How does a firm create a culture of accountability?

Accountability is the Holy Grail of the Accounting Industry!

I hear from so many CPA firms around the country, about the seemingly inability for partners to hold each other accountable. I believe that no one can hold anyone else accountable at all; you can only hold yourself accountable. I have found that the trick to creating a culture of accountability begins with the empowerment of the leaders – so they want to participate in creating the kind of success they deem important and therefore value. It starts with a unique, individual marketing plan that draws on their natural abilities and puts them in an environment that will attract what they perceive to be their ideal client. One they have a plan that showcases their abilities and puts them in a group of people they want to be with, I find that the uphill battle is OVER.

A 20-year CPA partner just told me that she has started to enjoy networking events for the first time in her life. She asked me “What changed?” I reminded her we’d finally put her in the right room. A room in which she felt she belonged, surrounded by people she genuinely liked and respected – and it made all the difference in the world!