Confronting Leadership: Not Such a Bad Thing

By Steven E. Sacks, CPA, CGMA, ABC

Unless you are really old school (with barely a pulse), are the named and founding partner of your firm, and you rebuff what you believe are challenges to your leadership of the firm, then you are thinking just about you and not what you built.

If you created a leadership team around you that exhibit the healthfulness of organizational conflict, constructive advice, scenario planning and the flexibility of employing Plans B, C and D, you have created a strong foundation — a far different and more effective approach than the “My way or the highway” thinking.

I have seen where the partner group practices “grin and bear it” through every Monday morning meeting because they make a nice salary/draw.

Whether we are talking about a CPA firm board or a not-for-profit board or a private sector board, the avoidance of conflict has morphed into a misguided sense of consensus building. Standing up to philosophical differences with the purest of intentions is a positive; it is not destructive in nature.

Consensus building should not be confused with capitulation or groupthink. What is the harm of raising awareness of what the competition is doing, or addressing what appears to be a groundswell of staff disenchantment? Ignoring the elephant in the room because we want to preserve collegiality creates conflicts that continue to fester.

I just don’t get it. And firms wonder why they have trouble retaining top talent.

Do You Detect These Symptoms?

• Does the leadership focus more on the operational than the strategic and get more into weed-like matters are best left untouched?
• Is there is a difference in behaviors and attitudes once the participants leave the executive meeting room?
• Are conflicts of interest, inconsistent or hidden agendas apparent to those even on the lower staff levels?
• Do the firm’s leaders pretend they understand the firm’s goals, what efforts are to be expended and the deadlines for reaching them?
• Are the opinions expressed evince a misunderstanding of responsibilities and what resources are needed, and is there pushback on making the necessary investments?
• Is staff left in the dark as to what role it will play and if it will have any say in the directives handed down?
• When innovation, efficiency, creativity are hailed as the watchwords, does leadership really mean what it says and does what it means?
• Is there reluctance to let go of “sacred cows” that in reality were nothing more than security blankets, offering nothing in the way of advancing goals?

Jumping Over the Precipice

How a leadership group responds when a goal is not met is quite telling. Is admonishment or encouragement and guidance part of the recipe? Want to avoid confrontation? Then don’t be surprised if operations remain on the same course, while nothing was learned and nothing is shared among the teams.

In a prior post, I spoke about how important processes and protocols can make all difference in reconciling differences. And more important, the rest of the staff should see how these differences were managed and resolved in accordance with the values espoused by the firm.

If the accounting firm agreements and mechanisms are in place and clearly articulated, then communication is much easier to implement, the responsibility shared and commitment(s) made.

The result? Communication and collaboration rather than conflict and confrontation.

 

About Steve

Steven Sacks is the CEO of Solutions to Results, LLC, a consultancy that specializes in helping individuals, firms and organizations meet the challenges of communicating with clarity and purpose. Visit his website at www.solutions2results.com.