partners should set staff up for success.
by ed mendlowitz
202 questions and answers: managing an accounting practice
question: my boss asked me to call you. i am a staff accountant with five years’ experience. i am having a lot of stress trying to manage everything i have to do. i am juggling supervising people i don’t know how to supervise, being managed less by those above me and having to figure out more for myself – including things i never did before or in industries i never worked on previously, keeping current with changes in accounting rules and taxes (because i am more like a generalist and clients ask me everything), never seem to have any free time, juggling my schedule because most of my clients are never ready when they say they will be and being accountable to my boss for everything i do plus what the staff working under me does.
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so how do i do it all? how can i prioritize all my responsibilities?
response: wow! deep question! it seems there is very little written for “entry-level” supervisors. but plenty for people already doing it.
there are no “how-to’s” for this. maybe this can be a start. here is a short response of some random thoughts, in no particular order.
- first of all, you need to prioritize your responsibilities based on what is most important down to the least important.
- the definition of importance should be based on how what you are doing, or need to do, measures up against your and the firm’s big-picture goals.
- you need to recognize that irrespective of your advanced position, you still need to take the time (and pester your boss if necessary) to make sure you fully understand what you need to do.
- try to identify training and supervision shortcomings of your bosses when you were just starting out and make sure you do not replicate them.
- ditto with great things they did and copy those too.
- clear instructions have to be your mantra – very clear. never assume that your charge will understand what you mean. and you should make sure you are not assuming what your boss wants you to do. keep in mind the famous felix unger quote, “when you assume, you make an ‘ass’ of ‘u’ and ‘me.’”
- recognizing your inexperience in supervising staff is a mature move on your part, and you should be commended for that. seeking help gets you another commendation. speak to the managers and partners in your firm. make your intrusions into 15-minute management tips. cover one or two issues at a time. be prepared when you speak to them and be specific. i don’t think any manager or partner would think that a 15-minute break to help you is bothersome. do it two or three times a week, not more. you don’t want to be a pest, don’t want to reach a point of diminishing returns and don’t want to repeat yourself.
- keeping current is important and needs to be done. you can do this at home in the evening, or get to the office a little early and do it there.
- at a five-year level you should start to think about specializing. this can be in an industry such as manufacturing, real estate, contracting or not-for-profits, or specialty such as auditing, tax planning, forensic investigations or business valuations. once a specialization is decided upon, you need to go about making yourself an expert – read, join professional associations, take focused cpe and try to write articles or give speeches. you need to do a lot of self-assessment when you decide on a specialty and you should enlist the help of the partners in your firm. find out where they need a role filled, and have them commit to your proceeding in that area.
- clients not being ready and needing to change your schedule is unfortunately a common occurrence. you can mitigate the inconveniences caused by this by becoming more insistent and forceful about having available what you will need when you schedule the date. and never assume the client will do what they say. you’ll need to follow up – follow up and then follow up. if there is the strong possibility they will not have what you need when you need it, speak to your immediate supervisor or manager. let them contact their counterpart at the client to inform them about the compliance failure.
- there is the likelihood that your schedule will at times be overloaded and you will have multiple emergency priorities. rather than taking on more than you can physically handle, let your boss prioritize the assignments (in coordination with other partners). it is their job to make the triage decisions. it is amazing how much pressure is removed when you go to them. i know that you don’t want to say you can’t do something, or that you are too busy to get something done. however, an initial reality-check conversation is much less embarrassing than you not meeting the deadlines that would force partners to have to apologize to clients.
- engagements with clients in new industries are great opportunities and you should seek these out. on new clients, you should read the previous years’ financial statements, research the industry on the internet, obtain industry profile reports from firstresearch.com or run some numbers on profitcents.com.
- if you need to do some type of work you’ve never done before, look it up to obtain a familiarity and then ask for some assistance in understanding your initial approach.
- plan the work before you start. write out a brief work plan for that day for yourself and your staff. go to the client organized, prepared and ready to work. also, showing your staff that you are prepared creates confidence in you.
- for your own starting point on something new – start with cash. check out the bank reconciliation. it always worked for me. you see the cash that comes in and cash that goes out. what else do you really need to understand about the client? let your charge do the other testing. they will love you for not making them do cash and you’ll have the handle on the client.
i received many calls about this question. i find it important that there is a concern about a staff person’s well-being. the better the staff do, the better it will be for your firm.
in relooking at it, i think it is important for partners to consider the careers of their staff and be part of those careers’ successful management. i suggest that anyone having staff read this question and the response carefully and consider how their staff are progressing, developing and adapting to changing roles and responsibilities. each staff person is an investment and that investment shouldn’t be looked at as a passive investment on automatic pilot – rather it should be actively managed. the dividends come with the growth of the staff and hopefully with their becoming partners or successors some day. your concern should be transferred into positive action.