Communicate Your Worth and Value

Search for valuePut it all together for both clients and coworkers to see.

By Martin Bissett
Passport to Partnership

An advisor is trusted when they can show that they

  • took responsibility for their end of the bargain in the client engagement,
  • educated the client of their responsibilities,
  • offered prompting and assistance throughout but then allowed the client to ultimately govern themselves in terms of following through on their commitments.

MORE ON THE PASSPORT TO PARTNERSHIP: 5 Ways to Evaluate Your Communication | Why Communication Matters So Much | 3 Questions to Evaluate Your Firm Culture | Competence: More Than Technical Skills | Are You Partner Material? Maybe Not
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This then empowers the advisor to make a commercial decision when the client now faces the consequences, as to whether they want to communicate even more assistance to make things all better for the clients and gain huge appreciation and emotional capital.
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Are Accountants Learning the Wrong Lessons?

https://www.research.net/r/CPE16
Tooling up for 2017: Join the survey, get the results.

CPE choices fail to address the real keys to success.

By Rick Telberg
CPA Trendlines Research

CPAs are saying one thing and doing another. And the discrepancy bodes ill for the profession’s economic health.

MORE CPE TRENDS:  CPE Study Finds Six Essential Success Factors for Accounting Firms  |  Top Trending Specialty Niches  |  Busy Season Ends but Not the Focus on Taxes  |  Why Some CPAs Are Focusing on Accounting & Financial Reporting This Year  |  Top CPE Trends: How Accountants Are Re-Tooling for 2017  |  Mike Ramos on The Training Mindset: Mapping Firm Attitudes to Performance  |  Ohio CPA Society Teams with CPA Trendlines to Improve CPE ROI  |   Ed Mendlowitz on How to Choose the Right CPE  |  Sandi Leyva on Three Ways to Make CPE Work for You  |   Ed Mendlowitz on The Six Rules To Get the Most Out of CPE  |   Mike Ramos on How to Build a Powerhouse Learning Team for Your CPA Firm  |  4 Steps to Get More from Your Training Budget  |  How to Manage CPE by the Numbers  |  Three Tips for Creating Training Metrics  |  High-Impact Learning: 4 Ways to Maximize CPE ROI  |  Four New CPA Opportunities for the New Economy

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The survey on professional skills and the goals of accounting firms, being conducted with the Ohio Society of CPAs and consultant Michael Ramos, is turning up a curious mismatch. It seems, at first blush, that CPAs are studying for certain skills while reporting that something else is essential to their success.

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30-Item Checklist: Getting People to Listen to You

7 businesspeople in meeting

Lessons in effective communication for partners and wanna-be partners.

By Martin Bissett
Passport to Partnership

The Passport to Partnership study collated a number of responses in a conversational style.

MORE ON THE PASSPORT TO PARTNERSHIP: 3 Questions to Evaluate Your Firm Culture | Competence: More Than Technical Skills | Partnership: Competence Is Just the Foot in the Door

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A couple examples really stood out as the first steps in effective communication: READ MORE →

Why Communication Matters So Much

Two businessmen talking at officeThe experts weigh in. Hint: It’s not about you.

By Martin Bissett
Passport to Partnership

What does communication mean at the partner level?

MORE ON THE PASSPORT TO PARTNERSHIP: 5 Ways to Get Buy-In for Firm Culture | Competence: More Than Technical Skills | Partnership: Competence Is Just the Foot in the Door

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Ask yourself and answer these questions when considering the current and future communication tactics that you’ll employ.
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Best Practices for One-on-One Communication

4 winning habits of top accountants.

Component parts of how the other person perceives your in-person communication
Component parts of how the other person perceives your in-person communication

By Martin Bissett

I’ve had the benefit of meeting, speaking and observing hundreds of very successful and unsuccessful partners over the last two decades and there is indeed a set of differentiating factors that set a partner apart from the chasing pack.

MORE ON THE PASSPORT TO PARTNERSHIP: 3 Questions to Evaluate Your Firm Culture | Learn to Read Your Firm’s Culture | 5 Ways to Get Buy-In for Firm Culture | Competence: More Than Technical Skills | Experts Advise What Partnership Takes | Partnership: Competence Is Just the Foot in the Door | Are You Partner Material? Maybe Not

Here are the four “best-selling behaviors” that I’ve observed:

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7 Levels of Communication Management

Chart showing Passport to Partnership's 7 levels of communication management4 reasons that senior managers struggle.

By Martin Bissett

Ultimately, when we have to interact with clients, subordinates, superiors or peers, the questions are always the same: Who do I need to deliver this information to and what approach would they respond most favorably to?

MORE ON THE PASSPORT TO PARTNERSHIP: 3 Questions to Evaluate Your Firm Culture | Learn to Read Your Firm’s Culture | Competence: More Than Technical Skills | Experts Advise What Partnership Takes | Partnership: Competence Is Just the Foot in the Door

In arriving at “Communication” we come to the most intangible of all the components to obtain a “passport to partnership.”
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5 Ways to Measure Partner Potential

Learn to read your firm’s ‘cultural blueprint.’PTP_2ndC

By Martin Bissett
Passport to Partnership

What conclusions can you draw from your knowledge of how the promotion system works in your firm that you need to keep in mind?

MORE ON THE PASSPORT TO PARTNERSHIP: 3 Questions to Evaluate Your Firm Culture | Learn to Read Your Firm’s Culture | 5 Ways to Get Buy-In for Firm Culture | Competence: More Than Technical Skills | Experts Advise What Partnership Takes | Partnership: Competence Is Just the Foot in the Door | Are You Partner Material? Maybe Not

In terms of firm culture, you need to understand the four navigational points of the compass:

  1. Who do I need to stay on the right side of?
  2. What are the unwritten rules in my firm?
  3. Whose opinions can be trusted?
  4. What really impresses the partners?

And here’s a five-part analysis to see how you measure up:

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3 Questions to Evaluate Your Firm Culture

Silhouettes of three business partners talking against a window in an officeYou have to gauge this to effectively move toward partnership.

By Martin Bissett

This second C is a stormy and choppy one, often fraught with political icebergs but navigated diplomatically and with maturity, will lead you through.

MORE ON THE PASSPORT TO PARTNERSHIP: Learn to Read Your Firm’s Culture | 5 Ways to Get Buy-In for Firm Culture | Competence: More Than Technical Skills | Partnership: Competence Is Just the Foot in the Door | Are You Partner Material? Maybe Not

Case study on culture

Deborah had done well. She was bridging the firm’s culture gap and fulfilling its desire to be seen as an equal opportunities employer by becoming the practice’s standout rising star.
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