Archive for the ‘Helpful Information’ Category
Friday, May 7th, 2021
“Reading is essential for those who seek to rise above the ordinary.” – Jim Rohn
I am assuming (and hoping) that, as a leader, you have read most of the prominent business books.
Here’s a flashback post about a book I think all people working in a public accounting firm should read – The Five Dysfunctions of a Team by Patrick Lencioni.
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I find television very educating. Every time somebody turns on the set, I go into the other room and read a book.
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Groucho Marx
Wednesday, May 5th, 2021
“Just as a bad manager can ruin a good job, a great manager can make a good job even better.” – Gallup
I have written and talked about the danger of having bad managers in the CPA profession many times and quoted Gallup saying, “People don’t leave companies, they leave bad managers.”
That’s why, when I came upon a recent article from Gallup titled, “The No. 1 Employee Benefit That No One’s Talking About.” Guess what that benefit is…. good managers!
Bad managers can even affect the health of your team members. The stress they feel at work goes home with them and is a factor in their overall well-being.
People leave good jobs because of bad managers then why don’t they look for good managers when seeking a new job? It is because companies don’t advertise or promote the fact that they have great managers.
I hope your firm is investing in the success of your managers. Accounting firms spend significant dollars on TECHNICAL CPE for managers as they advance in their careers. It’s time to spend more money helping them become great people managers.
There are many great leadership programs for managers and future partners in the CPA profession. Make the investment to send your managers. Then find ways to let the world know you have good managers.
Gallup has advice for building a healthy and thriving organization, starting with your managers. Read the article to learn more.
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Research reveals that about one in 10 people possess high talent to manage.
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Per Gallup
Tuesday, May 4th, 2021
“If we weren’t still hiring great people and pushing ahead at full speed, it would be easy to fall behind and become some mediocre company.” – Bill Gates
Have you heard of topgrading interviewing? It is something I was not aware of until I read a recent article by Suzanne Lucas (@RealEvilHRLady).
Per Lucas:
The term topgrading comes from a 1997 article by Bradford D. Smart and his son, Geoffrey, called Topgrading the organization. Their definition is:
“Topgrading simply means proactively seeking out and employing the most talented people available, while redeploying (internally or externally) those of lesser ability or performance. More specifically, we view topgrading as employing only A players.”
Topgrading, to me, seems like something you would want to use when making lateral hires and so many firms are looking for experienced CPAs.
Read more about topgrading here in the article by Lucas. She gives us a 12-step process for hiring.
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Hiring people is an art, not a science, and resumes can’t tell you whether someone will fit into a company’s culture.
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Howard Schulz, Chairman & CEO of Starbucks
Thursday, April 29th, 2021
“Chains of habit are too light to be felt until they are too heavy to be broken.” – Warren Buffett
I have said and written about the following things over and over again for YEARS! The sad part is I continue to observe that these basics of CPA firm management need to be implemented.
- FIRE CLIENTS who suck up more of your time trying to collect than you do with helping their business.
- Outplace poor performers more QUICKLY.
- Update your website so that visitors see timely information that is of IMMEDIATE value.
- Put partner performance and accountability under the MICROSCOPE.
- Make it a WIN-WIN for partners who have retired in place to exit gracefully.
- Spend money on continually educating your people – client service, internal management, and administrative team member. It’s called CPE. Don’t forget the CONTINUING part.
- Become a MARKETING organization that provides accounting and tax services.
- Hire a firm administrator/COO who can help the firm MAKE MORE MONEY.
- Critically assess your PROCESSES.
- ENFORCE the guidelines, rules, and adherence to the processes OR don’t bother wasting all the time it takes to establish them.
- EMBRACE change, marketing, technology, social media…..
- Figure out how your firm can be UNIQUE, different from your competition.
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Trust only movement. Life happens at the level of events, not of words. Trust movement.
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Alfred Adler
Wednesday, April 28th, 2021
“The world is moving so fast these days that the man who says it can’t be done is generally interrupted by someone doing it.” – Elbert Hubbard
During 2020, CPAs were shocked out of their comfort zone. They had little time to think. They had to act quickly if they wanted to continue serving their valuable clients.
Thus, they made giant leaps forward. Don’t quit the giant leaps and go back to your normal baby-steps!
Joey Havens, CPA, CGMA has written an excellent article via The Journal of Accountancy titled, The Pandemic Pushed Us Forward. Let’s Keep Evolving. The title says it all! He contends that it is a defining moment for all CPAs.
Here are the topics he covered in the article:
- It forced us to adopt flexibility in how, when, and where we work.
- It led us to create new services to meet clients’ increased needs.
- It caused us to rethink how we measure work and bill for it.
- It accelerated our learning curve.
He elaborates on each of these topics. Be sure to click here to read the entire article.
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Everybody accuses me of moving fast when I direct a picture. I don't move fast, but I just keep moving.
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Clint Eastwood
Tuesday, April 20th, 2021
“Do it once, move on.” – Seth Godin
The following is a post from Seth Godin posted a couple of years ago. I am sharing it with you today because the year is passing by quickly.
CPAs are famous for delaying decisions. “Let’s wait and see what other firms do.” “Let’s put that on the agenda for next year’s retreat.” “Let’s not decide right now, let’s wait until we are not so busy.”
What you are doing is hitting the Snooze Button. You hit snooze on emails and even on major decisions. Don’t do it.
SNOOZE IS A TRAP
There’s a button on my email program that allows me to postpone an incoming email to a future day.
Sort of like a snooze button.
The snooze button is a trap. It’s a trap because not only do you have to decide later, but you just expended time and energy to deciding to decide later.
Do it once, move on.
‘Decide once’ is a magical productivity commitment.
There is a certain class of decision that benefits from time. Decisions where more information is in fact useful.
But most of the time, we’re busy making decisions that should be made now or not at all. You end up with a ton of decision debt, a pile of unanswered, undecided, unexplored options. And you’re likely to simply walk away.
If you open an email, you’ve already made the commitment to respond and move on. Not to push it down the road.
In or out, yes or no, on to the next thing.
Snooze is not for you.
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If you spend too much time thinking about a thing, you'll never get it done.
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Bruce Lee
Wednesday, March 31st, 2021
“Connecting with others is rewarding; it makes us feel like we are not alone in the world.” – Jonah Berger
Yesterday, I wrote about the importance of connecting and learning from others in the profession of CPA firm management. The CPA Firm Management Association chapter meetings are a great way to continually learn and also a way to share your successes. When I was a beginner, many years ago, I learned so much at the first chapter meetings I attended. I continued learning by attending the CPAFMA National Practice Management Conference each year. I made important connections and obtained wonderful life-long friends.
The best thing about CPA firm management is that it is continually expanding and changing. It forces you to keep pace and enables you to never stop growing and learning. I am still learning after over 30 years of attending chapter meetings.
Here’s more from Ronda Lawson of the Northern California Chapter on how they plan their meetings.
We were struggling a bit to get people to attend what used to be quarterly meetings. We sent out an invite for a Zoom call to discuss how we were all handling the pandemic and those who attended loved it so we’re now trying to do it monthly. I send the notes to all of our Chapter members, so that even if they can’t attend they have some information. I’m hoping they will find the notes helpful enough to want to attend when they can, and that we can build more Chapter participation!
I am particularly enjoying hearing what other firms are doing about employee engagement and trying to maintain their culture, and think some of the ideas for virtual events have been really fun and creative. And, as always, it is such a comfort to know that we’re not alone and that many of my colleagues have the same challenges!
For what it is worth, here are a few of the things I am doing to try to keep the roundtables effective:
–I prepare a list of questions ahead of time. Sometimes they are the same ones, but it’s nice to gauge what has changed inside the firms.
–When I send out the invite for the meeting, I try to include a “teaser” question or two to give them an idea of what we’d be discussing.
–I definitely moderate the conversation, and try to make sure we aren’t talking over each other, or that some participants haven’t been heard from.
–I encourage, as much as possible, the use of the camera as well as audio for the calls. I think it helps when we can see each other, and start to build relationships.
–As I said, I take notes (not attributing them to a certain participant so that everyone is comfortable having them distributed), and send them to everyone in the Chapter.
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Connecting is the key to Influence. Influence is the key to Leading. Leading is the key to Success!
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John Maxwell
Tuesday, March 30th, 2021
“Perhaps the secret of living well is not in having all the answers but in pursuing unanswerable questions in good company.” ~ Rachel Naomi Remen
One of the most beneficial career boosters for CPA firm administrators, practice managers, COOs, HR directors and, managing partners is the practice of networking and connecting with others working in CPA firm management.
The CPA Firm Management Association has nineteen chapters around the country that provide an excellent opportunity to network, connect and continue to learn the best practices in CPA firm management.
For the last year it has been more challenging to keep those important connections alive and well. Of course, Zoom meetings has helped tremendously. Various chapters have tried different methods to keep those professional relationships strong.
I recently heard from Ronda Lawson of the Northern California Chapter about their efforts to facilitate information sharing.
Rita – You are so wonderful about sharing information with all of us, so I thought you might be interested in these notes from our recent NorCal Chapter Roundtable. We are having a Zoom call monthly, primarily discussing life during the pandemic. Let me know if you would like to see notes from our future meetings! – Ronda
I like that they schedule their meetings every month. Even if you have only six or eight people in attendance, the chance to learn from others and share your own challenges is very valuable. The meetings don’t have to take a lot of time. They could be only one or two hours long.
Here are the topics discussed at a NoCal Chapter recent meeting:
- Are you currently working in the office? Allowing clients in the office?
- What precautions are you taking to keep the workplace safe?
- How are you promoting employee engagement for your remote workers? What are you doing to help employees with their mental and emotional health during the pandemic?
- How are you monitoring productivity for your remote workers? What are you doing to help managers manage remote workers?
- How are you handling your administrative team during the pandemic? Are they working in the office or remotely? Can they work remotely?
- What are your plans for reopening if you haven’t already? What criteria will you use to determine when to reopen? Will you continue to have some remote work even when the office reopens?
- What affect has the pandemic had on your staffing plans? Have you had lay-offs, salary freezes, furloughs? Has this changed your hiring plans? Will you be doing campus recruiting? Will you be bringing on interns?
- What changes has your firm made because of the pandemic? Are they positive? Will they continue?
- Other than the ongoing pandemic, what are the biggest challenges your firm is facing right now?
Check back tomorrow to learn more about how this chapter is handling their meetings. I am hopeful that it will prompt you to not ignore your chapter meetings just because you can’t connect in person.
I believe that having virtual CPAFMA Chapter meetings will continue to thrive after COVID. It is an economical and less time-consuming method of meeting (no commuting!). I know that the Ohio Chapter had people driving three hours one-way to attend some of the Chapter meetings.
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The most important things in life are the connections you make with others.
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Tom Ford
Wednesday, March 3rd, 2021
“Our greatest weakness lies in giving up. The most certain way to succeed is always to try just one more time.” -Thomas Edison
Times have changed dramatically. The old ways of business development inside CPA firms are gone (for now and maybe forever).
I imagine many firms are not comfortable with pursuing new business in the digital world.
Sarah Dobek, Inovautus Consulting, is offering practitioners the opportunity to invest in digital marketing training.
The training involves four sessions: Session 1: The Intersection Between Traditional + Virtual BD, Session 2: Networking Virtually, Session 3: Best Practices for Integrating Video into the Sales Process, and Session 4: Social Selling.
Don’t sit on the sidelines, get involved with digital marketing. Get more information about this training and the sessions here.
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The harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph.
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Thomas Paine
Tuesday, March 2nd, 2021
“We can improve our relationships with others by leaps and bounds if we become encouragers rather than critics.” Joyce Meyer
Young accountants coming into the world of public accounting might be surprised at the number of critics they encounter.
It seems, in many firms, the experienced CPAs have fallen into the habit of teaching by criticism. Too often, their expectations are not adequately communicated and yet they become critical when new college recruits struggle with the tasks they are assigned.
I have heard many new recruits say, “I never learned any of this in college.” I suppose that is the case with many new graduates entering any profession.
The next time you are writing review notes for a new hire, be sure to consider if you communicated your expectations, clearly and concisely, at the beginning of the assignment. Actually discuss the review notes verbally with the team member and be sure to offer words of encouragement.
When a new hire receives seemingly harsh, written review notes without any personal communication or encouragement, it can be very demotivating and disheartening.
Encouragement builds relationships that can result in long-term career progress. Encouragement keeps people at your firm and prevents them from seeking job satisfaction elsewhere. Read the above quote again.
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Your talent determines what you can do. Your motivation determines how much you’re willing to do. Your attitude determines how well you do it.
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Lou Holtz
