Although some of you may have crossed one major deadline this week, many of you are still very much in the thick of busy season. When the pressure is high and time is short, it’s natural to focus on getting through the work as quickly and efficiently as possible.
But these are also the moments when your leadership habits matter most. When someone brings you a problem, do you immediately solve it? Or do you pause and ask a question that helps them think for themselves? When someone is struggling, do you rush to reassure them that “it’ll all work out?” Or do you slow down, get curious, and meet them where they actually are
Check out these two recent articles from Brian where he explores these deceptively simple shifts: Developing Your Firm: Start Asking, Stop Solving (featured by The NetGains) and The Hidden Cost of Toxic Positivity in Accounting (featured by Illinois CPA Society).
At their heart, both of these pieces are about coaching as a leadership style. Coaching doesn’t require finding extra hours in an already-packed day. It’s about changing how you show up in the conversations already happening – asking instead of solving, listening instead of fixing, and creating the space for people to develop greater ownership, confidence, and trust.
As you move through these final weeks of deadline season, we invite you to notice your own instincts. Where could you pause, get curious, and lead a little differently?
An added bonus: If you’re curious about how consistently these behaviors show up across your firm, take a few minutes to complete our Coaching Culture Snapshot and explore where your culture is today and what might be possible next.
See you in the DoP,
