Rita Keller, an award-winning and widely respected voice to CPA firm management, is uniquely positioned to help CPAs and their teams face rapid and significant change.
The 2022 survey featured a series of questions exploring ATAWW programs as well as remote client service, non-traditional staffing strategies, and cultural shifts required. Some interesting findings include:
95% offer remote auditing, and the percentage who performed more than half their audits away from the client site soared from 14% in 2020 to 54% in 2022
83% of firms allow Admin and Operations to work remote or blended
81% who employ remote talent hired a “stranger” outside their geography (up from 38% in 2020)
73% don’t dictate when extra hours are worked (no more mandatory Saturdays!)
19% offer Unlimited PTO
12% close the office between Christmas and New Year’s
“Panic causes tunnel vision. Calm acceptance of danger allows us to more easily assess the situation and see the options.” – Simon Sinek
It seems my entire career has been about change. I came into the CPA profession when it was moving from manual to computerization, and I have never looked back.
I focused my energy on streamlining processes and procedures and keeping up with all the changes that were happening throughout the profession. I have fought many battles with many CPA partners on why change is necessary, and the status quo means their firm will not become a firm of the future. Many partners that didn’t want to change eventually merged up and faced change that was quickly forced upon them.
I have observed that many CPAs are aware that change is happening yet, don’t think it has to be accepted by them. “Life is good, so why change?” seems to be their theme.
So, for all of you struggling with change, this quote from Nathaniel Branden applies:
“The first step toward change is awareness. The second step is acceptance.”
I hope you are accepting change and moving into the future.
My happiness grows in direct proportion to my acceptance, and in inverse proportion to my expectations.
“One of the symptoms of an approaching nervous breakdown is the belief that one’s work is terribly important.” – Bertrand Russell
I recently read a comment from Jody Padar, author of The Radical CPA, that I think CPA firm leaders need to understand:
It’s never been about the tech… the tech is a symptom of the greater practice management issue or business model problem. Everyone starts with tech but soon finds all the other things that need to evolve in order for true technology innovation to happen–
You're either part of the solution or you're part of the problem
You’ve worked diligently and have built a glowing reputation grounded in your excellent skills in tax, accounting, and auditing. You’re known as the “go-to” person when a client is faced with tax and financial decisions. You have a very successful firm — but that’s not enough.
I am pleased to present a timely webinar titled “The Evolution of Your Firm From Compliance to Consulting” for Accountant Advocate.
The webinar will be on February 16th, 2023, at 11:00 am PDT, 2:00 pm EDT, and 7:00 pm BST.
Join me for an insightful discussion on:
Why change is now more important than ever
How to convince your partners to move out of complacency and embrace new challenges
Learn how to overcome the battles you will face with technology, talent, growth, and client services
“It’s not hard to find smart people. It’s hard to find people who inspire and motivate.” – David Maister
It’s Friday again and time for another Friday Flashback. This is one of my favorites about David Maister.
From January 2019:
An Effective Way to Coach a Person
If you never heard David Maister speak in person, you lost out on a memorable experience. He was vibrant and very direct. He often would stop himself and say, “Okay, I’ve got to calm down.”
One lesson from Maister that I have never forgotten is an example he used in explaining the effective way to coach a person (a partner in a CPA firm, for example). The method is called “the pigeon story,” and he presented it in his humorous and logical fashion. I’ll try to summarize it briefly.
If you want a pigeon (partner) to progress to another “place” that is too distant from them, they can’t do it in one huge step.
You draw a line very close in front of them and draw them there. You coach them by saying, “Come on Pigeon, you can do it, I will help you.”
When they get there, you celebrate and then draw another line not too far in front of them.
Same with people (partners). It is too hard to make a gigantic leap to an annual goal – it is too far in the distance. Instead, set a goal that is a small step away and continually repeat, “Come on partner, you can do it. I will help you.” After seven or eight lines (small steps, 9 or 10 for tax partners), they arrive at the larger goal.
The way to get rich is don’t get sucked into doing dumb stuff for people you don’t like.
“Nothing is more difficult, and therefore more precious than to be able to decide.”– Napoleon Bonaparte
I have observed that CPA partner groups can take a very long time to make decisions.
Leadership is about making decisions. It is not about putting decisions off until the next meeting, the next month, the next quarter, and even the next year.
The most prevalent one for CPA partners is putting off decisions until after tax season. But, often, decisions are not made in late April or May. “Let’s wait until the partner retreat” is always a good excuse.
Are decisions really made at your partner retreat, or are they once again put on hold?
Once, at a conference, a CPA partner said to me, “We are going to video our partner retreat this year and then watch it for the next five years because we talk about the same issues year after year. We can distribute the video each year and save time.”
“The safest principle through life, instead of reforming others, is to set about perfecting yourself.” –B. R. Haydon.
You’ve worked diligently and have built a glowing reputation grounded in your excellent skills in tax, accounting, and auditing. You’re known as the “go-to” person when a client is faced with tax and financial decisions. You have a very successful firm — but that’s not enough.
I am pleased to present a timely webinar titled “The Evolution of Your Firm From Compliance to Consulting” for Accountant Advocate.
The webinar will be on February 16th, 2023, at 11:00 am PDT, 2:00 pm EDT, and 7:00 pm BST.
Join me for an insightful discussion on:
Why change is now more important than ever
How to convince your partners to move out of complacency and embrace new challenges
Learn how to overcome the battles you will face with technology, talent, growth, and client services
“It’s time to embrace a whole new personality as a skilled business consultant and finally become a business consulting firm.” – Rita Keller
You’ve worked diligently and have built a glowing reputation grounded in your excellent skills in tax, accounting, and auditing. You’re known as the “go-to” person when a client is faced with tax and financial decisions. You have a very successful firm — but that’s not enough.
I am pleased to present a timely webinar titled “The Evolution of Your Firm From Compliance to Consulting” for Accountant Advocate.
The webinar will be on February 16th, 2023, at 11:00 am PDT, 2:00 pm EDT, and 7:00 pm BST.
Join me for an insightful discussion on:
Why change is now more important than ever
How to convince your partners to move out of complacency and embrace new challenges
Learn how to overcome the battles you will face with technology, talent, growth, and client services
As we enter a new year, I want to share with you my tagline, motto, and/or challenge as I work with firm administrators and managing partners. I read these words somewhere a long time ago, and I keep them on my desk where I can see them daily:
I can’t force you to change. I can only try to convince you it is important and possible.
And here’s a message for you from Yoda: “No, try not. Do or do not, there is no try.”
