When you unpack the value and the importance of your team's connection with the vision and the future goals of your business, you begin to acquire the necessary insight to deliver actions and decisions that will support the future success of your firm. On this podcast discussion with Ashley Leeds, a man with 16 years’ experience in working with accounting firms – QuickBooks, Digita and others – as well as from the perspective of his work in coaching, we unpack exactly that. How do we better connect our team to the goals and vision of the business? How do we better connect our team to what matters to them, their personal goals? And what do we do to tap into deeper and stronger levels of motivation, drive and enthusiasm, giving our team members the responsibility to help us develop the business? Scroll down this episode page for the contact information for Ashley and for the additional, downloadable resources mentioned in this podcast. |
The Solution:
Block out your diary on a Friday morning for practice development. What can we do to improve the practice? And if you physically put it in your diary, that's it, tell the rottweiler - no appointments, no one's allowed to disturb me on Friday morning, because I'm going to be doing this.
One of the things I've done with some of my clients is to encourage them to have a weekly meeting with the team and get each team member to bring in something exciting and new.
Have a champion for each bit of software and ask questions like 'what have you found out that it does this week?' Because the software developers are amazing, and they put all these features in, but we have just scratched the surface.
SHOW NOTES
Connect with Ashley
Connect with Paul
Resources relating to this podcast:
During the podcast, Paul and Ashley discuss the different stages of owning and running your accountancy firm - from the beginning, where it's just you doing everything because you’re the boss, through that point where you become an employee, to the next stage when you have so much work that you need to recruit people and delegate work to them so that you can grow the firm and focus on the future.
Ashley believes that leaders and managers have to be the conductors of their businesses - you cannot play all the instruments yourself. You have to delegate work or stop doing it altogether.
But how do you achieve this?
To learn how to stop doing the things that are holding you and your firm back, click the button below and read the Business Breakthrough Report 'Stop to Succeed'.
In this report, you will discover the notion of planned abandonment and the importance of using your time effectively.
Paul and Ashley also discuss the importance of a happy and engaged team, a team who are connected, not only with the vision and the values of the firm, but with each other. They can therefore work in a psychologically safe environment.
Paul comments that this sounds simple, and Ashley believes that it is. He references conversations he has with clients who smile because they know they can do it.
If you want to discover more about the difference that working in a psychologically safe environment can have on your team and your firm, click the button below.
When you create and nurture a culture of psychological safety, you ensure that your team feel free to exchange ideas, concerns and questions without fear of reprisal or negative consequences. This will open a flow of creativity, innovation and growth for your firm.
Ashley also mentions Arnold Schwarzenegger's book, Be Useful: Seven Tools for Life, and how, with his single-minded focus, he achieved things he never thought he would - winning the Mr. Universe competition, becoming a serious actor and being elected the Governor of California. Ashley talks about his drive and his resolute belief that if he worked hard enough he could achieve anything.
Click the button below to read the book.