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.
“I follow three rules: Do the right thing, do the best you can, and always show people you care.” – Lou Holtz
Sometimes it seems like technology dominates our life. We are in a state of communication overload.
Here’s a flashback post that gives you a partner’s perspective and also the staff’s perspective.
“Do not listen to those who weep and complain, for their disease is contagious.” Og Mandino
The team and partners have been very busy. Now, they have more time to think about what is going on around them. You might hear comments like:
Tax season is over (for now). It is the Dealing With People Season. It always makes me think of Seinfeld:
Elaine: I will NEVER understand people.
Jerry: They’re the worst.
Some of these complaints might seem extreme to you but I bet you can tell me even better “stories” about people complaining. Good luck with Dealing With People Season!
“Marketing involves making a promise and keeping it.” – Seth Godin
A post from Seth Godin that, to me, is so important for CPAs. This is for all the dedicated, hardworking CPA firm marketers. Is the firm delivering what you expect? The following is his post from April 20th:
Defender of the brand
Some CMOs and marketing types simply do ads and promo. Give them average products for average people and some money, and they’ll do the ad thing.
And some are actually marketers. Marketing involves making a promise and keeping it. Marketers understand that your logo isn’t a brand, it’s simply a flag. The brand is the experience that people expect to have when they engage with you. It’s your benefit of the doubt.
If you’re that kind of marketer, you quickly come to learn that the single most important part of your job is being sure that you make great products and services. Because sooner or later, the experience is the brand. Sooner or later, the story you tell needs to be true.
Which means…
That your main job is persuading the people you work with to ship great stuff. No junk. No shortcuts.
If you are not the defender of the brand, who is?
“But day in and day out, the most stimulating part of the work is being a member of a team of so many very bright, articulate and talented professionals.” – – Randy West
We are hearing so much about CPA firms losing people. I continue to hear about and read about the Great Resignation and also that women are often forced to make choices that put family ahead of career. Here’s an idea that may help you retain more females AND males.
Consider embracing a career lattice culture rather than a career ladder culture. Not everyone achieves success in the same way. Often there are many detours along the way.
Research has shown that public accounting loses a lot of good people (and many females) when they believe public accounting will not accommodate their personal and career choices. Women want to start a family so they think they must leave public accounting. Don’t let your young talent make this assumption. Most successful firms have already embraced flexibility offering remote and hybrid schedules as a formal part of their culture.
I urge you to paint a picture for your young professionals of a career lattice. Communicate to them: If there comes a time in your life whether you are male or female, when you need or want less (or more), a reduced schedule, more regular hours, less travel, more travel, less responsibility, or really want to accelerate your advancement in the firm – talk to us!
The lattice, as opposed to a career ladder, allows people to stay at a certain level, move sideways, or even step downwards for a time and still not put their career progression in danger.
“The delicate balance of mentoring someone is not creating them in your own image, but giving them the opportunity to create themselves.” — Steven Spielberg
A Gallup survey last fall revealed that working from home — including various hybrid arrangements — is trending permanently. Last September, 45% of U.S. employees were working partly or fully remotely, and 91% of them planned to continue some level of remote work post-pandemic; in fact, 58% would consider leaving their current jobs if access to remote arrangements vanished.
By now, you have learned that remote/virtual training can be accomplished. You had no choice. I want to encourage you to continue your mentoring program that embraces a method of having a virtual mentor/mentee, someone you do not see face-to-face every working day. It can be done and while you have not been forced to do it, as with training, it can be done successfully.
Many people assume that mentoring relies on being physically together at least from time to time. However, that is not true. I will offer myself as an example.
I have successfully mentored, coached and guided CPA firm managing partners, HR directors, firm administrators, and even marketing directors for many years, most of them I have never met in person. Sometimes we use Zoom or Teams for our sessions but mostly it is simply via phone conversations. Of course, there is some structure to our conversations and action steps that are identified and achieved just like it is with in-person mentoring.
My advice to you, if you cannot be a mentor or mentee in person you can, just simply talk to each other. Often, it is easier to talk to a person via phone (not seeing their face). Think about helplines for people with various troubles and challenges. They do to see the person they are talking to but they soon learn that the person on the other end of the conversation cares, can be trusted, and has sound advice.
Don’t exclude your virtual employees from the benefit of mentoring. It is a fundamental part of building a career in public accounting – a more experienced person guides a less experienced person to help them achieve career success.
“People won’t have time for you if you are always angry or complaining.” – Stephen Hawking
I have heard a similar story many times during my years of talking with CPA firm team members.
I am often asked to counsel an employee working in a CPA firm. They tell me things. Sometimes I hear things via an upward feedback survey interview or at a conference. It involves a certain team member sharing somewhat of a horror story with me.
They tell me that they never hear a partner say thank you. They are not recognized or appreciated for their hard work and dedication. Any kind of formal feedback never happens. Many leaders are unprofessional, distant, grumpy, unhappy, unappreciative, self-centered, short-tempered, greedy, weird, crazy, and sometimes even worse. They (the leaders/partner) will not change and embrace current trends.
When I ask the obvious question, “Why do you stay?” I get similar and somewhat surprising answers.
I wonder if they just like to complain. At one time, I had one of those “No Whining” signs in my office because I really heard more whining than complaining.
Has it just become part of the firm culture? And, the validity of those complaints can’t be serious or why would they stay?
Be sure to work on the culture at your firm. If you don’t focus on it and continually work on it, it will form on its own and might not be something you are proud of.
“If you expect nothing from somebody you are never disappointed.” – Sylvia Plath, The Bell Jar
I admire firms that are proactive with their clients. Here is this week’s Flashback Friday post about a firm that is proactive.
It’s Friday. Quit working at 4:00 pm!
“Spend time advising and training your team. Be positive, patient, and practical.” – Mike Monroe
It seems you just got used to managing the Millennials and now you are faced with Gen Z. Gen Z is defined as those aged 10 – 25. Here’s a recap:
*Please remember that there are slightly differing opinions as to the exact years but this recap gives you a general idea.
Some sources say that the disillusionment that has driven the Great Resignation has been caused by mediocre management. I think that is partially true. Not all managers are mediocre.
An interesting article by Mike Monroe via SmartBrief will help you understand all of this much better.
According to McKinsey & Co., employee-manager relationships are the top factor affecting employees’ job satisfaction. Workers will stay at a so-so position if their managers are great. But people won’t stick around for mediocre managers — even if the job is otherwise fantastic.
Monroe offers two mindsets that may help you be a better manager.
Read the brief article and see if anything applies inside your firm.
“The more you check in with your people the more love-filled your team will be, and so the more productivity, creativity, resilience, and collaboration you will get.” – Marcus Buckingham
When I read the above quote, it brought to mind the 12 Questions to measure employee engagement first introduced by Marcus Buckingham in his book, First Break All The Rules. By now, I hope you have read the book.
I have written about the 12 Questions several times. You can read them here in a post I did in 2018.
Buckingham, along with many other experts, is telling us that great managers perform check-ins with their direct reports frequently. It is how managing people has evolved. The annual performance appraisal is dead. Today’s workforce wants to know how they are doing daily. A check-in can be monthly or weekly but I think it should be more often. The old description of a manager: A person who gets work done through other people. That is not what happens in CPA firms. A manager spends too much time working and not enough time checking in.
Checking in doesn’t have to take a lot of time. Watch this short video from Buckingham and become a better manager of people.
“You know you’re old when someone compliments you on your alligator shoes and you are barefoot.” – Phyllis Diller
CPAs – Be Proud Of Your Knowledge, Experience, and Skills. Check out this flashback post about how to gracefully accept compliments.
