Zen and the Art of Accounting Leadership

Over the past dozen or so years I’ve given more presentations on the growing trends and how I envision the firm of the future in the accounting profession than is probably allowed under the Geneva Convention.

Whether it’s new regulations, updated technologies, or growing client niches – you name it and at one time or another I’ve created a PowerPoint slide on it and addressed an audience about it. Lately however, I’m getting a lot of questions about what skill sets are critical to the successful leadership of a firm – and more specifically, those that are decidedly non-accounting.

That triggered a long-ago conversation I had with my father who correctly pointed out that many of the top coaches in collegiate and professional sports were not necessarily the ones blessed with all-star skill sets. Look at the former Chicago Bulls and LA Lakers Coach Phil Jackson, who has 11 NBA championship rings. When I was in high school the “Zen Master” as he’s now known (back then he was bestowed with the more rugged moniker of “Action Jackson”) was a good sixth man and tenacious defender for my hometown Knicks, but he made no one forget Clyde Frazier or Willis Reed.

By contrast, his superstar in Chicago, Michael Jordan – arguably the greatest player the game has ever known - has thrown up nothing but bricks as an NBA owner and general manager. Had he not had the luxury of being an investor in the Charlotte franchise, he would have been told the unemployment line forms to the right.

But back to business of accounting.

Now I’m hardly breaking any new ground here when I point out that the top managing partners in many of the country’s high-performing firms are not necessarily (and often are not) the best in their practice at performing tax and audit work. But if you drill down a bit deeper there are probably a number of common qualities they share, a mind-body Zen if you will.

Obviously having a clear vision- not just for the next quarter but for the next quarter century - would be critical as well as the obvious trait of being a good communicator. He/she would also have passion and be able to instill it in others. How about an openness to change? Traditionally change has never been one the strong merits of the profession.

But with the advent of new technologies that once immovable position has loosened greatly. Along those lines, change management was recently cited as one of the vital characteristics of good leadership and all the ancillary 21^st century issues that can be folded under that – i.e. embracing social media as a key marketing strategy or the prescience to place promising younger people into positions of authority at the firm – grooming them as future leaders and not relegating them for years to the corner cubicle.

And I could go on but you get the idea.

And now that I’ve somehow managed to connect Phil Jackson and the accounting profession all I need to do is put it on a PowerPoint slide.