anthony zecca, author at 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间 - page 2 of 2

assessing your leadership team

four common challenges.

by anthony zecca

one of the most critical factors affecting the ability of a firm leader to be an edge leader versus a center leader is the effectiveness of the leadership team. there is a direct link between the strength of the leadership team and the firm leader’s ability to lead from the edge. a strong team allows the firm leader to lead whereas a weak team forces the firm leader to manage.

center leaders appoint or promote individuals to leadership positions generally without any objective model of what is needed in the position to drive success and to support the firm’s strategic objectives. center leaders promote based on what they think they know about the individual or based on putting someone on the team who will be a team player – someone the center leader knows will not rock the boat. all too often, the center leader will promote or appoint someone to a leadership position because they have been there the longest or based on friendship.
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incremental vs. exceptional success

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.

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.
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do you lead or just manage?

5 questions to answer.

by anthony zecca
leading from the edge

let’s look at examples of managing versus leading from two actual clients.

stuck in managing – center leadership

i was retained by the owner/ceo of a $40 million manufacturer of a home products company. the current leader inherited the business from his dad, and over 20+ years grew the business on the top line, but always struggled with profitability. over the last few years, however, there was no top-line growth and he was frustrated.

his leadership view of the future was the next quarter, and the company had no strategy or vision beyond the current year. the most he thought about the future was when they were preparing their annual budget. this was an incremental process versus a real bottom-up process coupled with a growth strategy so as a management tool, the budget was relatively useless.
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managing vs. leading

are you solving too many problems?

by anthony zecca
leading from the edge

one of the biggest obstacles to a firm realizing its potential, its partners and staff realizing their potential, and a firm leader maximizing his impact on the trajectory of the firm is when the line between leading and managing gets blurred.

too often, center leaders believe their job is telling everyone what to do and how to do it (managing things) versus providing the tools, authority and clarity on the firm’s strategic objectives and then getting out of the way (edge leadership). leadership at its most basic level is about inspiring everyone toward a common shared vision and ensuring that the decision-making hierarchy is clear and consistent within the firm’s mission and core values. edge leadership is not about tactics and how things are done, but about making sure everyone is doing the right things, with accountability for results.
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is your leadership team at the edge?

5 ways to evaluate them.

by anthony zecca
leading from the edge

“teamwork is the ability to work together toward a common vision. the ability to direct individual accomplishments toward organizational objectives. it is the fuel that allows common people to attain uncommon results.” – andrew carnegie, industrialist

the above quote by andrew carnegie really puts a fence around the key responsibilities of your leadership team:

ability to lead their team to work together toward a common vision
ability to direct (drive) their individual team members’ efforts and accomplishments toward maintaining alignment with the firm’s objectives and
ability to inspire and motivate each team member to achieve more than they have and to reach top performance and top results as a team

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6 leadership challenges through covid and beyond

how do you handle them?

by anthony zecca
leading from the edge

within every firm, every leader (edge or center) faces challenges every day. sitting here in 2020 as i write this book, the challenges presented by covid-19 are seismic in terms of impact as well as being totally unanticipated. covid-19 has forced firm leaders to examine their own firm down to its very core and to make decisions that challenged their leadership in ways never imagined.

covid-19 has also resulted in new leaders emerging from the chaos of the pandemic to rise to a level of edge leadership. edge leaders will see the opportunities created by covid-19 while center leaders will only see the challenges. edge leaders will examine every challenge and find the opportunity making the firm stronger as a result.
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edge leaders share 7 strengths

here’s a clear picture of what this kind of leadership looks like.

by anthony zecca
leading from the edge

let’s take a stroll down memory lane and think about the leaders you have had in the past.

if you are like me, your experience reflects some really good leaders and some poor leaders, with most being in the middle, i.e., average center leaders. read more →

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leadership must drive culture

behavior will drive the bus off the road.

by anthony zecca
leading from the edge

“culture is like the wind. it is invisible; yet its effect can be seen and felt.” – bryan walker, partner and managing director, ideo

edge leaders are magnificent creators and stewards of a winning culture. i use the concept of “creating” because, regardless of what process is used to develop the culture of the firm, it is the firm leader who either gives life to it or modifies it through action and communication. edge leaders reflect the firm culture in all their actions, and they focus on ensuring that the firm’s performance is achieved within the culture and roadmap (strategy) that creates a standout, high-performing firm.
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leadership

leading from the edge: the secret factor for growth and profits

the size of your firm doesn’t matter. commitment does.

by anthony zecca
leading from the edge

let’s talk about leadership – the type of leadership necessary to drive an organization to become a standout, high-performing organization. although many of the principles are applicable to any middle-market organization, i have focused on professional service firms and within that, accounting firms where i spent my entire career.

every firm, every firm leader, every partner, and every team member can stand out and be a top performer. it’s a choice and a commitment to excel.

throughout my career, i have worked with some fabulous standout organizations, some that were just improving a little each year and some that could not get out of their own way. i have worked with many leaders who consistently drove their organizations to excellence and significant growth in revenue and profits outperforming most in their industry.

i started to wonder, was there one factor that these standout organizations all shared?

anthony zecca

more at store.www.g005e.com

anthony zecca is a veteran cpa and management consultant who focuses on growth strategies and leadership.

he is the author of
leading from the edge – the strategic growth handbook with bonus toolkit
published by 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间.

buy now | learn more

zecca’s understanding of leadership was honed both by his career as a partner in a cpa firm as well as his work as a consultant with hundreds of leaders across numerous industries.

“leading from the edge” reflects zecca’s belief in what makes a successful leader and challenges every leader, in any capacity, to have the courage to step out of what he calls “center leadership” to become an impactful edge leader who can move their organization to the level of a standout, high-performance firm.

zecca’s career began at j. h. cohn & company – a small $5 million dollar firm in new jersey where his first exposure to leadership was gained. zecca earned his cpa credentials early in his career and was promoted to partner in 12 years.

his successful career as an audit partner provided him with the opportunity to work with a number of large clients of the firm.

zecca’s interest in how businesses worked, what made good ones good and bad ones bad, resulted in a career move from audit to management consulting. as a partner in the small consulting team at j. h. cohn, he led a number of consulting projects for small to middle-market companies.

he used his work with ceos of these companies as a “leadership laboratory” where he took the time to probe and observe so many different leaders and began to develop a deep understanding of what made great leaders great and their impact on how their companies performed. zecca served on the management committee of the firm and was part of the leadership team at j. h. cohn as the firm grew from a small firm to a $250-milion dollar firm and one of the top 20 firms among the top 100 firms.

he became the managing partner of the consulting division of the firm in 2001 when consulting revenue was less than $2 million with a team of five.

when he retired from the firm at the end of 2015, the consulting division had revenue of about $70 million with 24 partners and close to 300 staff. half of that growth was from the firm merger with reznick in 2013.

over his career, he consulted for hundreds of organizations, interacting with leaders in family companies as well as publicly traded and large not-for-profit organizations.

it’s through his long career working with leaders and being active in the leadership of his firm that his concepts regarding leadership were developed and shared in this second book. zecca was co-author of “the performance power grid,” first published, by wiley, in 2000, focusing on “business intelligence,” making it one of the first on the topic.

anthony has presented at conferences and client company retreats numerous times on strategy, growth, and leadership. he has written numerous articles on these subjects and is recognized for his excellent presentation and facilitation skill.

he has been involved in various charitable organizations including being one of the founding members of the medhen orphan relief effort which is an organization that supplies financial support to an orphanage in ethiopia.

in addition, he has been on various boards including his hometown board of education where he was elected president for 8 of the 12 years he served. most recently his consulting work has been with a number of accounting firms as well as other professional service firms providing high-value advice on strategy, leadership, and growth.

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