How to Develop Staff
Source: Public Practice E-News
This is the conclusion of Bill Reeb's six-part series on management and leadership.
Every employee, for developmental purposes, needs to report directly to somebody even though every worker will report to a number of people in their various projects.
The overall boss's job is to:
- Make sure workers know how to do their jobs.
- Monitor performance.
- Ensure that specific educational and on-the-job experiences are provided so the worker can develop according to his/her career path.
- Have the final word when the worker has been given conflicting instructions or direction.
- Be held accountable for that worker's performance, with appropriate monetary reward or punishment that performance.
- One person can supervise eight people. So if you have three managers and eight staff, don't try to spread the staff among all three managers. Not everyone is able to develop people. There is a sample action plan chart for one area of improvement — execution.
One of the important areas on the chart is identifying negative behavior and what needs to be done differently to be more effective:
- You may find that this person is being blamed for inheriting the problems others have caused, like a partner committing to unreasonable dates, fees, etc. Assuming this is not the case, then:
- The leader will be clear at the outset in his or her delegation, setting clear expectations of what is to be done, by when, and within what kind of time budget.
- Closely monitor delegated activities to hold others accountable.
- The leader keeps a log on how often this monitoring took place, how those conversations went, outcomes or actions taken.
- Don't make people keep logs on everything or you will find the technique losing its impact.
Click here to read the entire article, Management and Leadership in a CPA Firm — Part 6.
From Public Practice E-News, Texas Society of Certified Public Accountants, June 2010, http://www.tscpa.org/.
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