Archive for the ‘Reading’ Category
Thursday, May 3rd, 2012
The May issue of my newsletter went out yesterday morning.
If you have ever thought of getting rid of things (or people) in your firm, you might want to read the first article:
- Addition, Subtraction, Multiplication & Division
Have you ever struggled with the decision to keep the same staff members assigned to a client engagement year after year as opposed to moving a newer team member into the role? Maybe this article will help:
- Same People On The Same Engagements Year After Year
You can receive the newsletter directly if you sign-up on my website. To read this month’s issue click here.
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Action is the foundational key to all success.
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Pablo Picasso
Wednesday, April 18th, 2012
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 wanted to remind you about this because CPA Leadership Institute is providing a discount if you join before the end of April.
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Everybody is ignorant, only on different subjects.
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Will Rogers
Monday, April 16th, 2012
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:
- The Beauty of Balance
- The Client of Choice
- The Art of the Bill
- The Rule on Receivables
You can order the book from Poe’s site here.
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The older I get, the more I see a straight path where I want to go. If you're going to hunt elephants, don't get off the trail for a rabbit.
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T. Boone Pickens
Wednesday, April 11th, 2012
I haven’t subscribed to National Geographic magazine for years. This winter my husband instigated us signing-up again. Needless to say, I am once again enjoying the wonders of the magazine.
Of course, like many Baby Boomers, when I was about ten years old I saw my first pictures of naked people in an issue of National Geographic at our small town library. I still enjoy reading the paper copy. Holding the familiar yellow-bordered publication is somehow comforting and familiar.
Today while traveling (you can’t use electronic devices after the door closes and under 10,000 feet), I brought along an issue to fill the void. Of course, the photography is awesome. And, while I have been enlightened by the study of twins and the harshness of being on winter patrol in Greenland, a simple quote from a northern Montana rancher mother to her two rodeo-riding sons made me think of women in public accounting.
On a ranch, in northern Montana, it takes a hardworking, determined, tough woman to share the challenges with the hardworking men. What did this rancher mom tell here sons? “Don’t bring home any princesses.”
Sure, ranching and public accounting are two vastly different worlds. Women in public accounting work in nice offices with plenty of warmth in winter and coolness in summer. They don’t need physical strength but they do share a few things with the rancher mom. They are smart, determined and not afraid of hard work.
I certainly don’t believe in handling the females in your firm with kid gloves. That’s not what women’s initiatives are all about and I don’t think that the majority of the female CPAs want any part of “special” treatment. Just like males, not all females are cutout for public accounting.
As you send off your firm’s recruiters to college campuses this year, maybe you should tell them, “Don’t bring home any princesses.”
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After my own for instance, my favorite is Princess Leia.
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Peter Mayhew
Tuesday, April 10th, 2012
Just read a great post by Tony Schwartz on the HBR Blog – The Magic of Doing One Thing at a Time.
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.
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Life is what happens to you when you're busy making other plans.
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John Lennon
Tuesday, April 3rd, 2012
Working inside a CPA firm (or any other professional service organization for that matter), you might find yourself slowly developing “blinders” to what is going on in the exciting, changing and challenging business world outside of public accounting.
You love what you do and probably even love your clients and your firm. I hope you love your people! However, if you are passionate about growing, improving, expanding, polishing and branding your CPA firm, you might find yourself becoming much too narrowly focused.
Even social media makes it easier for accountants to sit behind their desk and avoid interacting face-to-face with people.
I continually urge you to become more creative. Don’t always follow the pack (which in the CPA world means the firms listed at the top of the MAP surveys).
First step, expand your reading list. Sure, read my blog (that’s #1!) but read blogs, magazines and books that are not focused on the CPA profession. Just try Googling a topic and embrace all the wonderful links that take you to some often eye-opening, mind-expanding reading.
Here’s an interesting blog post on FAST Company, titled: Desks, Where Creativity Goes To Die. Three recommendations from the blog post: 1) Leave the office. 2) Don’t specialize. 3) Stop reading business books.
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I'm not crazy, my mother had me tested.
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Sheldon Cooper
Wednesday, March 28th, 2012
Growing, profitable and successful CPA firms hire young accounting graduates right out of college. I have often advised that it is usually best to “grow your own” future CPAs, client-service stars and potential owners. They don’t possess bad habits learned at other firms.
The down-side is you must teach, coach, guide and mentor these young people who are completely unfamiliar with the business world, with client accounting and tax and with putting others first (clients, of course but also the people they work with every day).
Naturally, you look for young people who are self-confident. You want those with high self-esteem. But, recent research tells us that too much high-self esteem definitely has a down-side.
The people who are currently firm owners (baby boomers and older Gen-X) were raised very differently from today’s crop of new accounting grads. When, as children, baby boomers had an outburst of high self-esteem, they were reminded by their parents, that they were acting “too big for your britches.”
As John Rosemond, a widely-read parenting expert writes:
People with high self-esteem want to be paid attention to and served. They believe in their entitlement. On the other hand, folks with high regard for others pay attention to others and look for opportunities to serve them.
It is unarguable that culture is best served, preserved, and advanced by folks who fit into the latter category. Entitlements weaken, and a culture-wide entitlement mentality weakens the entire culture. Along these lines, every single manager, employer, and supervisor with whom I’ve talked in the last decade or so has told me that today’s young college graduates, by and large, are not looking for work; rather, they are looking for benefits packages (i.e. entitlements).
I must admit, I have heard from many CPA firm partners that they have a baby-boomer partner who is definitely on the high self-esteem wagon, demanding attention and not caring about the feelings of others. Think about the future if ALL of your partners were without humility and a sense of caring for others.
Take a minute to read Rosemond’s article here. It might help you better mentor your young workforce.
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There is a difference between conceit and confidence. Conceit is bragging about yourself. Confidence means you believe you can get the job done.
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Johnny Unitas
Monday, March 19th, 2012
Yes, I must admit, keeping pace with all of the new technological advances, new devices, apps and numerous gadgets is quite a chore at times. But, don’t you just love all of the benefits technology brings to us now?
Last week while I was on vacation, I could tweet pictures on my private Twitter account so that my son and family could see the gigantic alligator we saw on a nature hike almost immediately. I also follow him and my daughter-in-law on twitter and really know and understand them better than I ever could before technology. I knew immediately how well my granddaughter was doing in the state spelling competition as soon as it happened even though I was unable to attend. I attempt to share lots of valuable information with accountants and their teams via my professional twitter – @cpamanagement. I hope you will follow me.
As for business, I get all my news, weather and current business news (including numerous tweets by CPAs and CPA profession consultants, vendors, etc.) via my iPhone or iPad. I stay in touch via Twitter and Facebook. Which brings me to the subject of today’s post. I became aware of an article in the Journal of Accountancy titled – The iPad Decision – because Tom Hood, CEO of the Maryland Society of CPAs put it on his Facebook page. (Thanks, Tom!)
You can’t possibly keep up with all of the reading that you need to do these days but you can enlist others to help you find the information you might need – - as I do via social media. Of course, LinkedIn is a great tool for CPAs, too.
If you are faced with The iPad Decision and wondering whether buying an iPad is what you should do – be sure to read the article in the Journal of Accountancy.
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Always forgive your enemies; nothing annoys them so much.
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Oscar Wilde
Sunday, March 11th, 2012
It’s Sunday morning, a great time for reflection. Actually, every day is a great time for reflection. Find a time, early morning, mid-day or late at night and take time to THINK.
This week-end I want to share a poem – - it’s not exactly a “lighten-up” topic but it is a reflective topic and maybe a wake-up call for those of you who think work is life.
The poem was written by Jason Lehman who was 14 years old when he wrote it. The poem was sent to Abigail Van Buren, who after verifying that the poet was indeed a teenager wise beyond his years, published it in her February 14, 1989 “Dear Abby” column.
Present Tense
It was spring, but it was summer I wanted,
The warm days, and the great outdoors.
It was summer, but it was fall I wanted,
The colorful leaves, and the cool, dry air.
It was fall, but it was winter I wanted,
The beautiful snow, and the joy of the holiday season.
It was winter, but it was spring I wanted,
The warmth and the blossoming of nature.
I was a child, but it was adulthood I wanted,
The freedom and respect.
I was 20, but it was 30 I wanted,
To be mature, and sophisticated.
I was middle-aged, but it was 20 I wanted,
The youth and the free spirit.
I was retired, but it was middle-age I wanted,
The presence of mind without limitations.
My life was over, and I never got what I wanted.
Are you getting what you want?
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Youth is a wonderful thing. What a crime to waste it on the young.
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George Bernard Shaw
Wednesday, February 8th, 2012
Inside your CPA firm or accounting department, I bet you have many meetings. Maybe you have too many meetings but that is another topic.
Today, I want to talk about important meetings – - partner meetings, an important staff meeting or even a meeting with a client.
How many of these important meetings have you participated in where one of the attendees (usually a partner) leaves the meeting to make a call or to answer a call?
Do you find that it is usually the same partner(s)?
Do you wonder if it is really an “important” call or not?
Here’s a blog post about the rules of listening from a law firm viewpoint. Also, here’s a link to a post by Bruce Marcus on CPA Trendlines titled, Listening to Clients Can Shape Success.
If a high-profile partner is always the one leaving a meeting to take phone calls (or just cuts out early to go somewhere else), they are telling one person they are important and telling 6 or 60 others they are not.
At a recent strategic planning session I was facilitating that involved about 20 partners and managers, the managing partner walked around the room with a basket and had everyone deposit their mobile devices. You should have seen the rush for the basket at break time. I thought it was a very effective action and it happens at all of their important meetings.
For many firms, I have been offering listening training along with “Developing a Marketing Culture” to make a full day session for the entire team. Let me know if you want more information about it.
For your next partner meeting, why not hang a Do Not Disturb sign on the door and inform the admin team that you really mean it.
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Never let the future disturb you. You will meet it, if you have to, with the same weapons of reason which today arm you against the present.
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Marcus Aurelius
