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Dear Friend, The Role of the Manager is changing… Finally! |
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In the past, managers have been promoted or recruited based essentially on technical skills. As more accounting firm owners are looking to delegate responsibility to team members and free up their time for strategic development the role of the manager is changing. The manager is no longer seen as the technical work horse who solely punches through high volumes of work at a high technical level. Today’s manager is now a leader and trainer of team members, highly skilled in both technical ability and the ability to manage and train people in achieving financial objectives. The role of the manager is NOW about understanding areas such as:
The ABILITY to manage people is NOW an absolute CRITICAL aspect of the MANAGER ROLE and an area they must be able to display proven skills in. What your manager says, how they act, how they react, how they communicate, how they are perceived, how they guide, and how they encourage and appreciate their team are new skill sets that each and every manager in your organisation simply must be thinking about and working on. Gone are the days whereby a manager can get by with just high technical ability. The true test of each manager’s management & people skills will be the leverage they can achieve through team size. The better your MANAGERS become at managing - the more team members they will be able to oversee and therefore the greater level of LEVERAGE in your firm. WHERE TO START – 3 step process 1. First assess your managers people skills – What are
they like at communicating? If your manager is not a great people person then training should begin immediately to help improve this aspect of their management skill set. You cannot allow this weakness to go unnoticed. It will significantly impact team performance and cost you in staff turnover. 2. Planning – What are your managers like at planning ahead? The key to successful management is your ability to first be AWARE of what is going on and then get team members to take action. Awareness is closely linked to planning. How much time do your managers truly invest in solid planning for each month ahead? How much time do they invest each week in planning work flow and how each team member's skills will be best utilised? Your managers need to invest time both weekly and monthly to sit and review, plan, forecast and then implement. They need to be forced to stop and plan. You also need to put in place very strict guidelines on information that managers should send to the partner both in preparation for the month ahead and then summarising the month's performance against their forecast. 3. Recruit a manager to actually manage workflow and the work team Take this task away from your existing managers if they either can’t do it or are not willing to learn. Many firms are now realising that 2 levels of management may be required. The first level is the traditional client service or technical level. That is, the manager is a technical based manager. The second level is more of a true manager position whereby the person appointed can focus on weekly workflow planning, client selection and prioritisation, team member accountability and team member development. The technical manager would work in tandem with the team manager and be accountable themselves to the team manager. The key is learning what to manage and then setting strict guidelines for performance Overall, the key issue is making your managers clear of what they MUST be AWARE of and in CONTOL of. Rather than being re-active, it is time for managers to be better prepared and more accountable. In turn, you’ll find they actually get more job satisfaction from their own job as they see themselves having a greater pro-active impact and your practice becomes a far more organised work environment. The GPL Network provides NON technical manager training exclusively
for the Accounting Industry. For more information on next training
day in your city please email admin@gplnetwork.com
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