beBetter 

This blog is the third in a four part series on how we can lead in public accounting to take advantage of some hard trends

Recently, my wife lured me into an afternoon session of Hot Yoga. Now, I don’t know if you have experienced a Yoga workout much less a Hot Yoga class where they turn up the heat to like 85 degrees, but take my word for it, it is a long, long hour. Not only are you sweating like crazy, your core is in a constant strain as you hold numerous very flexible positions.  I was literally shaking all over as I tried to hold these poses that individuals around me seemed to be enjoying. (PS, if they offer the weights, either pick the 1lb ones or just pass, the 5lb gets a little heavy around minute 12.) 

This blog is the second in a four part series on how we can lead in public accounting to take advantage of some hard trends

Blogging and still singing Bob Dylan’s “The Times They Are A-Changin’”, you might remember the line “You better start swimmin' or you'll sink like a stone.” With most CPA firms having a large percentage of their revenues tied to the value of billable time, we might be sinking to the bottom holding on to this time clock if we don’t anticipate some of the changes ahead. 

This blog is the first in a four part series on how we can lead in public accounting to take advantage of some hard trends.

As I prepared my outline for this blog on life in public accounting, I am reminded of the Bob Dylan song “The Times They Are A-Changin'.” Today, in the world of public accounting, we are in the middle of a robust, free-agency market for talent like we’ve never seen before. This free agency market is “A-Changin'” because millennials are exercising their choices for a career and they routinely find public accounting not meeting expectations. We are not actually changing how we work, despite the proliferation of adopted new policies promoting millennial values. And we haven’t given any thought yet to generation Z desires as they start entering the workforce in the fall of 2016. Simply, in the trenches, we are losing the culture war. 

Every day I strive to be a servant leader.  A servant leader looks to serve first and enables others to lead and serve.  I’ve challenged my team to be ready to lead, and to be aware that there will be times when the team is looking to you to lead. 

One of the frequent questions that I hear, or that is posed to me during interviews, is “How do you prepare to lead?”  I’ve reflected on this a lot and I think it can help us grow faster if we better understand servant leadership and how to grow as a leader.  I’m growing and learning every day and I hope that by blogging on this tough question, it will help both you and me to grow.  I am also so thankful for the benefit of good intentions that my team gives me when I make mistakes.  Knowing I can own these mistakes and change directions as needed, grows me as a leader.  

On a recent early morning trip to the gym, you can imagine my surprise when I came across these two ducks in the parking lot!  

I have to admit, at first, I thought someone had set decoys out to see if people would stop and look.  As I started walking towards the gym, I would just glance over, trying not to look right at them in case it was a joke.  I’m vain like that, I can’t stand for someone to trick me.  Then, the ducks started moving around so I knew this was the real deal.  (On a side note - what does this pool of water say about the parking lot?). This was so incredible, the ducks acted like this was their new home.  In places, the water was deep enough for them to swim around.  

When I was around nine years old, I ignored some sage advice from Mom and well, it ended badly. Shocked, aren’t you? 

Have you ever ignored your mother’s advice to later discover she knew what she was talking about? I seemed to have experienced that a lot growing up, but at the time, I really didn’t think she knew anything. Well, on this day, she did. 

Okay, today we may step on some toes (including mine) but sometimes we need to be a little uncomfortable in order to reach our full potential.  We will certainly never reach our full potential if we don’t get out of our comfort zones, so we should expect and want to be uncomfortable fairly frequently.  Comfortable is good, but uncomfortable is great and certainly more fulfilling. 

I frequently close internal communications to my team with “One Team One Direction.” Recently, one of our new team members asked, “What does ‘One Team One Direction’ mean to our leadership?” What a fantastic question, and I want to share exactly what those four powerful words mean to me.  

Recently, immediately following the morning service at church, my wife texted two of our dear friends, “Joey just shouted ‘Amen’ in the Catholic church and I am under the pew.”

Needless to say, that text led to lots of laughs at my expense.  Everything was true in her text except that she did not actually get under the pew (but she clearly wanted to).  As it was happening, I could feel her ease away from me and start looking in a different direction like she did not know me.  I have to admit, after faithfully attending different Catholic church services for over 15 years, I have never heard an amen.  So, I immediately understood her denial of my existence that Sunday morning.    

Recently, a team member shared a funny story with me that also has a great life lesson for us.  

She had recently celebrated her birthday and took some PTO that week to enjoy her love of fishing off the Gulf Coast.  Sounds like a great plan to me.  Since fishing is her favorite hobby, she was extremely excited about getting out on the water. 

There is a quote I love: “The secret to change is to focus all of our energy, not on fighting the old, but on building the new.”—Socrates

In 2011, I introduced to the partner group the concept of the “Wise Firm.”  Sharing it was risky.  And it was quite scary for me—as new things often are.  Up until the week before my presentation, I was talking to my coach about throwing it out.  As coaches do, he asked me the hard questions and helped me to see how it clearly laid out the vision for a culture we could aspire to be. 

There was a lot of interest and feedback on my last blog Be Empowered by Choosing a Growth Mindset which dealt with my internal struggles around my commitment to working out.  So, I thought it might be fun to share with you some stories of the people that I see at the gym nearly every time I go. I call them my workout buddies. It’s not surprising that organizations find some of these very people showing up for work on their teams, too.  As I have worked with team members to help them reach their full potential, I have encountered many of these individuals taking the same approach with their career as they do the gym.