Nothing is so dangerous as being too modern; one is apt to grow old fashioned quite suddenly.	
Communication – Your Firm’s Biggest Challenge
I am delighted to be speaking to the Illinois Chapter of the CPA Firm Management Association on Thursday this week.
I have spoken to them several times over the years. Of course, then it was in person and I had to travel to Chicago. This week it will be a “Team” presentation and I will enjoy talking with the members during the presentation and after and I do not have to leave my office.
My topic will be Communication – Your Firm’s Biggest Challenge.
Any time I get a call from a firm about a particular challenge, issue, or problem it can almost always be traced back to a communication problem. When I talk with team members without the partners present, I always hear that communication is one of their highest concerns. There are eight different ways of CPA firm communication:
The firm to the outside world
Leaders to team (downward)
Team to Leaders (upward)
If you are interested in having me talk to your team or association about CPA firm communication, don’t hesitate to contact me.
Categories: Communication, Culture, Things about Rita
Managers Must Give Honest Feedback
“Dealing with employee issues can be difficult but not dealing with them can be worse.” – Paul Foster
A person should be promoted to Manager when they are beginning to manage other people. Then, they must hone their skills on exactly how to manage other people.
I find that in CPA firms, people are promoted to manager because:
They have longevity with the firm.
They are great technicians and producers.
The partners are afraid that if they don’t promote them to Manager they will quit.
One of the most important things a Manager does is provide HONEST and timely feedback. Today’s workforce is demanding that they DO receive feedback on a continual basis – you can’t save it up for an annual performance review or even semi-annual or quarterly.
Here is something I learned long ago when I was promoted and became the boss of my peers. Because of poor performance, we had to fire an administrative person. The MP always did the firing back then. He asked me to sit in. The person became angry and it was not an easy session. (My first firing and I remember it well.) After it was over, he said to me, “You will never be an effective boss until you have had to fire someone.”
That first “firing” inspired me to never let anyone be surprised about being outplaced. One of the last outplacements I did, the young man came into my office and said, “I know why I’m here. I’m being let go, right?”
If your managers are struggling with giving meaningful feedback, have them read, It’s Okay To Be The Boss by Bruce Tulgan. Get them each a copy, make reading it an assignment, and then meet with them for a discussion about what they read.
The day firing becomes easy is the day to fire yourself.	
Categories: Communication, Crafting Your Career, Leadership, Managers, On My Mind
What Your Team Expects
“Trust me is easy to say, especially when you mean it, but hard to hear.” – Seth Godin
As a result of all the changes firms have faced in the last sixteen to eighteen months, progressive firms are updating their employee handbooks. Many new and changing guidelines need to be explained and documented so that your team members know what is expected as a member of your firm’s team.
Even in your old handbook, is it possible that what you are saying contradicts what they are seeing?
Again, I am talking about setting a good example. I have learned through experience, that the partners are the ones who do not follow the documented processes and procedures that are clearly spelled out in the handbook.
People are now expecting many things to be different but they’ve been taught through experience not to believe that things are actually going to be different.
A quote from Seth Godin: “If you’ve read ten employee handbooks that say one thing when the company does another, you’re likely to not believe the eleventh one.”
Be sure to read Godin’s blog post about this topic. It is titled, Yadda, yadda, yadda.
Showing tends to beat telling.	
Categories: Communication, Culture, Leadership, Partner topics, People/HR