Firm Management
Creating an Employee-First Culture
When employees feel valued, respected, and supported by leadership, your firm builds and sustains trust in its talent.
![Sandra-WileyGB[1]](https://www.cpapracticeadvisor.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/04/Sandra_WileyGB_1_.61d883bf9b9f0.png)
Sandra Wiley
COO, Boomer Consulting
Sandra Wiley, President of Boomer Consulting, Inc., is a leader in the accounting profession with a passion for helping firms grow, adapt and thrive. She is regularly recognized by Accounting Today as one of the 100 Most Influential People in Accounting as a result of her expertise in leadership, management, collaboration, culture building, talent and training. Sandra’s years of experience and influence as a management and strategic planning consultant make her a sought-after resource among the best and brightest firms in the country. She is regularly invited to speak at national conferences where she empowers audiences with new ideas and a sense of humor. She is a popular author, having been published in many online and print publications, and penned two books, The Journey Ahead: A New Roadmap to Collaboration in Your Firm and The Engaged Employee: 10 Initiatives for Successful Firms.
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Firm Management
Exploring New Roles and Positions in Your Firm
Our focus can’t be solely on education, experience or letters after a name, but on who can do the work that needs to be done.
Firm Management
2 Firms + 1 Merger = One Firm Culture
Although the payoff of a merger can be great, it can also be high risk, not just in a financial sense. To make the merger successful, both firms need to do a great deal of planning around integrating company culture.
Firm Management
6 Essential Measurements of Firm Culture
Firms spend a significant amount of time and money creating a company culture that helps employees feel supported and drives results. In recent years, forward-thinking firms have focused on creating growth cultures rather than performance-based cultures.
Advisory
Building a Trusted Advisor Toolbox
Technology is commoditizing traditional accounting firm services, decreasing billable hours and motivating firms to build their advisory and consulting service offerings. But making this leap requires a different set of tools than those used for ...
Firm Management
3 Tips for Developing True Consultants
In a tax or audit engagement, the scope of services is well defined and documented. But consulting has almost unlimited possibilities. How do you train people to recognize all of those possibilities and meet client needs?
Firm Management
6 Tips for Managing Underperforming Staff
You may have heard it before, or you may have actually uttered these words, “Why did we wait so long to let an underperforming employee go?" In some firms today it may actually be called the underperforming epidemic or the underperformer drag, but no matter what words you are using to describe the problem, the results are the same - our firm suffers when the leaders do not take action.
Firm Management
How To Produce Positive Change Through Appreciative Inquiry
Most firms are in the process of reflecting on their progress during this time of year. Often, that reflection leads to negative feelings of what did not happen, goals that were not met, numbers that were not obtained and people who left. A more effective process is one called Appreciative Inquiry.
Firm Management
3 Tips for Handling Interruptions at Work
The privilege of teaching leadership skills to firm leaders allows me the opportunity to identify various issues that are frustrating and sometimes difficult to negotiate. One of the issues that have risen to the top of the list recently is the age old issue of “Interruptions.”
Does Mentoring Really Work for Accounting Firms?
As an avid reader and educator on talent development within our profession, I have long been an advocate of mentoring in order to develop future talent in our firms. The ideal is for firms to develop a program that pairs current leaders with future leaders to transfer knowledge and wisdom from one person to another.
Firm Management
Clear Expectations – The Key to Your Social Media Policy
Having a social media policy, and training employees to follow it, are critical practices for every firm. Even if your firm is not using social media, you still need a policy because your staff are using it in their private lives and they need guidelines to protect your interests and your firms’ reputation.
Firm Management
Working from home quite simply rocks - For employees and the business
Read everything you can get your hands on about companies allowing their team to work from home. Read with an open mind and ask yourself “how can this work for my firm”. Then, talk to your team and find out why working remotely is exciting to them. Talk to them about your concerns and ask for their help in solving the challenges. Think collaboratively.