Do you get distracted during meetings or even simple conversations?

Of course you do. You’re thinking about the work you should be doing, or the meeting you’re leading later, or how long it is until lunch. The crazy world we live in is full of distractions, so if you’re finding it hard to stay present and in the moment, you’re not alone. People actually spend 47% of their waking hours thinking about something other than what they are doing, according to an article titled “How to Practice Mindfulness Throughout Your Work Day” by the Harvard Business Review

In improv, being present is critical to the success of the ensemble. If you’re trying to think ahead or staying stuck in the past, your scene will fall flat.

It’s impossible to be present every minute of every day, but there are times where we need to be focused on essential tasks and eliminate distractions. One main distraction that needs to be eliminated is our internal dialogue. If we’re constantly talking to ourselves while we should be listening to others, we’re not truly hearing what they have to say.

Luckily, there are improv exercises your team can do to practice being present and in the moment? The two exercises featured in Season 3 Episode 17, the one word story and last word spoken, are great ones to follow. Another exercise to demonstrate presence is called “repetition.” 

Two people start a conversation, speaking one sentence at a time. One participant starts a conversation, and before the other person can respond, they have to repeat the sentence they just heard before adding on to it. The purpose is to listen to the entire sentence before you formulate a response.

To be proficient in improv, you must be a good listener and be present during those crucial moments. To be a proficient leader, you must be a good listener and be present during those crucial moments. The ability to eliminate all distractions and become focused is very hard. It’s something that requires practice. But it is essential.

Resources:

• Harvard Business Review: “How to Practice Mindfulness Throughout Your Work Day” 
• Read: “Scale or Fail”

Eric and Rebecca Scott are a married couple with the perfect combination of math and writing skills. Eric is a licensed CPA in Kentucky and is a Tax Senior Manager at Ernst & Young, focusing on a wide variety of technical topics. Rebecca, who was an autism behavioral intervention specialist before staying home to raise her two children, is now an accomplished author. Her book “Sensational Kids, Sensational Families: Hope For Sensory Processing Differences” chronicles the research, interventions, and mindset shifts that helped their family through their son’s sensory processing disorder diagnoses. She also directs a local homeschool cooperative organization in which she works hard to accommodate all special needs. 

And when you think about it, choosing to adapt to an unexpected challenge is the embodiment of improv and creating a supportive community for special needs individuals requires great leadership — so there’s a lot to learn from Eric and Rebecca even if you don’t have any children at all.

When Rebecca and Eric’s youngest son was around two years old, they started to identify some concerning behaviors. Rebecca had experience working with children who had autism and could tell it wasn’t that, but she didn’t know what it was. After seeing a speech therapist and moving on to occupational therapy, he was diagnosed with sensory processing disorder. They took on seven years of medical intervention, diet changes, and occupational therapy, and he began to experience things he had never experienced before: pain and temperature. Today he’s ahead of the curve in a lot of school subjects and doing very well, which encouraged Rebecca to write “Sensational Kids, Sensational Families” to help other families who didn’t know what was going on with their own children.

As our understanding of neurodiversity and sensory processing differences grows, it becomes apparent that parts of society are not adequately set up to accommodate diversity of ability or experience. As a society, we have made wheelchair accessibility mandatory for most businesses, but we have not made sure that businesses and workplaces are accessible to people with various sensory impairments. Part of that could be due to technology and not understanding these disorders enough, but as we rapidly develop new technology and understanding, there are fewer and fewer excuses to not make the world more accessible to everyone. The way we have done things does not need to be the way we do things moving forward — nor should it be.

Businesses also need to be more accepting of people of neurodiversity in the workplace, not just because it’s the right thing to do but because, with the right support and understanding, these differences can become superpowers instead of handicaps.

If you have a kid going through the challenges associated with sensory processing differences, you will want to check out this book. It is packed full of tips and strategies for you to support your child in the best way possible, setting them up for a future that makes them truly sensational.

Click to Download the Full Transcript PDF

Resources:

• sensationalkidssensationalfamilies.com
• Read: “Sensational Kids, Sensational Families: Hope For Sensory Processing Differences”
• linkedin.com/in/rebeccaduvallscott
• linkedin.com/in/eric-d-scott-81231643
• facebook.com/groups/SensationalKidsSensationalFamilies

Do you listen to respond… or do you listen to understand?

In my introduction to improv, I realized I was not that great of a listener. This was largely due to my inflated ego. To be a good listener, you need to adopt the “Yes, and” philosophy. Instead of pulling a conversation away from somebody else and back onto yourself, you need to add to it. There’s no room for ego.

We all live in a culture of listening to respond because we believe what we have to add is more valuable or profound than whatever else anyone has to say. This is a limiting belief that holds us back from true collaboration and prevents us from being a truly great leader.

We can all strengthen our listening skills if we work on them every single day. When you do this consistently, you may hear a client, a customer, or a coworker say: “I’m not sure why I told you that” or “do you mind if I rant to you about a situation without judging, only listening?”

The other critical component in listening is empathy. Empathy is being fully present and listening deeply to understand what the other person is saying from their perspective. Make sure you are assessing how they feel in their shoes, not how you would feel in their shoes. Learning how another person feels is a critical part of becoming a better listener.

Active listening is hard. It takes intention, time, and effort. Start working on strengthening your listening skills every single day. As each day passes you will become closer to becoming a better listener, developing better relationships, and having more significant impact on the world.

Resources:

• YouTube: It’s Not About The Nail

Brannon Poe, the founder of Poe Group Advisors, has been facilitating advisors’ successful accounting practice transitions throughout the US and Canada since 2003. He’s also the creator of Accounting Practice Academy, an eight-week virtual workshop for accounting practice owners. He’s the author of the Account Practice Insights blog and hosts the Accounting Flight Plan podcast with other top thought leaders in the profession. He is also the author of several books, including “Accountant’s Flight Plan” and “On Your Own.” 

But the main reason I invited him onto the show is that Poe’s company buys and sells CPA firms, which he’s been doing for 17 years now.

Why would partners want to sell their CPA firm?

Often, when there’s nobody in a smaller firm that is capable of taking over—or nobody wants to take over—and the CEO is ready to retire, they contact a brokerage company to help them sell. They typically begin this process a few years out so that they can transition their client base into the new firm and help get them in market-ready shape. Market-ready shape means having a firm that will have a high demand for the sale.

Why is there so much demand for firms today?

There are a lot of younger people ready to break out on their own, but there are also a lot of older people that are just realizing they’re ready to get out, so the market for buying and selling CPA firms is very strong right now. We’re seeing a lot of change in our economy and society right now, and it’s causing people to rethink their priorities.

The Accounting Practice Academy

When you look at your business, you will see a pattern: 20% of your clients will typically get you 80% of your revenue. If you look at your sales team, you’ll probably have 20% of your high performers who produce 80% of your results. By identifying these patterns and maximizing for the 20% that gives you 80% of your results, you can work less and gain much, much more.

Create the structure and the boundaries you need to create the type of business you want to have and follow it. You will take up as much time as you give yourself to do the work.

Accounting is such a great foundational education. You can start as an auditor or tax professional, but with everything you learn, there are so many different directions you can take. And there have been many successful entrepreneurs that have come out of the industry. CPAs have the ability to make business owners more professional managers of their business. And the most successful partners in firms get satisfaction from truly helping their clients.

Click to Download the Full Transcript PDF

Resources:

• poegroupadvisors.com
• linkedin.com/in/brannon-poe-65984012/
• Accounting Practice Academy
• Read: “Accountant’s Flight Plan”
• Read: “On Your Own”

Leadership and improv are not opposing forces—in fact, improv is a strategic component of good leadership. It’s been proven by science.

The key principle of improv is these two powerful words: “Yes, and.” These two words have many applications. It’s about pushing forward a conversation and exploring possibilities. It’s the opposite of “no,” “because,” or “yes, but,” because those are negative responses that invoke negative emotions and are used far too often in today’s corporate environment. They close off possibilities, while “Yes, and” opens them.

“Yes, and” is all about empathy. It forces questions or comments that help you better understand an issue the other person is experiencing from their point of view. This shows that you appreciate what other people have to say. How do you feel when you know someone is willing to listen to you instead of shutting you down by saying no?

There are times where “no” or “not now” are appropriate. If someone’s trying to push you into an unethical situation, the response should always be “no”— or something stronger. If you’re leaving a meeting and heading into another way when you get stopped, your answer should be, “This is not a good time for me. Let’s find some time where we can discuss this.” Most conversations within the workplace should explore the “yes, and” principle.

To demonstrate the power of “Yes, and,” you can run the “‘No, because,’ ‘yes, but,’ and ‘yes, and’” exercise.

• One person pitches an idea to another and that person responds with “No, because…” and gives a reason. The other person then responds with “No, because…” and gives their reaction. Keep this going for 60 seconds.
• Next, pitch the same idea and this time use “Yes, but…” instead of “No, because…” and do this for 60 seconds.
• Now, pitch the same idea again and use “Yes, and” and keep the conversation going for 60 seconds.

After this exercise, describe the first confrontation. Then the second. Then the third. You will clearly see the different results.

Brainstorming solutions is another application of the “Yes, and” philosophy. Innovation requires two things: Creativity and effective application of that creativity. Finding the initial solution requires divergent thinking: The process of generating as many creative ideas as possible. To effectively apply creativity, we need to assess the quality of ideas that come through divergent thinking. Bad ideas are just bridges to good ideas, so don’t shut them down before they can be contributed. Keep idea generation and critique separate.

Leadership in Hyperdrive: Powered by Improv™ and the power of “Yes, and,” is a way of adapting to a changing landscape, becoming more creative and collaborative, and showing that you do appreciate the people that you work with by taking time to listen and show empathy to them. It will produce the most significant results for your business today and moving forward.

Resources:

• “‘‘Oh, My God, Where Is This Going?’ When Computer-Science Majors Take Improv”
• “Improv Training: The Power Of Funny Business”