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Leading An Accounting Firm
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Table of Contents

Foreword ix
Preface xi


Acknowledgments xv


About the Author xvii


Chapter 1—Why Leadership Matters 1


Leading the Brightest of the Bright 2


Leading the Organization 5


The Leader’s Role—Influencing


Mission, Vision, and Values 6


Losing Focus 7


A Sad Tale (Tail!) 8


Leading Versus Managing 8


You Need Both 9


New Skills 9


Are Leaders Born or Are They Built? 10


Types of Leaders 11


Effective Leaders Must Be Humble 12


Challenges of Leadership 13


The Measure of a Leader 14


Conclusion 18


Section 1—Leading Self 19


Chapter 2—Self-Knowledge: The Inner Accelerator 25


Your Leadership Style 26


The Value of Self-Knowledge 28


Characteristics of Good Leaders 29


The Crisis of Success 32


Building Leadership Ability for Better Effectiveness 33


Commit to the Process 34


Opening Up for Growth 34


Build on Strengths or Improve Your Weaknesses? 36


Experience Matters 37


Building Self-Knowledge 39


Self-Knowledge Through Interaction With Others 9


The Undeniable Link: Lifelong Self-Learning and Leadership 40


Self-Knowledge for a Fulfilled Life 41


Conclusion 42


Chapter 3—Trust: The Leadership Imperative 43


Trust Is a Competitive Advantage Inside and Out 45


Dimensions of Trustworthiness 48


Consulting Experiences 49


Delegation 49


A Healthy Meeting Among Toxic Ones 49


Integrity 50


Group Dynamics 50


Intent 50


Invested in Trust 50


Rebuilding Trust Takes Time 50


Lessons From Consulting Experiences 50


Levels of Trust Development 51


Building Trust 54


Building Organizational Trust 55


When Trust Is Broken 58


Rebuilding Trust 58


Conclusion 62


Chapter 4—Critical Thinking: Creating Your Future 63


What Is Critical Thinking? 65


Thinking Standards 66


Critical Thinking Applied: Phil Holthouse 68


Depth and Breadth 68


Logic 69


Significance 69


Fairness 69


Applying Critical Thinking 70


Myths About Thinking 71


Leading an Accounting Firm


Learning to Think Critically—Like a Leader 72


Purpose 72


Question 73


Information 73


Concepts 74


Inference 75


Assumption 75


Point of View 75


Implications 76


Relationship of the Elements 76


Conclusion 77


Chapter 5—Preparation: Ready for Seizing Opportunity 79


Preparation, Preparation, Preparation 82


Developing Your Leadership Skills 84


Laying the Groundwork by Seeking Input From Others 84


Preparing to Lead Strategic Initiatives 85


Step 1—Prepare a High-Resolution Picture of the End Game 86


Step 2—Clarify Each Staff Member’s Role 88


Step 3—Assessing Potential Opportunities 88


Step 4—Understanding Possible Threats 88


Step 5—Gather and Review Relevant Research 89


Step 6—Budgeting Time, People, and Money 89


Step 7—Develop the Initiative Game Plan 90


Step 8—Launch the Initiative With Overwhelming Power 90


Preparation Is for Action 91


Getting Started 92


Conclusion 93


Chapter 6—Self-Discipline: Be the Master, Not the Victim 97


Leadership Demands Sacrifice 99


Self-Discipline Makes You the Best You Can Be 101


Your Inner Circle Values 102


Delay of Gratification 102


Five Qualities of Self-Discipline 103


Self-Knowledge 103


Strong Relationships 104


Commitment 105


Living Your Values 105


Self-Coaching 106


What Are We Leading Toward? 108


Focused Growth Is a Priority 109


Using Self-Discipline to Focus 110


Building Habits of Self-Discipline 111


Invest Five Minutes Each Morning to Meditate on the Major Areas of Your Life 112


Make Self-Discipline a Part of Your Daily Ritual 112


Dedicate Yourself to Lifelong Learning 113


Accept Responsibility 113


Face Your Fear to Develop Courage 113


The Truth About Self-Discipline 114


Conclusion 114


Section 2—Leading Staff 115


Chapter 7—Teaching, Coaching, and Mentoring: Multiplying Your Leadership 121


Developing Skills Over a Career 123


Training Begins One on One 125


Teaching 126


Training Programs Demonstrate Your Commitment to People 126


A Plan for Adult Learners 127


Creating Purposeful Training 130


Coaching 133


Working One-on-One Raises Your Commitment and Retention 133


On-the-Job Training Helps Coaches and Mentors 134


The Leap From Coaching to Mentoring 136


Great Leaders Mentor 137


Mentoring: Benefits for the Firm 139


Conclusion: The Impact of Training 143


Chapter 8—Accountability: Trust but Verify 145


Why Is Accountability So Important in Business? 146


Accountability Is the Opposite of Permissiveness 148


Increasing Accountability 148


Measuring Accountability 151


How Does Individual Responsibility Factor Into a Group Setting? 152


What Should Partners Know About Performance Measurement? 153


Positive Results of Performance Measurement 154


Implementing Accountability for Positive Results 154


Accountability Through Measurement: Scorecards and Performance Pay 155


Ways to Establish Staff Member Accountability 156


Establish Accountability Through Communication—Set Expectations and Reinforce Success 157


Accountability Through Measurement 158


An Introduction to Measuring Performance 158


After Measuring, Now What? 161


Setting Goals 161


Frequent Feedback 161


Coaching 162


Performance Scorecard 163


Performance Pay 165


Keeping a Well-Rounded Perspective 165


Conclusion 166


Chapter 9—Challenging Personal Growth: Leading the Whole Person 167


A Path to a Better Person 169


Personal Growth, Firm Growth 170


Growing Pains 170


Intentional Success 173


Barriers to Personal Growth 174


Dealing With Change 176


Overcoming Barriers 177


Rule 1: Believe in the Meaning of Your Work 177


Rule 2: Communicate Regularly and Honestly With Team Members 178


Rule 3: Leaders Must Always Be Moving Toward the Larger Goals 178


Rule 4: Recognize Your Team Members 178


Finding Balance 179


Tips for Achieving Personal Growth 180


Conclusion 183


Chapter 10—Empowerment: The Secret to Exponential Growth 185


What Is Empowerment Really? 186


Keys to Effective Empowerment 187


Existing Leadership Philosophies 190


Mistakes: Both Risky and Rewarding 190


Empowering Members of a Team 191


Principles of Empowerment 192


Leading an Accounting Firm Develop a Rational Shared Vision 192


Provide Training and Information for Good Decisions 193


Raise the Level of Conflict 193


Allocate Proper Resources 193


Reward Staff Members for Empowered Behavior 194


Trust People 194


Working With Teams 196


Shared Mission 198


Mutual Respect and Trust 198


Frequent Substantive Communication 198


Shared Processes 198


Different Talents 198


Adaptability and Flexibility 198


Continuous Improvement 198


Building Highly Empowered Teams and Firms 199


The Seven Elements of Empowerment for Teams 199


Communication 200


Conflict Engagement 200


Contribution 201


Connections 201


Cooperation 202


Change Initiators 203


Commitment 203


Conclusion 203


Section 3—Leading Strategy 205


Vision (Chapter 11) 206


Mission (Chapter 13) 207


Values (Chapter 12) 207


Next Steps: Goals and Objectives 209


Goals 209


Objectives 210


The Role of Strategies and Initiatives 210


Example Plan 211


Vision 211


Mission 211


Strategy 211


Goal 211


Objective 211


Action Plan 211


Chapter 11—Vision: Reality in the Future 213


Vision: What It Is and Why You Need One 214


Making the Vision Real for Your Staff Members 217


Our Vision Shapes Our Future 219


The First Vision 219


The Value of a Vision 220


Building Your Vision 223


Get a Mental Start 223


Developing a Vision Statement 224


Things to Keep in Mind as You Begin 224


Bake In the Buy-In 225


Communicating Your Vision 227


Don’t Limit Your Vision 227


Common Stumbling Blocks 228


Strategies for Success 230


Conclusion 231


Chapter 12—Values: The Character, Actions, and Outcomes 233


The Purpose of Core Values 235


Core Values as Standards or Aspirations 236


Core Values Are Worthless Unless They Govern 237


Finding Your Values 238


The Elements of Core Values 241


Our Principles of Service and Communication 241


Go Deep 241


Be Responsible 242


Understand First 242


Deliver Excellence 242


Never Assume 242


Make Their Day 242


Invest in Myself 242


Are Strong Values Realistic? 243


Leading by Example 244


Core Values Help Frame Our Behavior 245


Sustaining Core Values 245


Conclusion 247


Chapter 13—Mission: Making a Difference 249


The Benefits of a Mission 252


Clarifying Your Mission 254


What Do We Do? 254


How Do We Do It? 254


For Whom Do We Do It? 255


More Than One Mission? Maybe So2 55


Six Steps to Developing a Mission Statement 256


Exercise 13-1: Client Statement 257


Exercise 13-2: Problem Statement 258


Exercise 13-3: Statement of Purpose 259


Exercise 13-4: Business Statement 260


Exercise 13-5: Value Statement 261


Exercise 13-6: Writing a Mission Statement 262


Problems to Keep in Mind 263


Developing a Personal Mission Statement 265


Exercise 13-7: Personal Mission Statement 265


Sample Personal Mission Statement Development 266


Past Successes 266


Core Values 266


Identify Contributions 266


Identify Goals 266


Mission Statement 266


Final Thoughts 267


Conclusion 268


Section 4—Leading Systems 269


Chapter 14—Managing Processes for Your Future Firm 273


Setting up Business Processes 274


Advantages to Structured Procedures 277


More Consistent Results 277


Measurable Outcomes 277


Training for Team Members Improves 278


Benefits of Creating the Process 278


Establish Standards, Policies, and Procedures 278


Improve the Consistency of the Client Experience 279


Standardizing Work-Flow Management 279


Process Should Follow Strategy 280


Manage to a Written Strategic Plan 281


Management for the Future 282


The Balanced Scorecard Framework 283


Selecting the Right KPIs 284


Standardizing KPIs 285


Business Process Management Overview 286


BPM Activities 287


Design 287


Modeling 287


Execution 288


Measuring 288


Optimization 288


Issues to Look Out For 289


Conclusion 289


Chapter 15—Building the Future Firm Continuously 291


Commit to Continuous Improvement 293


Critical Success Factors for Change and Growth 295


Leading an Accounting Firm Building a System to Manage Change and Improve Processes 296


Six Sigma 297


Lean Processes 298


Kaizen 299


Flowcharts for Seeing and Improving Processes 302


The Benefits of Continuous Improvement 304


Conclusion 305


Section 5—Leading Synergy 307


Strategic Alignment 308


Objectives Alignment 308


Internal Alignment 308


Chapter 16—Synergy and Alignment: One Plus One Equals Three 313


Building a Shared Purpose 315


Leadership in Tough Times 317


Crisis: Realities and Constructions 319


Understanding 321


Decision Making and Coordinating 321


Terminating 322


Accounting 322


Learning 322


Teamwork 323


Leading Teams for Synergy 324


Team Development 325


Forming 325


Storming 327


Norming 327


Performing 328


Conclusion 328


Chapter 17—Sustaining Leadership: The Ultimate Succession Plan 331


Developing Your Leaders From Within 335


Approaches to Succession Planning 336


Top Down 337


Bottom Up 338


Futuring 339


Targeting Approach 340


Succession Planning Versus the Traditional Replacement Method 342


Potential Labor Crisis 343


Challenges of Implementation 343


Why Succession Plans Fail 344


Your Leadership Development Program 345


Overall Approach 345


Define the Leadership Competencies for Each Level 346


Assess Potential Candidates 347


Measure Leadership Styles 347


Refer to Your Developmental Process 347


Build the Next Generation of Leaders 348


Prepare a Nomination and Application Process for the Program 349


Selecting Partner Leaders 351


Rename Your Next CEO as the Leading Partner 351


Choosing the Lead Partner 352


More of Choosing a Leader 354


Can a Leader Serve Clients? 356


Conclusion 356


Appendix A: 357


Appendix B: 359


Appendix C: 363


Appendix D: 367


Appendix E: 369


Appendix F: 377

About the Author

Troy Waugh is the author of 3 books and has been selected as one of the 100 most influential people in the accounting profession for 7 years in a row by Accounting Today magazine. As a leading consultant to the profession, Troy and his team have helped firms add more than $800 million in new business through their services.

Reviews

"A great hands-on book for current and future professional services firm leaders. Troy Waugh shares with his readers a wealth of information and knowledge about authentic leadership through interviews with more than 40 professional service firm leaders." August Aquila, CEO, AQUILA Global Advisors, LLC "Finally, there is a book on leadership that can apply to an accounting firm. We will include this great book in our leadership curriculum." William R. Hagaman, Jr., CPA, Managing Partner and CEO, WithumSmith+Brown, PC "It is no longer enough to be just a producer in a CPA firm. In order to be effective, you must also learn to lead. Troy has put together some excellent insights into what that means, beginning with self-leadership and continuing with staff, strategy, systems, and synergy. We all need to be thinking about the future and making ourselves better every day. This book provides a roadmap to do exactly that. Great job, Troy!" Lewis O. Hall, CPA/ABV, CBA, Managing Principal, Keiter Stephens "Our firm has consulted with Troy and The Rainmaker Consulting Group ever since I became managing partner of our firm over ten years ago. Troy's knowledge has resulted in the development of many of our leaders and future leaders throughout the firm. This book captures many of those same concepts and will be a resource for all of us who are involved in firm leadership." Domenic E. Pellillo, CPA, Managing Partner, Brown, Edwards & Company, LLP "Being able to inspire, influence, and create a thriving firm culture is a true leader's role. Troy's book touches on all aspects of becoming such a leader. It's a great read!" Ned F. Sheffield, CPA, Managing Partner, Jackson Thornton "Troy's obvious knowledge of the accounting profession, combined with the input from seasoned leaders, makes this book a must read for anyone looking to enhance performance. It really drives home the vast difference between leadership and management. I have long been a believer that running an accounting firm is like coaching a team and the `Pyramid of Success' is right on point." James A. Sikich, CPA, CEO, Sikich, LLP "The perspective and insight brought to light through Troy's skillful interpretation of invaluable case studies from some great leaders makes Leading an Accounting Firm a seminal work that will serve as a guiding light to firm leaders for years to come. Thank you Troy, for this great contribution to our profession." Rick Solomon, CPA, CEO, RAN ONE Americas

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