Some firms develop strong leaders who turn into Partners and drive the firm forward, some firms push their employees to the point of burnout (and sometimes out the door). What’s different about these two types of firms?
It’s not how they run their business. It’s how Partners support their leaders and how those leaders support themselves and their teams by implementing coaching as a necessary, not optional, leadership style.
At Intend2Lead, we have spent a decade working with both types of firms, and we see the contrast firsthand. Firms that embrace coaching as a leadership style attract accountants who want to be there, want to thrive, and want to stay. Firms that don’t often push their employees past the brink of overwhelm and burnout, losing some of their best people because of it.
But how did the thriving firms get there?
A deep coaching culture begins with a leader who has benefited from their own coaching: someone who is able to lead the kind of personal and professional life they wanted because of it.
Key leaders who haven’t been coached may say they want coaching for their teams because their people need it in order to perform better, but until those leaders sit in the coachee seat themselves, they cannot get behind how impactful the practice is, nor can they model it for others.
Leaders cannot expect their firm to change unless they change themselves first.
Conversely, when a leader is able to experience the benefits of coaching and realize those benefits go beyond their expectations, they enter the Dimension of Possible, where they are given the opportunity to get clear on what they truly want – and then receive the structure and support to make it happen.
When leaders experience the transformation of coaching, they feel compelled to share it with others.
Coaching culture vs utilization culture
Coaching provides the space, structure, and support for individuals and leaders to develop their confidence, expand their influence, and create new possibilities for themselves and their firms.
- Space to slow down, reflect, and think about what they really want.
- Structure to set meaningful goals and build the habits to get there.
- Support and the reassurance they do not have to have all the answers or do it alone.
For accountants, who are wired for high achievement, in a profession that too often thinks of its people as workhorses to be utilized as productively as possible, coaching is often the first time they have experienced these three things.
When someone discovers they actually can create the lifestyle and career they want, manage their time, set boundaries, leverage their team, and lead with purpose and passion, they want that for the people around them.
This is where a coaching culture begins.
Shifting priorities
What we see in thriving firms comes down to three leadership priorities.
1. A leader adopts coaching as a personal leadership style.
Once a leader has experienced coaching in action in their own life, they commit to leading differently. They get out of the weeds, ask themselves (and others) tough questions, and leverage the strengths of their team. They model what it looks like to slow down, reflect, and reinvest their time strategically into having coaching conversations, empowering others, and guiding their team through challenges.
Because they’ve sat in the coachee seat themselves, they can truly get behind what coaching, and coaching as a leadership style, creates for everyone else.
2. Stakeholders buy in, making coaching a firm-wide strategic priority.
A leader who has transformed through coaching and knows first-hand the positive impact it could have for the entire firm makes it a priority to influence their leadership team around coaching’s value as a strategic investment in the firm’s future. Getting the buy-in of key decision makers, including inviting them to experience coaching for themselves, creates a culture shift and allows coaching to become a foundational firm practice.
3. The firm invests in coaching for its entire team.
Leadership coaching and development become part of the budget from the get go. The firm invests in developing the next generation of leaders with the conscious leadership mindset and skill-set they need to evolve and navigate change. Individuals and teams are coached, with both group and one to one support for the benefit of the entire firm.
What’s in it for the firm
The results of a coaching culture are measurable and many:
People perform at higher levels and leverage work better, making the firm more profitable
- Development accelerates with individuals advancing further and faster because leaders are investing in their people rather than holding on to the work.
- Teams become more capable and confident.
A coaching culture creates a scalable, sustainable business model
- Coaching creates more capacity for higher level thinking and doing.
- Leaders can think strategically about where the firm is going, rather than just trying to get through the week.
- They have the space to build a real vision, set intentional goals, and develop the next generation of leaders to help execute them.
Coaching creates trust and belonging, which lowers turnover
- When people feel supported and are able to create more meaning and purpose in their careers, they feel a sense of belonging and connection to the work and to the people around them. This reduces turnover and increases authentic contribution.
- They bring their best, not because they are afraid of what happens if they do not, but because they are genuinely invested.
What fear-based leadership actually costs
Accountants are very high achievers with very high standards. Perfectionists who want to make others happy, they are conscientious, hardworking, and deeply motivated to do well. These qualities are what makes the profession so special.
High turnover
But in a high-pressure, fear-based environment where mistakes aren’t tolerated and vulnerability is dangerous, high achievers take on too much. They don’t ask for help, and don’t receive support, which leads to overwhelm they may never admit. Without the tools to affect change for themselves or others, they burn out and often leave.
Lack of strategic planning to grow new leaders and Partners
The leaders in these firms are good people who want to do good things. They are often struggling themselves, under great pressure, without the foundation or conditions they need to lead differently. They don’t have the capacity for succession planning or building a leadership team because they are simply trying to survive each day.
Utilization costs and limited resources
The accounting profession uses the word utilization to measure productivity. This reflects how the profession can regard people as tools to be deployed, rather than whole human beings with capacity to develop, contribute, and grow. This mindset can lead employees to overachieve for too long, burn out early, and feel like a failure. They miss the opportunity to see how much they could have contributed to the firm’s growth and well-being.
Every individual has a choice
If you work in a firm with a fear-based, pressure-laden culture, you are not alone. You can create a ripple effect by receiving coaching yourself. You may not be able to change the whole firm, but you can change yourself – and that can be the catalyst for creating change around you. One strong leader with a coaching mindset can make a positive impact, even within a firm that doesn’t practice a coaching culture.
Coaching allows you to create your own Dimension of Possible: the space to slow down, reflect, and think about what you really want and who you want to be. And, it offers the structure, support, and accountability to make that happen.
You can create this space no matter where you are. It may not be easy, but it is available if you are ready to embark on the work of coaching. We know it’s possible, because we’ve spent ten years helping people do it.
What’s at stake
When a coaching culture is lacking, we usually see a lot of pain and fear.
Over ten years, we have watched this dynamic accelerate. We see more disillusionment, shifting priorities, and people who aren’t willing to sacrifice their lives for a firm that sees them as tools to be utilized.
Firms who don’t embrace a coaching culture may grow quickly in the short term, but by prioritizing transaction and utility, they severely diminish their long-term possibilities and sustainability.
Firms who embrace a coaching culture prioritize the whole human being and understand that accountants as so much more than just a production line. They employ coaching as a leadership style and draw the best people to them. Accountants will want to be there, they will thrive, and they will want to stay.
If you are curious where your firm stands, our Coaching Culture Snapshot is designed to help you see yourself clearly, identify the gaps, and start a meaningful conversation about what comes next. Take the assessment.
Let’s explore what’s possible.
See you in the DoP,
