Cultivating New Leaders

Source: Marketrends

Today, clients expect CPAs to provide more than number crunching. They expect advice on how to cope with the future. Accounting graduates are not prepared for this. CPAs need to be consultants, sellers, leaders, communicators, managers, persuaders, presenters, and networkers. Although CPA firms have technical training programs, they generally don’t have programs that develop these qualities.

It is not unusual to find CPA firms that:

• Conduct periodic retreats with no follow-up.
• Have client meetings that exclude young professionals for fear they will embarrass the firm.
• Expect managers to get new clients without being shown how to do it.

Young professionals interested in developing leadership skills will leave firms like this as they see technically competent professionals without leadership skills being promoted to leadership positions.

More progressive firms are using some of the following methods:

• Frequent meetings of young professionals led by a partner or outside coach, focused on developing leadership skills and resources outside the firm.
• A leadership development program (at Contryman Associates, P.C. of Nebraska) that awards certifications at different levels of achievement. The program includes college-level courses, self-study, community involvement, new business activities, and cross-selling.
• Leadership In Training (at Blanski, Peter, Kronlage & Zoch, P.A., Minneapolis), an optional program for new members of the firm. It includes a series of educational events and “lunch and learns.” The current focus is “How to Think Like a Consultant,” case studies, and seminars with academics on how to coach clients, are used. This program is part of the firm’s planning and coaching program.

When firms have training sessions like these, they should include partners to create a perception of value.

For the complete article, see Marketrends, March/April 2005. For membership information, contact Association for Accounting Marketing, Inc. 14 West Third Street, Suite 200, Kansas City, MO 64105, 816-221-1296, [email protected]. Membership is $250 annually and $50 initiation fee.