The key resource that accounting firms are seriously under-utilising
Richard Brewin, FCA
Mentor to accountants who deserve more. Helping accountants to drive change for themselves, their firms and their clients
We talk a lot about the resources that the accounting profession feels short of. ?Deficits of time, people, skills and even money are subjects to be found in many firm owners’ in trays.
Yet we have access to a largely untapped resource that can help to address and even eradicate these other problems. We just don’t use it.
This resource is energy.
Not the National Grid but Human Energy!
Offices can be lacklustre places. People lack energy, drive and enthusiasm. They can be bored, going through the motions, stuck in repetitive processes that fill their day.
Why do we allow that?
I’m told that it isn’t about us ‘allowing it’ but the nature of the work that we do and the hamster wheel that we are all on. The work is repetitive, mundane, boring even. The problem with the hamster wheel is the faster you run, the faster you have to run, so better to settle into a steady pace below your best.
Here’s the thing…
First of all, accountants deal with a wide range of issues and tackle important matters that require skill and expertise. We can achieve amazing things for our clients. We are in a people business surrounded by many different individuals with a whole spectrum of challenges, needs and opportunities. We deal with the applications of law and the wheels of commerce. What’s mundane about that?
Secondly, as leaders of our firms, we set the pace and the mood. We create the vision and goals. We go into work every day and set the tone and pace. When did you last inspire and energise? When did you last have a conversation with your team around happiness, satisfaction, pride, drive and energy? When did you last explore strategies for raising these emotions and for doing ?things differently?
Working in an accounting firm is only as mundane as you make it.
I can hear the objections raised around our compliance work, the nature of bookkeeping, the challenges brought by deadlines and reticent clients but any negativity around our daily tasks is an internal issue for us to address, not put up with. The problems brought about by clients are something very much within our control. We choose our clients and tolerate their behaviour or not.
Ask yourself some questions:
·????? Does your work environment energise or suppress your team?
·????? Does your messaging to your team around your core work emphasise its value and importance, the difference that we make, or focus on its pressures and repetitiveness?
·????? Does the office chatter highlight your clients’ successes or moan about their failings?
·????? Do you talk about business opportunities ?or just delivery needs?
·????? Do you encourage training and development or complain about lost hours through CPD?
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·????? Do you raise your own energy levels for work or hideaway behind a pile of tasks?
·????? Do you lead your team from the front or let them get through their day as you try to get through yours?
·????? Do you actively try to be better and progress every day or is your focus on survival?
I know that I get sneered at but, after over four decades within this wonderful profession, I still refuse to accept that we can’t be as creative, energetic, interesting, rewarding and as much fun as any other business sector. We should feel passionate about what we do.
If accountancy is truly a people business then we are the people who make it mundane, nobody else.
That’s great because that means that we are the people who can do something about it and do things differently.
Where to start?
First, put a smile on your face!
Second (sigh, he’s going to say it again!) make sure that you are so clear on your vision and goals that you can confidently share them.
Third, sit down with your team and a blank piece of paper and ask yourselves this:-
“How do we take what we do and make it more fun and more interesting for us and our clients? Let’s start by looking at…….”
There is so much that we can do to make our workplaces and services more enjoyable. To do so, we should look at them with a fresh set of eyes. Creating a more enjoyable work environment will raise energy levels so what can we do around us to achieve that? Is it about redecoration, changing desks, changing the sounds and smells of the office, looking at different work patterns? Maybe!
Creating more enjoyable services and work patterns requires a different approach to education, learning, development, understanding both team and clients better. The final delivery of our services maybe the same but how we perceive them and approach them can always change. It’s about understanding the true value and not forever putting ourselves down.
It's not about changing what we do but changing our attitude towards how and why we do it
How we approach our working lives is a choice. Focusing on energy levels, having a better appreciation of value, looking at how we can mix things up in the office, these are not just tips for a better day but make a real difference to your performance as a firm.
Next time you want to have a conversation with your team about how much time you have, or don’t have, how about talking about what would make things more interesting and fun instead.
Time to focus on energy!
Modern 'Relationship-First' Outbound Sales Systems | CEO at CGP
3 个月Love this. Powerful reframes & questions! This sentence is gold: "It's not about changing what we do but changing our attitude towards how and why we do it." If you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change.. (And for leaders - that makes a WAY bigger difference than people think)
Growth Advisor | Business Strategist | Exit Strategist | Former CFO
3 个月Well said Richard Brewin, FCA I think our energy and enthusiasm has a substantial impact on our clients as well. Clients feel the same stresses impacting on their motivation. If their trusted advisor feeds them positivity they genuinely feel it and respond to it.
Such an important point! Leveraging all resources can really set a firm apart.
Overcome STRESS and ANXIETY for greater CONFIDENCE, CLARITY and CONTROL—supporting Accountants, Bookkeepers and other Busy Professionals every step of the way| Podcaster | Speaker | Author
3 个月My motto? It all starts with you (or me if I am to take on the wisdom!) Brilliant article and if it is not on the list let’s put it into our podcast series ??
Enabling accountants to develop truly integrated corporate and personal plans for their clients
3 个月Made me ?? Richard Brewin, FCA I remember my old boss throwing me in at the deep end when I was a hungry young accountant. Before I was 25 I had helped sell a nursing home, night club and (this was a tough one ?? ) helped run the accounts for a small group of wine bars in Central London. Fantastic commercial experience. Businesses and business owners are fun, we need to get this back into the job, as too robotic right now..