Archive for the ‘Trends’ Category
Friday, May 11th, 2012
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.
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No man goes before his time; unless the boss leaves early.
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Groucho Marx
Thursday, April 26th, 2012
Last week-end I read an article in a business journal – you know, the network of business newspapers across the country. You probably have one in your city. This article was in the Sacramento Business Journal.
The article reports that KPMG, the New York-based accounting firm is changing the layout of its offices nationwide from a model of having separate offices to more of a collaborative open layout with cubicles.
This is a topic I have been talking to CPAs about for quite a while. The business world has moved to a more collaborative work-style and simplified office design. The tradition of having offices on the window side of the space with cubicle “stalls” (often referred to as the bullpen) in the middle of the space is no longer practical, efficient or collaborative.
Photo: The picture is the office of Mono, a Minneapolis advertising and branding agency.
I know, as CPAs, you are thinking, “we’re not creative advertising people, we’re traditional accountants.” – - All the more reason to unleash your creativity and expand your universe (and become the cool firm in town). Baby Boomer CPAs, think back and remember when you were young and cool.
Jason Blumer of Blumer & Associates has a unique way to solve “how do we configure our office space” problem. He’s doing away with his firm’s office altogether. The firm has evolved to a true virtual environment. Listen to at least the first two minutes of this video on Accounting Today TV to find out why this works for his firm and what your firm will be facing in the future.
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Let your soul stand cool and composed before a million universes.
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Walt Whitman
Monday, April 23rd, 2012
I’m not doing my normal blog post today. I am asking for your feedback if you are working in the accounting profession.
I have the honor of currently working with other consultants to study leadership in the CPA profession.
It would be greatly appreciated if you would complete a short survey to share your observations about the evolution of leadership by clicking here.
Thanks in advance for your feedback. It should take less than 10 minutes of your time.
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If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader.
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John Quincy Adams
Tuesday, April 17th, 2012
Today, inside thousands of CPA firms in the U.S., busy season is drawing to a close. As a firm owner or leader, what’s on your agenda for the coming days, weeks, months?
I read this quote yesterday in Alan Weiss’ Monday Morning Memo and thought of all of you.
“No mariner ever enters a more uncharted sea than does the average human being born today. Our ancestors thought they knew their way from birth through all eternity; we are puzzled about the day after tomorrow. – - Walter Lippmann
There are a lot of things to contemplate about today’s business world and about the public accounting profession. The pace of change is frantic. This spring, don’t waste time. Get busy on your action plan for 2012 and beyond.
Don’t involve the same old people, doing the same old thing, attending the same old retreat, giving performance feedback the same old way, hiring the same old way, providing the same old training and end-up procrastinating as usual. The pace of change is frantic and you (and your firm) will be left behind. It’s time to expand your universe.
Sign-up for Alan Weiss’ Monday Morning Memo here.
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Success makes men rigid and they tend to exalt stability over all the other virtues; tired of the effort of willing they become fanatics about conservatism.
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Walter Lippmann
Monday, March 26th, 2012
Sometimes inside accounting firms, people are not very creative. What I am referring to is that employees are taught and expected to follow checklists and firm leaders manage the firm based on what other CPA firms are doing.
Seems pretty confining, right? I don’t mean you should discard your checklists (they bring efficiency, accuracy and quality to the work you provide clients). I don’t mean you should never refer to another MAP survey. What I want you to do is encourage your people to THINK and challenge the status quo.
I was reading my March issue of FAST Company and a headline about brainstorming caught my eye. FAST Company talked to Jonah Lehrer (author of Imagine: How Creativity Works) about the types of creativity and how brainstorming doesn’t work. Some of his comments follow – be sure to read the one about brainstorming.
How Does Creativity Work? - We use creativity in the singular as if there is only one way the brain creates new connections but there are probably three neurologically distinct forms of creativity. One is when you have these moments of insight that come out of the blue (when you are in the shower). Another form is really working hard at solving a problem and the third is spontaneous improvisation (what Miles Davis did).
Can a person choose which kind of creativity to use? – The type of process we should use really depends on the type of problem we’re solving. I think we have to do a better job of diagnosing where we are in the creative process and adjust our thought process accordingly. When I’m stuck, I realize now I need to let myself relax, because the answer will arrive only when I stop looking for it. (Keller comment: Hasn’t this happened to you many times when trying to solve an accounting problem?)
You say brainstorming doesn’t work. Why? – The reason is it’s main rule: Thou shalt not criticize. (Keller: We tell our people, team, committee, task force, partners at a retreat – “spit it out, no idea is too dumb, we won’t laugh or make fun of anyone, i.e., criticize.) As long as criticism is constructive, it forces people to engage on a deeper level. The problem with brainstorming is free associations are really superficial and constricted by language. Criticism is important to get past that.
At your partner retreat this year, dig deeper into a few issues rather than superficially looking at many of the firms challenges. If a good idea surfaces, attack it! Use confrontation as a tool, don’t hide from it.
In my experience, when really tough issues come up, CPA partners tend to look at their laps rather than open their mouths. Get over it and be more creative at your firm.
Read more about Jonah Lehrer: the prodigy who lights up our brain.
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To raise new questions, new possibilities, to regard old problems from a new angle, requires creative imagination and marks real advance in science.
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Albert Einstein
Tuesday, March 20th, 2012
In public accounting for CPAs, as far as I can see and assess, it’s still about the volume of time you can work.
I’m not talking about how or if you track time or how you price your services. I’m talking about the number of hours you spend “at the office” and, include the number of hours you work away from the office at home and even on vacation. Most experienced CPAs can tell you immediately even in a casual conversation – “I worked 3,012 hours last year.” – as if it is a badge of honor.
Those of you who are baby boomers (or those of you trying to understand baby boomers), remember when (about 15 or 20 years ago) you all took official time management courses or went through formal time management training? How are you doing with that?
Maybe it’s time to update your thinking about time management. After all, it’s a whole different world than it was 15 years ago – things are moving at a lightning pace and inside your accounting firm the mood is changing. The old badge of glory – working unreasonable and unhealthy hours is not something to be admired.
Rather than younger accountants thinking: Wow, he/she worked 3,000 hours. I wonder how he/she did it? I need to get more productive.
They will be thinking: Wow, he/she worked 3,000 hours. I certainly don’t want to spend that many of my precious hours at work – I’m outta here.
There are a lot of accelerator programs out there for startups. They teach wannabe entrepreneurs time management skills. For startups, managing time is a matter of sink or swim and young companies can only succeed if they stay on task. I think the same applies to accounting firms going forward. Here’s some great tips from these programs as featured by FAST Company:
- Avoid the email time suck – only check it three times a day.
- Choose your most important goal each week – focus on the biggest and most important thing.
- Know your productivity limits – more hours doesn’t mean productive hours.
- Take breaks to prevent burnout – it’s better to average 8 solid hours of productivity a day than it is to output 12 hours of mediocre ones.
- Skip some meetings – watch out for meetings with no goal.
- Say “no” when you need to – whether it is too many meetings or actually talking too much to your team, you need to make decisions fast about when to say no.
Look around your office during the next few weeks. Are you and your people spending too much time on email? Are you in the office 12 hours and only really working 8 or 9?
After April 15th, will you be able to clearly focus on your number one priority to make your firm a winner or will procrastination set-in for at least a couple of months?
Be sure to read the full descriptions about each of the 6 tips on the FAST Company site.
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The strongest of all warriors are these two - Time and Patience.
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Leo Tolstoy
Tuesday, February 21st, 2012
According to a recent survey by CPA Trendlines, accounting firms are significantly increasing their business-building efforts.
66% of accountants say their firms have been increasing their marketing and business development activities in the last 12 months.
85% say they will be continuing to step up marketing in the coming 12 months.
55% are accelerating their own personal business development efforts.
83% listed adding new clients as their #1 concern, followed by – client retention, lead generation, and niche or specialty service.
Firms also plan to upgrade their websites and e-newsletters and displaying more thought leadership.
Great news! – - I hope you have a plan in place for your firm. If not, you better meet early (late April, early May) and get busy. Make your planning day very focused and come away with an action plan with steps that are owned by a specific person in the firm. Build in accountability.
You can purchase the complete 179-page survey from Bay Street Group.
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Timid salesmen have skinny kids.
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Zig Ziglar
Monday, February 20th, 2012
Do you know about Pinterest? It is an online pinboard and one of the fastest growing social media sites of all time.
I believe creative public accounting firms will find a way to utilize this vast audience. I’m probably like you – I was not aware of it until last week-end and I immediately thought “how could this work for accountants?”
Today, I just want you to read this brief article titled, 5 Pinterest Myths Dispelled – by A K Stout.
I also received a link to an interesting article about Pinterest from Rob Nance of iShade. It is titled, Pinterest isn’t for every small business. You might find it interesting, too.
You can explore later – I just want you to be aware.
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Don't follow trends, start trends.
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Frank Capra
Thursday, February 9th, 2012
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.
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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!”
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Jack Kerouac
Monday, January 30th, 2012
Whenever there is a gathering of CPA firm managing partners, firm administrators or HR professionals, the question always comes up regarding ranges of compensation for professional staff in the public accounting arena.
The January issue of Accounting Today has an article on this topic and quotes compensation ranges from the latest Robert Half salary guide (2012). Here’s a link to the article – The Salary Momentum Continues – Experienced and senior-level staff are first in line for pay bumps.
Another thing on this topic. Firms are usually very secretive about staff salaries, yet we live in an age of getting any information you desire via the Internet and social media sources. I subscribe to the thought process that it is a good thing that firm team members know that top performers are getting paid more than mediocre performers. But, what goes along with that (and specific salaries do not have to be divulged) is that mediocre performers know they are “average” and they also are given clear expectations on how to become a “top” performer and thus, earn more. Not rocket science.
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It's ironic that retailers and restaurants live or die on customer service, yet their employees have some of the lowest pay and worst benefits of any industry. That's one reason so many retail experiences are mediocre for the public.
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Howard Schultz
