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Stepping Up is the New Norm
Richard Brewin • March 16, 2020
Have you noticed how everyone’s demands seem to grow every year?
Whilst our hopes and personal expectations may fluctuate, there is a sense that, no matter how good the last year was, the world around us wants more in the next.
Clients expect more value and service. We expect more of our team – they are 12 months more experienced, possibly promoted and better rewarded. Both clients and team probably expect more of themselves, wanting to be better. We expect more of our business performance, looking for growth and greater profitability. And like our clients and team, we expect more of ourselves, wanting to see that self-improvement.
The problem, of course, is that we all feel like we gave everything last year, so how can we give more? Is it even right to expect more?
With increasing demand comes stress. If we’ve worked our socks off last year then we want to know that this year will be easier, not harder.
I think it important, not to resist the rising expectations but to recognise it as the norm, accept it and look at how we can embrace it. Rather than say that last year was tough, press the reset button and recognise that last year has merely set a higher benchmark, how do we deal with it?
In an Age of finally recognising the value of good health and personal time, the answer must not simply be to work harder and work more, we have to be smarter.
I use the example of a firm moving to a four day working week. Hopefully, many of you will agree that the principle of a shorter working week is a good thing. However, there are good reasons why the firm and its employees currently work five days per week. The employees need five days’ worth of salary and the firm needs a full week to meet its own commitments and financial goals. To be successful, the firm and its team will need to either lower expectations (not going to happen!) or find a way of meeting them in four days, not five…and the answer can’t be to just slog harder for those four days or what’s the point?
Therefore, how does the firm and its team work smarter to achieve the same goal? The answer lies in better client, production and time management, better communication, better use of technology, better decision making, better individual performances. In other words, exploring your internal workings for ways of being more efficient and effective, an exercise that requires input from both you and your team.
I’m not offering the answers to what will be very individual challenges, but what I am saying is, that be recognising higher levels of performance as the new norm, resetting the high bar and committing to not simply working harder, it does force your firm to find more creative solutions whilst everyone in your team recognises that the need to step up is something to accept and embrace, rather than resist.
Worth a thought?
Accountants selling to their clients is a topic as old as the profession itself. I regularly hear criticism from those looking to monetise the accountants’ relationships with their clients that “accountants can’t sell”. I also come across an attitude within the profession that “accountants shouldn’t sell to their clients…it’s unprofessional…it’s not what my clients expect”. Let’s tackle the issue.
Back in the 60’s and 70’s, when I was a lad, doing the family laundry was a time consuming chore. Mum would disappear into the kitchen and close the door so that the noise around the rest of the house was at least manageable. She would be in there for hours, swapping between washing, rinsing and squeezing out. Every so often the noise level would resemble a fighter jet taking off on an aircraft carrier as the tumbler element kicked in and then she’d reappear, wooden tongs in hand, to ask for help to reposition the twin tub that had danced across the kitchen floor.
Do I deal with the client who is shouting the loudest, the most pressing deadline, the thing that is most stressing me out, the best thing for my cash position, the team member who is stuck without my help, the thing that I had set out to do today or any one of all those other issues that are lined up at my door? I would love to give you a definitive or simple answer but, of course, there isn’t one. Welcome to every day decision-making, not just in an accounting firm but in life!
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Progress Barnwell Brewin Ltd
4 Ashby Place
Ashby de la Zouch,
Leicestershire,
LE65 1JL
hello@progressbb.co.uk