Chapter 6
Hired Gun Skills—Part 1

“The trouble with being a leader in a dysfunctional company is that you can’t tell if the employees are following you or chasing you.”

Ron Rael, Leadership Coach

Introduction

After completing this chapter you should be able to

• Apply the skill of focus to be more productive.

• Increase your ability to lead by articulating your vision and creating opportunities for others.

• Enhance accountability, including your own.

• Improve how you communicate.

• Name and strengthen the three Controller’s Building Blocks.

• Get results from better priority management.

Daily Skill Set that Benefits the Client

In this chapter, we will concentrate on four specific skills that a part-time and contract Controller will need to be successful. While the technical, number crunching, and analytical skills are very important, we will assume you already have them. This particular skill set has both a technical and a softer side. For example, leadership includes accountability, communication, creating opportunities, and visioning.

Yet, to help the clients you serve, you often need to combine your financial acumen with your leadership abilities. It is a rare project where a Hired Gun can devote every client hour to number crunching or spreadsheet building. You will be involved with people and working with people to get things accomplished 99 percent of the time. Please do not dismiss the importance of these four valuable skills.

Special Skills the Hired Gun Uses Daily

The four special skills the Hired Gun uses daily include

• Focus

• Systems Building

• Priority Management

• Leadership

Because accountability cannot be delegated, it takes a leap of faith for the leader to trust that others not only have the capacity to step up but also have the commitment to make whatever contribution is required. You must be willing to live with the results they create!

Skill #1: Focus

“Through focused efforts miracles are performed.”

Ron Rael, Leadership Coach

You become very focused!

Focus

You probably prevent distractions, allocate your time, and do only those things that are important. Doing this is part of the skill of focus. Being focused is being productive. This skill, however, is one the part-time or contract Controller needs every day, not just when facing a tight deadline.

There is a real difference between being busy and being productive. There is also a clear distinction between being effective and productive. We are so very busy that we forget the differences.

PRODUCTIVITY DEFINED

Productivity is putting in effort so that the result exceeds the effort. Being productive can be being efficient but being efficient is not always being productive.

Imagine that you spend three hours trying to track down a 50 error in the general ledger. Are you being productive? You already know the answer: you definitely are not. Why? Because your effort far exceeded the result (in this case, identifying a minor error).

This seems obvious, yet every month I meet a Controller whose boss, the CEO, the President, or worse, the CFO, requires that person to look for any discrepancies and book every entry no matter how immaterial.

While this might work if you are the full-time Controller for your employer, you will soon find yourself out of a job if you do this as the contract Controller. Your goal is to be productive at least 90 percent of the time while you are working on each client project.

EFFICIENCY DEFINED

Efficiency is dotting all the I’s and crossing all the T’s. All accounting work is an exacting science, meaning that we try for accuracy and strive for efficiency. All too many accountants focus on efficiency instead of productivity. When someone is being anal to the point where they are being unproductive, apply the rule of 80/20. Eighty percent of the time you can achieve your goal by getting something done quickly without striving for 100 percent accuracy.

Accountants are so afraid of being wrong, that they would rather be 100 percent right than 10 percent wrong. This makes you both inefficient and unproductive.

The main difference between productivity and efficiency is doing the right things instead of doing things right! As Tom Peters reminds his clients, there were many efficient buggy whip suppliers, but they went out of business because they missed what was happening in the transportation industry.

WAYS TO STAY FOCUSED AND BE PRODUCTIVE

Ways to stay focused and be productive include

• Have clear-cut goals.

• Know what is important.

• Set priorities and stick to them.

• Be excellent in priority management.

Having Clear-Cut Goals

About half the people who work in accounting are goal machines. Once these folks have set a goal, they will achieve it. It is important that you know which 50 percent group you are in. To be successful as a Hired Gun, you must have specific clear goals and be able to execute most of them. More information will be covered on completing your goals in chapter 7.

Knowing What Is Important

This was highlighted in chapter 5 but bears repeating. In order to be productive and focused, you must start out by knowing what is important to your client. You might think getting your files in order is important, but it detracts you from making the improvements your client expects you to make.

This is why communication with your client on a weekly basis is beneficial to you as the contract Controller. With weekly status reports and discussions, you can identify what is important to your client so that you can hone in on that area. This also helps if the client’s priority shifts during your engagement.

Setting Priorities and Sticking to Them

People who are productive do so by spending time defining the priority for the day or for the hour, and then not allowing anything to interrupt them from that priority. If you only have one client this may be rather easy to do. However, most Hired Guns have between three and five client projects going at any one time. Therefore to stay productive, setting and sticking to priorities is extremely critical because you cannot afford to let any one project action item fall through the cracks.

Being Excellent in Priority Management

You probably have taken a class or seminar on time management. However, time management is outdated. In today’s online, real-time, 24/7, fast-paced world, the emphasis is on priority management. The priorities you set determine and drive how and where you spend your time. This is better explained in Skill #3.

Here is a motto that I keep at my desk and have committed to memory. Make it your motto! At the end the day and week, ask yourself

With the time I had available, did I accomplish my goals in priority order?

If you can answer yes most of the time, you will be very successful as a Hired Gun.

Skill #2: Systems Building

A bad system will defeat a great performance 9 out of 10 times.

People who are currently successful as a contract or part-time Controller use a systems approach to doing their jobs.

Systems Approach to Accounting

A systems approach is envisioning the whole process from end-result back to the beginning. In a systems approach, you design the methodology to ensure you deliver what is expected.

The Controller’s area of responsibility consists of three interconnected systems or building blocks. By developing a support system in each block, you will be able to stay on top of whatever comes your way.

THE WISE CONTROLLER’S SYSTEMS

The three systems shown in figure 6-1 integrate with each other, but the last two rely heavily on the one below it. You cannot run an accounting department unless you have people. So you develop a people system. Then you need to plan the work of those folks, so you develop a planning system. To make sure the work gets done, develop a system for communicating with one another.

Figure 6-1: How Our Responsibilities Grow

Base Block—Controller’s People Systems

We will not cover the entire items that could fall under your people systems. Unless you are a Hired Gun who specializes in the human resource area, most of your focus on the people systems of your client will be to make sure that employees work together and get the job done to your satisfaction. For this building block, we will concentrate on the universal tool for solving people problems: feedback.

The problem: People will always create their own answers in the absence of information and they will almost always think the worst.

The solution: Spend at least an hour each day giving and receiving feedback.

What Feedback Is and Is Not

Feedback is the truth about you, as I (your supervisor) see it. From the employee’s point of view, feedback means the difference between being in the dark and knowing where I stand. Your feedback allows me to see if I am who I believe myself to be. It provides me with tangible information on how I am doing. Feedback is the favorite tool of successful supervisors, because it creates two-way dialogue with the employee.

If feedback is driven by fear, it will be avoided and few of the facts will be received. This occurs when the employee has done something incorrectly and is afraid you are about to lay down the hammer. To be an effective supervisor, you must get in the habit of giving feedback when the employee does things right. All too frequently, we ignore all the positive actions and decisions and only give feedback when the employee errs. Feedback is not criticism. This is exactly what you are giving when you only notice the incorrect behaviors and do not comment on the correct ones.

Feedback can have a strong impact on motivation when the employee expects to receive it immediately. Feedback is best used when it is given daily, because daily doses of feedback will maintain the high performance level of your star performers. People want, crave, and desire feedback. Feedback taps into our human motivators of accomplishment and inner satisfaction.

What happens when feedback is absent? In the absence of specific feedback, people invent their own performance standards. The only time people know what you are thinking is when you tell them. Silence leaves employees trying to figure out what is on your mind, and 99.9 percent of the time they are wrong.

WHAT FEEDBACK DOES

Feedback does the following

• Honors competence and reinforces behavior

• Helps align expectations and priorities

• Fills gaps in people’s knowledge

• Lets employees know areas to correct

• Alleviates fear of the unknown

• Fosters open communication

• Builds trust

• Rewards top performers

• Creates a consequence for poor performers

• Sets up expectations and standards

• Creates a professional atmosphere

• Improves interdependence

HOW LEADERS USE FEEDBACK

Leaders use feedback in the following ways:

• They just do it.

• They use it to change unacceptable behavior.

• They use it to reinforce positive behavior.

• They give feedback frequently and intimately.

• They focus it on service to the customer.

• They find ways around the system if the culture does not value feedback.

• They first build a foundation with the person.

• They understand the difference between judging and describing.

HOW TO KEEP FEEDBACK OBJECTIVE

Another reason people fear feedback is because the person giving it does not understand the difference between judging and describing. A lot of the feedback is purely a judgment call on the giver’s part. Your goal as a supervisor and team leader is to identify those behaviors that you want repeated and those behaviors that you want altered or improved. This means that you must be able to clearly describe the specific behavior to the employee and explain the positive or negative aspects of the behavior without any biases. Table 6-1 illustrates an example of the difference between judging and describing.

Table 6-1: Difference between Judging and Describing

WHEN AND WHERE TO USE FEEDBACK

Feedback does not begin the moment an employee does something wrong. It commences the day the employee starts working for you. The more you can provide feedback in the early stages of an employee’s employment, the quicker you will shorten their learning curve and mold the employee into the star performer you believe they can be. In addition to orientation and training, the following are the areas where it is critical for you as a leader and supervisor to provide ongoing and supportive feedback:

• Orienting and training new employees

• Teaching a new set of job skills

• Explaining the standards of the department or team

• Explaining the cultural norms or political realities

• Correcting performance

• Changing goals or business conditions

• Adjusting to a new team

• Assisting employees in unfamiliar work experiences

• Helping new employees set priorities

• Following up on an important training session

• Dealing with an employee with declining performance

• Reinforcing good performance

• Encouraging superior performance

• Performing an informal performance review

• Preparing employees to meet their future career goals

• Preparing employees for more challenging work assignments

• Building an employee’s self-confidence

• Providing an emotional pick-me-up for an employee

• Dealing with power battles that harm the team’s cohesiveness

2nd Block—Controller’s Planning System

As stated many times in this book, your client will place high expectations on you to get the work done quickly. Your planning system for the accounting department or team must work to ensure that you can meet those expectations and obligations. This building block especially covers how you plan the work and ensure that the deadlines will be met.

As a Hired Gun and professional, you will have your own methodology for doing this. When called to clean up the mess, you may find the accounting team does not have a methodology for keeping track of its workflow or for ensuring that deadlines are met. This may be an area where you can add value to your client by creating such a system.

Many contract Controllers find that putting together systems, processes, and checklists have made a huge difference for their clients. If you are just starting out as a contract Controller, think about what has made you successful in meeting deadlines and discharging your obligations. Then compare what your client’s employees use with what you use.

What Every Employee Wants to Know

Besides tools for planning the work, do not forget that employees have questions about where you and the team are headed. The following is a checklist to remind you to keep the members of your accounting team informed about such things:

• Where is the organization heading?

• How will it get there?

• What are the issues?

• Is management prepared to resolve the problems?

• What does it all mean to me?

• Who can I turn to for the real information?

3rd Block—Controller’s Communication System

Leadership is communication.

To manage well, we need to communicate well.

Hired Gun Credibility Comes from Great Communication

As I have stated many times before, your project for the client will most likely include working with and through other people. Therefore, communication takes on a whole new level of responsibility when you are the contract Controller.

The third Controller’s Building Block is the communication system. Since most of your projects will run between three and nine months, you will not be able to fix every communication roadblock or deficiency. However, go into each project with an awareness that the core of 97 percent of all business problems stems from a lack of communication.

Knowing this fact gives you an opportunity to have a quick impact by making some quick fixes in the accounting department’s system of communication. This section contains a few checklists and reminders about what it takes to be seen as a competent communicator. We will start with five rules about communication in a typical organization.

RULES OF ORGANIZATIONAL COMMUNICATION

Five rules of organization communication are as follows:

1. Good communication is impossible without leaders consistently doing the right thing, according to the needs of the problem or situation, to the best of their ability.

2. Employees of an organization do not inherently identify their own interests with the interests of the organization. No matter how well or poorly the organization is doing, employees sometimes have difficulty seeing what stake they have in it.

3. Employees have multiple sources of information. They are not chiefly dependent on what they are told through official channels. The employees’ most trusted information is their own day-to-day experiences.

4. Do not ask for an employee’s opinion or suggestions unless you really care and intend to act upon that information.

5. When any negative event occurs which leads to employee rage, no matter the source or cause, the anger will manifest itself. Employees who feel wronged will find a way to express their feelings, to the detriment of the organization.

Hired Gun Tool: Communication Web

A communication web is the key to staying informed and keeping others appraised of what is going on.

CREATE YOUR OWN COMMUNICATION WEB

Put an image of a large spider’s web into your mind. Notice how it is woven. Notice how it sticks to everything. Notice that although it is soft, it has a daunting strength. Notice finally how hard it is to get rid of.

Next, think about a website that you enjoy visiting. What features does it have that you admire? Most good websites have great features. They are/have

• Interactive.

• Easy to navigate.

• Built with redundancies through links.

• Available 24/7.

• Fast loading.

• Just the right amount of information.

• A query or navigation box.

• A one-click feature so you can communicate with whom you need.

• Transaction verification.

• A one-click feature so you can receive communication back from the site.

• Designed so you can find what you need quickly.

What does this mean?

With the pace of business and the other factors that make workplace communication challenging, we need a new model to use in order to make sure effective communication keeps up with the pace of business.

This new model is a Communication Web, a concept developed by Kelly Catlin Walker.

Your project team or department’s approach for communicating needs to be a system that contains the best features of a website and a spider web.

FEATURES OF A COMMUNICATION WEB

A communication structure built around the web concept has these specific features:

• People have access to information and data 24/7.

• Everyone has multiple points of contact.

• Information is thoughtfully archived.

• Information is easily accessible.

• Information is easy to find.

• Redundancies are installed to ensure that any communication gaps or blockages do not prevent people from being in the loop.

• The structure is flexible yet strong.

• People verify that their communication was received and understood.

• The web itself is under constant development and improvement.

• With ease, just like the one-click feature, everyone can be reached by one e-mail or one phone call.

• No one person is flooded with information.

• No one person is inaccessible.

• No one person is the bottleneck for the flow of communication.

The most important feature is that whether a person is present or not, everyone stays connected to the web of information.

How to Design a Communication Web

Most communication webs are built around multiple communication platforms. They include hardware, software, and protocols that

• Transmit data electronically.

• Archive key data like meeting notes for easy retrieval.

• Digitize information quickly so it is accessible by all.

• Has a calendar that is shared by everyone.

• Has a priority structure for e-mails that everyone abides by; for example,

  • Priority 1—urgent or critical.

  • Priority 2—important.

  • Priority 3—some importance.

  • Priority 4—FYI only.

• Ensures every customer (internal and external) has multiple points of contacts.

• Guarantees information is disseminated easily without the need for frequent face-to-face meetings.

• Provides regular diagnosis and checking to improve the flow of communication.

• Identifies ways of getting information so that if one system fails, people are still in the loop; for example,

  • E-mail.

  • Voice mail.

  • Memos.

  • Electronic file sharing.

  • Internet postings.

  • Electronic bulletin boards.

  • Status reports.

  • Wall charts.

• Finally, everyone’s priority #1 is to keep communication flowing.

COMMUNICATION WEB KEY DECISIONS

Key decisions that need to be made when designing a communication web include

• Who prepares the agenda?

• How are the suggestions to the agenda handled?

• Who maintains the action items or project lists?

• Who coordinates among the team members?

• Who keeps the other teams informed?

• Who communicates to non-members involved with us?

• Who updates members unable to attend the meeting?

• How will the information best be communicated?

• How do we ensure members read the communications?

• How do we ensure everyone with a need to know is included?

• How are issues and disagreements raised?

COMMUNICATION WEB IMPACT ZONES

The tool, shown in figure 6-2, is designed to ensure that everyone whom a change affects is consulted and informed.

Figure 6-2: Communication Impact Zones

This tool reduces the likelihood of receiving these common and valid complaints from employees:

• I was blindsided by the change!

• No one took into consideration the impact of the change on my job!

• This change may have solved the problem, but it created four more!

COMMUNICATION WEB FOUNDATION FOR RECEPTIVE COMMUNICATION

When these take place, employees will be willing to give something of themselves back to the company.

• Help the employee master their job.

• Create a predictable work environment.

• Value employees as people (remember: they want to be loved!).

Communication Web Necessities for a Completed Communication

Every good communication system has four elements to ensure that the actual message has been carried. These apply for one-on-one conversations, as well as in team interactions.

1. Delivery—The act of making the communication clear and visible.

2. Receiving—The act of hearing and understanding the message.

3. Feedback—Taking the time to check to confirm that the message was received and understood.

4. Monitoring—Taking the time to check back later to see if the message has been acted upon and has remained the same.

Hired Gun Tool: Communication Web System Checklist

See how many of these apply to your employer or client. See how many apply to the team you lead or are a member of.

____ Your company has good communication! It is the process that is being neglected.

Solution: Your organization is defined by how well it communicates internally.

____ A majority of communications end without any kind of summary of what was covered or agreed to.

Solution: When parties summarize what was just said, it increases the success of that communication tremendously; this applies to meetings, e-mails, memos, and face-to-face discussions.

____ We do not do any follow-up because it feels like confrontation.

____ We do not follow up afterwards because we do not want to look incompetent or appear too negative.

Solution: Follow-up is simply checking back with people to ensure they understood and are using what was communicated.

____ Communication can easily go wrong from two sources—barriers and you.

Solution: You and the other party are each 75 percent responsible for each communication.

____ In a dysfunctional group or company, employees

____ Hoard information as power.

____ Withhold communication as a weapon.

____ Purposely refuse to communicate to make one another look bad.

Solution: In an excellent company everyone feels informed and treats good communication as a part of their personal responsibility.

Skill #3: Priority Management

Nearly ever professional has more to do and less time to do it. In Addition, it seems like everything is due now!

Urgent Does Not Mean Important

In business, the one consistent thing that separates the effective professional from the ineffective one is the ability to execute their plans. This skill is important to the Controller. You want to be known as one who can be counted on to deliver what you promise. By applying this best practice, you will enhance your integrity, because people will know that when you start something, you will finish it, and that when you make a promise, you will fulfill it.

PRIORITY MANAGEMENT PRINCIPLES 1 AND 2 (AKA THE 66⅔ RULES)

• About ⅔ of the work you do each day (personal and business) is not a priority.

• Less than ⅓ of the work you do adds value to someone else.

Ouch!

THE FACTS OF LIFE ABOUT TIME

Considerable amounts of time are wasted by employees each day because their work is done in a vacuum. This means they lack a clear deadline and unstated criteria for success. Professionals who are excellent at executing their goals consistently have realistic deadlines that they use to measure, to gain focus, and to ensure they bring tasks to completion.

Professionals who get the job done with quality always have in mind specific criteria for success, so they know when the job is done.

Whatever you naturally become fixated on, you are naturally attracted toward. Therefore, when you focus your energy on obstacles, you spend precious time and energy on dealing with those obstacles. What you focus on is what you attract.

When you are clearly focused on the true objective, you do whatever is needed to get there with minimal wasted energy.

To maximize personal productivity, realize that 80 percent of your time is spent on the trivial. Analyze and identify which activities produce the most value to your company and then shift your focus so that you concentrate on the vital few (20 percent). Either delegate or discontinue doing the trivial many. You also spend more than 20 percent of your time on time wasters, especially when you are stressed about something. See how many of these time wasters plague you.

TOP TIME WASTERS THAT HIDE WHAT IS IMPORTANT

A Hired Gun avoids these situations because each leads to ineffective use of their time.

• Clutter

• Disorganization

• Poor processes

• Badly designed systems

• Complexity

• Perfectionism

• Bad habits

• Lack of structure

• Lack of a plan

• Lack of planning

• Overzealousness

• Poor memory and not writing stuff down so you can locate it later

• Incompatibility between the time zone and the task

• Lack of communication

• Lack of balance

• Lack of coordination

• Uncontrolled disruptions

• Continual stops and starts

Finance’s Workload Killers that Create False Urgency

Another pitfall that Controllers need to be aware of is those areas that utilize a tremendous amount of your team’s time and energy. By proactively planning for and addressing the following productivity-sapping events, you will be able to keep your team and yourself on track:

• Mergers and acquisition activity

• Year-end closing

• Inventory taking and costing

• Peak sales season activity and transactions

• Sales promotion initiatives

• Budget development (this is becoming a year-round activity)

• Annual planning process (this, too, is becoming a year-round activity)

• Employee education, including job cross-training

• Externally imposed deadlines for compliance purposes

  • For example, SEC reports, IRS filings, shareholder’s reports and analyses, management reports

• Personal time off.

  • For example, vacations, holidays, weather closings (This you cannot anticipate, but can plan for.)

• Meetings infinitum

  • For example, managers, executive, team, board, committee, task force, all-hands

Skill #4: Leadership

“Leaders are born not created. Everyone is a potential leader.” Ron Rael, Leadership Coach

Anyone can become an effective, forceful leader with work and effort. Leadership is much broader than being a manager.

A leader is a person with vision, who gets people inspired and committed to that vision and then moves people from point A to point Z in a way where everyone benefits and grows from the experience.

Since this is not a book on leadership, we will concentrate on a few key leadership abilities that will be required of the part-time or contract Controller.

Traits of the Effective Finance Leader

To be seen as a leader, you must

• Have a clear vision of what you want.

• Be fully accountable for your own results.

• Understand and use systems.

• Be an excellent communicator.

• Create opportunities for others.

1. HAVE A CLEAR VISION OF WHAT YOU WANT

One trait that the great leaders clearly have is the ability to create a vision. Tied to this is the ability to then articulate the vision clearly to others. As a Hired Gun you have put yourself in a difficult situation where you must clearly provide value to each client for every hour you invest in them. With each engagement, you will not fully know what to expect until you have been there for a while.

As you research the problems and begin to understand the situation, you must always start out with a clear vision of what you hope to do for them. Of course this may change as soon as you understand the conditions and limitations, but you still need to have an image of what you are going to do for them in terms of specific deliverables.

Even when you are just filling a chair for someone who is on leave or while the company is searching for a replacement, your vision is to keep the work flowing and ensuring that nothing slips through the cracks.

A very important piece of this specific leadership skill is to articulate your vision. At the beginning of the engagement, write out what you plan to do for your client. Of course, if you have developed an engagement letter or Scope of Work, this, in effect, is your vision. On a regular basis, be sure to look at that document to remind you of what you are doing and going to accomplish.

In those situations where you are working as part of a team, you must be able to describe what you intend to accomplish. You cannot just do this in writing. You represent a change that is threatening to most employees. They will be fearful of what you may ask them to do, and they will filter your memos or e-mails. As a leader, it is very important that you tell your visions and plans to people. In this moment of truth, each member of your team will decide whether or not they can trust you and whether or not you believe that you can accomplish what you describe.

This face-to-face articulation of your vision is an important milestone in every engagement you accept.

2. BE FULLY ACCOUNTABLE FOR YOUR OWN RESULTS

“Empowerment is a belief that our survival is in our hands, not someone else’s, that we have a purpose that is compelling, and that we are committed to our purpose.”

The Empowered Manager, Peter Block

What Accountability Is and Is Not

In true accountability, excuses and blame do not exist.

There is a tremendous amount of misunderstanding as to what accountability is. People frequently and mistakenly believe that accountability is about the other person. Accountability is about you. Sadly, in today’s world we have very little support for the value of accountability. If you look at the popular media you will see example after example of a person who is not accountable and being rewarded for behaving that way. This sends a message to others that it is okay to act as the victim or to neglect personal responsibility. The blame game runs rampant throughout society. We tend to blame others for our misfortunes or for the ups and downs of life. For example, many people lost money during the dotcom bust. However, currently some lawyers, who specialize in class action lawsuits, are attempting to place blame on whoever has deep pockets. They are recruiting potential litigants on television in order to support these allegations through a class action suit.

“It takes a village to raise a child.” This proverb applies especially to accountability. It takes a whole group of people to help hold someone accountable. This applies at every level: family, team, company, community, and society. At its very essence, accountability means accounting for my actions. Whenever you say that you want someone to be accountable, in effect, you are saying, “I expect you to account to me for the action you took or the decision you made.” In society we make it easy for ourselves and others to not account for our decisions or actions for a variety of reasons. Recently, bad behavior has been given a new name: intermittent explosive disorder. This means people who cannot control their temper can use a physical limitation or disability as a way of accounting for their bad behavior. They can turn to a doctor and ask for a drug that will control their behavior which they claim they cannot control.

This section is not about changing society, but about leading your team and how you build accountability as a trait and expectation.

Let us start out with some important definitions to help you understand exactly what accountability is and how it fits into the scheme of someone’s effectiveness.

Accountability defined. Accountability is keeping my word, meeting our commitments, and taking full ownership for my actions. Accountability is accepting reality (what is) without finding fault, placing blame, or hiding from the truth.

The first part of this definition is something that you could have written yourself. Every professional understands, at an intuitive level, that we must follow through on our commitments. Notice however that the first part of the definition says: meeting our commitments. What this means is that once the company has taken a stand on something, or the team has chosen a policy, you must support it 110 percent, even if you disagree with the policy or stand. This is required because you are an integral part of the company and team. So if you disagree with a policy and demonstrate to others your lack of support, you damage the integrity of the entire company. Therefore, you must instill in everyone that once a decision is made, no matter how unpopular, everyone is accountable for supporting it.

The second part of the definition is something most people cannot articulate when asked to define accountability. This is because in business, as well as society, we are so used to playing the blame game: whenever things go wrong we automatically find a scapegoat. Governments, individuals, leaders, managers, supervisors, and employees in business play this game. This part of accountability’s definition says Murphy’s Law exists and things will go wrong. When bad things happen, as they will, the accountable person will focus on solving the problem first and foremost. Yes, we do want to hold the person accountable who made a bad choice or error in judgment. However, the quicker your team stops playing the blame game and gets into the solution mode, the more effective your team will be.

Another way to understand the definition of a nebulous term like accountability is to examine its polar opposite. The exact opposite of being accountable is being a victim. The victim is the person who takes absolutely no ownership for what they do, what they say, or how they behave.

Do you want a person who behaves like that on your team?

Responsibility defined. People who choose to be less than accountable often claim to be accountable. However their actions show differently. Responsibility is living up to one’s duty and following the rules. Responsibility is doing the minimum.

We all want employees on our team who are responsible. Yet I am sure that you have worked with people who tell you, “I will not do that task because it is not my job! “ This employee is doing the bare minimum, as defined by their job description. Yet by the definition of the word, they are being responsible or living up to the duty. To have an effective team everyone must be willing to go beyond the bare minimum to get the job done. Therefore, accountability is a much higher and harder standard for people to reach because it goes well beyond personal responsibility.

Why Accountability Works to Make Everyone Successful

While it may seem obvious that accountability helps to build a successful team and company, let us review a few of the most important benefits. Accountability

• Establishes individual integrity.

• Contributes to corporate integrity.

• Ensures employees follow through on their commitments.

• Guarantees people can rely on the team.

• Allows the team leader to spend less time acting as their supervisor.

• Builds employees who are dependable, yet can act independently.

• Reminds employees to hold themselves and each other accountable.

10½ Realities of Accountability

1. We currently live in a riskless society where people feel someone else should pay for their losses. Issues of accountability are all around us. The starting point is awareness.

2. Without a common, understood, and accepted definition of accountability, you will never be able to effect any change to it.

3. Accountability is a nebulous concept until we define what it means for us. It is like quality—“I know it when I see it.” A common definition gives us a basis for understanding and communicating.

4. In order to impact accountability in others, I have to take an honest look at myself first and understand how others see me and my actions.

5. Before I can do anything about our accountability, I must open my eyes to the level of accountability my team demonstrates in our daily actions and decisions.

6. Improving accountability in others begins when I choose to be accountable each day.

7. Once I decide to question another person’s accountability, I automatically give them permission to question my accountability and account for my behaviors. Addressing accountability in someone else is like opening Pandora’s Box; you may not like what you find inside (of yourself).

8. When we find fault with each other, we decrease accountability. Focusing on the problem or issue without placing blame will help us to create solutions quicker.

9. As long as we continue to focus on what is not working and place blame for things that go wrong, we cannot move forward in enhancing accountability.

10. We become immersed in our culture and soon lose sight of what it is like. It is critical to step back and regularly reexamine the culture ideals to see if they are building or hurting accountable behaviors and decisions.

10½.Strengthening accountability starts with me.

How Leaders Improve Accountability

Since accountability is something that is impacted by what I do and say, it is very important for me, the leader, to take the first step and model what accountable behavior looks like. Below are a few specific suggestions of things that you, as a team leader and executive, can do to show that you take accountability seriously. By modeling these behaviors, you communicate the expectation that grants you the permission to hold others accountable.

The primary thematic ways to impact accountability are

Monitor your own actions. As a leader, you must be very self-aware of the way you act and words you speak. Leaders are highly visible and employees take their cue about acceptable behaviors from the leader. For example, if you refuse to engage in the blame game and go immediately to resolution, you show others that this is the accepted norm. For example, if you support every policy, even the ones that impact you negatively, you model that everyone needs to support the firm’s policies.

• Meet all your own commitments.

• Be consistent in your words and actions.

• Catch people doing things right.

• Identify and remove barriers to honesty.

• Be open to new ideas.

Use honesty. You must always tell the truth. Of course, there are things that employees do not need to know or that may be withheld for legal or strategic purposes. Even in these exceptions, you must always strive to tell the employees the truth. This does not give you permission, however, to be blunt and rude. Leaders also use tact in being honest. By being honest and expecting honesty back from others, you set the expectation that you value the truth. The one thing nearly everyone despises is a negative surprise. Honesty helps to decrease the likelihood of this occurring.

• Instill and value honesty in others.

• Accept differing opinions and views.

• Seek solutions instead of blame.

• Give timely and honest feedback.

Hold people’s feet to the fire. As a team leader, you wish to gain the respect of each member of the team. This does not mean that you let them walk all over you or take advantage of you. Holding people accountable means that you apply tough love. There are times when you must hold an employee’s feet to the fire.

For example, if you request the XTZ report from Stuart by Friday, do not allow him to come to you Friday morning and say, “Is it okay if I get the XTZ report to you Monday afternoon? I have been super busy and haven’t gotten to it yet.” The team leader who wants to be popular will say, “Stuart, that is okay. I know you have been busy.” By doing this, you undermine the accountability of your team because you did not enforce your expectation of timeliness and realtime communication, especially if this is the first time you were aware that Stuart is unable to meet the deadline he committed to.

Create a culture where accountability is the accepted norm and any employee who does not practice that norm is easily identified, so that they can be quickly unhired!

• Give employees authority with responsibility.

• Require employees to meet their commitments.

• Do not accept excuses or less than full efforts.

• Set measurable targets with and for each employee.

• Let employees know exactly what you expect from them.

• Do not use excuses for your errors and mistakes—own up to them.

3. UNDERSTAND AND USE SYSTEMS

Accounting is more than a profession. The accounting function is a set of systems that, if working optimally, produces some amazing results. An accounting department where the systems are not working well or are ineffective produces sad results.

If you have survived and thrived in accounting, then you understand systems. Being successful as a Hired Gun requires you to increase your awareness of the importance that systems play in accounting. Everything you touch in the accounting function is either an input or output of a system.

A great way to add value to your client is to go in with a fresh perspective and thoughtfully examine the quality of their systems. Then give them concrete suggestions for improvement. It is even better if you are asked to implement those improvements.

Most systems within the accounting function are either marginally effective or need major improvements. The quicker that you can implement these improvements or suggest them, the more the client will appreciate your efforts.

The three specific systems that the Controller relies on most are covered earlier in this chapter.

4. BE AN EXCELLENT COMMUNICATOR

Your competence shows through how you communicate. What does yours say about you?

Today’s workplace depends dearly on competent communication! Yet listening is the most neglected communication skill. For example,

• 40 percent of jobs today require excellent listening skills.

• 30 percent of jobs today require excellent applied technology skills.

Source: John Stevens and AICPA

To be successful as the Hired Gun, you must communicate well and often. Yet, most people lack the understanding of how to improve their ability to be heard and understood. Please refer to Self-Assessment #4.

Are You a Competent Communicator?

Effective communication can only begin after all the issues—major and minor ones—are on the table to be covered honestly. Refuse to make any commitments until you feel that you have received a complete list of all the points or issues that need to be addressed. A competent communicator knows how to say to the other party: “I would feel the same way if I were in your shoes.”

The hallmarks of a professional committed to competent communication are the first seven traits in the self-assessment.

To be trusted in your communication, you need to look at your overall package of how you are seen by others. This includes these important and hard to self-diagnose traits, which are the last four traits in the self-assessment.

Communication Principle 1. Humans typically tolerate many diverse behaviors, but the one not tolerated is when a person is being fake or not genuine, followed closely by lack of sincerity.

Indicators of Your Communication-Related Behaviors

Review these indicators and compare them with how you normally communicate in the work setting. If you really want to know for sure, give this list to a friend or colleague and have them check the indicators for you.

The Assertive Communicator (Good Application of Skill)

• Is direct and honest.

• Clearly communicates respect for all beliefs.

• Gives visual responses and cues when communicating.

The Non-Assertive Communicator (Poor Application of Skill)

• Is passive in communicating.

• Gives little visual responses and cues when communicating.

• Fails to reveal true thoughts and feelings.

The Aggressive Communicator (Poor Application of Skill)

• Uses overt and hostile communication in words and cues.

• Criticizes, humiliates, or dominates the listener.

• Violates the rights of others.

Crucial Commutation Skill—Listening

Keys to Active Listening. When a person is actively listening, 100 percent of their being is involved. Hearing is a physiological reaction, while listening is a mental process.

• Do not let yourself be distracted.

• Focus on the ideas (concepts) and not the person.

• Apply full attention to the speaker.

• Have the desire to listen.

• Take notes if you need to.

• Probe for details.

• Use your body to engage in the process of questioning.

Process for Improving or Changing Your Communication Patterns

The process for improving or changing your communication patterns involves

• Becoming aware of your communication patterns.

• Understanding that your style has both an upside and downside in business and work and how it impacts others.

• Asking a trusted friend for honest feedback on your style and listen without judgment.

• Selecting a new specific communication behavior.

• Practicing that new behavior continuously for 21 days.

5. CREATE OPPORTUNITIES FOR OTHERS

You Cannot Do It All

As a contractor who is asked to take on supervisory responsibilities for employees, it is easy to get yourself mired in many of the day-to-day minutiae. As you well know, delegating to the client’s employees will help you stay above it all.

There is a way to see this differently, which will in turn make you more effective. Instead of delegating work, see your responsibility as creating opportunities for others. Instead of handing work to someone, recognize this as a chance for them to grow their skills. The difference is in your attitude.

We will start out by understanding the difference between delegating and creating opportunities so you can see why this distinction will benefit you as a Hired Gun.

What Delegation Is and Is Not

Did the ancient Egyptians, who built the pyramids, create opportunities for the people who actually did the work?

No, they assigned work to them!

Do you delegate work or do you create opportunities for your employees to grow, further their talents, and grow their skills?

In today’s business world, you need to do more than just delegate. (As a leader, you must act as if your employees are volunteers. ) The way to get your team members to take on more responsibility and greater challenges is to create growth opportunities for each employee, which is much more beneficial than delegating.

The phrase “to delegate” derives from the Latin term “to appoint a deputy” and from English term “to give a bequest.” Since you are not in the habit of giving a bequest or appointing a deputy for a particular task, why are you delegating work? If you are simply trying to get a task off your desk and find a body to do the work, then you are truly delegating.

Your goal as a supervisor is to instill in your employees the desire to take on more responsibility. The reason you choose this goal is so you can use your time more effectively and do more strategic types of work. Considering that the typical Controller and their team spend between 60 percent and 77 percent of their time on mundane, routine, and non-value-added tasks, it makes sense for you to reduce the time wasted and go to more value-adding tasks.

Does the Task Add Value?

Let us quickly review a few key terms that are the basis for you to create opportunities for others. Start by looking at the activity or task. You want to ensure, as a supervisor, that every task you give to another person is one that adds value to someone else.

Value-added activities are those that are absolutely essential to the creation of your product. The product is the end state or deliverable that your internal customer wants, such as a report, a paycheck, a vendor check, an invoice, or a balanced general ledger. However, not every task that someone on our team performs benefits a customer. There are many tasks we perform each day that are considered non-value added activities—those actions that are not absolutely essential to the creation of our product.

Even in an Action Plan, which identifies the steps to complete the plan, you must instill in your team the desire to only tackle steps that add value. Value-added steps are those that usually change the product in some way toward what your customer wants. Because accountants tend to be detail oriented, we think we need to cross every T and dot every I. The real question that you must instill in each team member is to continually ask, “Does my crossing of this T or dotting of this I change or improve the product so that we meet the customers’ expectation?”

The Difference Is in Your Attitude

Whenever you give an employee a work assignment you create a master-servant relationship. The act of delegation creates a master-agent relationship. I would expect that you are not trying to create a master-servant relationship with each of your employees. Instead, you want them to become more dependable and professional. The attitude that you, their supervisor, must adopt is that they are your peers. To an employee, delegation feels like you are handing them a task that is beneath you and then abandoning them. Creating an opportunity feels to your employee like you are inviting them to go on a trip with you.

Try this with someone: Hand the person a piece of paper and tell them out loud, “I delegate this to you.” Then, with that same person, hand them a piece of paper and tell them out loud, “I have an opportunity for you.” Ask the individual how the two approaches feel and what the difference between the two approaches is. The answer, I guarantee, is that they appreciate the second approach over the first. (Obviously, your wording would be more tailored to the situation.)

You will discover that you will be a more effective team leader by adopting the attitude that, instead of making someone else do your work via delegation, you are creating an opportunity for the employee to grow their skills and expand their knowledge. Think back to those early days of your career and recall your intense curiosity about how things worked and how much you wanted to tackle new challenges so you could prove your worth to those you worked for. The reason you became the competent Controller or CFO you are today is due to the opportunities that these farsighted individuals created for you. This is the attitude you must maintain to build dependable and competent members of your team.

Why Creating Opportunities Works to Build a More Effective Finance Team

One reason accounting work is so stressful is because we look at our job in a limiting way. As the leader of your team, you must continually remind them of this fact: “Your work is really about making a difference in people’s lives.” When employees finally get and internalize the message that they make a difference in someone’s life, they will understand that the work they do adds value. By looking for ways that your team members can contribute more, take on more responsibilities, and expand their knowledge, you will help to reinforce this attitude about making a difference. In addition, you will help to reduce the level of stress that many accounting team members feel about the work they do. Creating opportunities for others works to help team members (including you) see their job much more expansively by focusing on the benefits they provide to others.

Even if you do not buy into the argument about creating opportunities for others over delegating, you still want to ensure that you delegate in ways that will foster an attitude of service in every team member. You can accomplish this by looking at the top reasons why supervisors fail to delegate and instead try to do everything themselves. Use this as a self-test to see how many of these excuses you have used when you decided not to delegate or create an opportunity for someone.

Reasons Why a Leader Fails to Delegate or Create Opportunities

If you checked any of the excuses in Self-assessment #5, here is what you are doing and why.

Reason 1: You Lack Experience. You lack seasoning, do not know any better, or are uncomfortable delegating.

Reason 2: You Have Insecurities. You fear failure, are timid, are unsure, or are working at a level beyond your capabilities and skills.

Reason 3: You Suffer from Workaholism. For you, work is all-consuming, you are a perfectionist, or are too serious and have no time for silliness or frivolity.

Reason 4: You Suffer from Vanity. You desire all the credit or glory, consider yourself to be self-important, or are arrogant.

Reason 5: You Display Artificiality. You deliberately use camouflage, develop fall guys, or assign unreasonable deadlines.

Warning:

Each of these excuses are a career-limiting attribute! These traps will limit your success as Hired Gun.

7½ Priority Management Myths

It is your priorities that drive what you need to be doing.

Example: You say that your health is a priority but your To-Do list is long and you never get time to exercise. Are your to-dos interfering with your priorities? No! You have simply not made health a priority. Instead, if you look at your Priority List each morning and see health on it, you will find the time in your schedule each day to do something healthy.

Several recent studies have found this to be true and the problem is growing. Doing a task properly and completely requires concentration. When you multitask, you cannot fully concentrate because you are trying to think of several things at once. People who multitask suffer from confusion as well as the inability to relax and to concentrate. Try this. Plan out your day leaving enough time to concentrate on your priorities; you will get things done faster. Keep a list of little things that also need to get done, because you have small spaces of time in your schedule to fit those small things in. Better yet take a breather in those spare moments to clear your thoughts for the next big task.

Unless you proactively limit your time of involvement because big projects and major tasks consume as much time as you give them. Instead of letting that happen, prepare a time budget and just before that time limit has been met, wrap things up. You will find that by knowing in advance you only have ten hours to spend on a project, magically you will only spend ten hours.

When you procrastinate over something important and find yourself wasting time, you are afraid of that important thing. There is something in that task that is impacting you—your self-image or your self-limitations. Instead of procrastinating, take time to look at what you are afraid of. Very often, your fear is irrational and by thinking about what terrifies you, you will become rational again.

The technology we use to be more productive also requires that we shift gears up about 100 times a day and face constant interruptions every few minutes. Instead of letting technology run your time, set aside times in each day where you will be totally uninterrupted. Turn off your iPod, e-mail, your phone, your PDA, and any other device that could interfere with your concentration.

Because of the demands on your time it is very easy to get out of balance. You may be spending every waking hour working or thinking about work and forget about your personal and family life. Instead, set a limit on how much time you devote to work each day and then use the rest of the day in personal pursuits. You will find that you have much more energy and mental bandwidth to deal with work issues.

You must decide how you want to spend your day. Instead of allowing others to dictate what you need to do, evaluate your business and personal priorities and make sure these coincide with what you are currently working on. If there is a discrepancy, ask yourself before each task: “What is the purpose of this? What am I really I trying to accomplish through this task? How does this help me in my current priority?”

No one holds a gun to your head during the day. The choices you make each day are entirely up to you. Pause often to ask yourself: “What choices am I making and why am I making them?”

Conclusion

The contract Controller’s job is much more than just being a technician. There is a lot of self-management that needs to occur. Unlike running the department in a normal employee status or being a member of a CPA firm, you lack a team of support people working behind the scenes. Your success depends entirely on you.

The four skills that aid you in client engagements covered in this chapter: 1) focus, 2) systems building, 3) priority management, and 4) leadership are your support system. No matter how competent you are with the skills today, there are always things to learn and ways to improve. Take these skills to heart if you decide that being a contract financial executive is your cup of tea.

Even if you decide being a contractor is not what you choose to do, these four skills will serve you well in whatever career choices you make.

The next chapter will cover additional skills that will build upon this skill set.