your team wants to know their purpose.
by anthony zecca
leading from the edge
many of you who are reading this might be too young to appreciate the story i share below about my childhood.
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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i have always been a huge football fan. i played football in high school until a knee injury cut short my road to the nfl (just kidding), but my love of the game continues to this day. when i was a kid, there was a football game that i received one christmas that i spent countless hours playing. the game was powered by electricity. the game board was designed as a football field, and there were 22 little plastic players that would form two teams. the players were about 2 to 3 inches tall, with a rubber piece on the bottom that had two flanges that you could move directionally and in theory affect how the piece would move on the board once the power button was hit.
as the offensive coach (always played against my brother), you would think about the play you wanted to run (pass, rush) and what direction you wanted the players to move. the defensive coach would anticipate and set up his players to move in the direction where he thought the offensive play was going.
regardless of how much time i spent thinking about the offensive play i wanted to execute, once the power was turned on, the players just had a mind of their own and moved in all different directions and in almost all cases, did not perform anywhere near where i needed to score a touchdown or have a big play. defense was no different – players would move all over the place. even though we really could not control anything, my brother and i spent countless hours having fun with this football game, and once in a while scoring a touchdown.
you may wonder what this story has to do with lack of clarity. it has everything to do with it. when you have a leadership team that does not understand as a team the overall direction, tactically and strategically for the firm, on what basis do they make day-to-day decisions? without clarity regarding what is expected and how everyone’s behavior aligns with the strategy, vision, mission and core values of the firm, each individual is left to decide what is expected and what decisions to make based on their perception of the truth, i.e., what they believe – not based on the collective vision for the firm. the result is like the plastic pieces on my electric football field, just moving to their own whims rather than working as an orchestrated and well-oiled machine with a common focus and a complete understanding of tactics and strategies to drive their day-to-day decisions.
as michael jordan stated, “talent wins games, but teamwork and intelligence wins championships.”
the question to ask yourself and your leadership team is, are you in this to win games or to win the championship? are you in this to be a standout, high-performing firm or a firm that remains in the middle of the pack, winning games once in a while? assuming the answer is that you and your team, in fact the entire firm, want to be a standout, high-performing firm, a key driver for achieving that result is to ensure that everyone is clear on vision, mission, core values and the tactical as well as longer-term strategic plan to drive their actions and decisions within a common vision and framework – i.e., clarity.
how do you create clarity, understanding, and emotional as well as intellectual buy-in to the firm’s vision, mission, core values and strategies? there are tons of books that go into this challenge and provide a myriad of approaches that are generally effective. what many of them miss and what i want to focus this discussion on is purpose – understanding the why.
center leaders believe that if they tell everyone what the firm’s strategies, vision, mission and core values are, everyone will understand and get on board – that they created buy-in. edge leaders understand that telling everyone may create the intellectual buy-in, but not the emotional buy-in, which is much more critical to success. edge leaders understand the importance of taking time to fully explain the purpose – the why behind the vision, mission, core values and strategies – and that this is what will create the emotional buy-in to unite everyone, thus creating a collective focus to ensure success.
in his great book, “start with why,” simon sinet links the importance of why with the need to inspire your entire team. he goes on to say that there are only two ways to influence your team’s behavior – you can manipulate them or inspire them. leading from the edge requires you “to inspire.” center leaders rely more on to direct or manipulate. think about these two scenarios where the firm leader is explaining to all the partners and staff some changes to drive growth:
“the vision, mission, core values and strategic plan that the leadership team developed is focused on creating a firm that achieves growth and profits at the top of our industry, so that we can earn more, pay more and invest in the future.”
or
“our vision, mission, core values and strategic plan that were developed with input from across the firm is focused on becoming a standout firm we can all be proud of, that clients want to be associated with, where our employees love coming to work, where we provide a great work environment, a great career path and provide top service and value to all our clients.”
the first is an example of manipulation – it ties the message to compensation and financial results. the second is inspirational, driving the understanding of why. if you were a partner or staff person sitting there listening to the firm leader, which explanation would you find inspiring and hopeful and something you want to be a part of – emotionally?
the power of purpose is what creates the emotional buy-in that is essential if your partners and staff are going to enthusiastically follow you into battle. great edge leaders understand the power of purpose and the importance of creating the emotional as well as intellectual buy-in for any change or strategy to be successful. center leaders believe that all they have to do is to “tell” everyone, sound the charge, and everyone will willingly and enthusiastically follow them into battle – how has that worked in your firm?
below is a personal story that clearly shows the power of individuals understanding the why, the purpose and how that clarity dramatically changed the collective actions of the team.
when i was in basic training at fort leonard wood outside of st. louis, it was our third week and we were in bayonet training. my training company was comprised of around 100 men. it was a warm day in january and our drill instructor was standing on a rock explaining to us how to use a bayonet to defend ourselves. we were all sitting on the ground listening and a bunch of us were kidding around and not really paying attention. many of us were reservists who were putting in their six months of active duty and then heading home to serve the remainder of our six-year commitment in our reserve unit. of what value was learning to defend ourselves with a bayonet?
our drill instructor screamed at us with some colorful language and then explained the why. he asked that anyone who was not a reservist to stand up. everyone looked around and about 25 percent of the company was standing, guys we all knew even though it was just three weeks into basic training. the drill instructor said, “look around at those who are standing up – they are either draftees or guys who joined up and most will be going to vietnam. you reservists think this training is a joke and just bs but think about this while you are sitting there joking around. what i am trying to teach you all today will someday possibly save the life of one of these guys standing up when they are fighting for their lives in vietnam.”
boy, did we understand the why and my company ended up winning the award for the best training company that cycle; we understood the purpose – to save lives. we were motivated, committed and inspired to be the best and we were. that never would have been the result if we never understood the why.
accountability for results
the bottom line is you can set all the goals for your partners and staff you want, and it will move the performance needle maybe a little unless there is a strong model and process that will link goals with accountability for performance.
as an edge leader, it’s important to understand that every day your actions create the real culture of accountability, whether it results in a positive or negative culture. your influence over those you lead is more affected by what you do and not what you say.
with that said, a key aspect of accountability is that each individual must recognize and accept that they are accountable for their actions, decisions and results, and all the structured accountability models (i.e., quarterly progress meetings, etc.) will achieve little if each individual does not accept personal responsibility, ownership and accountability for their actions and their improvement. the accountability process and model should be focused on coaching to help everyone achieve their goals – it should not be viewed as a report card from school. if an individual owns the goal, they will hold themselves accountable.
another interesting thought regarding effective accountability is peer-to-peer accountability. peer pressure is an effective motivator when implemented properly. peer-to-peer coupled with a more traditional accountability model will work well in helping individuals successfully achieve the goals that they committed to and own.
as joe dumars (former nba player) states, “on good teams, coaches hold players accountable; on great teams, players hold players accountable.”
when firms struggle with establishing a culture of strong accountability, the primary cause is the leader’s difficulty and resistance to the other side of accountability – taking action when an individual or team is not performing against their goals. in a 2019 ceo benchmarking report, leaders in a variety of industries indicated that their biggest weakness was not holding people accountable (see chart below).
looking at the chart above, 33 percent reflect the biggest challenge to leadership’s ability to drive their firm to a top-performing, standout firm – their inability to hold people accountable including taking action to get rid of under-performers. let’s start with understanding why establishing accountability is so difficult for leaders.
the most common reason why accountability is so difficult is that leaders all too often are not accountable for their own performance, missed deadlines, inconsistencies or firm results even though they may not consciously admit that to themselves. accountability is established at the individual level and reinforced by team accountability. leaders find it difficult to hold others accountable and take action on non-performers if, when they lay their head on the pillow at night, they face the reality that they are not held accountable for their own results. accountability must start at the top, with the leader being held accountable for the achievement of his own goals and performance as well as the overall performance of the firm.
the second reason is a human characteristic – we want to be liked. it is part of our human condition and for many leaders, holding people accountable and telling them they are underperforming is just plain hard, particularly if you have to take difficult actions like demoting or terminating someone. avoiding confrontation makes creating true accountability impossible.
the third reason is that leaders don’t set clear expectations regarding goals, nor do they clearly communicate the potential consequences if goals are not met. how can a leader hold anyone accountable for anything if the leader doesn’t first clearly communicate what is expected (goals), coupled with what might happen if the goals are not substantially achieved? establishing goals is something that the edge leader needs to lead. the goals need to be discussed and agreed to. they need to be believable and achievable. and they need to be measurable. they need to be owned by each individual, with each individual taking personal responsibility. the potential ramifications of not meeting the goals also have to be clear, appropriate and implemented when necessary.
the fourth and final reason is inconsistency. employees watch very carefully the actions their leaders take. if there is a lot of talk about accountability and there is inconsistency in terms of how or to whom it is applied, it becomes a negative versus a positive, and employees just want to stay out of the line of fire. the result is minimal performance to just stay under the radar. if accountability is not enforced for everyone, it is not enforced for anyone.
when partners and staff are not held accountable for performance, such as missed deadlines, missed goals, poor performance or behavior issues, the biggest loser is the leader, whose credibility is tarnished, and confidence in his leadership is weakened. everyone loses – the leader, partners, staff, the firm, financial results. a leader cannot inspire everyone to greatness and propel the firm to a top-performing firm in a culture where effective accountability is missing. not enforcing accountability and not taking appropriate actions weakens the entire firm. when low performers are not addressed and appropriately dealt with, when the leader allows being compassionate to overtake being fair, the performers are the ones who are hurt.
“when is being compassionate to the minority (low performers) that have to be dealt with really hurting the people that are the core of the business (performers)?” – jim pitrat, leader of singer lewak
please note that the parentheses were added by me for clarification and not part of jim’s quote.
ability to build, motivate and coach a team
the ability of your leadership team to build, motivate and coach their team members is critical to the successful performance of the team and the firm. ensuring that the leadership team is the right team to drive the culture of the firm through its teams is also critical to the overall success of the firm.
“creating and living our culture starts with hiring the right people.” – robert minkler jr., leader of anders cpas