Promote Women to Ease the Succession Problem

Source: Possibilities for CPA Firm Leaders

Following are excerpts from a blog entry by Rita Keller:

If you are wondering if you can truly pass your firm on to the next generation or if your firm would be attractive to an acquiring firm you need to be thinking of the best way to truly move your female accountants from production units (who take care of male partners) to professional managers and leaders who are role models to younger women in your firm.

It’s really a very simple bottom-line issue. Women are more than 50% of the talent pool, but represent just 20% of the shareholder/partner population of AICPA member firms. They enter the profession in greater numbers than men but are not proportionately represented at all levels. Because of the larger numbers of women entering the profession (it is steadily growing), firms, to be able to survive, must address the specific needs of women with a well-developed and defined strategic retention plan.

The barriers to advancement of female leaders are very real and studies by the AICPA list them as:

Uneven Career Advocacy & Development for Female Leaders
Lack of Visibility of Female Role Models
Career/Life Integration

All your people NEED mentoring and I am not suggesting that you ignore the males, but making special resources available to females is just smart business. Think about providing that extra push for women by establishing a forum for communication, counseling and leadership skill development for the females in your firm. They will be the candidates to pay your retirement.

To read the complete blog entry, click here.

Rita Keller, president of Keller Advisors, LLC, is a nationally known consultant, speaker and author with 30 years’ experience in management of a growing regional firm. For the last four consecutive years she has been named one of the “100 Most Influential People in the Accounting Profession” by Accounting Today.

From Possibilities for CPA Firm Leaders, December 12, 2008, the Blog of Rita Keller, [email protected], president of Keller Advisors, LLC. Visit http://cpamanagement.blogspot.com.