MBC Closing the Skill Gap
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The document discusses closing the skill gap within accounting and law firms by developing existing team members. It states that the skill gap exists because firms have prioritized short-term gains over long-term development by not providing enough coaching. It recommends identifying team members suited for development, matching them to roles based on their strengths, and providing mentoring and client exposure through engagement-relative templates to build skills. The goal is to leverage more work through developing a virtual CFO/counsel role within the firm.
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MBC Closing the Skill Gap
- 1. Skill Gap CLOSING THE How do you get more of your people to perform in the virtual CFO or virtual counsel arena? This is an area that causes major new business strain for successful accountants and lawyers; their ability to push work down is directly impeded by the lack of skill depth within their team. Ive often spoken to accountants and lawyers about closing the skill gap but there are 3 things you should know before you embark on solving this business restriction. The gap only exists because youve prioritised short term gain over longer term leverage; your income and growth is now restricted in direct correlation to the lack of coaching youve provided to your team in the past. Your productivity measurement and reward systems have also driven the behaviour of you and your team. Having a ledger for training and development is one thing but if you dont budget time for your team to actually try the stuff with clients then its all in vain. Your clients need to get used to the idea of leverage. They will sense every bit of nervous- ness from your new virtual CFO/counsel manager and will struggle to see their value if you drive too hard and too fast. (You didnt learn your skills overnight and neither will your team) My father often said, You cant make a silk purse out of a sows ear. So it is with the development of people. In my early ideological days of empower everyone and youll get a return I would have happily recommended coaching for all. I was wrong. Increasing Your Firms Leverage
- 2. My father often said, You cant make a silk purse out of a sows ear. So it is with the development of people. In my early ideological days of empower everyone and youll get a return I would have happily recommended coaching for all. I was wrong. The trick is to identify those that are ready for develop- ment and guide them towards the activities of the organisation that is best suited to their personality type. Failure to do this will create greater strain on the individual and overload managers with repetitive monitoring rather than empowered learning. This requires a major moral mind set shift as this theory starts at the top and works its way down from Director to Graduate. Let me explain... Malcolm Gladwell (in his book What the Dog Saw) raised the community issue of homeless people in New York, research showed that of the quarter of a million people that were homeless at some point in the previ- ous 5 years, only 2500 were chronically homeless yet the full cost of health care & social services to this minor group was at least $62M annually! The dilemma is that by treating these people by the normal rules, society was burdened with a massive financial expense ,yet if treated specific to their condition, society was taking a moral position that a chronic drunk should be given free food and accommo- dation whilst other hard working citizens get no help at all. Societys inability to rationalise the unfairness and identify that you cant paint everyone with the same brush wasted millions of dollars which could serve many people more effectively. So it is with Accounting and Legal partnerships. The moral position that we must all contribute in the same way or We should all be responsible for equal fee bases locks people into defensive positions and inhibits growth across the entire practice. Such an expectation is driven by an ignorance of the need to play people to their strengths at best, Finder, Minder, Grinder I have never seen anyone excel at Finder-Grinder roles unless they are forced to by virtue of being a sole operator. (And in this instance they dont excel, they cope) FINDER, MINDER, GRINDER and at worst, by an arrogance of this is how its always been or my way or the Highway. The sooner a practice accepts the need for a balance of skill and perception, achieved by various personality types, the sooner they can set about to meet the three reasons they went into business for themselves; Time, Control & Money. The two key objectives of an accounting and legal practice is Get the Job & Do the Job". The three domains of focus is Finder, Minder & Grinder. I believe people can excel at Finder-Minder and Minder- Grinder roles, I have never seen anyone excel at Finder-Grinder roles unless they are forced to by virtue of being a sole operator. (And in this instance they dont excel, they cope) Everyone has a dominant personality type, this type surfaces at times of stress by way of predictable behaviours as part of their coping mechanism. If you place someone in a role that requires them to be assertive (selling) and they are naturally withdrawn (grinding) then you expose both the individual and the practice to risk.
- 3. The risks are that the individual fails to deliver on sales targets and therefore starves the firm of work, whilst simultaneously over- whelming the individual such that they become ineffective not just in the Finding arena, but the Grinding arena also, due to guilt. The order of creating an organisa- tional structure which best serves the practice and those within it, is to identify the operational tasks that are required to be completed in order to meet (your) clients expectations. Then, match people to those tasks by the following attributes; Typology Skills Style Focus. Your practice HR development then sits underneath but must be matched to the following Ethos: The practice is best served by the best person for the role, if such a person doesnt currently sit within the practice, go find them. I believe the most cost effective training comes from developing team members within their current range of engagements. (Its not too far from their comfort zone) I call this Engagement Relative Templates. The focus should be on coaching, not presenting, which means Instruction, Demonstration, Focused Direction, Observation and Re-direction. Once coached effectively, the team member should be encouraged to focus their selling and consultancy efforts within the domain of client permission so they build stronger relations and sound confidence and experience. TypologySkillsStyle Focus The practice is best served by the best person for the role, if such a person doesnt currently sit within the practice, go find them. HR ETHOS So with all that said, what are the basic steps you can take to begin to close the skill gap with your team? Determine the financial budget for coaching (since this will direct much of your thinking in terms of scale and logistics) Identify the directors that have b or c clients and have yet to fully scope the engagement with those clients. Identify the managers that are of the correct temperament (i.e. not just in the position because theyve been there x number of years) and express a desire to develop themselves. Quantify the number of hours that the director will be available (on a weekly basis) to provide basic mentoring / feedback (of a technical or client background nature) to said managers. Quantify the number of face to face hours (weekly) that the managers will be required to engage with b or c clients as above. Identify the expectations around fee growth or value add free time. (Understand there is a cost for everything in life. Time spent learning new skills will provide greater opportunity to increase director leverage in future but may mean a few hours written off whilst the manager is developing their skills and resource) Determine the number of managers that are provided for development and agree on the basis of the training.
- 4. Mike Barnes THE PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT COACH TO ACCOUNTANTS, LAWYERS & FINANCIAL ADVISERS. Mike regularly consults throughout NZ to increase the leverage within professional services firms and speaks on a variety of topics, including Closing the Skill Gap and What Blocks Professionals From Selling. Mike considers himself a coaching addict Its WHO I am, not WHAT I do explains Mike, Its how Im wired; its in every part of my life. Mike is a passionate exponent of The Enneagram Personality Profiling System, (He attended in New York at the hands of the masters Don Riso & Russ Hudson) which allows Mike to explore the blockages that stop people from reaching their own true potential. I coach professionals to do the things they wont do on their own says Mike, my greatest sense of self-worth comes from watching others grow and knowing I played a critical part in it. Engaged to the love of his life (Natalie) and so very proud of his 3 kids, Mike still finds time to coach and mentor NZs fastest motocross riders. Its an extremely demand- ing and dangerous sport and the professional riders I work with have everything on the line every time they race. Want to learn how to focus the mind and overcome fear? youve come to the right place I coach professionals to do the things they wont do on their own COACH The learning from this has been amazing! says Mike. The very real threat of serious injury combined with the pressure of being a professional athlete is the perfect place to find what really works, and throws out all the garbage that most of the self-help books promote. MIKE & KAYNE