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.
“Workers will fit into new personas, such as a homesteader, office dweller, and coffee shop traveler, and managers will need to properly manage distributed teams.” – Jeff Schwartz, Deloitte Consulting
By now, you have all realized that having a hybrid environment for your workforce will be needed going forward. Some firms have already made great strides and the need will increase once vaccines are available to everyone.
In a recent article via Fast Company, Stephanie Vozza directs us to a book written by Jeff Schwartz, founding partner of Deloitte Consulting’s Future of Work practice.
It is no longer work/life balance. Work and life have become fully integrated and being able to offer choices and manage hybrid workers is a necessity for partners and managers.
You will need to determine what works best for each individual worker and be flexible so that they can change their minds depending on personal situations.
“We like to think of our champions and idols as superheroes who were born different from us. We don’t like to think of them as relatively ordinary people who made themselves extraordinary.” – Carol S Dweck
In a public accounting firm, the employees look up to the partners. They want their leaders to always set a good example. They want their leaders to always tell them the truth – good or bad. They want their leaders to be kind but also want them to be tough when tough decisions need to be made. They want their leaders to make decisions quickly. They want leaders to outplace poor performers more quickly. They want their leaders to seek the best possible candidates to join the firm team.
“They” expect a lot. The team wants leaders who are extraordinary. It sounds like a job for a Superhero. Do you represent that for your followers?
Heroes are made by the path they choose, not the powers they are graced with.
“Life is a long lesson in humility.” – James M. Barrie
You are a leader in an accounting firm. You have worked very hard to reach the level of authority and responsibility that you now enjoy. You are now a partner. Congratulations, but beware! Things have changed.
Some CPAs, climbing the ladder of success, believe that becoming a partner means they are off the hook. They can control their own work lives. They will have many people working under their guidance to get the work done. They can relax a bit. They have reached the top of the pyramid. They can play more golf.
Wrong! Take a minute and a half to learn about the Partner Pyramid.
Pride is concerned with who is right. Humility is concerned with what is right.
Hiring the right people takes time, the right questions and a healthy dose of curiosity. What do you think is the most important factor when building your team? For us, it’s personality.
“Go for great. Own your game. Be kind. Get big things done.” – Robin S. Sharma
Working in public accounting, you tend to be driven by due dates.
It is what motivates you. You focus on the little things that hinder the efficient flow of work through the office. You focus on what needs to get out this week or next week. You focus on the immediate challenge, whatever that might be.
When major due dates pass, you spend time recuperating and cleaning-up lots of small things that you have delayed until after the due date.
As for some major decisions that need to be made, you put those on the back burner until after the partner retreat, until the next major due date passes, or until you have enough time.
I have observed that you tend to pay too much attention to little things and too little attention to big things.
When will you ever have time? Some of those BIG things make you uncomfortable. You would rather by-pass confrontation.
Do you need to out-place certain clients, certain employees or even certain partners? Do you need to invest heavily in new technology? Do you need to finally address succession and admit that merging-up is your succession plan?
Don’t wait for summer to come to begin discussing these, and other, big issues with your management group. Pay continual attention to big things, make big decisions and keep moving forward each day, each week, and each month.
We forget the little things, so it's no wonder some of us screw up the big things.
“Leaders do not avoid, repress, or deny conflict, but rather see it as an opportunity.” – Warren Bennis
Accountants, in general, are kind, caring, and sincere. They live their lives helping their clients become successful. They often have difficult conversations with their clients.
Inside their own CPA firm, they ignore conflict and avoid confrontation. Partners and managers often dodge conflict in the hopes that someone else will deal with it. Yet, they readily admit that there is way too much drama going on inside the firm.
Often the conflict is between two or more employees. However, the most troubling conflict is when employees actually fear one or more of the firm leaders, and other leaders hide from the drama, fear, and conflict.
“If there are performance problems, workplace drama, or disruptive behaviors in your workplace, it’s because it’s been allowed. Avoiding difficult conversations causes a culture of dysfunction that affects every aspect of business.” – Marlene Chism
Read that quote again. From the mildest conflict to actual fear of an individual continues because IT’S BEEN ALLOWED.
Some issues eventually go away on their own but most do not. YOU must deal with it. Here’s a helpful article from Chism.
‘You did that this year; why not last year or the year before?’ – Allan Koltin
I hear it said over and over. “When things get back to normal…”.
Most CPA firms have made great progress since March 2020. Even the AICPA is saying that firms have achieved needed change that they (the AICPA) thought would take five years. Firms did it in a few days and continually improved upon it throughout 2020. I am talking about enabling and embracing a remote workforce.
Some very small firms did not make this leap. They think it is a good thing that they still go into the office and operate in the old school way. I’m not sure that is a wise decision.
“It’s not about bricks and mortar anymore,” he said. “I believe in three to five years, we will get rid of that space. The metric will drop down to 150 square feet per person. We will redesign offices for what we want them to be — a center for collaboration and training, a place to have meetings — and build it out accordingly. It’s a difficult conversation — some of you think that after the vaccine, we will come back to 2019.”
I am convinced that nothing we do is more important than hiring and developing people. At the end of the day you bet on people, not on strategies.
