Stepping up or stepping out

Our teams are a precious resource. Like any relationship, there are times when they frustrate, disappoint and annoy us (rest assured, the feeling will be mutual) but, I know from my own experience and from the many accounting firms that I visit, that your typical accounting team member is hardworking, loyal and endeavouring not to let anyone down. With recruitment being costly and challenging these days, and with firms being so leanly resourced, I come across very few team members that the firm leaders would be happy to see go.

I meet many firm owners who are looking for their team to ‘step up’. If a firm is looking to grow, change, improve, adapt, pivot or progress in any way then the partners recognise that they can’t do it on their own. They need their team to ‘step up’ in order to free up partner time, create more resource and deliver better performance. The perceived age old model of the partner dragging the team along doesn’t work today (it never did but the results could be masked by more staff).

Before looking at how you get your team to step up, let’s firm up the case. Where firms have successfully enabled and engaged their teams so that they effectively step into the space vacated by the partners, I typically see up to 30% improvement in productivity and performance, brought about by a better trained, more confident team making their own decisions rather than waiting for ?a partner to finally get around to them. Does that look attractive to you?

Also, an engaged team are far less likely to leave. Win:Win!

Obviously, this doesn’t happen overnight or off the back of a single, table thumping team day, but, if you’re prepared to commit to a process, then it is achievable with your current team at its heart.

Step 1: The Why

You’ll be bored hearing it from me but I make no apology, you must be clear on your vision, goals and objectives. If you don’t know these then you can’t communicate them and your team will have little understanding of why change is required or what underpins the firm’s decision-making.

Step 2: Stepping away into your role

If your team are to step up then you have to be prepared to step away in order to create the space. What does your new role look like? What will you be doing and, even more importantly, what will you stop doing?

Step 3: Stepping up into their role

If your team are to step up then they need to understand what they are stepping into. This requires not only a refresh of their roles and responsibilities but a clear and shared understanding of your expectations of them.

Step 4: The adapted organisation

Share what your new organisation chart looks like. If your team are stepping up then we should expect that it will look flatter, more agile and more adaptable than what is probably an existing pyramid/silo model.

Step 5: The support vehicle

There are two elements to this: the data that you need to monitor actions and progress and the visible support in place for the team to build their confidence up.

For data, read your practice management system. This has to be capable of giving you meaningful information on what is happening in your own firm and not just be seen as a workflow tool. What is the impact of the actions in your firm? Check out Kamozo as a great example of an inhouse MIS for accountants.

For support, create a structure of review and check-ins that the team can depend upon. Simply saying that “my door is always open” will not suffice.

Step 6: The tools

If you are seen as the goalkeeper in your firm then your team have to change their mindset if they are to step up. We want them to be making their own decisions and finding their own answers rather than turning to you every time. That requires trust and tools.

Trust because this is where independent thinking and action comes from. If you don’t trust a team member to follow the steps above once properly deployed then you have an individual issue to address, it doesn’t change the plan.

Tools because your team need to replace you as the font of all knowledge. I know of no better solution to this than Croner-i

Step 7: KPIs

You and the team require dashboards to work by in order to take decisions, validate those decisions and know how things are progressing towards the objectives.

Step 8: Rinse and repeat

This is an ongoing process that requires complete commitment. Progress is made over time. Individuals will progress at different rates. Mistakes will be made and lessons learned. If you commit to this approach and persevere with it then you will be amazed at the difference that it makes in 6-18 months, depending on your current circumstances. ?Don’t give up!

An engaged team, making good decisions can change your firm in ways that digital technology could never achieve. Harnessing the human power in your firm is harder than just installing software or flicking a switch but the results are far more powerful.

And if you don’t think that you can achieve it with your current team, call me because you probably can.

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