beBetter 

In the first blog of this four-part series on Pop Joe’s idioms, I shared one of our favorites which was “You can get happy in those same britches that you got sad in.” Sometimes, when we did not pay heed to this warning and encouragement, we would hear this next one, which I would guess is not as well known and might even be a Havens original.

We are celebrating my father’s (Pop Joe) 80^th birthday this month. As we were planning the celebration, my brother, Mike, sister, Mitzi, and I were laughing about old times and stories when we were growing up in Batesville, MS. While reminiscing, we started remembering some of our favorite sayings that Pop Joe frequently shared with us as kids. There were a few that really resonated and I want to share each one of these in a four-part series to see how they might still apply today. 

A few weeks ago, I presented at the 2017 Southeastern Accounting Show hosted by the Georgia Society of CPA’s. Leaving, I found myself stunned by the lack of preparedness of our profession from a grassroots perspective. And I wondered—as we look into the mirror, are we spiraling towards irrelevancy because we are fooling ourselves?

This is Corinne Johnson who just celebrated her 98^th birthday (a day early by the way)—just as smart as she's always been! Corinne and her late husband “Shorty” Johnson have been friends with my parents my entire life and played a support role for me as I tried to find my way as a teenager. Whether it was hanging out to talk Ole Miss football or borrowing a gun to hunt, I was known to spend time at the Johnson’s house. 

Recently, I was fortunate to participate in an intense brainstorming session on the future of our profession with six other top 100 CPA managing partners. One of the hot topics was the very evident need for our profession to provide more advisory insights and services to our clients. With oncoming automation around data input and analysis, we know our services need to evolve into more advisory type services. We discussed that our "trusted advisor" status is anchored too closely to compliance, transactional and historical type services. Primarily, we have been a very responsive profession where few have consistently served as proactive strategic advisors.

I admit that I have been known to keep a shirt, coat, pants or tie that according to CeCe look “dated.” Our conversation usually goes something like this:

CeCe: You can’t wear that, it’s completely out of style!

Me: Well you liked it just fine when we bought it, it’s in great shape and it’s comfortable.

CeCe: I don’t care, you are not wearing that!

And that’s usually the end of our discussion. I then proceed to change clothes because, you know, I really wanted to wear something else anyway. 

Over the last 50 years, CPAs have been riding a wave of success, high trust and flowing demand that is frankly quite impressive by any measurement. This high level of relevance and success has been the result of excellent service, extreme competence, unparalleled work ethic and the integrity of a profession that has put the public interest first.

People ask me, “Joey, aren’t you scared of this massive fast-moving change and exponential technology transformation?” The quick answer is YES, absolutely! I really think a professional would have to be in denial to not be afraid of what is in front of us. It reminds me of the first time I jumped on a big street bike.

My wife, CeCe, and I just finished a home defense course which, like CPR, is simply great training and awareness. I started the course at the request of CeCe so I was a little skeptical of the overall value of the course. In the first afternoon, we learned the importance of three keywords to the foundation of good home and self-defense. Aware, was the first stage. As we walk to our car or answer the front door, we should be head up and alert to any possible dangers rather than head down, reading our last text message. Then, if you identify danger or a situation that could be dangerous, you immediately move into escape mode and look for the easiest ways to put distance or cover between you and the danger. Then if you are unable to avoid the danger, you confront it and defend yourself. Even yelling in a very loud voice that you see them or stop it can have a significant effect on the situation. 

Springtime was always associated with a garden when I was growing up. Even today, garden fresh vegetables are simply divine and one of my favorite meals. Every spring my mouth waters waiting on that first home-grown tomato.

It was in the family garden where I lost the end of my left thumb. It’s attached back now, but it’s not the prettiest thumb you will ever see. Even to this day, when I take pictures, I feel myself slipping that thumb inside of my hand and out of sight. My grandkids routinely ask me, “What happened to your thumb, Pops?” “Does it hurt?” “Let me see your boo-boo!”

Sometimes I wonder how many opportunities I have missed because I think too small. It’s clear to me today, in the future our greatest service to our clients and our teams will be the ability to collaborate on what’s possible. But if I know that I simply think too small many times, how can I learn to help others think about something as big as What’s Possible?

If you are an accountant, lawyer, doctor or really almost any knowledge worker today, you can’t scroll a line of tweets, check out LinkedIn posts, read a blog, headline or web conference without reading about IBM’s Watson or some bot or other artificial intelligence (AI) replacing you. Although I have a passion for anticipating the future to work on strategy and initiatives to help our clients and firm grow, I suspect you are like me in that we get fed up with the constant barrage of AI and Watson taking over our lives. 

Innovation is a key to our future success, and we can build a culture of innovation within our own teams. This 3-part series explores what it means to build a truly innovative culture at your business or firm. Make sure to read Choosing to be Open Minded, Part 1 of Building a Culture of Innovation, and Culture Leads Innovation, which is Part 2 of Building a Culture of Innovation to understand the entire journey.

Recently, when Tom Hood addressed our partners at our annual partner retreat, he helped us understand what type of leadership is required today when we are faced with such a disruptive rapid transformation. Today, every organization must be innovative and must have an incredible commitment to learning in order to remain relevant. Someone said, “survival is not mandatory.” And unless we become extremely focused as leaders, we will miss an amazing opportunity for growth. This rapid transformation brings an abundance of opportunities to leaders and firms that are focused. It also means that everyone leads, but our top leadership must be intensely focused.