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Are You Wandering Or Traveling?
This is the last message for 2018. The next one will be Monday, January 7. My hope for you is that have a restful and renewing holiday season. As you approach the twilight of 2018, you have the opportunity to reflect on this past year, not only what you done or how you’ve improved, but […]
December 16, 2018
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Ask The 2nd Question 1st
Normally, whenever you finish something, the first question you ask is about how you did. If it’s an engagement, you consider the success factors of realization, timeliness, quality, client satisfaction, etc. If it’s the end of a time period, you consider what you’ve accomplished and how far you’ve come. It’s Only Natural Why do you […]
Why “Why” Matters
What do you do when you’ve been working for a while and you’re getting tired, frazzled and punchy? It could be on a single project or over a long season. Regardless, you have to somehow push through it all in order to provide a quality result for your clients. Over the course of your career, […]
“Not My Problem” Already Is
It’s amazing how many professionals assume their “soft skills” are sufficient. They usually assess their current level soft skill ability to be adequate for what they do. That’s a problem—their problem. Before I get too far, just so you know, there is no such thing as “soft skills.” It was a term that the U.S. […]
Communication Is NEVER The Problem
I just concluded a series of leadership courses from the Partner-Pipeline for a multi-office firm. In the senior manager course, they learned how to lead a change initiative, whether it be in their firm or with clients. One of the key points of change management is that the presenting problem is seldom the problem and […]
They Should Just Know
I had several interesting calls this week. One was with a senior manager who is in an unfortunate situation where his career pursuits are not being supported by the leaders in his firm. As we talked, it became evident that he expected the firm to pave the way for him without him having to speak […]
Get Off The Field!
In this season of football, there is so much excitement. Crisp, fall days, the bands are playing, tens of thousands of people cheering, lines everywhere. There is so much going on that it’s any wonder that the coaches and players can remain focused on what’s important. Thank goodness for headsets so that the team’s coaches […]
Your Perfectionism Is Distracting
I heard a story from a CPA who had an individual tax client that happened to be a perfectionist. Somehow, a $33 entry was carried over from a previous tax return. Whether it was there or not made no difference in the return, neither financially to the client or with the IRS code. But the […]
Excellence Isn’t Perfectionism
Professionals have a natural proclivity to well. You desire to show yourself worthy of professional stature by the quality of work you produce. You enjoy applying your knowledge and skill to create something you can be proud of and others will appreciate. All of that is good and it keeps you going. However, being in […]
Feedback For Your Purposes
From last week’s message on receiving feedback, a number of highly respected partners posed some interesting questions and dilemmas they have faced, like how to handle feedback that’s not objective, anonymous comments or feedback they just don’t agree with. These are great questions that illustrate both the value and hazard of soliciting feedback. So here’s […]