Archive for the ‘Women’ Category
Wednesday, May 9th, 2012
Yesterday was a special day for me. I had the honor to speak at the first ever Tennessee Society Women’s Career Summit. The room was filled with females who want to make a difference – for themselves, for their employers and for the people they supervise.
I also had the great honor of hearing Joan Cronan, the Women’s Athletic Director at the University of Tennessee for the last 29 years, do an opening keynote presentation that was truly motivating and moving.
When she was 12 years old, she was told by the little league coach that she could not play because she was a girl. She could be bat girl, water girl, team manager but she could not compete on the field.
That story set the tone for her life. She relates, “It made me so mad! Since that day I have had a vision the I wanted to help women learn to compete.”
In the world of public accounting, that is what I want to stress for the many females who are still facing challenges. You must learn to compete. It comes through passion, hard work, and developing self-confidence.
Here are 3 tips from Ms. Cronan:
Competition: Be willing to face your competition, you must compete. It doesn’t have to be basketball or tennis. It can be tap dance, cheerleading, speaking or getting promoted. Set goals for yourself. I thank my competitors, because my friends won’t always tell me my weaknesses but my competitors will. If I had no competition, I might become lazy. Competition makes us all better.
Mentor/Coach: You need one or more than one. Find good ones and listen. Ask them to help you develop confidence – your must get it and use it!
Communication: Her pet peeve is people who do not say thank-you. How hard is it to say those simple two words that carry so much weight. Show your appreciation by communicating. Also, always be direct in your communication. If you are supervising others, it is your responsibility to tell them their weaknesses and help them get better.
Picture above: Joan Cronan, is that you with Rita?
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You have to start your own engine.
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Joan Cronan
Wednesday, April 4th, 2012
Did you receive your copy of my monthly newsletter in your inbox today?
If not, I hope you’ll visit my website to sign-up. If you did, be sure to take just a few minutes – yes, at this busy time – to read it. I try very hard to keep it sort and to the point.
This month’s articles are:
Accounting Profession Rebels (You know who you are.)
Observations on Complacency (You also know who you are.)
Upcoming Speaking Events (Have you registered yet for one or more of them?)
While we are on the READING topic, I hope you will read my article in March/April issue of the Tennessee CPA Journal:
The Social Transformation: Women’s Initiatives in Accounting Firms
I’ll be speaking at the inaugural Tennessee Society Women’s Career Summit on May 8th in Brentwood, TN. I hope to see you there.
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No matter how busy you may think you are, you must find time for reading, or surrender yourself to self-chosen ignorance.
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Chinese Proverb
Thursday, March 8th, 2012
Pop-up your calendar. Save the date! – May 8, 2012. The Tennessee Society of Certified Public Accountants is hosting their inaugural conference focused on women’s issues. Their goal is to educate, advocate and advance women in the accounting profession.
All signs are pointing to a new era of women in charge – socially, economically and politically. Women outnumber men in the U.S. Women outnumber men in U.S. colleges. Women receive almost 60% of university degrees in America and Europe. So, who’s going to be leading most accounting firms and departments in the future? Attend the conference and learn how all of this might play-out inside your organization.
Are you a female working in accounting in Tennessee? – There’s no excuse not to be there.
Are you a male working in accounting in Tennessee and excited about expanding the role of females in your organization? – Come and be enlightened!
Are you a female working in accounting in surrounding states? Get a group together from your firm or company and car pool. Come, learn and make it a get-away to explore the wonderful Nashville area. I’ll be speaking on “A Woman’s Nation Changes Everything” focusing on how firms can retain females and how females themselves must educate themselves and change. Yes, it’s all about that magic word – Change! I’d love to meet you, in person.
Career Summit Highlights:
- How to Determine and Reach Your Full Career Potential
- Negotiations
- A Woman’s Nation Changes Everything
- Mentoring
- Etiquette
- and more
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Most people live and die with their music unplayed. They never dare to try.
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Mary Kay Ash
Friday, October 21st, 2011
Seems like the discussion goes on and on. Why aren’t there more female partners in public accounting firms? Why do so many qualified female CPAs leave public accounting and build their career in the corporate world?
There are all kinds of surveys, articles and studies about this topic I just read an article in the AICPA Career Insider titled, Executive Positions at CPA Firms. It cites a couple of recent surveys that examine the position of non-equity partner often called Director or Principal and how this might be another way to keep females but not make them partner.
Here’s what the “Conclusion” states:
“Women who accept the director promotion, in particular those who are on flexible work schedules and/or who have family responsibilities, should be very clear about their ultimate career objectives. If they aspire to equity partner, they must be sure that they are getting that message to senior management who may mistakenly believe that the individual is content to remain a director because it suits her needs better. It is particularly important that ambitious women proactively seek to build business development opportunities throughout their careers, as this is the core factor facilitating promotion to equity partner.”
I do agree that women CPAs working in public accounting firms who desire to become a partner need to focus on their business development activities. I also believe that they need to speak-up and clearly communicate the fact that they want to be a partner in the firm. It often seems that current male partners actually wonder, “does she, or doesn’t she?” (want to be partner).
If you follow the link, above, to the full article, you will also find links to the two surveys. Make sure you are having discussions inside your firm on this topic.
Is Director and/or Principal another form of a glass ceiling? I like to believe it is truly a stepping-stone to ownership.
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Being powerful is like being a lady. If you have to tell people you are, you aren't.
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Margaret Thatcher
Friday, July 1st, 2011
The future of the CPA profession, the future value of your firm and the security of current owners’ retirement dollars depends on the firms ability to hire, develop and retain young, talented CPAs with a passion for public accounting.
Notice I used the words develop and retain. In years gone by, firms generally were able to retain male CPAs who eventually became owners. Not much energy was expended on retaining females. All that has changed.
In her chapter in the Shriver Report, Maria Shriver describes the conversations she conducted with everyday Americans around the nation, discovering that men and women are indeed negotiating everything from the daily struggle over whether the husband or wife will drop off their child at school in the morning to major life decisions about whether a family will relocate to further one spouse’s career even if it hampers the other’s.
Yesterday on an NPR blog, I read about a new report that says American men now experience more work-life conflict than women.
The Families and Work Institute tries to explain why in a study, The New Male Mystique. Much like the conflict women felt when they first entered the workforce in large numbers, the institute says men today feel “the pressure to do it all in order to have it all.” Meaning, be the breadwinner, spend more time with the kids, and wash the dishes after dinner. Read the blog post titled, “Men Now Have More Work-Life Conflict Than Women.”
Flexibility is becoming more and more important – to young CPA females and males. Why not hold a town hall meeting at your firm to discover all of the issues, challenges and possible roadblocks that exist for your team members? Will they be able to stay in public accounting long-term? Do they know they are part of your firms succession plan?
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I put all my genius into my life; I put only my talent into my work.
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Oscar Wilde
Monday, June 13th, 2011
Yesterday, Sunday…. arrive in Vegas for Pstech. Checked-in to the new Aria hotel. Got a corner suite and everything in the room is controlled by push-button switches and tied to a clock on the night stand – lights, TVs, drapes (and sheers) can all be controlled from the screen on the clock.. Ready to go to sleep? Hit a button titled “Goodnight” and everything shuts down.. lights, TVs and drapes.
Yesterday, Sunday…. registered and talked to others on the committee and caught-up with the AICPA team. Caught a sound-bite of Michelle Golden and Eric Majchrzak doing a workshop on marketing, practice growth, social media…. I so wanted to stay for the whole thing but conflicts happen.
Then I spent a few hours talking with a group of experienced consultants about the challenges of retaining great females in the profession and ways to help (and inspire) them to go for the brass ring of becoming a partner.
Some simple, yet important questions females (and anyone) who wants to rocket their career forward, should ask themselves came from Mary Werner of Werner Coaching & Consulting.
- What do you really want?
- What are you on fire about?
- Who can really help you?
- Are you willing to put forth the effort?
Now, it’s Monday, morning….. and time for the 2011 version of Pstech to officially kick-off. Curtis Zimmerman will be doing the keynote. I understand that he is fantastic. Be sure to follow my blog this week to hear more.
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We keep moving forward, opening new doors, and doing new things, because we're curious and curiosity keeps leading us down new paths.
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Walt Disney
Thursday, May 19th, 2011
Women are critical for the success of accounting firms. I think you all know that.
But, officially, that’s what the 2011 MOVE Project Executive Report tells us. Are you aware of the MOVE Project?
In the past, the annual Accounting MOVE Project has revealed the best accounting firms for women; has shed light on why firms fail to advance and retain women; and has revealed why women leave at certain levels. But the 2011 report released earlier this month revealed some promising news: the next generation of top accounting professionals will bear little resemblance to the male-dominated leadership ranks currently occupying corner offices.
Here’s just some of the strategies offered on how to keep young women in the pipeline:
- Equip them with business development skills from the start.
- Rotate them into positions where they can meet and learn from women just a few steps ahead of them
- Make sure they really understand the variety of career paths available
- Provide tracks to leadership through women’s initiatives and other programs
- Provide transparency in pay equity and the advancement of women in the firm
Joanne Cleaver, who has been reporting on all aspects of business for national and regional newspapers since 1981, has this to say:
Why Dudettes Will Save Beancounters: 55% of today’s accounting grads are women. Here’s the implication: twenty-something women control the retirement of baby boomer accounting firm partners.
I’ll be talking about all this tomorrow at the Florida Institute of CPAs Women’s Leadership Summit.
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Retaining and promoting younger women is suddenly mission-critical.
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Joanne Cleaver
Friday, May 13th, 2011
This week I traveled to Charleston, WV to take part in the West Virginia Society of CPAs first annual Women to Watch Awards. It was a beautiful day and a great view from the University of Charleston, looking across the river at the State Capitol’s golden dome.
Many state CPA societies are taking part in the program co-sponsored by the AICPA (follow the link above). The awards recognize women who promote, within the accounting profession, a work environment that provides opportunities for the successful integration of their personal and professional lives and the advancement of women to positions of leadership.
More pleasing than the view across the river was seeing these women honored and feeling the vibrancy of all the other women and men in the room. Plus, a bonus, I got to talk with my long-time friend, Fred Dillon, West Virginia Regional Administrator for Dixon Hughes Goodman.
The following Women to Watch Awards were presented
- Emerging Leader: Karissa Cost, Dixon Hughes Goodman
- Emerging Leader: Tessa White, Arnett & Foster
- Established Leader: Gayle Mason, Gayle E. Mason, CPA
- Established Leader: Lois Wilson, Lois K. Wilson CPA
If your state society is not participating in this wonderful program, speak-up and ask about it.
Today’s quote is one of my very favorites and I like to use it for myself and all women who are “fighting the good battle, the battle to lift women in business higher.”
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I've never been to New Zealand before. But one of my role models, Xena, the warrior princess, comes from there.
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Madeleine Albright
Monday, April 11th, 2011
Did you see this mornings WSJ? It contains a special report about a WSJ conference where business and government leaders examined what’s holding women back in the workplace – and they set out an action plan for creating new opportunities.
When Sandra Day O’Connor graduated near the top of her class at Stanford’s law school in 1952, she received only one job offer: to be a legal secretary.
Opportunities for women have expanded dramatically since then. But there is growing evidence that the progress of women in America’s workplace has stalled and is now actually falling backward.
“Middle-management women get promoted on performance. Many middle-management men get promoted on potential. Performance vs. potential,” said Vikram Malhotra, chairman of the Americas for McKinsey & Co., which conducted research commissioned by the WSJ.
I’ll be posting more about this topic this week. Be sure to grab the WSJ in your office this morning and pull-out the special section. This is an important issue in the CPA profession.
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There is in every true woman's heart, a spark of heavenly fire, which lies dormant in the broad daylight of prosperity, but which kindles up and beams and blazes in the dark hour of adversity.
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Washington Irving
Thursday, March 31st, 2011
While A Woman’s Nation Changes Everything, inside many organizations, leadership is still very much dominated by men. Follow the link to read my post from last year on how, for the first time in our history, half of all U.S. workers are women.
In CPA firms, the workforce is (or soon will be) female dominated. In the partner meetings, women are still only about 23% of the participants.
Seems like current male leaders and non-partner female leaders (managers, senior managers) are all talking about and debating the best way to nurture and develop the skills necessary for women to take a more prominent role in leading the CPA firms.
In my presentation, A New Day for Women (in CPA firms), I stress the need for women to better understand the game of business and how it was created by men and for men to understand that because women manage and lead differently, it is not a bad thing. Different is not bad.
What bugs me, when I give this presentation, is that my audience is always 99% women. If it is a break-out session at a conference, the men don’t seem to think they need to attend. One of the most effective and lively sessions I did on this topic was when a few men were in attendance the group interacted, discussed and debated.
Here’s 3 Tips for Climbing the Corporate Ladder from a column in Fortune magazine by Linda Hudson, President and CEO of BAE Systems, a defense firm with $18 billion in revenue. Hudson is used to being the only woman in the room.
1. Stand up for yourself
2. Project your voice
3. Don’t fight the system
Read the brief article to learn more about each one.
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It is better to work with the system from the inside.
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Linda Hudson
