Learning to Lead with Significance

This week Allinial Global held its Executive Team Conference in Chicago, IL, attracting firm leaders from North America and beyond to focus on the theme of Winning Together. As the second largest CPA firm association in the world, Allinial Global represents a variety of firm sizes, and the Executive Team Conference hones in on key issues common to all firms. At this year’s event, over a third of attendees were from firms under $10 million in revenue, 45% were from firms with $11–$50 million, and 22% were from firms with over $50 million.

Joey Havens was the keynote speaker for the conference, sharing some of his lessons learned from leading HORNE through its exponential growth. While HORNE was a top 100 firm with some organic growth, they were not achieving exponential growth, turnover was rising, and DE&I was not progressing.  They looked inward to find that their biggest challenge was that their culture “smelled.” To understand that reference, you need to read Joey’s book, Leading with Significance, and his story about owning his first car—but let’s just say that it’s not a good thing.

Firms’ #1 Challenge: People

Attendees at the conference reported that their number one challenge was People (see Figure 1). Joey shared that the key to addressing the people challenge is creating a culture of belonging that embraces high trust and diversity and inclusion. When created right, this type of culture is “magnetic”—it helps attract people to the firm and also helps retain talent.

Figure 1 – Firms’ number one challenge

Overall, Allinial Global firms reported having Really Good culture, but only 1% of attendees said that their culture achieved this Magnetic level (see Figure 2).

Figure 2 – Firm Culture Rating

Joey said that “good culture” isn’t enough. He knew they needed GREAT culture to have sustainable organic growth and the resiliency to manage the wave of change coming their way. And you need to get your culture to the magnetic level to attract the best talent and the best clients.

Challenges with Improving Culture

On diving deeper, attendees shared that, by far, their top challenge to improving culture was Communication/Clarity (47%). The next three challenges were:

  • People and resources (28%)
  • Conflicting priorities (26%)
  • Partner/leader alignment (20%)

See Figure 3 for additional challenges that firms reported.

Figure 3 – Top challenges to improving culture

Joey shared that they faced these challenges at HORNE too. In particular, he emphasized the need to get everyone aligned, as well as addressing behaviors that don’t carry us forward—and a lot of this ties back to the way that you communicate changes and expectations of people (i.e., a well-defined culture). He also said you need to get rid of the “meetings after the meetings” and toxic leaders who are not aligned—and some of these leaders may be at the partner level. A lot of this takes tackling conflict head on and overcoming people’s natural inclination toward conflict avoidance.

Joey identified flexibility as our profession’s number one challenge, defining it as more than WHERE we work. True flexibility is defined as freedom for where, how, and when. In addition to sharing lessons learned on flexibility—such as the fact that flexibility is unique to the individual, their team, and their role—he also shared best practices for remote work.

7 Best Practices for Remote Workers and Culture

Joey shared seven best practices that his firm identified for remote work and culture.

  1. Remote work screams for ruthless prioritization. What, when, and who must be communicated weekly, if not daily. Team agreements on principles are great, along with guidelines on mandatory meetings, schedules, commitment, availability, dress, video on/off, etc.
  2. Acknowledge the challenges of remote work. Extend trust rather than monitoring constantly. Be generous with probing questions.
  3. Communicate consistently and be proactive with sharing updates. Repeat mission, vision, and values regularly, ensuring that everyone aligns with the vision and values of the firm.
  4. Prioritize for consistency and faster start. Stress mission, values, and vision. How does the new hire’s purpose tie to the firm’s purpose? It is helpful to ensure that each person has a “buddy” to help them navigate the firm’s culture.
  5. Scheduled check-ins. Regular one-on-ones keep people engaged and feeling cared for. What questions help our remote workers to feel seen?
  6. Demonstrate to each person how their work matters, understanding the challenges people are overcoming each week and celebrating their accomplishments. Consider asking people what they want to be recognized for.
  7. Excellence anywhere. Let go of “control bias” and recognize that people can be effective anywhere, not just in the office.

We All Have Work to Create Better Culture

After leading everyone through a reflection exercise that challenged them to evaluate their culture for things to improve, Joey asked the audience to rate their firm’s culture again. Most participants lowered their culture rating scores, revealing what may be the greatest insight from the session—the importance of taking an objective and honest look at firm culture. See the reassessments in Figure 4.

Figure 4 – Reassessment of culture rating

Joey closed with five key points:

  1. Good culture is not winning—culture must be great and even magnetic.
  2. People must be prioritized before clients and growth.
  3. Flexibility includes where, when, and how.
  4. Be intentional.
  5. Trust first.

As firm leaders, he called on us to be more intentional to trust, serve, and care for people—which will drive exponential firm growth and elevate the accounting profession.

Having recently hired its first Chief People Officer JoAnn Labbie, launched an enhanced leadership program, and organized new member communities for Diversity, Equity & Inclusion and Women’s Initiatives, Allinial Global offers a wealth of support for members seeking to better serve their people and strengthen firm culture. As Joey pointed out in his presentation, Winning Together is all about the people, and I look forward to seeing how Allinial Global member firms put Joey’s advice into practice. Let’s all Lead with Significance!