here’s what you’re looking for: august j. aquila

8 questions to determine your firm’s culture.

by august j. aquila
what makes a great partnership

i have worked with many firms in helping them build team unity, especially when the firm is undergoing a change in managing partner, merging or just trying to implement its strategic plan.

more on great partnerships: why accountability counts | fighting restraining forces | chemistry and mutual respect matter | great cpa firm partnerships begin with trust | the 4 best ways to use pre-retirement partners | work together better in 11 steps | drop politics, be accountable | what makes a successful strategic plan? | innovate or die
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everyone knows that partner unity is one of the keys for overall success and sustainability. and, we know the benefits of having greater partner unity than the next firm – better client service, less employee turnover, superior profitability.
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why and how to evaluate chemistry among partners.

by august j. aquila
what makes a great partnership

birds of a feather flock together according to the old saying.

more on great partnerships: why expectations must be defined | why shared values are important | why ‘walking together’ is so important | 6 ways to pay partners | how to build a better firm through teamwork | 8 questions to analyze your pricing | 24 points for after the deal is done | 5 questions for every mp to answer honestly | 6 practical ways to innovate | how to combine two firms after merger: carefully
exclusively for pro members. log in here or 2022世界杯足球排名 today.

you can generally judge your chemistry with someone in the earliest minutes of meeting them. it’s often best to trust your first impressions, which are based on a lifetime of experience interacting with other people.
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be specific to help everyone walk the talk.

by august j. aquila
what makes a great partnership

after trust, the second building block for a successful partnership is having shared values. it does not mean that partners are clones of one another, but partners agree upon the firm’s shared values, on how they are going to treat each other, the clients and the employees. shared values are what bring a group of individuals together to achieve something that they could not achieve individually.

more on great partnerships: great cpa firm partnerships begin with trust | are you driving your best partners crazy? | 7 warning signs for your firm | the checks and balances your firm needs | don’t weed out the roses | back to basics: 25 ways to grow your practice | 3 ways to halt a poor leader | 8 questions that staff ask in a merger
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the concept of core or shared values gets a lot of press and most professional service firms’ websites promote their core values to prospects, clients and recruits. but, like so many management ideas that are on the soft side, shared values are often more talk than reality.
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and the 7 other key ingredients in the cpa firm success formula.

by august j. aquila

great partnerships are like great love affairs. there needs to be chemistry. after more than 36 years of consulting with large and small professional services firms, i’ve seen all sorts of chemistry. some partnerships were almost toxic, most were tolerable and a few were great. let me share my observations about great partnerships and how they got that way.

more on great partnerships:  are you driving your best partners crazy?  |  why ‘walking together’ is so important  |  the 4 best ways to use pre-retirement partners  |  7 warning signs for your firm   |    6 ways to pay partners  |  work together better in 11 steps  |  the checks and balances your firm needs  |  how to build a better firm through teamwork  |  drop politics, be accountable  |

exclusively for pro members. log in here or 2022世界杯足球排名 today.

many new firms, and some longtime firms, unfortunately, don’t give a lot of thought to “what makes a great partnership?” their main concern is survival. but the sooner a firm starts focusing on what makes it a great partnership, the better off it will be.

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the best firms know another way

by august aquila

professionals loathe anything bureaucratic. but we know of many firms who ask their partners to account, in detail, for every minute of their time.

more on leadership:work together better in 11 steps | drop politics, be accountable | what makes a successful strategic plan? | innovate or die | partners love, hate leadership | 8 ways leaders destroy firms | how to combine two firms after merger: carefully

exclusively for pro members. log in here or 2022世界杯足球排名 today.

to ask high-need-for-achievement professionals at the top of their field to provide what, to them, is bureaucratic data immediately implies a complete lack of trust and respect for their expertise and their position. it is simply a motivational disaster, which distances the partners from the firm. partners know that they have to account for their time but we know too many firms that, often at the behest of the finance function, ask for a level of specificity that drives the partners to distraction.
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