and future partners in the firm in that they are looking forward to their chance to take over and do things their way.
In years gone by, firms have been able to keep the founder on the payroll and provide an office and other support. However, now you might be facing many Baby Boomer partners wanting to keep working. Does it make sense to have four or five over-65, former partners around the office indefinitely? Be sure to examine, discuss and decide what is really best for the firm.
Here’s a sample of the Retirement Timeline:
Thursday, January 12th, 2012
Partner Goals For 2012
Do all the partners in your CPA firm have meaningful goals for 2012? Has your managing partner met with every partner individually to talk about and document their goals? Have you made them public?
Many firms wait until early in January, after all of the year-end frenzy, to establish their current year goals. If you haven’t performed this important step yet for 2012, here’s a link to Gary Adamson’s Five Tips To Get More Out Of Your Partner Goal Setting from his Adamson Advisory December newsletter.
- Committed Leadership
- Hygiene vs. Goals
- Firm Wide Goals/Objectives and Compensation Plan
- Don’t Hide Them
- Outside Assistance
Follow the link above to read about each of the five topics.
- I find it fascinating that most people plan their vacation with better care than they do their lives. Perhaps that is because escape is easier than change.
Tuesday, January 10th, 2012
CPA Firm Growth Strategies for 2012
In Aquila Global Advisors‘ January newsletter, August Aquila offers this advice:
- Beef up your sales and marketing efforts.
- Look for new niches.
- Think merger.
- Add new services.
Read his explanation of each one and the entire article. As he notes – - Don’t play defense. Make it happen in 2012.
- Conformity is the jailer of freedom and the enemy of growth.
Thursday, December 29th, 2011
The Interns Will Be Arriving At Your CPA Firm Next Week
The title, above, might not apply to some firms but I certainly hope it applies to the vast majority.
My advice when it comes to interns is, if you can possibly use one – hire two. If you think you might need 3, hire six. Most of you know by now that hiring for the public accounting profession has evolved to hiring from your intern pool. The best and brightest almost always accept offers from the firm they interned with. The stiffest competition in hiring on campus is for the best intern candidates.
When the interns arrive, make them feel special. I often ask groups of managing partners how they felt on their first day working in public accounting. I get some very consistent answers such as: I felt dumb. I felt lost. I was clueless. I was scared.
Now that you are more experienced, keep in mind how all new hires in the CPA world feel. And remember, use positive talk. Sometimes, people in CPA firms tend to dwell on the negative. When you describe your firm and public accounting, in general, to new hires (and to anyone) don’t forget to brag it up!
In January, when new hires and interns arrive, it is a perfect time to talk about the wonderful opportunities in public accounting. As a firm leader, take the time to talk with each one privately about the wonderful world of public accounting. I suggest comparing public accounting to being a doctor – CPAs are highly trained physicians (specialists) treating patients – sometimes you are focused on preventive medicine and sometimes you are an emergency room doctor. Sometimes you even need to provide psychiatric help (like me in the picture, above).
Here’s an example of an intern speech for you to use, just insert the name of one of your all-stars.
“You know, Nate, the reality of the CPA profession and what makes it so important to you, is the fact that it is absolutely the BEST place to TRAIN for the business world. Public accounting teaches you how to think in ways that have never entered your brain before now. Being an auditor forces you to look past what is obvious. Taxes teaches you how to be cunning, creative and forces you to think proactively. You could say that working in the tax area is like planning the strategy for an important battle.
What’s more, public accounting is like the emergency room for all business owners. YOU are the DOCTOR and PATIENTS come to you when they have a painful problem. You strip them of their clothes (so to speak), see them for what they humanly are, do x-rays, CAT scans and all kinds of tests to be sure it is a thorough examination. You see into their personal life like no other person. Then you diagnose and treat them.
Also, Nate, if you keep your eyes, ears and mind open during your time with them, you will see how successful businesses are run and how true entrepreneurs think. You might also see how mistakes and poor judgment can take a business down. What a training ground!”
- The nice thing about being a celebrity is that if you bore people they think it's their fault.
Wednesday, December 14th, 2011
Enhance The Relationship With The Client – Save The Whale
I get a lot of questions about the value of client feedback surveys. In fact, I’ll be writing a more focused look at the variety and style of client surveys used by firms in an upcoming newsletter article.
For today, here’s a method you might want to try. I call it “save the whale” and I learned it from a CPA firm marketing director many years ago.
Client feedback is just one part of the “building the client relationship” journey. To build a true, strong relationship you need face time.
Select a few of your huge, important-to-the-firm “A” clients, maybe two from each partner’s responsibility list. These are the “whales.”
Schedule a meeting with the owner or CEO and the firms managing partner/CEO, promising only to take 30 minutes of the owner’s time just to obtain some information about the firm’s relationship with the client. It is best if the MP actually calls the client directly rather than delegate it to an assistant. The MP does not have to know the client personally. In fact, this is a great way to give clients the chance to meet another partner level contact at the firm.
The MP takes a few standard questions along to ask the client, in person. And then just lets the client talk about their relationship with the firm, how it feels to them and if there is more the firm could do to better serve their needs. Of course, the MP explains how this feedback helps the firm to improve and provide even better service.
The MP returns to the office, debriefs with the partner-in-charge of the client relationship and records the answers to the 4 or 5 standard questions so all the data can be analyzed later.
Managing Partners, make this a routine, quick and easy practice. Do one or two a month on an on-going basis. This type of activity is what a managing partner SHOULD be doing – listening to the firm’s client base and providing important feedback to each of the firm’s partners.
- He who asks a question is a fool for five minutes; he who does not ask a question remains a fool forever.
Wednesday, December 7th, 2011
You Don’t Go Very Far If The Pilots Are Not On Board
I meet and get to know some pretty great people associated with the CPA profession. That’s the case with Dustin Hostetler. I met and talked with Dustin at several CPA management conferences over the last few years, we’ve met for lunch (he lives in Ohio, too) and keep in touch digitally.
Hostetler is the founder of Flowtivity and the practice leader and lead consultant for LeanCPA. As a Lean Six Sigma Master Black Belt with extensive experience working inside a large regional CPA firm, he has taken proven Lean techniques from the manufacturing floor and tailored them to bring ground-breaking value to public accounting firms. His innovation and passion has brought true efficiency to accounting — helping accounting firms unleash the potential of their professionals.
I’m sharing all this with you because of an article Hostetler wrote in his recent newsletter. How far does a plane go without pilots and how does that relate to CPA firms? He’s right on target with this engaging story.
- Example is leadership.
Tuesday, November 29th, 2011
Use It Or Lose It – I’m Talking About Confrontation
Are you a bully or a wimp?
Most CPA firms contain a cast of characters similar to what you might find in some of the most successful TV shows. After all, you are living an adventure, a comedy, a drama, a mystery and a reality show every day.
When it comes to confrontation, you might notice that your cast of characters contain one, maybe two, bullies and a whole bunch of wimps.
Everyone in the firm can identify the bully and tolerate the person. The interns find this character especially amusing. Sometimes the bully is necessary to stir things up and keep the firm moving forward. However, usually, they are acknowledged as the “wild card” or “loose cannon” who ignores most of the rules and does not lead by example.
As for wimps…. I really don’t like to call CPAs wimps because that doesn’t really describe them. What they are, are really honest, caring and NICE people and who don’t like the discomfort of confrontation. Mostly, because they have not learned how to use positive confrontation.
Often CPA owner groups avoid confrontation like the plague and end up in the procrastination world. What I am talking about is not avoiding confrontation, I want you to face it head-on and use it to your advantage or you might find your firm losing ground in the battle for talented people and profitable clients.
Here are some tips from an article on Women Grow Business site by consultant, Libby Wagner.
Prepare and set the stage for a productive confrontation conversation by considering the following elements.
- In person, in private
- Positive nonverbals
- No excess emotional baggage
- Using “I” messages
- Focus on desirable behaviors
- Focus on positive consequences and results.
Be sure to follow the link above to read the details about each of the six elements.
Conversation from Diary of a Wimpy Kid movie:
Rowley Jefferson: My mom said to just be myself and everyone would like me.
Greg Heffley: That would be good advice if you were somebody else.
- If there's one thing I learned from Rodrick, it's to set people's expectations real low so you end up surprising them by practically doing nothing at all.
Tuesday, November 8th, 2011
For The Good of The Firm, Unnecessary Changes and Partner Compensation
In this world of individualism, which has directly impacted how we manage our CPA firms and our people, I often feel like many accounting firms have lost something valuable, something I have always called “the common good.”
What is best for the group, the community, the whole (the firm) is not alway the best for each individual team member. So, firm leaders are often caught in the trap of changing this and changing that for no other reason than one, single person questioned a decision or complained. In some firms it feels like a steady diet of whiplash.
Here’s a brief excerpt from Aligning the Stars – How to Succeed When Professionals Drive Results by Jay Lorsch and Thomas Tierney:
“The strength of the firm overall lies in its ability to shape the behavior of its individual professionals such that, on average, they put the interests of the firm ahead of their own needs. The larger the proportion of partners who are willing to do this, the more aligned the firm will be – and the higher the odds that it will achieve its objectives over time, even though any single individual may fall short. Conversely, the smaller the proportion of professionals who put the firm first, the greater the likelihood that sooner or later the firm will fail.”
Maybe this is why so many firms have found it appealing to move to a closed compensation system for partners. Most partners are extremely happy to find out that at the end of the year, their reward is $302,000 until they find out that Bob, the partner in office down the hall, made $304,500. How could Bob possibly be .8% better than me?
- I'm selfish, impatient and a little insecure. I make mistakes, I am out of control and at times hard to handle. But if you can't handle me at my worst, then you sure as hell don't deserve me at my best.
