The accounting profession has a level of tradition to it that can, at times, work against it. In the past, technical skills and tenure have driven progression in firms. You start as a staff accountant, build up the technical skills, move to staff accountant II, and from there, move into client manager. Once your book reaches a certain dollar value, a partner or shareholder track may open up, and management duties may follow along.
During this entire time, soft skills and management training may be available, but really, they are there to check the “continuing education” box needed for professionals in the industry. However, we can—and should—do so much better for our teams. Not only should we be developing leadership tracks within our firms, but also recognize that career paths outside of people management should be available.
How it works
When choosing team members to move along a leadership track, we first need to identify what kind of leadership we want in our firms. What I want for my firm may not be the same as what another partner will want for their firm. I look for specific traits within individuals, and identify what we’re missing as a management team. Having an idea of what you want that position to look like helps give direction to the growth of the potential leader.
We also need to consider the dynamics of the team the new leader will be managing. We have had great success in growing new leaders by assigning newly hired individuals. The leader has the chance to start with fresh faces, while the process removes any dynamics of unfairness stemming from current team members feeling like they were overlooked. This is where having defined goals and alternative career paths built for team members is crucial.
Identifying an individual’s strengths and weaknesses may seem like an obvious area to start building leadership skills. It can’t be ignored. This is also your opportunity to have the team member collaborate on the different steps they can take to work on those strengths and weaknesses. Whenever it comes to career-path or skills development, having the team members going through the paths contributes to their development, and can significantly increase their buy-in and ownership. Also at this point, a conversation should be held between all parties involved about what success looks like for the leadership training and the new team lead once they are officially transitioning.
Building skill trees
For the past several months, I’ve been playing around with the idea of building skill trees for team members. If you’ve ever played RPGs video games, then you may be familiar with skill or talent trees. The player puts points into the different skills they want to have, and by the end of the game, the player has gained all of the skills needed to succeed and win. I think about building leadership skills similarly. Technical skills are still extremely important and fill up one side of the skill tree, while soft-skills, with a heavy focus on communication, fill the other side.
During the strengths and weakness identification stage, we can fill out the tree with specific areas that need focus and improvement. For example, on the technical side, the new lead may have a firm foundation of accounting skills and regularly use the firm’s tech stack, but they may not fully understand how to troubleshoot when the systems in the tech stack aren’t working as intended. One branch of the skill tree could be building those troubleshooting skills. On the soft-skill side, one of the most frequently needed skills is that of setting boundaries with clear communication.
As the individual works closer to the top of the skill tree, it’s time to start planning out the actual leadership transition and future support, and confirming success standards and goals. When the leadership change announcement is made, it is extremely important to ensure confidence in the new team lead is instilled in the team.
There are many methods we can do that in the day-to-day happenings of the firm, including letting them lead a regularly scheduled training and asking for their input in all-hands meetings. The transition should be done publicly so all team members from the organization top to bottom can see that this new team lead has a level of authority in the firm.
As important as the public perception of the team lead is, it is also important to set aside time each week to work individually with the new lead. The team is going to have questions on how to handle things that come up or technical issues to review. Having that time set aside from the get-go lets the team know the lead is there to support them in whatever they need.
I plan that in-depth support out for three months, but could be as long as five to six months depending on the team lead. After that, the new lead should be settling into their role, and the volume of support needs should start to decrease. I still recommend direct reports meet weekly, but now that time can decrease from 90 minutes to 45 minutes, or from two meetings per week down to one. The timeline of the support needs will vary between new leads but having a plan set in stone confirms to them that they won’t be stranded on an island.
Long-term success
While this all may sound like a lot of effort, providing the support and structure to skill-up your new leaders will benefit everyone in the long run. Good luck!
