eight seismic changes have altered the future of accounting firms.
by anthony zecca
leading from the edge
“all organizations are perfectly designed to get the results they are now getting. if we want different results, we must change the way we do things.” – tom northup, author of “five hidden mistakes ceos make”
what a great statement not just about accounting firms, but all organizations – “perfectly designed to get the result they are now getting.” there is another old saying that goes something like this: “if you want different results you have to do things differently.” center leaders hold onto the status quo whereas edge leaders constantly push the envelope of what is possible – pushing to the future edge.
more on edge leadership: assessing your firm | the 4 traits of great cpa leaders | why leaders must ensure clarity | incremental vs. exceptional success | do you lead or just manage? | managing vs. leading | is your leadership team at the edge? | 6 leadership challenges through covid and beyond | edge leaders share 7 strengths | leadership must drive culture | leading from the edge
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leadership is a topic that has been researched, talked about, written about, training sessions built around, and endless models developed – yet it is also one of the most challenging issues in most firms today. over my career, i have worked and consulted with leaders of all shapes and styles and firms that experienced varying degrees of success. based on working with hundreds of companies, my conclusions – and two of the primary reasons that drove me to write my book – are that in many cases, firms are performing below their capabilities and every firm has the potential to reach higher levels of performance if and when leadership moves from the center to the edge. edge leaders want to be at the top of the pack when it comes to all metrics that matter whereas center leaders are content to remain average.
to provide some perspective, leadership in most professional service firms (excluding the very largest ones) has been homegrown. very few, if any, hired outside the profession to find a leader who has been successful in leading a standout, high-performing organization. in fact, most firm leaders in accounting firms remain founders or a partner who spent their entire career with the firm. many of today’s firm leaders spent much of their career serving clients and spent little time learning how to be an effective leader.
even as the founders approached retirement, so many never spent the time to groom the next leader and either passed the torch to the wrong person or sold the firm, not having confidence in the leadership pool from which the successor leader could be chosen. in some firms, the new leader had or was able to hone their leadership skills to become an edge leader and lead their firm to greater levels of performance like many of the leaders i interviewed for my book. unfortunately, too many have not.
succession planning for accounting firms is one of the most critical responsibilities of firm leaders, yet it is a responsibility that many firm leaders don’t live up to. too many leaders wait too long to creatively and responsibly think about their successor and therefore never bother to train their successor or ensure that the chosen successor gets the necessary training to be an effective leader. at most, there might be a one- or two-year “co-leader” structure with intent of training but this is an ineffective training program for many reasons. transitioning from one leader to the next is a challenge that few current leaders work at, yet it is one of the most critical issues facing many accounting firms today.
“every day i try and work myself out of a job.” – robert minkler jr., leader of anders cpas
another leadership reality in firms is that most of the leaders are accountants by training and thereby risk-averse, conservative and for the most part center leaders – happy with a little improvement every year. they lived and then lead in a world of incrementalism versus exceptionalism. many center-led firms have achieved a level of success and profitability, and the partners are generally earning more than they ever imagined.
when i was still an active partner, i remember conversations with other partners around the fact that none of us entered the accounting profession with any expectation of earning $500,000 or more. the average partner compensation in accounting firms today is over $600,000, so it is hard to look at firm leadership and talk about center versus edge leadership. but like all averages, firms with great edge leadership achieve greater growth, greater profits and therefore higher average partner compensation than the industry averages.
in addition, like all industries, accounting firms are not immune to downturns and the past doesn’t guarantee the future. the market within which accounting firms compete has changed and the world in which most of today’s firm leaders grew up in does not exist anymore. the following seismic changes have changed the future for accounting firms and will significantly challenge a firm’s future success unless and until leadership understands, accepts and responds to the changes.
- client wants and expectations are so different, no longer content with compliance-based services, challenging every firm to remake itself.
- technology has already had and will continue to have a dramatic impact on how services are provided. the extensive expansion of a remote work force driven by covid-19 is just an example.
- the competition for talent acquisition is tighter than it has ever been, with the progressive firms winning the battle.
- competition for client acquisition, both new and old, is more challenging with those firms that are focused on delivering value winning greater market share at the expense of firms that are still compliance-based.
- the aspirations of professionals have also changed dramatically, and many no longer focus on becoming partners but look for a career that provides work/life balance, provides great training, provides a collegial work environment and is for a firm that makes a difference socially.
- compliance services, which is what most firms were built on and still “live” on, has become a commodity with little value assigned from clients, thereby creating significant price compression, profit challenges and client retention challenges.
- unpredictable events, like the current pandemic crisis we are living through today, will have seismic implications for how firms operate going forward, challenging firms on many levels.
- finally, social issues such as diversity will change the landscape of both clients and talent, challenging firm leadership to move from talking about diversity to actually integrating it into the fiber of the firm.
to say that the above challenges have turned professional service firms upside down is an understatement. the need for firm leadership to step up their game and create a sustainable and successful firm is greater than it has ever been. the future success of firms is on more tenuous ground than it has ever been.
on the flip side, the opportunity for significant future success is greater than it has ever been for those firms that adapt. firms with edge leadership will strategically face, win and take advantage of the opportunities that are created with any challenge. firms that continue to be managed from the center and defined by the past will slowly deteriorate, lose clients, lose talent and finally lose their financial success.
edge leadership is more critical than ever, given the dramatic shifts in what it will take for firms to be successful in the ever-changing market within which we compete. given all the market shifts noted above, the need for edge leaders to create a strong standout high-performing firm is critical to being able to chart a successful and sustainable future path. we will discuss the three essential assessments necessary to create the baseline from which you can chart the course to becoming a standout, high-performing firm – your leadership team, your leadership and finally the firm. the four main topics we will cover are:
- what are the leadership qualities needed for future success? it is critical to define what qualities you as the firm leader need in your leadership team. just as many of the strengths of the firm change as it grows in response to the market, the qualities and strengths of your leadership team need to evolve as well. as the firm grows and adjusts to major market changes, structures that were not necessary before – such as creating industry teams, creating a more effective and shared governance structure, creating greater balance between the firm’s social responsibilities and its economic responsibilities, to name a few – become more critical. defining important leadership qualities and then selecting partners for leadership roles that align with those qualities is how edge leaders need to build their teams.
- assessing the strength of the current members of your leadership team. every firm of almost any size has a leadership team, whether informal or formal. as you think through the firm’s leadership for the future, it starts with an assessment of how good your current leaders are.
- assessing your leadership effectiveness as the firm leader. it is critical that you make an honest assessment of your leadership to evaluate how, if at all, you need to change to ensure the future success of the firm and the achievement of the firm’s shared strategic objectives.
- assessing the firm as it is today is essential to complete the baseline. assessing how the firm is operating today, coupled with the assessment of your leadership team and your own leadership, will provide a complete picture of what the firm looks like today. this baseline is critical to ensure that the future roadmap is based on a solid assessment of where the firm is today and not based on myths that reflect a firm that only exists in the minds of the leaders.
“in life we can have results or reasons. if you are not getting the results you want, your reasons are the lies that you keep telling yourself.” – harald anderson
the importance of developing a thorough and objective assessment of your leadership team, your leadership and the firm are what forms the critical baseline of knowledge. it is from this baseline that you can build a successful roadmap to take your firm from where it is today to that standout, high-performing firm. the keys to creating this assessment are objectivity and honesty. if your assessment lacks either, the roadmap you create will be built on a falsehood and result in not getting you to where you want to be.
you can’t build a successful vision and roadmap for creating a standout, high-performing firm if the foundation upon which it is built is based on myth and the lack of a true and clear understanding of who and what the firm is. a key factor in the success for creating a standout, high-performing firm is an honest and fact-based assessment of the firm including leadership ensuring that everyone in the firm understands who and what the firm is today. combining the assessment with the vision for the future will form the basis for the roadmap to becoming a standout, high-performing firm – a standout, high-performing firm that will differentiate itself from its competitors and create a firm that matters, that makes a difference in the lives of all who work in the firm, all of the firm’s clients and the greater communities within which the firm operates.
“it is two things that drive a firm to be a standout firm – making sure the firm has a unique compelling story and identity (who and what you are) and developing a differentiator that matters.” – kevin o’connell, leader of mgo