beBetter 

Simply showing up just doesn’t cut it. Today, we need team members who are going to be fully present. Passionate, focused, committed and engaged. 

Ever notice the trend when we are faced with stagnation, less relevance, stiffer competition or slow growth—we’re quick to default to a “more is better” approach. An approach based on beliefs that bigger means being relevant and brings certainty for future growth. If we were bigger, more companies would choose us so we would have more growth. If we do more of any of our services, our relevance will grow also. These beliefs or approaches might be a very slippery slope that could land us at the bottom of a swamp infested with other non-distinctive commodities. 

I think the busy we each feel today primarily comes from our legacy of treating everything as being urgent. We have bought into the legacy thinking that if it is urgent, it is important to our future. We have bought into the legacy thinking that to be responsive we must treat everything as urgent. We have bought into the legacy thinking that if we are working on urgent things, we are important and valued. We have bought into the legacy thinking that learning to handle urgent things is a competency that makes us feel good. 

Let’s start with a bold statement (an assumption based on experience and lots of supporting evidence)—most firms have partners and managers who are not hitting on all cylinders to reach their full potential. But these low performing partners/managers generally have two key CEO attributes that might surprise us.  In fact, these two key attributes are exactly what our legacy thinking might use to rationalize why they should be partners. A few weeks ago, we talked about our current leadership gap, which is worsened by our legacy thinking. Let’s dive in as we may find ourselves justifying past decisions based on highlighting these two important attributes.

This past Saturday morning, the sun was shining and my wife, CeCe, and I were taking in the start of a slow weekend with coffee on the front porch. She shared that she recently ran into Father Camp (who is 85 and retired from the ministry) and they had an interesting discussion on life and death. He shared how seeing so much death and ministering to those in grief has been one of the hardest things in his ministry and that  we simply do not know the date we will meet our Maker. That is why it is so important to think about our dash—our legacy and how we impact others’ lives—today.

The unparalleled success of public accounting has led our firms into a leadership paradigm where our basic assumptions, reasons, beliefs and perspectives are failing us in developing leaders for tomorrow’s success. As we look within our firms, what past trends do we see that help us understand our present paradigm in promoting partners, the key leaders in our firms?

It is so tempting (obviously too tempting for CPA firms) to be everything to everybody. CPA firms wear the badge of never saying, “NO.”  No wonder we constantly hear the warning that someone can’t see a real distinction between most firms.

I love the commercial of Charles Barkley walking in the airport with his two buddies and as a mother and baby pass close by, he inquires if she would like for him to kiss her baby. The baby immediately starts crying and I start laughing out loud every time. We know the commercial is a comical look at Barkley’s sizable ego and that scene is intended to show his two buddies how important and loved he is rather than making a special moment for the mother and baby. 

One of the questions that I receive or hear from team members, friends, business associates and yes, even my children, is, “How can I lead?” I might mention that I do not get this question from CeCe (my wife), as she leads our family daily! And yes, I go outside with the dog now.

According to Futurist Daniel Burrus, “In the next five years, we are going to transform—not change, but transform—how we sell, how we market, how we communicate, collaborate, innovate, train and educate.” Driven by exponential change in technology, our world is experiencing disruption in every aspect of our lives. And in the words of Disney CEO Bob Iger, “The riskiest thing we can do is maintain status quo.”

“I only golf at Sage Valley,” I responded to one of my colleague's inquiry about my golfing at our annual Sage Valley outing. We all laughed as I shared they had seen me hit my last golf ball on last year’s trip. Another colleague chimed in, “That’s a great line…‘I only golf at Sage Valley.’”

If it didn’t sound so snobby, I might actually use it, but no one would understand the humor in it. Nonetheless, it is true. I gave golf up many years ago and until last year at this special invite, I had not so much as hit a single golf ball in many years. “Rusty” would be a compliment for the condition of my golf game.

It’s finally spring and between my anticipation and the crappie’s early movement into shallower water—I may be on the edge of a fishing frenzy, one that reared its ugly head on my last fishing trip.

There’s nothing more determined than a horse headed back to the barn for some rest and feed. If you have ever ridden a horse, you know that as you get close to the barn at the end of a long ride—hang on, you may no longer be in control. When I’ve been on the road traveling away from home and CeCe (my wife), as I start back, I certainly develop that same mentality to get to the barn ASAP no matter what fence I have to run through.