Accounting firm transformation doesn’t happen accidentally. It requires everyone within your firm to understand the goals, buy into the plan to reach and exceed those milestones, and work together to unlock your firm’s potential.
Constant change has always impacted our profession, but it’s typically been contained to governmental policy, tax code modifications, and other regulatory updates. The pandemic amplified that with new challenges – and opportunities – related to firm governance, operations, and seemingly daily strategy adaptations.
Recent years have been filled with constant change and on-the-fly decisions to keep your firm moving forward. That’s made setting and achieving long-term strategy a little different and more challenging than what we’re accustomed to, and your strategic planning retreats have probably changed during this time.
It’s time to move past being reactive to meet the constant change and return to being proactive in your strategy, and it all starts with your retreat.
As the accounting profession changes, firms have a lot of decisions to make. Do you want to stay the same size or grow? Do you grow organically or through mergers? Do you need to acquire talent to enhance particular service or industry offerings? I have guided many teams in facilitating a conversation and developing a plan, orientating everyone toward achieving their goals for the next five or 10 years – and beyond! Are you ready to do the same at your firm?
Yes, I know you’re in the throes of busy season, but now is the time to set a date, identify your facilitator, and draft an agenda while the challenges – and opportunities – are fresh in your mind. I can help you go beyond the standard workload and process management many firms get bogged down in developing a strategy that leverages the intersection of performance and culture for your team.
When I facilitate a strategic planning session, my goal is to assist you in reaching clarity on your objectives and have the deep conversations necessary to establish long-term alignment on your priorities. That can be anything from succession planning and growth strategies all the way down through people issues such as coaching and development for new partners, talent acquisition, and employee retention.
Partners often draft their own agenda and lead their own retreats. But sometimes you need someone with a fresh look at things because you’re too close to the issues at hand. During your retreat, I will connect your perspectives and insights with those of others while pulling on my own experience and those of your colleagues to introduce different points of view, which will open up new on how to solve problems or what approaches would work best.
You may be thinking, “we’re in a virtual world now, and we can do this online for half a day.” Yes, that is an option, but nothing beats the energy of an in-person retreat. Here are a few of the benefits:
- Align your team and leadership on firm priorities: Without proper accountability, strategic planning can go on endlessly. I’ll help you draft a customized strategic plan based on your feedback, and that of your professionals, to keep your team on task.
- Build firm culture and morale: There are plenty of reasons to re-examine your firm’s culture, including, but not limited to, recent M&A activity, a transition in leadership, losing key clients or staff. I’ll help you leverage catalytic events to better define who you are and how you work.
- Encourage collaboration: The accounting profession is known for working in silos, which can benefit certain projects; however, coming together to work in lockstep to achieve your potential requires everyone to have a voice in crafting the process.
- Get out of the office (or house) to reconnect: We’ve all been working at home or keeping our distance for some time now. An offsite retreat is a perfect opportunity to circle the wagons, see each other face to face, and reintroduce the human connection to reinforce your drive to succeed while having a little fun along the way.
Are you ready to debrief as a team on the changes introduced in the past few years and use them to build a new or refined direction for your firm? Click here to schedule a time so I can help you refocus and set the framework for success!
