leadership

how to start an effective sponsorship … and follow through

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woman in white office meeting with man17 specific action steps you should take.

by ida o. abbott
sponsoring women: what men need to know

when you sponsor a woman, there are many steps that you can take to ensure that the relationship is productive and achieves its objectives.

more on sponsoring women for leadership: 3 ways to initiate informal sponsorship | how to establish a sponsor-protégée relationship | 3 roadblocks to women and men working together well | fear of sex and rumors inhibits sponsorship | why women resist networking and powerful role models | women must see politics as leadership to get ahead | mommy bias persists | different standards, double binds challenge women | 5 ways gender bias plays out at cpa firms

here are some tips for getting off to a strong start and following through effectively, especially by focusing on career opportunities and promoting your protégée to others. read more →

four key questions for managing partners

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businessman giving instructions to his colleaguesmore than staying close to clients.

by robert j. lees, august j. aquila and derek klyhn

a significant application of judgment exhibited by successful managing partners is in their decision to stay close to their own and the firm’s key client relationships.

more on leadership: research, but also be ready to act | leader training is time well spent | managing partners must remember partners’ needs | 5 questions about your firm’s direction | like herding cats: partners must ‘walk together’

we defined “close” in the research as not doing fee-earning work but being more than the review partner. “close” was having serious conversations with key clients about their issues, about what was going on in their markets and being the “go to” person when informed comment was required by external agencies.

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3 ways to initiate informal sponsorship

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woman and man meeting in an officeand three ways to start the conversation.

by ida o. abbott
sponsoring women: what men need to know

most sponsorship occurs informally, without any structured or programmatic context. informal sponsor-protégée relationships usually start in one of three ways.

more on sponsoring women for leadership: how to establish a sponsor-protégée relationship | 3 roadblocks to women and men working together well | fear of sex and rumors inhibits sponsorship | men advance 2 to 1 over women without sponsors | 18 ways sponsors can help their protegees | the 6 market advantages of women-led firms | beyond mentoring: why sponsoring women for leadership matters

the most common way is when a senior manager or partner identifies someone as a star performer, believes that she has what it takes to succeed, and wants to make that success happen. the sponsor recognizes her talent and potential while they work together or when he observes her at work and is impressed by her ability. as the two work together their relationship grows.

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the six essential habits of successful leaders in tax & accounting

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aquila
aquila

by august aquila
creating the effective partnership

every book you read on leadership will tell you certain things you need to do to become a good leader. however, you can do these things and still not be someone who people want to follow.

more on leadership: research, but also be ready to act | leader training is time well spent |  successful strategy execution requires focus on people | managing partners must remember partners’ needs | like herding cats: partners must ‘walk together’ | 5 questions about your firm’s direction | partners have love-hate relationship with leadership  | what does being a partner mean? | mirror, mirror on the wall | the 8-point financial tune-up for your accounting firm | three ways to run a firm: but only one is sustainable | eight key goal areas for partners

why? leadership is all about trust. if you cannot trust me, then you will not follow me or believe in me. read more →

research, but also be ready to act

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businessman hand press play button sign to start or initiate projects as conceptone key: accept that there are many different ways of achieving the same objective.

by robert j. lees, august j. aquila and derek klyhn

not every firm can be the market leader.

more on leadership: leader training is time well spent | managing partners must remember partners’ needs | 5 questions about your firm’s direction | like herding cats: partners must ‘walk together’

but every firm can have a culture of excellence, of striving to be the best at everything they do and of reinventing themselves as the markets for both clients and people change.

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leader training is time well spent

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leader addresses co-workersfour questions to test your leadership culture.

by robert j. lees, august j. aquila and derek klyhn

being a good coach is just one of the expectations firms must have of their partners. they are expected to be leaders, as well.

more on leadership: managing partners must remember partners’ needs | 5 questions about your firm’s direction | like herding cats: partners must ‘walk together’

while most of the partners we know understand and accept that need, not everyone does, and not everyone understands what being an effective leader means.

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successful strategy execution requires focus on people

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business people working in group in the officeby robert j. lees, august j. aquila and derek klyhn

momentum is critical in driving change, so it is no surprise that the initiation of activities that drive and support the strategy is key.

more on leadership: managing partners must remember partners’ needs | 5 questions about your firm’s direction | like herding cats: partners must ‘walk together’

it is also one of the reasons why focus is critical. and yet one of the mistakes we see are initiatives having too much time between them.

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5 questions about your firm’s direction

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businesspeople moving along corridorsetting direction is the first step.

by robert j. lees, august j. aquila and derek klyhn
creating the effective partnership

how do successful managing partners respond to the internal and external challenges they face?

without exception, all of the partners we spoke to talked about the need to have a clear sense of direction that the partners, in particular, could coalesce around. but what they considered even more important is the translation of that direction into a compelling vision and the strategies for achieving it.

read more →

different standards, double binds challenge women

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businessman cutting back jobs. all on white background.women are judged on their performance, men on their potential.

by ida o. abbott
sponsoring women: what men need to know

common patterns of gender bias include holding women to higher standards than men and expressing contradictory expectations (“double binds”) for women.

more on sponsoring women for leadership: 5 ways gender bias plays out at cpa firms | 3 reasons why men don’t pick women protégées | men advance 2 to 1 over women without sponsors | 18 ways sponsors can help their protegees | the 6 market advantages of women-led firms | beyond mentoring: why sponsoring women for leadership matters

different standards: people expect more of women than of men and they hold women to higher standards. this sets the bar higher for women who aspire to leadership and makes it more difficult for them to prove their value to the organization, even though research shows that women outperform men in 17 of 67 critical leadership skills, while men outperform women in only four. read more →

partners have love-hate relationship with leadership

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aquila leadership context modelby robert j. lees, august j. aquila
and derek klyhn
creating the effective partnership

regardless of their ownership structure, most firms either operate as partnerships or would prefer to operate as partnerships.

the tensions between being a business and the loss of the values and ethics of being a partnership feature strongly in our research.

but accounting firms are different from their corporate counterparts in a number of ways, which impact their functioning and, therefore, their leadership. read more →

3 reasons why men don’t pick women protégées

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woman and man working with calculatorwhen leadership models are male, sometimes female candidates go unrecognized.

by ida o. abbott
sponsoring women: what men need to know

let’s assume a powerful man works with two junior colleagues, a man and a woman, who are both equally talented, motivated and superbly skilled performers. according to what we know from research and experience, that powerful man is more likely to sponsor the man than the woman.

more on sponsoring women for leadership: men advance 2 to 1 over women without sponsors | 18 ways sponsors can help their protegees | the 6 market advantages of women-led firms | beyond mentoring: why sponsoring women for leadership matters read more →

check your relationship ratios for better business success

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by sandi smith leyva
the accountant’s accelerator

here’s a quick exercise: choose any person in your work life or personal life. now think back to last few interactions you had with that person. recall what was said and classify your list into two groups.

what interactions, comments and questions did you have with your chosen person that were negative? here are some examples of things that are in the “negative” group: read more →