3 Tips For Reducing Turnover At Your Company

Is your company losing talent? Are your employees quitting and moving on to your competitors?

Here are some tips for reducing turnover at your company from Donna Levin, VP Care.com Workplace Solutions and Co-Founder of Care.com.

1. Understanding WHY employees leave in the first place.

If you’re having retention problems, you need to think about WHY your employees are running for the door.

“People don’t leave companies; they leave bad situations, dead-end jobs, and micromanagers,” says Levin. “They leave to find greener pastures, professional development and work-life balance.”

Understanding what’s triggering people to quit in favor of a new opportunity will help you improve deep-seeded problems within your culture. Fixing these problems will make recruiting and retaining talent much easier for you...

To read full article, click here.

Source: Ariella Coombs (www.careerealism.com)

Why Character Should Matter to Your Firm and to Your Employees

You probably expended considerable time and energy developing your firm’s reputation and cultivating a professional image. Well and good. Character represents a third key element and is vital even in the midst of tax season … especially in the midst of tax season.

Character, it has been said, is who you are when no one else is watching. As an accountant, what is your character like? How about that of your firm?

Kindness for Its Own Sake
A friend of mine returning to a conference in Nashville, Tennessee, did not have the appropriate change to give the taxi driver, and this particular cabbie did not accept credit cards. My friend was $3 short and flat out of options...

To read full article, click here.

Source: Jeff Davidson (www.accountingweb.com)

Millennials Want to Be Coached at Work

...The young people in your office...crave — and respond to — a good, positive coach, who can make all the difference in their success. In a global survey that we at SuccessFactors conducted in 2014 in partnership with Oxford Economics, 1,400 Millennials told us they want more feedback from their managers...most Millennials want feedback at least monthly, whereas non-Millennials are comfortable with feedback less often. Overall, Millennials want feedback 50% more often than other employees. They also told us that their number one source of development is their manager, but only 46% agreed that their managers delivered on their expectations for feedback...

Our subsequent conversations with hundreds of Millennials made it clear that what they want most from their managers isn't more managerial direction, per se, but more help with their own personal development. One Millennial we spoke with summed up a theme we heard again and again: “I would like to move ahead in my career. And to do that, it’s very important to be in touch with my manager, constantly getting coaching and feedback from him so that I can be more efficient and proficient.”

To read full article, click here.

Source: Karie Willyerd (www.hbr.org)

How to Help Your Team Bounce Back from Failure

No one likes to fail. And while we all know the importance of learning from mistakes, both individuals and teams can struggle to bounce back from big blunders. Whether it was a project that didn’t meet its targets or an important deadline that you all missed, what can you do to help your employees recover? How can you help them see the experience as an opportunity for growth instead of the kiss of death?

What the Experts Say It’s often harder to lead a team past a failure than it is to help one person. “People are coming into projects with different expectations, perspectives, levels of investment, and different things at stake,” explains Susan David, a founder of the Harvard/McLean Institute of Coaching and author of the HBR article, “Emotional Agility.” “Some people may be very resilient and others might feel more bruised,” Ben Dattner, an organizational psychologist and author of The Blame Game. “All the things that individuals fall prey to — misattribution and rationalization — are compounded on a team and add exponential complexity to the process.” It doesn’t matter whether one person on your team is at fault or if everyone bears some of the responsibility, it’s your job as the manager to help the entire group move on. Here’s how.

First, take control of your own emotions...

To read full article, click here.

Source: Amy Gallo (www.hbr.org)

7 Tasks Successful Leaders Never Delegate

I’ve made the point before that knowing when and how to delegate is a trait of good leaders. It shows trust in your employees and ensures that you are focusing your own time and skills in your zone of genius — the tasks that only you can do.

But I’d like to argue that there are some things that should never be delegated because they will make you too far removed from your team, open you up for criticism, or ultimately paint you in a bad light.

If you’ve delegated any of the following tasks, I suggest you move these back into your zone of genius:

1. Core functions or responsibilities
   Neither a company nor an individual employee should ever outsource their core competencies — the tasks that add the most value. As an employee, if you outsource these tasks, your boss may wonder why he needs to keep you around at all. As a company, you may find yourself held hostage if you outsource and your partner leaves or demands more money...

To read full article, click here.

Source: Bernard Marr (www.linkedin.com)

What to Do If Your Team Is in a Rut

Another brainstorming session, another slew of tired ideas. Your team is in a rut, but what can you do about it? How can you push everyone to be more creative? Where should you seek inspiration? What’s the best way to bring in new perspectives? And finally: how do you prevent the group from getting stuck again?

What the Experts Say
Teams get stale from time to time for all sorts of reasons. After all, everyone is “seeing the same data, interacting with the same people, and having the same conversations, so it’s no surprise that the ideas coming out feel as though they’ve all been done before,” says Scott Anthony, the managing partner of Innosight and the author of The First Mile. But you can get your people back into the groove with a little work, says Thomas Wedell-Wedellsborg, a partner at The Innovation Architects, the advisory firm, and the coauthor of Innovation as Usual.  “Sometimes you need to rethink what you’re doing.” Here are some ways to get your team’s creative juices flowing.

Diagnose and fix any obvious problemsThe first step is to “take a step back and diagnose the problem,” suggests Wedell-Wedellsborg. “Observe what’s going on and ask other people’s opinions.” Think about when, where, and how your team has been most innovative in the past. Can you recreate that environment or group dynamic? “Figure out how people share ideas, and how open others are to those ideas,” he says. Also look at ideas that were generated in the past and see if any are worth resuscitating. “Maybe it was a good idea before its time or maybe it was an idea that was not managed well,” says Anthony. “You’re not looking for the perfect idea, it’s what you do with the idea that matters...

To read full article, click here.

Source: Rebecca Knight (www.hbr.org)

8 Deadly Ways to Kill Employee Motivation

If you want to make sure you're providing your employees with an environment in which they can thrive, check your workplace for these motivation killers.

1. Toxic people.

If you've ever spent time with truly toxic people, you know how destructive and exhausting they can be. Toxic people spread negativity and suffocate the positive. Let them find a new home--or, if that's not possible, make sure policies and supervision are in place to minimize their damage.

2. No professional development.

Everyone needs to know that they are learning and growing. Without that, the workplace grows static and dull. Professional development for each of your employees allows them grow in their careers and also to know that both the organization and you have an investment in their success...

3. Lack of vision.

A clearly communicated vision sets direction and lets people know where to focus. Without it, even the best employees are less effective, because it's hard to excel if you don't understand the big picture.

4. Wasted time.

If you have the kind of workplace where meetings are called for no real reason and emails are sent to everyone with irrelevant information, it's likely that your workers are deeply frustrated. Show people you value them by showing them you value their time.

5. Inadequate communication.

When communication is poor, people spend half their time second-guessing what they're doing, critical tasks are missed, nonessential jobs are duplicated, information is locked into silos, and destructive rumors thrive. A clear flow of communication benefits everyone.

6. Vertical management.

If you can remember being in a situation where your ideas and input weren't valued or even heard, where it was "keep quiet and do what I say," you know how hard it is to do anything more than a grudging minimum. The more collaboration, the more investment and the more motivation.

7. Lack of appreciation.

When hard work or extraordinary results go unrecognized, when even everyday thanks are unexpressed, people grow uninspired and apathetic. You can reward your employees without spending a dime; it can be as simple as saying "thank you."

8. Bad leadership.

Bad leaders harm every member of their team and their entire organization. Even the best employees need effective leadership to excel. Start with developing your own leadership, then hire and grow the best leaders at every level. It's the best thing you can do to improve your workplace for everyone.

If you recognize any of these deathly killers in your workplace, it's up to you to do everything in your power to become part of the solution. Remember, great people do not stay long in bad workplaces.

To read full article, click here.

Source: Lolly Daskal (www.inc.com)

Five Things That Repel Candidates

All the data shows that we're about to enter a period of massive talent shortage. The events of the global recession have acted as a bit of a smoke-screen to the underlying facts - more and more businesses are growing, and there is less specialist talent.

As unemployment is falling, so too are there other forces at work. More start-ups than even before. The increase of remote working. And perhaps most influential of all: the effect of social - with the internet, most candidates have made up their minds on a company waaayyy before they turn up to interview (if they decide to attend in the first place).

All this means that hiring managers need to be more careful than ever when interviewing. News travels faster than ever - your reputation is more important than even before.

Here are five things that all hiring managers must avoid:

1) Not following up quickly (or even worse not following up at all)...

To read full article, click here.

Source: Jas Singh (www.linkedin.com)

Before You Hire Anyone, Ask These 2 Questions

Building a business is scary, challenging, frustrating, but above all, ultimately fun. It's a rush to know your company is getting bigger.

And because it is, and because the work tends to pile up so far so fast, you might be in a hurry to add people to your team. That's understandable.

But whether this is your first hire or your 40th, it's a good idea to ask these two questions before you start issuing anyone a W-2.

1. What are we missing?

You always want complementary skills. Some people only think this is required at the beginning, when you look to find a Ms. Outside to your Mr. Inside. But they are not thinking big enough.

Yes, of course, when you are first getting under way, you want someone who offsets your weaknesses with his or her strengths.

But even when you are growing, you want to keep that concept in mind. Companies, departments, and teams take on characteristics of their own and they can become over-indexed in an area. You can end up with too many number crunchers or too many people who are great at strategy but not enough who are implementers. Balance is important at every stage of a company's growth. When things get out of whack, problems usually follow.

And that brings us to point 2...

To read full article, click here.

Source: Paul B. Brown (www.inc.com)

Here's one thing great bosses should never say

That person who is our boss has a tremendous impact on us at work — far beyond the obvious things like which office we are assigned to, or the jobs we do each day. The better the boss, the more engaged team members are, and the better their performance.

In one study of more than 2,500 leaders in a large financial services company, the engagement, satisfaction, and commitment levels of people working for the organization's worst leaders was only 4%, while the engagement, satisfaction, and commitment levels of people working for the organization's best leaders was an astronomical 92%.

When you're a boss, what you say matters. Your words can have an immediate — and long-lasting — effect on your people, and as a result, on your customers, suppliers, shareholders, and community.

While there are many things the best leaders say to the members of their team to inspire them to greater levels of engagement and performance, there are some things you should just never say — particularly this one thing: 

"I give up."

To read full article, click here.

Source: The Build Network (www.businessinsider.com)

7 Ways Highly Successful People Achieve More

Some people get more done than others — a lot more.

Sure, they work hard. And they work smart. (While "smarter, not harder" is fine, smarter and harder is way better.) But they also possess a few other qualities that make a major impact on their performance:

1. They do the work in spite of disapproval or ridicule.

Work too hard, strive too hard, appear to be too ambitious, try to stand out from the crowd... and the average person resents you. It's a lot easier and much more comfortable to dial it back and fit in.

Pleasing the (average-performing) crowd is something highly productive people don't worry about. (They may think about it, but then they keep pushing on.) They hear the criticism, they take the potshots, they endure the laughter or derision or even hostility... and they keep on measuring themselves and their efforts by their own standards.

And, in the process, they achieve what they want to achieve. (Which is really all that matters...

To read full article, click here.

Source: Jeff Haden (www.businessinsider.com)

7 Valuable Leadership Lessons From LinkedIn's Billionaire Founder

After getting a master's degree in philosophy from Oxford in 1993, Reid Hoffman was ready to enter the world of academia. But a job at Apple started a career in tech that eventually led him to cofound LinkedIn in 2002...

...Entrepreneur and author Ben Casnocha has worked closely with (Reid) Hoffman since 2010, collaborating on the books "The Start-up of You" and "The Alliance," and serving as Hoffman's chief of staff from 2012 to 2014.

In Casnocha's new blog post, "10,000 Hours with Reid Hoffman: Lessons on Business and Life," he reflects on the time spent with his mentor. We've summarized seven of the leadership lessons he learned from Hoffman.

1. Recognize that everyone has flaws, but acknowledge their strengths.

Casnocha writes that Hoffman doesn't fall into the easy trap of seeing people in a binary way, as in brilliant or an idiot, ethical or conniving.

Hoffman, Casnocha writes, "appreciates the full spectrum of strengths and weaknesses of a particular person. He'll comment on a friend's character flaw — say, self-centeredness — but in the next breath note one of their unique strengths. Flaws that cause others to completely disengage are, for Reid, 'navigable' (to use a Reid-ism) en route to their better side...

To read full article, click here.

Source: Richard Feloni (www.businessinsider.com)

Is it intelligence or personality that matters?

It probably goes without saying that most organizations strive to attract the most talented people, whether it’s through direct employment, or more recently via open innovation challenges. It doesn’t always work out however. I’ve written before about studies that explore this topic, and in particular the belief that having lots of talented people will inspire and cajole the best out of each of them. The study found that having talented people in a team did little to raise the performance of less talented people in that team.

Studies throughout the past few decades have generally correlated intelligence with good performance at work. Most of these studies were conducted in an environment where the duties expected of an employee were relatively tightly controlled, and certainly didn’t account for things such as collaboration or anything outside of the job description.

A more recent study highlights how in the more modern work environment, intelligence is a much less accurate proxy for performance. The study, conducted via a meta analysis, honed studies down to a final short list of 35 that explored things like collaboration and citizenship within the workplace.

Whilst the meta analysis did reveal a small link between general intelligence and citizenship behaviours, this link was significantly smaller than between intelligence and task performance. The researchers instead found that personality was at least as influential to collaborative behaviours as was intelligence...

To read full article, click here.

Source: Ado Gaskell (www.linkedin.com)

The #1 Way To Hold On To Your Best Performers

The number one way to hold on to your best performers is to let go of them.

Your best performers should be spending the least amount of time around you. Let them go to do their thing.

Your Best Performers Are Clear. Best performers are clear and if they are not clear they get clear, so you can let them go to get the job done. You don't have to look over their shoulder and equate whether you can see them or not with how hard they are working. They empower themselves and know the difference between self-empowerment and authority. They don't run amok and they ask for needed authority which you can give. You cannot empower them, and they know it...

To read full article, click here.

Source: Linda Galindo (www.linkedin.com)

Introvert or Extrovert: Making the Most Out of Who You Are as a Leader

During her nearly 40-year career as a clinical and organizational psychologist and executive coach, Joan Pastor, PhD, has had the chance to assess nearly every leadership philosophy in the field. But Pastor, president of JPA International, Inc., has noticed that one tenet seems to stand the test of time regardless of the popular, and sometimes passing, wisdom of the day: it's our innate tendency to be more introverted or extroverted that plays a huge role in determining our natural approach to leadership, as well as our personal happiness and professional success.

Once people begin to understand whether they are introverts or extroverts, and to what degree, Pastor says, they can begin to unlock the secrets to their best personal leadership style.

“The idea that ‘good leaders are born not made’ isn’t true. Ninety-nine percent of true leaders never planned or chose to be leaders. They rose to the top because they were gifted and skilled in some key area, and the cream rises to the top,” Pastor says. “But when you become a leader, you have to determine to what degree you are comfortable interacting with other people and how you want to communicate with them...

To read full article, click here.

Source: Deanna White (www.accountingweb.com)

The 2 Most Powerful Words A Manager Can Use

With all the professionalism and political correctness in today's workplace, we sometimes miss out on the fact that people really want to feel appreciated — and a 'thank you' is all it sometimes takes.

A very close friend of mine is Eleanor, who is a teacher and probably one of the most conscientious and hard working people I know. Eleanor goes beyond what is expected of her every day to make sure she brings out the best in every child in her class. She is happy to plan her lessons until late at night to make sure they are exciting and engaging.

All her official feedback and performance reviews have rated her as outstanding. What might surprise many, however, is that Eleanor has just quit a job she loves because she feels unappreciated. Instead of all the formal but impersonal feedback, all she wanted was some appreciation from another human being…

But she didn't get it.

Our local school and children are suffering a major loss, because the people managing Eleanor didn't act like people. They didn't do the one thing all of our mothers probably told us to do when we were kids: they didn't say thank you....

To read full article, click here.

Source: Bernard Marr (www.businessinsider.com)

3 Resolutions to Position Your Accounting Firm for 2015

Once busy season begins, you’ll have precious little time to consider whether your accounting firm has made the right moves to build client relationships and grow in 2015.

Instead, you’ll be feverishly working to meet imminent deadlines and to survive the grueling work schedule.

Studies have shown that accountants’ top pain points consistently include winning new clients, retaining current ones and managing a compressed workload. Now is the perfect time to work toward addressing these concerns.

Here are three resolutions accountants should make to help turn this busy season into your firm’s most productive ever in terms of developing business for the entire year.

1. I will use busy-season meetings to cultivate engagements for the rest of the year. As you talk with and meet with business clients in the coming days and weeks, commit to taking steps that will help secure advisory engagements during the rest of the year. For example, develop a list of all services your firm offers, using terms the client can understand or including examples. Distribute the list by email or in person to each client when you present their financials or tax returns. 

Another option: Make sure you ask each client about their pain points or challenges so that you can look for opportunities to help with those issues. A client may tell you they worry about being able to retire and sell their business, or they may worry they aren’t keeping up with competitors. Asking questions and initiating dialogue will deepen the client relationship and reveal opportunities for additional engagements later in the year....

To read full article, click here.

Source: Mary Ellen Biery (www.accountingtoday.com)

IRS: Tax season to start on time

The IRS announced that tax season will start on time this year and it will begin accepting e-filed and paper returns on Jan. 20, as originally planned (IR-2014-119).

Last year, the agency warned that late passage of legislation extending expired tax provisions could delay the start of filing season (see coverage here). But, in announcing the Service’s ability to start tax season on time, IRS Commissioner John Koskinen said, “We have reviewed the late tax law changes and determined there was nothing preventing us from continuing our updating and testing of our systems.” The on-time start will mark a change from recent filing seasons; practitioners have faced delayed starts the past two years, making those tax seasons even busier than usual.

The IRS also reiterated that, as in earlier years, filing a paper return before Jan. 20 will not accelerate the refund process and reminded taxpayers that e-filing is more accurate than paper filing and results in faster refunds.

To see full article, click here.

Source: Sally P. Schreiber (www.journalofaccountancy.com)

Talk Isn't Cheap: Should you offer free consultations?

Sounds like a great marketing idea: Sit down with a prospect and tease them with just enough expertise to whet their taxpaying appetite. And according to a recent practice survey by the National Association of Tax Professionals, more than half (58 percent) of tax preparation firms offer free consultations.

“I generally offer free refund estimates to prospective clients, in addition to answering any tax-related questions,” said preparer Andre Jerry, president of MTG Incorporated Financial Management Services, in Atlanta. “I find that giving free tax advice builds trust and rapport with prospective clients and goes a long way in building a customer loyalty.”

So how come practitioners often feel bilked after these chinwags?

“I found that people would pump me for information and then would do [return prep] themselves,” said San Antonio-based CPA Susana Lozano, who no longer gives free consultations. “One lady kept calling to remind me that she would eventually hire me to do her books and taxes and always followed up with a tax question. After about the fourth time, I told her I could no longer help her. It took me a while to catch on, but in my defense I’d just started my practice and wanted to please potential clients.”

“My standard policy on free consultations has always been, ‘The first hour is free and by then you and I know if we can work together,’” said Martha Nest, an Enrolled Agent at Westview Tax Services in Bardstown, Ky. “In the past, this was no problem. The questions dealt mostly with Schedule As and so forth. But the other day I got a phone call from someone who is not a client saying that I was recommended as an expert. The first question was easy: ‘If I e-mail my paystub, can you tell me if my earnings are too high to claim the American Opportunity Credit for my son’s first year of college?’ Piece of cake. Second part of e-mail was, ‘My wife and I have formed an LLC and I plan to become a “day trader” for the LLC so I can accumulate $22-$25k to start another business. I understand that the LLC will prevent me from paying taxes. Can you tell me how this works..."

To read full article, click here.

Source: Jeff Stimpson (www.accountingtoday.com)

Small Business Tax Considerations for Year-End 2014

And so it begins, the time of year when you’re likely to get inundated with appointment requests and phone calls from your small business clients, looking for advice to help them save money and protect them from potential IRS penalties as they close out the books for 2014.

It’s natural they turn to you, their most trusted advisor, for this support. And how you respond says a lot about your firm and the value you place on developing long-term relationships with your small business clients.

Communication, knowledge and education are the keys to offering your clients unparalleled service and value. Take this opportunity to inform your clients about items of increasing regulatory importance, and be sure they have a solid understanding of some of the fundamentals. 

Here are three tax considerations to share with your small business clients as we approach year-end 2014:

Be Aware of State Tax Nexus Laws 

As most accountants know, a nexus in tax law applies to businesses that have a physical location within a state, and consequently impose taxes on out-of-state businesses that operate within their borders. Not all businesses are liable for sales tax under a nexus, but if a business falls under one of the following categories they may be liable: resident employees working within the state where the business is located; the business’s physical location is within the state; the business has tangible or intangible property in the state; or employees solicit business within the state. Each state has nexus laws to govern sales taxes, so it’s important for businesses to have an expert available to educate them on tax laws that impact the specific areas where they do business....

To read full article, click here

Source: Mike Trabold (www.accountingtoday.com)