beBetter 

First and foremost, we must learn to lead ourselves. It starts with understanding who we are. Do we know ourselves very well? Seems like a crazy question, but it is the starting point for leadership, fulfillment and success. What are our values? What decisions did we make that brought us to this point?

Recently, I surprised a team member by requesting that we role-play a difficult situation I had to address the following week. “Joey, why do you want to role-play this? As Executive Partner with tons of experience, why are you wasting time role-playing this discussion?” he asked. Great questions that brought to light how often we don’t gain the benefits of role-playing. 

Andy Taggart shared this great story a few weeks ago on Twitter. As I read and reflected on it, it became crystal clear that this is the same collaboration needed in our firms and companies. More Baby Boomers and Gen X sharing their knowledge and experience while working directly with our youngest generation of team members. The fastest leadership development and the best way to close the succession gap is by being “in the room” or “in the meeting.”  

I often hear team members refer to a star performer as having the “IT” factor or expressing the desire to be personally known for excellence. What stands between us and excellence or being one of the star players is DELIBERATE PRACTICE.

When we were growing up, if Mike, Mitzi and I were constantly arguing or fighting, Mom would patiently warn us several times to stop. If we continued to be rowdy, she would finally step back in the room and say, “I’ve had ENOUGH!” which we knew meant our future was not real bright and our backsides were now in jeopardy. As a profession, we need a wake-up call of our own about the disruption and speed of change we are facing. So, today, we will use the term ENOUGH just as Mom did. 

A few months ago at HORNE’s State of the Firm, we discovered together that most of us are swimming, wading, tiptoeing or running through the swamp of despair since we took a new direction in response to the transformation we see around us. We reviewed this insightful graphic, “The Emotional Journey of Creating Anything Great,” and each of us identified where we were on our journey. It was not pretty, big change never is.

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.

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?

Pop Joe is our family nickname for my beloved Dad, Joe Havens. Pop Joe is 79 and recently he had a mild heart attack which actually helped save his life. Pop Joe is high energy, works out 3 times a week at the gym, mows his grass, manages the landscaping, grows a family garden and serves in many capacities at Calvary Baptist Church. Mom says he can be a little stubborn at times which might truthfully be the only negative thing you will ever hear about this wonderful man. What an amazing dash he is living and so glad to share that he has been my greatest mentor, an amazing role model and loving father. 

It's that time of year—goal setting time. New Year’s resolutions abound on every desk, journal, career goal system, refrigerator, bathroom, car visor, website and even napkins. Of course, there's also those we keep in the clouds and never record unless we generate a moment of early accountability.

How many times do we say, “If Only?” As I coach and mentor, I see us get hung up on it too often. Here’s a little bit of revelation—each of us has moments, decisions, words, actions and even thoughts where the words “If Only” might fit.  No one is perfect and we all make mistakes. For me, a lot of them.

Jeff Foxworthy has made a career out of his, “You might be a redneck if…” jokes. Besides giving rednecks more jokes than they know what to do with, these jokes reach a bigger audience because they are relatable. We see ourselves or someone we know in some aspect of these jokes. "You might be a redneck if your salad bowls have Cool Whip stamped on them." I always wondered if you were a redneck if it was only the extra guest bowls that had the cool whip stamp?  Regardless, if we look closely at some of the fun poked by Foxworthy, we might also detect a theme of complacency—always settling rather than striving to better ourselves. 

In my experience of mentoring, coaching and teaching about leadership, one of the fundamental pieces of advice that I always include is, “Make sure you are not holding up the ship!” It’s easy for our organizations to bottleneck and get slowed down when vision, roles, responsibility and authority are not well communicated and owned.