1. What specific things are we seeing firms do to develop staff leadership skills and develop them into partners?

This was the question asked of me this month by the CPA Leadership Institute.

My answer? "I have observed increased awareness and support from Managing Partners regarding leadership programs, business development training and, generally, nurturing a marketing culture.

Specifically, I am working with firms who are supporting staff to take responsibility and ownership of their contribution to the practice of the firm as a whole.

This has been demonstrated by the formation of Task Forces to help tackle seemingly daunting tasks, like the redesign of the firm intranet, LinkedIn training and internal processes like proposal writing and prospect research procedures."

I wrote a full article about this very topic which will appear in the next issue of the AAM (Association for Accounting Marketing) newsletter, Marketrends.

Lisa

Feedback from my speaking engagement to Elected Officials in Bucks County

The BCATO (Bucks County Association of Township Officials) was a surprisingly welcoming organization of local township officials - as well as some of the firms who pitch them for services, namely engineering firms - who greeted me with warmth and appreciation as I acted as their keynote speaker at their annual conference yesterday. My presentation was about effective marketing and communication strategies for municipalities and the officials who serve them.

Another speaker was from the state association of elected officials and he pointed out how many services we get from our townships that we take for granted: trash collection, snow plowing (it really is not Penn Dot doing all the work), etc. Most residents complain about all that's wrong - they only enter the township when they’ve been arrested or if there's a problem. Hopefully, TIERNEY will have some opportunities to offer some ideas for sharing the word and inciting more people to become INVOLVED and ENGAGED.

Send your councilman (or woman) a nice e-mail or shake their hand and say thanks at the next local parade would ya?


Of course when it came to blogging most were short of GROANING LOUDLY.

I have a lot to say about this but will save it for my next post. Stay tuned...

The Trick to the Effectiveness of Coaching

I have started to think about my presentation about coaching that I will be giving at this year’s AAM (Association for Accounting Marketing) annual conference in Chicago in June. (That’s because I have to submit it in a couple of months). How am I going to demonstrate the value of coaching in a way that people will embrace it – and then be able to really absorb some of the techniques in a way that they can bring back to their firms and actually USE in some type of meaningful way?

I think the trick is teaching them to ACTIVELY LISTEN and then to ASK QUESTIONS. I think that professionals often resist the temptation to ask a question for fear they will appear ignorant or unsophisticated. This is an important shift that needs to be made. I don’t understand how people can ever learn anything without asking questions. Are YOU asking enough questions?

Active listening can be hard enough for some people. You know those types, whose eyelids are fluttering because they are forming their next sentence when you haven’t even finished making your point yet – is this really a conversation you’re engaged in? During the course of an average day, if you start to notice, you are not having as many real conversations as you should be, I’m afraid. With co-workers, supervisors, friends – your spouse. (Are you and your significant other really listening to each other?)

After you can turn yourself down a few notches in order to really LISTEN, then you have to craft some pertinent, thought-provocative questions that will help facilitate a discovery, a result or a commitment to the next step. Takes time – takes practice – takes patience.
Coaching works because, ultimately, the coach does not provide any real ANSWERS at all. A successful coach is so because of the GOOD QUESTIONS they ask.

Start asking “Why?” today and see what happens.