?<\/span><\/iframe><\/div>\nflaherty says it\u2019s easier to make the right decisions when you clearly focus on the organization’s mission, values, and goals. without that focus, \u201cyou’re going to make choices that may not benefit yourself or the firm.\u201d firms without a sense of what makes them different may be in jeopardy, flaherty warns. \u201cif you’re just flourishing because you’re the only accounting practice in town, the next college graduate can knock you off that post, and you may find yourself going toward obsolescence.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\naccording to flaherty, decision-making is a crucial skill for leaders who want to retain their best people. \u201ctheir ability to make those visionary, strategic decisions that capture the intention and embodiment of their people are really what compels their workforce to want to passionately work for them.\u201d <\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nleaders should tap into the collective wisdom of their organizations by asking questions, which helps to generate new ideas and leads to more well-informed decisions. while some may think a collaborative approach means making decisions will take more time, flaherty maintains that it won\u2019t because \u201cyou’ll be able to delegate decisions. you’ll be able to make much more well-informed decisions because you don’t have to ask somebody to research information,\u201d flaherty says. he maintains that team members will come to meetings with knowledge in hand. <\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nasking team members for their ideas can also result in a team \u201cthat will die for you,\u201d flaherty says. while you don\u2019t have to go along with all the ideas, \u201cbeing open to those conversations shows you\u2019re a human being, and that endears people to you,\u201d according to flaherty. that endearment also motivates people to work extra hard for you. <\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n16 key takeaways<\/strong><\/p>\n\nthe decisions leaders make impact virtually every aspect of their organization, but we don’t recognize it. our smallest choices impact everything.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\nif you can prove you have the chops to handle someone\u2019s needs and solve their problems, it doesn\u2019t matter where you are. can you deliver and meet expectations?\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\nbefore making any decision, consider how the decision fits into your organization\u2019s purpose and overall goals.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\nto build a world-class firm from scratch, you need accountants who are dynamic and decisive and who can build wonderful relationships.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\nthe next generation in the workforce is purpose-driven. firms that don\u2019t adopt this are approaching obsolescence.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\nwe\u2019re in a world with a shortage of mentoring. to retain your best talent, you must combine education and mentoring in interactions with team members. <\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\nlet people work in their zone of genius. this also means collaborating with other providers with expertise in areas outside your experience.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\nwe need to re-align partner incentive models. if a partner has to give up revenue to use another partner\u2019s technology resources, no one is incentivized to change. <\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\nconsider new compensation plans for partners so they can leverage their skills across the organization. let firm members use their talents where they align with the mission and purpose, even if that means they need to pass their book of business to another partner.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\nhelp your colleagues improve by coaching them in areas where you excel. share your knowledge so everyone gets better.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\npeople are not innately happy when they\u2019re doing work they\u2019re not good at.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\ninstead of lashing out at constructive criticism, ask a question: if that\u2019s not going to work, what do you think will?\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\nif we carry the problem forward by following saly, we\u2019re not going to find the solution.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\nvalue billing puts a commitment on the table versus the uncertainty of hourly billing. you\u2019re betting in confidence that your team is good enough to deserve this price.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\nrelationships matter more than the shiny object of ai and technology.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\ntry investing 5 percent of your resources in doing some a-b testing. if one of 20 projects succeeds, you\u2019re doing well. <\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\nmore about jack flaherty<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\nflaherty<\/figcaption><\/figure>\njack p. flaherty is a former executive officer, strategic advisor, and big 4 risk management consultant. crediting his success to the confident and decisive teams he had built over a twenty-plus-year career, jack is now a passionate advocate who speaks, writes, and consults on the value and skills required to make critical decisions. having conducted thousands of executive interviews, he\u2019s found high-level decision-making one of the greatest daily challenges. yet, he observed that many of his clients were never given the requisite training or tools to make effective and productive decisions confidently. a knowledge gap that frequently instills fear and anxiety, as well as contributes to performance issues for individuals, teams, and their organizations. this reality became the catalyst for authoring the decision switch\u2122: 7 principles of successful decision-making, a proven methodology that transforms individuals into decisive leaders who can make confident decisions at the speed their role requires.<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n
transcript \n<\/strong>(transcripts are made available as soon as possible. they are not fully edited for grammar or spelling.)<\/em><\/p>\nliz farr\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nwelcome to accounting disruptor conversations. i’m your host. liz farr from 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间. my guest today is jack flaherty, founder of the decision switch, and author of the book the decision switch. welcome to the show jack. how are you today?<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\njack flaherty\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\ni’m doing fantastic. so glad to be on your program, and i love talking about disruption, so can’t wait for our conversation.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nliz farr\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nfantastic. now, first, can you tell listeners just a little bit about your company? the decision switch is an intriguing name for company.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\njack flaherty\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nabsolutely, i’ve been fortunate to have four distinct careers. i was in derivatives trading, was doing assurance and accounting work for deloitte and pwc. been consulting for a long time, and then i threw myself at the world of high tech and blockchain and automation and ai. what i saw throughout the process, though, was one of our most important, if not the most important, skills, decision making is waning, and i won’t say we’re getting terrible at it, but we’re all becoming yes people. we don’t want to have an objective discussion, bringing out different ideas, the whole idea of inclusion, getting others ideas we’re just shutting down, let alone the psychological factors of whether it be of our biases or emotions, it’s it’s causing us to make decisions that don’t allow us to achieve our goals. and i wrote my book and my platform, i speak, and i want to connect with individuals, because that is how you break through. that is when you get the aha moment saying, this is who i am. these are my values. it’s the values of my company. and then only then do you truly get buy in support others, to follow your corporate mission, your goals, or even your friends to just champion you to be a better self. and so the decision to switch is to define your goals in clear and simple terms and build a clear path forward that allows you to consistently get those results.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nliz farr\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\ni like that very much, and i i’ve read a little bit of your book, and what i like about it is that you start out with figuring out what your north star is. most of the organizations that i worked with, the cpa, firms i worked with, i had no clue what the organization’s north star was. it was just, you know, let’s just crank out tax returns and audits and bookkeeping.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\njack flaherty\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nand i think that is where the accounting industry right now is ripe for disruption. because when we think about it, yes, our purpose is to deal with the financials in whatever way, taxes, whatever it can be, issues with the government or just making sure that your shareholders get the right results. but if you think about it, aren’t most firms small or large. they’re conglomeration of small businesses. every partner has their self interest that they’re driving for, and it’s not that they don’t think about, yeah, the other work that each others are doing. but if a firm or individual cannot create a goal that no matter what viewpoint you look at that goal and agree, yes, that is our destination, then you’re going to make choices that may not benefit yourself or the firm. and so it’s critical, particularly today in the accounting industry, to figure out what is your niche, what is makes you different? because if you’re just flourishing because you’re the only accounting practice in town, well the next college graduate can knock you off that post, and you may find yourself going towards obsolescence. so your goal is, what defines you, makes you different, unique,<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nliz farr\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nand this is, this is kind of a change in the last few years that i’ve seen in accounting firms, because you need to differentiate what you are doing from everyone else, and i think a lot of that is because we’re no longer just competing with the accountant down the street, but it’s accountants all over the world. oh<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\njack flaherty\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nin if we think about even the resources i’m working with firms that are taking individuals out of india with 10 years of experience, placing them at firms here in the united states as first years and they already. have, because they already have experience, so they’re going to move quicker and excel. so even from the workforce, there’s competition. but to your point, because we’ve gone virtual, we’re living in a digital world. the playing field has flattened this whole notion of hierarchy of the big four, and then the next tranche, and then you go down to the regional and local players, it’s gone. if you can prove you’ve got the chops to handle somebody’s needs, because you are a needs solver, it doesn’t matter anymore where you are. it’s can you deliver and meet expectations?<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nliz farr\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nabsolutely. now, one of the now, one thing that you mentioned you emphasize in your book is how important decision making is in leadership. can you talk about that for a minute?<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\njack flaherty\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n