Leading An Accounting Firm

Section 2Leading Staff

What kind of people are you currently attracting to your firm? When I visit an accounting firm, I can tell a lot about its leadership by the people on its staff. The quality of the people in your organization does not depend on your human resources department or hiring process; their quality depends on you the leader. In this section, we are going to discuss building other leaders and creating a multiplier effect of leadership development within your team and firm.

In his book, The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership: Follow Them and People Will Follow You, John Maxwell explains the law of reproduction. He says that we have a choice of either addition or multiplication. We can lead people and help them be successful, or we can raise up leaders who, in turn, will lead other leaders. So, the real question is, Are you recruiting potential leaders, or are you settling for followers?

Leaders who train, coach, and mentor followers focus on improving their weaknesses, treat everyone the same to be fair, grow by addition, and affect only the people they personally touch. Leaders who train other leaders focus on strengths, treat every person individually, grow by multiplication, and affect people far beyond their own personal sphere of influence.

In his book Wooden on Leadership, Coach John Wooden said, “Ultimately, I believe that’s what leadership is all about: helping others to achieve their own greatness by helping the organization to succeed.”

One of the crucial ...