leadership

how enthusiastic is your staff?

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steven sacks: "creating a workplace that allows open and honest communications will go a long way toward employee retention – one of the biggest challenges facing firms and companies today."more enthusiasm = more productivity and profitability.

by steven e. sacks

did you ever take a survey of your firm’s staff to gauge its level of job satisfaction or how enthusiastic it is about working in your firm or company?

more: negotiate for success, not a ‘win’  | does your board know its role? | can you recite your mission statement? | does busyness really mean productivity? | five powerpoint rules to live by | your firm’s biggest assets walk out the door every day | so much to do and so little time: achieving success in the c-suite | can we please refer to accounting as a profession?
goprocpa.comexclusively for pro members. log in here or 2022世界杯足球排名 today.

every so often you should conduct a survey that asks anything ranging from clarity of purpose and level of commitment to flexibility and advancement. it costs nothing to do but will yield important anecdotal data to be addressed by senior leadership. you may find that staff wants more input on developing business or increased exposure to clients and customers.
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does your board know its role?

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business meeting with people around table facing forward4 questions for review.

by steven e. sacks

the purpose behind an organization creating a board is not to micromanage, design a company logo or address human resource issues. neither is its role to sit around and smoke cohiba esplendido cigars and sip louis xiii de remy martin grande cognac.

more: can you recite your mission statement? | does busyness really mean productivity? | five powerpoint rules to live by | your firm’s biggest assets walk out the door every day | so much to do and so little time: achieving success in the c-suite | can we please refer to accounting as a profession?
goprocpa.comexclusively for pro members. log in here or 2022世界杯足球排名 today.

this glad-handing, back-slapping culture led to the financial breakdowns in the early 2000s and probably still is happening at this writing.
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successful tax seasons require teamwork

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high angle view of business people stacking hands in a teamwork gesturefive questions to ask.

by rex gatto
gatto associates llc.

here are a few inconsequential misstatements to begin:

  • keywords that partners use like pride, commitment and quality of work for the client are words to get staff to work harder for no more money. ouch!
  • true teamwork (staff working effectively in a niche/department) means the partner can blame some of the problems on them. double ouch!

more on leadership: 7 habits of lousy cpa firm leaders
goprocpa.comexclusively for pro members. log in here or 2022世界杯足球排名 today.

now having capitalized on some bad humor, let’s look at some simple definitions to begin. these definitions can change according to your firm’s structure.
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tax season productivity hacks

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five good habits for getting things done.

the best time management tips:
join the survey, get the answers

by salim omar

tax time is widely considered the “busy season” for practitioners, but it doesn’t have to mean chaos and misery. a well-managed firm allows its owner to conduct business and live life at a reasonable pace no matter what the season.

more on productivity: does busyness really mean productivity?  | how many hours should accounting staff work?  |  when everything takes too long  | new lessons in time management
goprocpa.comexclusively for pro members. log in here or 2022世界杯足球排名 today.

by employing a few clever and surprisingly simple productivity hacks, you, too, can have a better tax time experience beginning this very season. put these new habits to work for you now: read more →

does busyness really mean productivity?

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harried business teamhow to change your firm’s culture.

by steven e. sacks

did you ever notice when you call an associate or a friend or a business of any type, more often than not he or she will always respond with “i’m really busy” or “i’ve been jammed up”? it does not matter the time of the year, much less the time of week or day.

more: five powerpoint rules to live by | your firm’s biggest assets walk out the door every day | so much to do and so little time: achieving success in the c-suite | can we please refer to accounting as a profession?
goprocpa.comexclusively for pro members. log in here or 2022世界杯足球排名 today.

has busy become too colloquial or just a throwaway line? what is actually meant by “busy”? or, more specifically, what is the condition of “busyness”?
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when the inmates are running the asylum

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crazy doesn’t get better by adding more crazy.

by dom cingoranelli

“we can’t really enforce this because we don’t want to risk having him (or her) quit.”

i can’t tell you how many times we hear something to this effect when we talk with cpas. we hear this at small firms and we hear it at large firms. we hear it from partners, from directors, and from managers. it doesn’t matter what size firm they’re in, nor does it matter what level or position they hold.

it’s always the same line. it reminds me of the old adage, “the inmates are running the asylum.” and, it raises the question of who actually is running the firm. who’s in charge?

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ge outsources tax department to pwc

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big four firm finds new growth in acquiring clients’ tax and accounting departments.

by 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间 research

ge is hiving off its tax group to pwc to become pwc’s new global enterprise tax solutions team. their first client: ge.

pwc calls the move “an innovative agreement with ge to provide integrated, enterprise managed tax services to ge on a global basis.” as part of the deal, pwc is hiring more than 600 of ge’s tax team members from around the world and acquiring ge’s tax technologies to bolster both pwc’s focus on the “tax function of the future” and to provide global enterprise tax solutions to clients. it may be a sign of things to come. read more →

seven habits of lousy cpa firm leaders

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red 7 facing green 7plus the flip side for successful leaders.

by rex gatto
gatto associates

do you ever wonder how some people get promoted to a leadership position? who did these people know to become a partner or director of tax in the firm?

more gatto:  the new leadership skills you need to make partner in today’s accounting firm   |    comments: gatto responds to “ethics or profits?”   |    how leaders lead in tough times

goprocpa.comexclusively for pro members. log in here or 2022世界杯足球排名 today.

billions of dollars are spent on training present and future leaders: there are special events for partners at prestigious universities, full-day trainings for partners and managers. but how is that benefiting the employees in the workplace? read more →

are you an ostrich or a giraffe?

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ostrich and giraffeare you an ostrich or a giraffe?

by lee eisenstaedt
leading with courage academy

there are leaders of cpa firms who think everything is right with the world, from their client relationships to their people.

how do they know for sure? well, they don’t. there’s been no study or feedback or hard data to go on.  based on their years of experience, they just know…somehow.   it’s the rare ones who have conducted a client survey to uncover festering problems they are unaware of. however, many choose to close themselves off from the truth and continue to operate in the same fashion as if nothing were happening.

then there are those firm leaders who have a clear view of what is working well and what is in dire need of improvement. this type of leader understands that if left unaddressed the urgent problems will remain and, in all likelihood, result in operational breakdowns.  this may involve serious costs to the firm.

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your firm’s biggest assets walk out the door every day

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businessman and the cloud computing conceptharness, share, and expand your firm’s collective wisdom.
by steven e. sacks

there are nearly 80 million baby boomers today, and this cohort of 65 and older is projected by the us census bureau to reach 83.7 million in the year 2050.

more: effective communications in the age of covid | why proper communication is critical | how to create effective internal communications | how to select your firm’s board | trust is a key organizational ingredient | real influence vs. immediate gratification | fake it ‘til you make it: an ultimate goal? | 4 ways to boost job satisfaction | have you gauged your staff’s enthusiasm? | why knowledge maintenance is key
goprocpa.comexclusively for pro members. log in here or 2022世界杯足球排名 today.

by 2030, more than 20 percent of u.s. residents are projected to be aged 65 and over, compared with 13 percent in 2010 and 9.8 percent in 1970. a large part of this growth is due to the aging of baby boomers (individuals born in the united states between mid-1946 and mid-1964), who began turning 65 in 2011 and are now driving growth at the older ages of the population. every day, 10,000 people turn 65. there are more than personal financial issues at stake here.

what does this mean for the cpa profession?

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