thank you, accountingtoday. we’re honored.

…johnston, roman kepczyk, allan koltin, teresa mackintosh, barry melancon, ed mendlowitz, jay nisberg, jody padar, terry putney, marc rosenberg, joel sinkin, doug sleeter, jennifer warawa, jennifer wilson, and sandra wiley….

10 (nearly) painless ways to keep up to date with technology

ed mendlowitz cpa the practice doctor q and a
click here to send ed your questions

by ed mendlowitz
the 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间 practice doctor

question: i have a small firm and i’m overwhelmed with all the new technology things i’m hearing about. how can i keep up to date?

response: i personally am astounded at what is out there. it is way beyond me.

related survey results: how accountants keep up with tech trends

here are 10 ways you can stay ahead of the curve: read more →

firms at strategy session find their ‘rock stars’

top talent strategy session
cpa firm decision-makers hammer out the best clues to identify partner-potential professionals and how best to recruit, develop and retain them at a strategy session in milwaukee.

hint: it’s not about how smart they are or hard they work.

by rick telberg

how do you spot the hidden rock stars on your staff?

and what do up-and-coming tax, accounting and finance professionals need to know to get ahead in today’s profession?

rick telberg leading the strategy session
rick telberg leading the strategy session

these aren’t idle questions. many firms and individuals are struggling with these issues right now. but don’t take it from me. just listen to the decision-makers from a dozen firms i met with in a milwaukee hotel recently. the mission: learn how to deal with a looming new staff shortage. some took away solid action plans. “our firm,” said one, “is trying to develop our rock stars and this showed me we need to be doing more.” another said, “excellent! it gave us the details and the ‘how-to.’”

green team's top talent indicators notes
green team's top talent indicators notes

interestingly, the milwaukee group’s conclusions and recommendations closely parallel our related research findings. so we can be fairly certain that we’ve obtained some of the profession’s favorite strategies.

you could probably adapt one of our methods for your firm. in milwaukee, we divided the group into two teams, the green team and the blue team. after some preliminary coaching, each team hammered out a list of the top five talent indicators – the clues in an employee’s behaviors and attitudes that demonstrate the highest likelihood of the best roi for a firm’s time, energy, and money in training, coaching and mentoring. then the group filled several flip chart pages with their lists and hashed them out with each other. after identifying the key indicators, we moved on to identifying the best strategies for recruiting, grooming and retaining top talent.

blue team's top talent indicators notes
blue team's top talent indicators notes

by far, the top predictive indicator across all firms is the trait, “they are always trying to improve.” it comes in a few flavors or variations. for instance, the green team at the milwaukee strategy meeting favored a passion for “continuous learning.” the blue team preferred, “they do ‘extra credit’ – things that the partners wouldn’t normally expect from someone at their level.” but they add up to the same thing.

read more →

eight strategies for managing and motivating ‘challenging’ employees

sandra wiley, coo, boomer consulting inc.
sandra wiley, coo, boomer consulting inc.

what you need to know before a confrontation.

by sandra wiley
boomer consulting

many of us know all too well past or current employees and co-workers we’d term “challenging.”

slackers, space cadets, power grabbers, loners, drama queens and kings, and challengers. we talked about them on 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间 here.

to get the performance you want from the person, you must change the cycle that they have developed.

read more →