Source: Public Practice E-News

In this article Bill Reeb says that leadership is about determining the future of the firm and acquiring and motivating the people who will make that future a reality.

Management is about getting the people to do the necessary activities in the right ways.

Following are highlights of some of Reeb's comments about "management" failures in CPA firms:

• People should not be designated as either leaders or followers--one person can be a leader in one situation and a follower in another. Sometimes a leader uses his or her authority and sometimes "personal power."
• Managing is often not respected. Firms think they should not pay the managing partner as much as partners who generate more revenue from billings. In other words, they think of the managing partner role as an administrative function.
• CPA firms often think of management as monitoring and reporting information. But the real role of management is creating accountability for achieving strategic goals.
• CPA firms tend to think of management as running technical projects and don't think about people management. People management should not be just a matter of assigning staff to use their skills in getting jobs done.
• CPA firms often tend to either delegate work or dump it. Delegating implies assigning the work to someone with the requisite skills to get the job done. Dumping means handing the job over to someone who may not have the right skills.
• The most common management style in CPA firms is "drill sergeant." CPA firms are often disappointed in what their people do because they don't understand managing. They tend to micromanage. They tell them precisely what to do and to report back when they are done so they can be given something else to do.
• CPA firm management does not try to develop people. They expect to have a group of people that is self-reliant. If they are not, they assign them very little work and often just do the work themselves.

In his next column Reeb will discuss how the above problems are impairing the success of CPA firms. Managing is a skill that every supervisor must develop.

For the complete article, click here and read "Management and Leadership in a CPA Firm, Part 1."

From Public Practice E-News, Texas Society of Certified Public Accountants, July/August 2009, http://www.tscpa.org/. 

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