Are you giving your staff the training they need to best serve your clients? Sure, you’ll pay for the tax courses, but are you giving them the people skills—like problem solving, customer service and supervisory skills—that they need to make your firm the best it can be?

You may be surprised to learn that your accounting staff hungers for more training. Consider some findings from a recent CPA Trendlines Career Outlook survey:

• Less than a quarter of respondents agree that their firm always pays for the courses they want, not just what they need.
• Fewer than 20 percent of respondents say their firms pay for soft skills learning. Offering your staff an expanded menu of training that includes soft skills and other education can improve client relationships and staff retention, as well as develop future leaders.

“Solid communication and interpersonal abilities are becoming just as important to accounting professionals in addressing client needs” as traditional training, writes Paul McDonald, senior executive director with Robert Half in a recent CPA Practice Advisor article. “Your team members also need business acumen that extends beyond accounting to understanding clients’ bigger-picture business goals and concerns.” McDonald identifies desirable soft skills: diplomacy, customer service, problem solving, adaptability, and communication.

These important skills are also the ones that staff wants to learn. For instance, problem solving gives accounting and finance professionals the most career satisfaction, according to recent a Robert Half survey. In fact, problem solving outranked number crunching in the results, which is pretty amazing given the importance of numbers for accountants!

Soft skills learning can help accountants at any stage of their careers, says Kathy Ryan, CEO, CFO and co-founder of RoseRyan, a CPA firm serving the San Francisco Bay area, in an Accounting Today article. “I challenge anyone who feels they are being held back in their career but is not sure why, to get a reality check on their soft-skill set and do some fine tuning. I also encourage those in leadership positions to consider ways they can cultivate the ‘softer’ side of their teams’ abilities (and their own).” It isn’t a surprise to learn that Ryan’s firm regularly teaches soft skills.

Asking staff about the courses they would like is now a trend at accounting firms, the AICPA says in its white paper, The Evolution of CPA Firm Learning:

• Staff can learn better when they have a say in their learning plans. - The white paper cites an American Society for Training & Development article, “The Amazing Era of Self-Service Learning,” that suggests your firm may see as much as a 500 percent increase in learning benefits when staff manage their own training.
• Real knowledge rather than “getting training hours in” is becoming the focus. - More experience-related, simulation, and “mock” programs build real-life skills.
• Succession needs require staff to learn more than technical topics. - Firms are including more leadership, management and other personal development courses, and they’re introducing them earlier in their staff members’ careers.

Staff who are hungry to learn about running the firm, interacting more efficiently with clients, managing support staff, and the other ingredients of a successful CPA firm should be consuming the appropriate soft-skills training. Serve staff what they want, and your firm will have a banquet of talented professionals to build your firm.

Soft skills training is critical for both your staff accountants and your firm. Merit Career Development offers leadership and communication courses specifically designed for accountants plus the opportunity to earn CPEs. For more information, please contact Jim Wynne at jwynne@meritcd.com.

In recent years, a growing number of organizations have changed the way they are structured. The old top-down way of doing business, in which management wields all the power, is increasingly giving way to a collective leadership style, in which all employees are involved in setting and reaching company goals.

Some of the most successful companies - like Google, Apple, and Zappos, for example - are comprised of employees who are passionate about their company’s business strategy and working toward its goals. They are also engaged in actively promoting their company’s policies.

Collective leadership is one way to increase employee growth and productivity. Blurring the lines between boss and worker, it empowers the latter - and leads to creativity, team building and openness, allowing employees more ownership of their work, while maintaining a level of discipline that ensures the job gets done.

Leaders who practice this type of collaboration believe that their power doesn’t come from their title or position, but rather that the group is stronger when everyone shares information and each individual is encouraged to offer ideas and suggestions.

The challenge for the leader is to create an environment where diverse individuals can work together effectively toward those shared goals. To do so, keep these points in mind:

• The manager must trust the employees and their judgment, and make sure the employees know it.
• Employees need to be capable of achieving the stated goals.
• Employees must believe in what they are doing and know they are members of the team.
• The manager needs to recognize that employees from different generations may have different work styles and know how to blend those differences for team productivity.

A manager who practices collective leadership is easy to spot. First and foremost, she doesn’t dictate to her team, rather, she brainstorms with them, and they arrive at solutions together. This leader knows how to allocate time and resources to foster this collaboration, allowing team members to hold various roles in which their responsibilities evolve.

She doesn’t run around “putting out fires,” instead, she gets to the root of an issue, offering immediate and ongoing feedback. She coaches all year round, not just at performance review time. And she ensures her team members are cross-trained, trusting them and allowing them to be accountable for themselves.

Of course, it’s not simple or easy, but there are some guidelines for creating a collective leadership style in your workplace, according to Marion Chamberlain in the Huffington Post:

• Rotate leadership responsibilities, giving everyone the chance to understand what it means to “lead.”
• Educate everyone equally, giving them access to the same information.
• Don’t promote just to promote. Let individuals learn new tasks and move forward in those they are best at.
• Offer good salaries, benefits, and additional perks, so employees will want to keep advancing their skill set.
• Allow employees to make their own decisions and hold themselves accountable, based on clearly stated guidelines.

The collective leadership approach has grown with the increase in international competition and the shrinking of the global marketplace. Employees want to have more responsibility and autonomy in their work, as they actively engage and work as a team to create and set goals, and to achieve them.

This is especially true of the generation born between 1981 and 2000, the Millennials, who, in general, like to interact and collaborate with their colleagues, using a high degree of creativity to accomplish goals. This is a major divergence from the Baby Boomers who thrive on direct orders and chain of command, closed doors and annual reviews.

A truly collaborative environment is creative and innovative and must tap into the best qualities of all the diverse individuals of all ages in its workforce. Putting at least some of these techniques in place can be a smart business decision that pays dividends over the long haul.

For more information about how Merit Career Development can hone your leadership and management skills, please contact Jim Wynne at jwynne@meritcd.com.

The popular quote attributed to Mahatma Gandhi summarizes Transformational Leadership well: “Be the change you wish to see in the world.”

How do you best inspire others? By being who you want them to be and doing what you want them to do. By walking the talk. By leading by example. By enthusiastically sharing your vision and inspiring them to join you in making it a reality.

One who inspires trust, respect and admiration in his followers to the degree that they agree to work with him toward a common goal for the betterment of all—that person is a transformational leader.

Remember Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., giving his inspirational “I Have a Dream” speech from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial? How about John F. Kennedy motivating Congress to support his dream of sending an American to the moon? Both transformational.

According to John Juzbasich, CEO of Merit Career Development, transformational leaders such as King and Kennedy—and millions of others such as teachers, scout leaders and heads of community groups—work toward change that is for the good of the whole. They provide needed guidance in times of change, whether it be societal, environmental or policy.

Transformational leadership has four pillars:

1. Inspirational Motivation is the passionate Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., facing millions of inspired supporters in Washington, D.C., using powerful words in a powerful speech in an attempt to bring about profound societal change.


2. Intellectual Stimulation challenges others to reach for the stars. Literally, in Kennedy’s case. As Juzbasich says, “We weren’t even a player in the space race at that time!” Some great benefits came out of that challenge being taken up in 1961: space blankets, Velcro, and dried foods are all invented byproducts of the space race.


3. When the group looks up to its leader and wants to be like her, that leader has Idealized Influence. Both attitude and behavior must match; this is where the leader must walk her talk.


4. Individualized Consideration. Think about Vince Lombardi, the legendary coach of the Green Bay Packers. He knew each football player on his team so well, he knew exactly how best to motivate them to inspire performances beyond all expectations.

“You see people who work toward positive change all over the world and they are changing the world in various ways,” says Juzbasich. “We all have these qualities. They can be measured and developed. Paint a picture of a better world and inspire your people to want what you want, reframing the task so the person feels honor and prestige.”

A transformational leader is a role model who challenges team members to ‘own’ their work. He understands the individual strengths and weaknesses of those he seeks to inspire and assigns tasks appropriately so that team members can be successful.

And he doesn’t stop there. Transformational leaders not only inspire others to pursue a task that was thought to be impossible, they empower group members to grow into inspirational and transformational leaders themselves.

Just as these leaders expect the best of themselves and strive to perform at their highest level, they expect the same from their teams. That expectation, along with the leader’s belief in them, continues to inspire the group to do its best, in turn creating higher levels of satisfaction all around.

For more information about how Merit Career Development can transform your leadership and management skills, please contact Jim Wynne at jwynne@meritcd.com.

It can be one of the most uncomfortable situations a project manager faces: You have a team member who simply isn’t delivering. Their work may be late or poor. They skip meetings or don’t file their progress reports in a timely manner. For whatever the reason, their role in the effort hasn’t gelled, and the gap is causing everyone else to scramble.

Most PMs dread such scenarios. After all, it’s never easy to call out someone on their performance. But when the need arises, you have no choice but to address the issues quickly and firmly. If ignored, personnel challenges can spread as other team members shoulder extra work and become distracted from their own priorities. Ultimately, the project’s quality, schedule and budget can be threatened.

The conversation is made all the more awkward by the unique relationship PMs usually have with their team – a position that’s more about dotted lines than formal reporting structures. When the underperformer isn’t a direct report, the PM must take the approach of an interested and invested colleague, a fellow team member whose focus is on solutions rather than blame.

Talk to the Person. Your first order of business is to meet with the person and examine the issues you face. Express your concerns, but make clear that you’re beginning a conversation and looking for a solution, not issuing edicts. Be sure to get an acknowledgement of the problem and an agreement that it has to be resolved.

Be Clear. Explain the ramifications of the person’s lagging performance. For example, by missing his own deadlines, he’s holding up the work of his teammates. Or, because she’s skimping on quality control, her colleagues have to put in extra time to identify and fix problems on top of meeting their own responsibilities. Be honest about what you’re seeing, and specific in your observations.

Understand the Problem. The issues may be symptoms of a larger problem. Your team member may be facing challenges at home, with his boss, or something else. Whatever the underlying cause, it’s important to understand the forces that are at work here. After all, you can’t address a matter until you know its dynamics.

Have Ideas. Good project managers always have solutions in mind. That’s as true when it comes to working with people as it is when facing logistical or technical hurdles. As you come to understand the problem, develop approaches for addressing it. It might be the person has too many competing priorities and needs clarity. There could be a personality conflict with another team member. Whatever the issue, proactively work with the person to develop an approach that will get their efforts back on track.

Put in the Time. Coaching people takes time – sometimes a lot of it. Chances are, a single conversation isn’t going to do the trick. Set up regular one-on-ones with the person so you can track her progress and follow up on previous discussions. Develop metrics so you have an agreed-upon mechanism to measure her performance until the situation is resolved.

Remember, this process should be interactive. Encourage the team member to develop his own ideas, and listen to them carefully. Sometimes, all a person needs is an opportunity to talk things through in order to get refocused.

For more information about how Merit Career Development can hone your leadership and management skills, please contact Jim Wynne at jwynne@meritcd.com.

Do you change your style, and adapt to the abilities of your employees?

If you are in a management position, you probably won’t have trouble imagining the following scenario:

Boss to subordinate: Please enter these statistics into the database while I’m at my meeting.
Subordinate: Sure thing!

Two hours later, boss returns to find subordinate had either 1) entered statistics in unintelligible ways or 2) had done nothing because he wasn’t sure of the process.

Can the boss get angry and upset? Sure. Should he? How would you react?

Leaders must be sure to take a few steps before delegating any tasks to their employees or they risk the above situation—wasted time and effort and upset people all around.

The act of taking the time to determine the maturity and training levels of the people being supervised and then guiding them accordingly is known as Situational Leadership. Instead of using just one style, successful leaders adapt their styles to the training and experience of those they lead, based on the job that needs to be done.

Leaders can choose from among four leadership styles:

1. Tell: The leader tells his group what to do and how to do it.
2. Sell: Leaders give information and direction, but do more in the way of “selling” their ideas in order to get people engaged.
3. Participate: The leader works closely with the team, sharing the decision-making process and focusing on the relationship with his group.
4. Delegate: Leaders hand off most of the responsibility. They oversee the progress, but are less involved in routine decisions.

There really is no single best style of leadership. The most effective leadership is task-relevant and the most successful leaders are those who adapt their leadership styles to the maturity, and education and/or experience, of an individual. By maturity, we mean the individual’s ability to set attainable goals and the willingness to take responsibility.

John Juzbasich, CEO of Merit Career Development, says that Situational Leadership is actually a simple model and easy to follow. “Look at the task at hand and the individuals on your team and choose what style to use based on their level of readiness. Know your people well and know how to work with them.”

The choice of leadership style—telling, selling, participating or delegating—is always made relative to the task-at-hand and the person’s readiness to perform.

The four levels of employee readiness are categorized in the following ways—from lowest to highest.

1. Lack Skills, Knowledge or Confidence. These employees need to be developed so it’s important to give them stretch assignments. But it does mean you’ll need to give more support, clear direction, and oversight.
2. Willing, but Skills Not There Yet. The willingness is there, but these people will need to develop the skills to do the job well. Be prepared to do more handholding and teaching.
3. Have the Skills, but Not the Confidence. These people are ready and willing and have a better skill set, but are nervous. Meet with them, coach them and give as much support as they need to feel confident.
4. High Levels of Confidence and Strong Skills. Sounds perfect, but you still need to be available for guidance and input, just give them the breathing room they need.

Can these levels change? Sure.

With good coaching, readiness level can improve more rapidly than you expected. Likewise, someone can be fully motivated and engaged and then have a flat tire or have an argument with their teenager over breakfast, and suddenly they seem to go backwards in their ability to perform.

An aware leader would recognize that something was wrong, that the situation had changed, and would adapt her style to meet it.

Many variables, including personal issues and changes within the company, can cause shifts in employee readiness, and the effective leader must continually assess the best way to present projects to his or her subordinates. The ability to assess an employee’s readiness level and adaptability are hallmarks of the situational leader. The leader’s level of success will reflect how well he or she has learned those lessons.

The old Johnny Mercer song says you should accentuate the positive, eliminate the negative. When it comes to feedback, negative information may be what you should accentuate because it may be more meaningful to employees, and can even help them to become more productive and in tune with your company’s goals.

A recent study found that people may be more encouraged to change by hearing negatives. By about 3 to 1, people crave corrective feedback more than praise—as long as the corrective feedback comes in a constructive manner. Respondents in the study also believe corrective feedback does more to improve their performance than positive reactions. Corrective feedback—a nicer way of saying negative—includes suggestions for improvement, exploring new and better ways to do things, or pointing out something that was done in a less than optimal way. (Positive feedback is what you’d imagine: praise, reinforcement, and congratulatory comments. It’s no surprise that these tend to be much easier to deliver.)

How can you provide more effective constructive feedback? Consider these strategies:

• Give more. You may be more comfortable giving all types of feedback if you do so regularly. Professor M.S. Rao advocates constant feedback, which goes hand in hand with continuous learning. Both support fast growth in careers, personal, or professional life. Feedback as a daily interaction becomes a natural part of the workplace rather than a dreaded annual event.


• Focus forward. Look ahead with feedback so that you can help to direct future behavior in the right direction. Make specific suggestions about how you would like things to change.


• Address the behavior, not the person. Focus on the specific behavior that you want to change, rather than personal traits, suggests Diane Gottsman, an etiquette and manners expert. For instance, this statement is too much about a character flaw: “You have no organizational skills and it showed in your presentation this morning.” This alternative gets specific about the action that needs to change: “It was clear that you were struggling to keep the audience’s attention on your report this morning, and I have some suggestions that I’d like to discuss.”


• Actively listen. Feedback recipients need to feel that they have been heard, as a Fast Company article points out. In fact, you may want to ask the recipient for his or her feedback before offering your input. The employee may already know what needs to change. If so, it’s a great opportunity to compliment your employee’s insight and solicit ideas. Make sure you leave time for a response, and repeat what has been said to you to be sure you have heard right.


• Control your emotions. Avoid giving feedback if you are angry or upset. If you become emotional during a feedback conversation, tell the person that you will need to think about the response and schedule a follow up meeting for another time.


• Increase opportunities to make feedback more meaningful. Have a conversation after each project or assignment to shift the focus to career planning and how to mesh employee capabilities with those plans. Communication at the management level can note the up and coming stars and make sure the company retains these valuable individuals and continues to develop their talents.

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To be an effective manager, giving feedback is a key skill. Merit Career Development offers leadership and communication courses that can help you hone your skills. For more information, please contact Jim Wynne at jwynne@meritcd.com

We've all done it. You're standing talking with a coworker, and she asks a question. Suddenly, you realize your mind had wandered as she continued to talk. The little voice in your head said it was time for lunch...reminded you to follow up with a client...or maybe you were distracted by a colleague walking by. You weren’t paying attention. You weren’t listening.

Most people think they know how to listen, but although you hear the words, you may not fully understand the meaning behind them. Listening actively takes concentration and practice. It’s important in all interpersonal relationships—in the workplace and in our personal lives.

If you want to improve communication between you and your colleagues or clients, become more efficient in your work, or create more rewarding personal relationships, then listening effectively is critical. The good news is that these skills can be learned just as effective public speaking skills are learned. And here’s how:

• Ssshhh - Stop talking and just listen. Many business cultures reward speaking - no matter what. But when we are talking - even inside our heads - we can’t hear and process what is being said to us. Even if it means there is a silence after the speaker finishes—while you prepare your response - let it be.


• Body Language - According to Forbes, making and keeping eye contact is essential in Western cultures, where good eye contact equals paying attention. Face the speaker and fight the urge to check your cell phone or computer.


• Practice - Listen to challenging material that requires concentration, such as a lecture or a sermon. Use these to sharpen and improve your vocabulary and your understanding of nonverbal cues - those you give as well as those you observe. Lean toward the speaker, nod, and give smiles and verbal cues (uh-huh, hmm, yes) of encouragement.


• Study Up - Read about the topic of a presentation or an important meeting ahead of time. Leave any preconceived perceptions of a speaker, colleague, or topic at the door.


• Be Attentive - Don't interrupt or jump to conclusions. And don't sketch out your response while he is still talking or think about what you want to say next. You run the risk of giving a reply that will be off the mark, and then your disinterest will be obvious.


• Focus - Focus on the big picture as well as on the small details, watching for ways you can personally relate. Also, listen intentionally, consciously steering your mind back to the speaker when it wanders (because it always wants to stray).


• Do Unto Others - According to Dr. John A. Kline, who has written extensively on leadership and communication, using a form of the Golden Rule is effective. Ask yourself, “How would I want someone to listen to me?” And then listen as if you were going to have to repeat the conversation in an hour - this time, as the speaker.


• Ask Questions - Everyone listens through their past experiences and reacts accordingly. Take responsibility for understanding what’s been said. If you don’t, always ask, don’t assume. And, according to Sklatch, open-ended questions are the best way to gain clarity, such as, “Can you give me some examples of that?”

We all want to be heard and understood, and taking the steps to ensure we are doing the same for others is the best way to achieve this.

What kind of leader do you want to be? Is it someone with an aura - mysterious and revered, yet distant and disconnected from your employees? Or is it someone respected and trusted, but intimately known by everyone at your company?

This latter, transparent approach is a must-have for today’s leaders. Some of the biggest and brightest figureheads are considered “transparent,” but the path to becoming this type of professional is complicated.

Even so, here is why transparency is key for the leaders in your organization:

Transparency Will Bring Your Team Together

Put yourself in the shoes of your employees. Would you want to be led by a person who is hard to reach and detached? In all likelihood, you wouldn’t feel very connected to this leader, which would make it harder to follow him or her, and feel satisfied in your job.

In an article for the Harvard Business Review, Dorie Clark argues that this is one reason why transparency is a must for leaders. Without transparency, it is much more challenging for employees to know their superiors, let alone like them and understand their points of view. This will make loyalty harder to achieve, and a lack of real relationships can negatively impact other areas of the business as well, from employee motivation and production to customer service.

Transparency Can Protect your Business

Transparency is a critical aspect of transformative leadership. Some organizations lead through a veil, using vagueness as a way to mitigate risk and ensure that outside problems have minimal effects on operations.

A similar end result can be achieved via transparency, but with additional benefits. Clark cites Paul Levy, the former CEO of Boston-based Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital, as an example. Levy used a personal blog to connect with his employees, colleagues, patients and their families. On the site, he wrote about the inner workings of the hospital, his personal life and the things that made him tick. As he garnered a following, the respect people had for him and his organization increased.

That made a big difference when a relationship Levy had with an employee became public knowledge. The damage to his reputation and the hospital was muted thanks to the transparent approach he had taken during his nine-year tenure.

Transparent Leaders are Alive and Well

Transparency can be difficult for today’s leaders. It requires openness, effective communication skills, and confidence. Even with the challenges, there are many premier leaders using transparency to excel.

In an article for Forbes, contributor John Hall outlines several leaders who embrace the idea of transparency. Here are three leaders that set positive examples in their professions:

1. Tony Hsieh - Zappos
   Online retailer Zappos is a model of transparency, thanks to leader Tony Hsieh. He has been known to share employee communications on social media. For example, Hsieh tweeted out emails about facility operations, pulling back the curtain for customers to get a closer look at how Zappos works.


2. Andy Levine - Development Counselors
   Development Counsellors’ Andy Levine got creative with transparency. The organization created a way to share its financial outlook with every employee. Called “The Game,” this platform declares a “win” once a certain profit is achieved, and then portions of those earnings are shared with each worker.


3. Rand Fishkin - SEOmoz
   Rand Fishkin, of SEOmoz, uses transparency as a way to connect with customers and employees. He will gladly post his own performance review for all to see, plus he will even share funding decks with the public. Overall, Fishkin’s strategy is to let people see the ups and downs of the company, no matter what.

These are but three of the most transparent leaders today. This approach may not feel right for everybody, but it is important to use transparency as a strategy to build trust, improve communication and stand apart from the crowd.

A growing trend in today’s learning industry is the concept of “social learning,” or the idea that effective learning can take place in a more communal, collaborative environment. What better way to achieve that other than using internal social networking programs?

Couple the idea of social learning with CLOs’ appreciation of new technology and trends, and it is easy to see why the growth of social media will directly impact employee education, effective communication skills and the learning industry as a whole.

Networking Can Complete the Picture

In an article for Chief Learning Officer magazine, Susan Distasio and Donna Lord posited that enterprise social networking (ESN) holds great opportunities for employee learning, because these websites serve as a complete learning portal.

For example, since much of the on-the-job learning process takes place in an informal setting, the relaxed nature of social media is a complementary addition. It’s also valuable for training that occurs in a group setting, because employees can share ideas, ask questions, and offer feedback via ESN at a later time.

Best of all, CLOs and their organizations can tune into these online conversations and gain knowledge of the educational experience. Leveraging this data will help develop more efficient, effective training methods in the future.

Networking Can Lead to ROI

While there are plenty of benefits to social networking - especially from a learning perspective - CLOs must be aware of the potential pitfalls as well.

In a separate article for CLO magazine, Distasio and Lord explained that the rise of networking means dealing with the risks. Organizations must take a new approach to ensure employees are safe online while receiving the benefits of this strategy. That can be achieved via employer-to-worker communication, technology training, and planning.

For starters, employers need to discuss the implementation of ESN closely with their staff members. This will help facilitate the rollout of new programs and prevent problems from forming. Social networking will also be approached differently depending on the department. How sales use these resources will be unique compared to marketing, for example. Outline each strategy and communicate that with each team.

Above all else, remember the value of enterprise social networks - you can provide employees a hands-on learning solution all while addressing your corporate confidentiality and privacy needs.