transformation must come at all levels.
“the world accommodates you for fitting in, but only rewards you for standing out.” – matshona dhiliwayo, author, “the art of winning.”
by anthony zecca
leading from the edge
after your assessment of the leadership team, and the assessment of your own leadership, we move on to the challenge of answering the key question – what steps need to be taken (the road map) to move the firm from where it is today to a standout, high-performing firm?
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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the call to action and question for you as the edge leader, for your leadership team, for your partners, and in fact for the entire firm to answer is, do you just want to fit in or are you willing to do what it will take to stand out? if you want to move to the top of the pack, what does the firm need to accomplish and how does leadership drive that transformation?
“all of our people know that they are responsible for bringing the future into the firm on a daily basis. making sure that the firm is future-ready is #1 on my list of responsibilities.”– lou grassi, leader of grassi & co.
let’s discuss the five major principles firm leadership needs to adopt to become a standout, high-performing firm.
the leadership of mary’s firm
after mary meets with her edge leadership coach, she decides to attend another managing partner conference focused on firm leadership. the keynote presentation is about what it means to be a standout firm, how to create that firm and leadership’s role in that transformation. as the presenter discusses the challenges firms are experiencing in this transition to a successful standout firm, mary thinks about her firm, the recent assessment of the firm, the assessment of her leadership team and of her own leadership performance. she begins to realize that to achieve the level of performance to a standout, high-performing firm, there are mountains to climb. she is scheduled to have dinner with several other firm leaders that evening and decides it would be helpful to talk at dinner about what these leaders are doing for their firms to stand out.
at dinner, everyone gets into a lively discussion about the keynote highlighting how their firms are “transforming.” toward the end of the discussion, mary asks a simple question.
“it’s great that most of you are in the process of transforming your firm, but what is the primary approach you are implementing to make your firm really stand out, differentiate and win more clients?” the answers are a lot of generalities like, “we are more focused on client service and training,” “we are changing our website and marketing materials,” “we are adding more advisory services” and “we are changing our value and mission statements.”
mary comes to the realization that the journey to creating a standout, high-performing firm is not about changing at the edges, it’s about changing the very nature of her firm’s dna. she also knows that this is no easy task and starts to think through what it means to move the firm to a standout, high-performing firm and the road to transformation she must lead.
she thinks back to advice she received from her edge leadership coach regarding the importance of the firm becoming an impactful advisor and value-added partner to clients.
she thinks about how the world is changing so fast and what kind of changes clients are expecting from their accounting firms; are they expecting so much more than they did in the past?
she realizes that unless she can inspire every partner to be a standout partner, the firm will never be a standout firm.
while waiting at the airport to head home, mary calls her assistant and asks him to schedule a mandatory partners’ meeting. topic: changing the firm’s dna.
while sitting at the airport and on the plane home, she starts to craft the message and the road map to transform the firm to a standout, high-performing firm, and what leadership she and her entire leadership team needs to deliver every single day.
back at the office, she continues to tweak the message and road map, discussing parts of it with others whose input she values, including her leadership coach. the day of the partners’ meeting arrives, and as she enters the meeting, she can easily sense the anxiety in the room, and decides to launch right into the storm.
“i called this meeting to sound the alarm,” she begins. mary shares the firm and leadership assessments with the group. “we are at a pivotal point in our firm’s future. we can continue to do business as we have done, try to get better at it and at best we will stay in the middle of the pack, continuing to score 58 percent in our firm assessment. or, we can create a future that will transform our firm to the level of a standout, high-performing firm, scoring at least 90 percent on our firm assessment and become a leader versus a me-too firm stuck in the middle and struggling to just fit in.
“i know some, maybe most of you, are sitting here thinking, ‘what is she talking about? how will this affect me? our firm is not that bad. we are all making a good living, so why should we change and risk what we have?’ all good and understandable questions.
“here’s the deal – who doesn’t want to be a partner in a standout, high-performing firm? who doesn’t want to serve interesting, challenging and successful clients where we get paid a fair price for our work, are appreciated for our service, and can see the impact we are having on our clients’ success? who doesn’t want to have really talented team members excited about working here? i do – the question is do you, and are you willing to do what it takes to move to the head of the pack and out of the middle from all the other me-too firms?
“it’s true, we are a good firm, and we all make a comfortable living, but our world is changing, and if we don’t change with it, the risk of our firm deteriorating is so much greater than the risk of transforming this firm. we need to change and become a standout, high-performing firm at all levels if we are going to grow and differentiate from our competitors. i am going to share five principles we need to weave into our dna to move from a good firm to a standout, high-performing firm. we will spend time today at a high level discussing each. over the next several weeks we will spend more time understanding each principle and developing the answer as to how we pivot to the future firm that we need to become.
“here are the five principles that i learned at a recent conference. i want to share each with you and ask you to think about each point and believe in our ability to rise to the challenge presented by each:
- we cannot be a standout firm if we don’t have a standout team from top to bottom.
- we need to become fully market-intelligent so that our services are always aligned with what the market and our clients are telling us.
- we need to become client-centric so that every aspect of our firm is focused on our clients, delivering impactful client service and value-added advice – helping our clients become more successful.
- we need to be technology-focused so that we are leading edge in our service delivery and in helping our clients become the leading edge in their business.
- finally, we need to be confidently courageous – we need to be trailblazers with an attitude of ‘smart aggressiveness,’ pushing the envelope of who and what we are, leading from the edge.
“when we are successful in transforming our firm around these five principles, we will be a standout, high-performing firm. we will become a leader in our profession and in the markets we serve. we will become a firm that our clients love, and our competitors look up to. we will become that firm that makes a difference in the lives of our clients, our community, and our people.
“we all have to constantly but smartly push the edges of our performance, leading the firm and our respective teams to the high performance they are capable of. we need to embrace change and be smart about how we implement.”
the meeting ends, and mary knows that transforming the firm that has spent all of its life in the middle, to a firm that stands out from all the others will not be easy. but it’s a road that this firm can successfully navigate, and she can confidently and successfully lead.
transforming to a standout, high-performing firm requires that the firm’s collective mindset, its collective personality, its collective work ethic, and its collective attitude reflect the desire, belief, confidence, and commitment to the transformation from where the firm is today to a standout, high-performing firm.
every partner must desire to personally transform themselves to a standout professional. as the firm leader, you can’t allow some partners to sit on the sidelines even if that means you need to take some difficult steps with any partner who just does not have the desire to change.
the transformation starts with the partners and you need the entire partner group to be on board. it is their responsibility to be the cheerleaders to help drive the transformation throughout the firm. every partner’s desire to transform must be rooted in their belief and confidence in the firm’s leader and the leadership team’s ability to successfully lead the transformation. finally, the entire partner group must be committed to the transformation and road map reflecting that commitment through their actions and communications.
“like-minded people are powerful in moving things forward and that is why culture is so important – it is the engine that moves like-minded people forward.” – jane scaccetti, leader of drucker & scaccetti
if the edge leader is inconsistent in driving and leading the transformation, the negative impact on the firm’s culture and on the transformation will be significant. as the edge leader, it’s important to understand that some partners will enthusiastically have the desire to change while others will need a leap of faith in you as the leader.
“change is hard, since you just want to come in today and do what you did yesterday.” – jane scaccetti, leader of drucker & scaccetti
the challenge for you as the edge leader is to move everyone’s vision from yesterday to tomorrow. being a trailblazer is not easy when so many years have been spent in compliance and middle-of-the-pack behavior. building that collective desire to become a standout professional and each person’s belief in their ability to become that standout professional requires a personal commitment from each member of the firm to that goal. the personal ownership and commitment to transform by each individual is what is needed to transform the firm’s dna.
“there are lots of professionals, good people who just want to put their heads down and do process and they can be very valuable to the firm and valuable as people but not the same value as someone who can make a difference in the marketplace.” – ron weiner, leader of perelson weiner llp
becoming that standout, high-performing firm is all about making a difference in the marketplace, in the lives of your clients and in the lives of your team. achieving that goal requires collective desire, belief, commitment, training and confidence to become that standout, high-performing professional who can make a difference on their team, in their firm and with their clients.