The following practitioners and consultants were interviewed for this article: Gail Crosley, Crosley + Company, Atlanta; Sam Allred, Upstream Academy, Helena, Montana; Marc Rosenberg, The Rosenberg Associates, Wilmette, Illinois; Allan Koltin, PDI Global, Chicago; Jay Nisberg, Jay Nisberg & Associates, Ridgefield, Connecticut; Tom Porter, Aspire, Brownsburg, Indiana; and Sandra Wiley, Boomer Consulting, Manhattan, Kansas.

The governance style of CPA firms is not conducive to effective communications. Staff report to different partners on different engagements. Each partner may operate differently from other partners, and this is a recipe for poor communications. (Crosley)

The effects of poor communication include:

• Low morale. When morale is low, people aren’t eager to come to work, so productivity suffers. (Rosenberg)
• Less, if any, cross-selling.
• Less knowledge of what services the firm offers and who might need these services. (Crosley)
• Partners working on developing a new client will not know if anyone else in the firm knows the prospect or its people. (Crosley)
• The leader of a niche doesn’t find out what is working and what is not working in other niches. (Crosley)
• Partners don’t know how they are perceived by staff. A partner may believe he is praising staff members, but a staff survey may reveal he is not. Or a partner may perceive himself as a good listener, while staff surveys might rate him otherwise. (Koltin)
• Partners may not have the courage to tell other partners of their shortcomings in dealing with staff. But they might find out in a peer evaluation. (Rosenberg)
• Even when partners are confronted by other partners, they may not believe them. But it’s difficult to disregard survey results. (Koltin)
  * With poor communications, partners don’t disclose best practices. (Koltin)
• Poor communication can lead to physical harassment, as when a partner was so excessively critical of another’s collection efforts, they came to blows. (Nisberg)
• Without communication, there will not be agreement on the direction of the firm. The partners share services but don’t share visions. (Wiley)
• When there is poor communication, partners don’t know what to expect from each other. Therefore, there is no way to know who is performing well and who is not. (Allred)
• When there is poor communication with staff, they feel isolated from the firm or unappreciated. Staff want to feel part of the team and to know their opportunities. Without this, they may leave. (Wiley)

What to do about poor communication:

• Niche leaders should meet at least quarterly to talk about what they are doing. (Crosley)
• Compensation of niche leaders should be linked to performance of their niches. This will motivate leaders to communicate with each other. (Crosley)
• Conduct staff satisfaction surveys. (Koltin)
• Read The Five Dysfunctions of a Team, and Death by Meeting, both by Patrick Lencioni. (Porter)
• Develop a written strategic plan, even a one-page plan. (Wiley)
• Let everyone have a copy of the strategic plan. Don’t be like many partners, who prefer to keep it private.
• Link partner compensation to staff ratings as well as to partner performance. (Allred)
• Spend a lot of time persuading old-style partners to get connected with staff. (Koltin)
• Conduct performance appraisals at least three times during the year. (Wiley)
• Since body language and tone are more important than words, communicate in person as much as possible. (Porter)
• Managing partners should conduct firm-wide meetings once a month to reinforce goals and the firm’s progress in achieving them. (Crosley)
• Communication should be two-way. Staff must be given the opportunity to participate in discussions on firm initiatives. (Porter)

From CPA Practice Management Forum, CCH Incorporated, 800-449-8114, July 2006, p. 5.