With busy season in the rear-view mirror, it's a natural time to think about your firm's goals and any big changes you need to make. However, a lack of partner alignment and accountability can get in the way of creating sustainable change. The good news is they are possible if you know how to create them.
First, you need to create partner alignment.
Why does alignment matter?
Here's how a group of managing partners I spoke with explained the importance of alignment:
- It's necessary for the firm to accomplish its strategic plan.
- Partners are working toward the same direction rather than working against each other.
- It matters to our staff that we are all on the same page, headed in the same direction, and they can't go opinion shopping with partners.
- It ensures partner goals align with the firm's goals.
What does alignment mean?
- All the "arrows" are pointed in the same direction. All people, goals and processes work together to create movement along the same trajectory. Also, you're always re-aligning instead of working in a "set it and forget it" mode.
- Common areas where CPA firms need alignment include deciding who their ideal clients are, vision and strategy, revenue goals, partner job expectations, pricing and partner compensation system.
How can you create more alignment with your partners?
There are three key aspects of communication that create partner alignment. These are embedded in our
- Ask questions instead of telling others what to do or think.
- Often the best place to start building partner alignment is with one-on-one conversations where the leader asks genuine questions to understand what matters most to the other person.
- This creates a map of where each partner is at currently — what issues they care about and how they think about each key issue. Leading with telling, while tempting, turns people off and can lead to competing camps.
- Use a positive lens versus a negative one.
- When you craft your questions, it's important to frame them in a positive way. "What is a future for our firm you'd be proud of?" and "What do you see as the strengths in our partner group?" will lead to very different conversations than "What is hopelessly broken in our firm?" and "Who are the worst partners in our group?"
- We are not ignoring underlying challenges — we are simply addressing them from a positive perspective (e.g., what would solving our staffing challenge do or look like?). That invites creativity and keeps the mood upbeat instead of shutting people down with negativity.
- Appeal to a "we" versus "me" identity.
- Any aligned firm needs to create a compelling shared identity. Why are we in this together? What is the bigger cause that makes it worthwhile for us to work together?
- If a "we" identity isn't already apparent, it needs to be discussed and created to motivate people to come together ahead of attending simply to their own self-interests.
Once you have aligned your partners, then healthy accountability is needed to move ahead reliably.
According to managing partners, the biggest challenges to partner accountability are:
- Excuses for everything!
- The biggest challenge is lack of motivation — some people aren't motivated by rewards, and are comfortable where they are.
- Most partners are great, a few are terrible.
- Agreement on what to hold each other accountable for.
What does accountability mean?
- Accountability means we can count on each other to do what we say we will do. It also means we follow up on things we said we would do and consistently surface any challenges and work through them so we can reach our goals.
- CPA firms need partner accountability in setting and reaching their goals, business development (or client culling), timely billing and succession planning.
How can you create more partner accountability?
When I do post-retreat work with firms, I use these levers to help them implement their big ideas.
- Be clear about what you want.
- Set annual measurable goals for the firm and individual partners. Be sure they are clear enough that you'd know it if you got there.
- Have a regular cadence of check-ins on the goals to review progress and surface any challenges so they can be addressed and overcome.
- Grow motivation.
- What looks like a reliability problem is sometimes a motivation problem. Find out what internally motivates each partner. Connect goals back to things that matter to each individual to give them the best chance of being accomplished.
- Create capacity.
- It takes time to develop complex skills like being a mentor to staff or an advisor to clients. Make learning plans for partners with realistic timeframes for getting them up to speed on skills they need.
- Practice and celebrate wins.
- Mastery takes practice! Celebrate the small wins along the road to encourage people's progress and cement new habits.
- Don't avoid emotions.
- Many partners avoid hard conversations that may be loaded with strong emotions. Unfortunately, you cannot have consistent accountability without addressing these kinds of issues.
- When giving feedback in these kinds of situations, keep it about behaviors versus a person's identity (e.g. you were late in billing versus you are lazy), make it part of the culture to talk respectfully about hard things, and consider outside help from a coach or consultant if it's a particularly difficult-to-handle situation.
Firms large and small alike struggle with these issues, but the solutions are achievable. With intention, focus and practice, your partners can become aligned and build a culture of accountability. Once that happens, the future of your firm becomes very bright indeed!
