Pete’s Blog

What Are Your Employees Saying about You?

From the desk of Peter Margaritis

Blog 5 PhotoI came across another great article the other day that listed several complaints that employees have with their supervisors. As I read through it, I noticed that each complaint aligned with a principle of improvisation. Ultimately, it seems that there is a widespread breakdown in communication between employees and their supervisors. While the majority of employees never voice these complaints, identifying common issues will help create a better office environment in your workplace. What a great opportunity to learn and improve your leadership skills to ensure that these things are never said of you!

Micromanages me (Doesn’t trust me)

Doesn’t listen (Doesn’t listen)

Doesn’t want to have his/her opinions and ideas challenged (Isn’t adaptable)

Doesn’t follow through on promises (Doesn’t respect me)

Assigns deadlines without considering what’s on my plate (Doesn’t listen and doesn’t respect me)

Doesn’t have time for me (Isn’t supportive)

Doesn’t give helpful feedback about my performance (Isn’t focused)

Is disorganized and reactive (Too much stress!)

When you strip down to the fundamental principles of improvisation, you realize it is all about collaboration with the other person. It is about supporting their role by being respectful and listening to what they have to say, not thinking about how to fit it into your plan. Even if what they have to say doesn’t fit with our own agenda, we adapt and use the “Yes, and” principle to reduce stress for everyone.

If a boss were to employ the fundamental principles of improvisation, your greatest assets would begin to leverage. And every boss should see their employees as their greatest asset.

Download a free chapter to my new book, Improv is No Joke or I can come speak at your next event: Peter@theaccidentalaccountant.com

Learning to Speak the Official Business Language in a Way Others Can Understand

From the desk of Peter Margaritis

Blog 4 PhotoBusiness Innovators Magazine hosts regular interviews with the most innovative leaders in business on their radio show to feature industry influencers and trendsetters. Andy Curry, a bestselling author, multiple business owner, and contributor for CNN who covers topics such as successful business innovators and entrepreneurs in Business, Health, Finance, and Personal Development was gracious to host me a few weeks ago.

We talked at length (20 minute podcast here) on how improvisation creates positive results in leadership and in life. It is no surprise that technology is constantly changing the way jobs get done. For accounting professionals, our soft skills development is necessary for creating new business opportunities and ensuring we are keeping up with the times.

Forming and growing relationships is important for any finance professional. I ask all the time, “what business are we in?” And all the time I get answers like, “accounting” or “finance”. Yes, we provide a very important service, but behind those numbers are very real parts to a person’s life. When we take the language of business and state it in a way that clients can better understand, we begin to make better connections. And we do that by using the principles of improvisation.

Respect, Support, Trust, Listen, Focus, Adapt, and tie it all together with “Yes, And…”

Technical skills are important, very important. But if we don’t know how to go about relating to the people behind the numbers, we are selling ourselves short and leaving clients frustrated. The principles of improvisation, when we respect the clients, truly listen to them, focus on what goals they are wanting to achieve, and adapt to that, we are able to grow the relationship because we have found a way to bridge that communication gap that accounting jargon creates.

To learn more, Download a free chapter from my new book, Improv Is No Joke or email me at Peter@theaccidentalaccountant.com and I will come to you for your next speaking engagement.

 

A Memorial for Buzzwords: Four Score and Seven Years from Today

From the desk of Peter Margaritis

Lincoln Memorial“Fourscore and seven years ago, our stakeholders brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty and dedicated to the value proposition that all men are created on a net-net basis. Now we are operating in the space of a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can add value while moving forward. We are met on a great battlefield of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might experience a game changer. It altogether is what it is…”

Following my previous article on corporate buzzwords, I took the liberty to insert some of the most common buzzwords of corporate America into Abraham Lincoln’s famous address. It’s probably a good thing I didn’t incorporate the entire thing because some readers may have fallen asleep.

President Lincoln’s famous Gettysburg address did not fall on deaf ears. Though it was only around 2 minutes long, not a single one of his words were meaningless and each carried weight. As a result, his words have been recorded down in history. Interestingly enough, the Secretary of State at the time, Edward Everett, spoke before President Lincoln for about two hours. Yet, no one remembers Edward Everett.

Another reason why Lincoln’s address is so famous was because it addressed a specific issue and he did so in a specific way, without mincing words. When we can practice and become effective at replacing the corporate buzzwords with simpler words using real language, more people will care about what we have to say. Instead of creating a memorial with a filter that is always going over the past, we will spark an energy that will look to the future.

Where do you want to see your company seven years from now?

For more ideas on how to bring about effectual positive change in your life and workplace, download a free chapter to my new book, Improv is No Joke. I am also glad to be an inspiring speaker at your next event!

The Importance of Speaking Simpler

From the desk of Peter Margaritis

Blog 2 PhotoWhen I start hearing buzzwords, I quit listening. After 20-something years in the CPA profession, I have heard all of the jargon and after a while it all seems to get jumbled up. How many times have you heard someone say something along the lines of, “Let’s set the bar high by going the extra mile to reach out and enlarge our bandwidth with new potential clients.”

I hear, “nothing but empty words that won’t keep my….oh, look – squirrels. What was I saying? Oh yea, keep my focus.”

There is no focused direction. It is a complex way of saying something vague. You might think that you sound smarter, but it can be difficult for your team to understand what you’re trying to convey. No one has any direction on next steps to take, priorities, or goals. When Warren Buffet sits down to write his letter to his shareholders each year, he writes as if he was speaking to his sisters in language they would understand. When leaders begin to speak in simpler and more precise terms, we can see the path to growth.

So let’s try this again:

“Let’s start a conversation on ways to reach more clients. I want to hear from everyone on areas we can expand into and how we can improve the relationships with our current clients who will generate more referrals.”

This version cut out the buzzwords and replaced them with effective communication. In doing so, you begin relating more to what your employees are looking for from a good leader. Speaking simpler doesn’t just make the direction you want to go in clearer, it also inspires creativity and participation from the very people you depend on day in and day out. They begin to get excited because there is real thinking and less room for personal interpretation as to what “going the extra mile” is. When the goal line is made clear, team work towards that goal takes on a renewed energy

Are you ready to launch the course of the general conversation in the workplace towards more positive results? Download a free chapter from my new book, Improv Is No Joke to catch the vision of speaking in simpler terms or I can come speak at your next event.

Communication Matters for Accountants

From the desk of Peter Margaritis

Blog 1 PhotoAs accountants, we are in the business of helping people. This begins with the function of our jobs. Clearly, if we are effective in the functional aspects of our jobs, it is helpful to our company and clients. For our day-to-day tasks, it takes a serious analytical brain to be good at what we do. However, if you want to take your career to the next level and truly help your clients both internal and external, then it is going to take a healthy dose of creative brain.

Using Both Hemispheres

Our brains are divided into two hemispheres and both are necessary in communicating effectively. Each side has a distinct job to do and people tend to use one side more than the other. Traditionally, people who enjoy working with numbers, problem solving, and technical aspects of their job use the left side of the brain. Those who are generally good at music, art, and even teamwork, use the right side of the brain. Those creative and intuitive juices flow from the right and make spontaneity and feeling the highlight of life. While it can take effort to cultivate certain aspects that don’t come naturally to you, an effective communicator and leader taps into the strengths of both sides of their brain.

Improvisational Skills Provide the Bridge for Better Communication

The good news is that the principles of improvisation provide a framework to help cultivate those communication and creative skills. Learning to implement aspects of respect, trust, support, listening, focus and adaptability allows us to take the first step in becoming effective communicators. When people in the accounting profession can take these principles and apply them in the way they relate to their clients or even within the workplace, they become leaders.

Effective communication is what sets the stage for better leadership. People look to the accounting profession for leadership in the area of finances. You don’t have to be funny to apply the principles of improv, but using them to communicate effectively will set you apart. Ultimately, presenting information in a way that makes sense to your customers, whether they are left brained or right brained, will enable you to help them further and advance your career.

Are you ready to form better relationships and create greater positive results in your business?