TALENT & CAREER DEVELOPMENT

Elliott: Embrace the ‘Dimension of Possible’ | MOVE Like This

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The profession’s newest partners may be the most vulnerable.

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MOVE Like This
With Bonnie Buol Ruszczyk
For CPA Trendlines

MOVE Like This host Bonnie Buol Ruszczyk sits down with Sarah Elliott, CPA, co-founder of Intend2Lead, to unpack what conscious leadership looks like in accounting—and why the profession’s newest partners may be the most vulnerable leaders in the firm.

Elliott, a former audit partner who left public accounting in 2014 to become an executive coach, argues that real change happens in a precise order: mindset, then skill set, then habits. Her “conscious leader” model centers on leaders who share power, elevate others, and stay curious, even when uncertainty invites fear.

“Our best leaders are human-centric first,” Elliott says. “In a world of accelerating tech and change, we have to start with people—always.”

MORE MOVE

Intend2Lead recently surveyed 110 newly promoted partners (2023–2024). The results spotlight avoidable gaps that push rising leaders toward burnout—or out of public accounting altogether.
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Toxic Partners Kill Your Firm’s Future | Accounting Influencers

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Gen Z won’t fix your firm culture problem – they’ll leave it.

This is a preview. The complete video episode, with commentary and transcript, is first available exclusively to PRO Members | Go PRO here
Sponsored by Poe Group Advisors: Helping accountants buy, build, and sell exceptional firms. See Today’s Special Offer

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Accounting Influencers
With Rob Brown

When the youngest professionals in accounting start saying “no,” leaders should start listening.

In this episode of Accounting Influencers, the conversation turns to the one thing that could make or break your firm’s future: how you treat your people, specifically, how you treat Gen Z.

They’re qualified. They’re confident. And they’ve watched what the generations before them endured—burnout, long hours, micromanagement, and “be grateful you’ve got a job” culture. Their conclusion? “No thanks.”

This isn’t softness. It’s a strategy.

Gen Z values mental health over martyrdom, meaning over money, and culture over compensation. They’ve seen the toll that toxic leadership takes, and they’re unwilling to sacrifice well-being for tradition.

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Stay or Go? Rethink Job Hopping | Accounting Influencers

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Is the next big opportunity across the street…or right where you already are?

This is a preview. The complete video episode, with commentary and transcript, is first available exclusively to PRO Members | Go PRO here
Sponsored by Poe Group Advisors: Helping accountants buy, build, and sell exceptional firms. See Today’s Special Offer

Subscribe to CPA Trendlines podcasts anywhere: Apple, Google/YouTube, Spotify, iHeart, Deezer, Amazon Music, Audible, Player FM, Audacy, RSS.

Sponsored by Poe Group Advisors: Helping accountants buy, build, and sell exceptional firms. See Today’s Special Offer

Accounting Influencers
With Rob Brown

Post-pandemic, accounting professionals saw record pay increases just for changing employers.

However, as economic conditions tighten and median pay raises for job switchers fall from roughly 7% to just over 4%, the calculus is changing. The latest episode of the Accounting Influencers explores this new reality, urging professionals to look beyond paychecks and consider the broader picture of career satisfaction.

During the Great Resignation, switching jobs was practically risk-free. Firms desperate for talent offered 15–20% salary hikes to fill open seats. Today, however, that market has cooled. With inflation steadying and corporate budgets tightening, job hopping no longer guarantees the big payouts it once did.

As host Rob Brown explains, “The financial upside of switching jobs has narrowed, but the emotional and professional costs of moving may be higher than ever.”

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Create an Accountability Chart for Your Firm

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It beats an org chart and here’s why.

By Jody Grunden
Building the Virtual CFO Firm in the Cloud

“Getting the right people on the bus, the wrong people off the bus, and the right people in the right seats – these are all crucial steps in the early stages of buildup…” – Jim Collins, “Good to Great”

When Adam and I first started the company, we didn’t have much organizational structure. We didn’t need it. But as the company grew, it became necessary to develop an organizational structure. There’s a great quote by Michael E. Gerber in his book “The E-Myth Revisited” that says, “Without the Organization Chart, confusion, discord and conflict become the order of the day.”

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We got to a point where we realized that Adam and I didn’t have clarity around our individual roles, and we were overlapping one another. We needed to have clearly defined roles for one another as well as the people who were working for us. Lack of clarity can cause a loss in production.
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Four Traits That Great Accounting Firm Leaders Share

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key leadership attributes

BONUS: Questions for self-assessment.

By Anthony Zecca
Leading from the Edge

As the leader of the firm, as important as it is to complete a comprehensive assessment of your leadership team, it is equally if not more critical to assess your own leadership. What are the key leadership attributes that reflect great Edge leadership?

MORE by Anthony Zecca
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How can you get a meaningful and comprehensive assessment of how well you are doing as the leader of the firm? The trap to avoid is to just listen to yourself and your own self-assessment. To really understand how well you are performing, you need multiple checkpoints.
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