Start With the Experience You Create

If you lead people in a CPA firm, one place to begin reducing burnout risk is the experience of working with you. Look at how you assign work, respond to questions, recognize contributions, respect boundaries, and make room for people to exercise judgment.

This Perspective focuses on six areas leaders can influence: control, reward, community, fairness, values and workload. The aim is to improve working conditions and reduce burnout risk.

I’ve Been Bill Lumbergh

If you’ve seen Office Space, you know Bill Lumbergh. He’s the boss who wants cover sheets on TPS reports and expects people to come in on the weekend. His employees have plenty of reasons to dread working with him.

I’ve been that jerk. I’ve made teams work on weekends. I’ve sent emails late at night or early in the morning and expected a response. I’ve sent spreadsheets back so someone could format the columns more to my liking.

You may recognize some of those habits, too. The useful question is what you want to do differently now that you notice them.

We can’t fix every issue in public accounting ourselves. But we can examine how our teams experience working with us and change the conditions within our influence.

Six Areas Worth Examining

These six areas align with the Areas of Worklife framework developed by Michael Leiter and Christina Maslach: workload, control, reward, community, fairness and values. The following are my practical leadership suggestions for applying that lens in a CPA firm.

1. Give People More Control

Notice where you are holding decisions that someone else could make. Give team members opportunities to own projects, present to clients, participate in meetings, and exercise judgment. Clarify the result you need and the support available, then give them room to work.

Ask yourself: Where could I give someone more ownership instead of another instruction?

2. Recognize Contributions

When someone does great work, acknowledge it. When the team reaches an important milestone, celebrate it. Recognition can be specific and personal: what did they contribute, and why did it matter?

A meal with a spouse or another thoughtful gesture can express appreciation. Keep asking whether the underlying work experience also reflects that appreciation.

Ask yourself: Whose contribution have I noticed but not acknowledged?

3. Build a Supportive Community

Look at how people treat one another when pressure rises. Can they ask for help? Do colleagues support each other? If your own reactions make those conversations harder, work on how you respond. If the team’s behavior is undermining trust, address it.

Ask yourself: What happens on my team when someone says they are struggling?

4. Practice Fairness

Examine how you distribute work, opportunities, recognition and support. Favoritism can make people question the decisions around them. Be clear about your reasoning and give people a fair chance to develop, including those whose performance needs improvement.

Ask yourself: Could I explain this decision clearly to the people affected by it?

5. Respect Values and Boundaries

If you have agreed to a working arrangement, remember it when assigning work. Make room for family responsibilities, time away and the commitments people have discussed with you. Before sending an email during someone’s vacation, consider whether it can wait and what expectation it creates.

Ask yourself: Does the way I assign and communicate work respect the agreements we have made?

6. Address Workload

If you know someone is already overloaded, pause before adding more. Discuss what should be prioritized, reassigned, delayed or stopped. Help people delegate and use the resources available to them, and examine whether the volume of work fits those resources.

Better time management can be useful, but it doesn’t remove the leader’s responsibility to address an unreasonable workload.

Ask yourself: If I add this work, what will come off the person’s plate?

Choose One Change and Follow Through

These are areas to examine, rather than a promise that burnout can always be prevented. Start with a conversation about what your team experiences. Choose a change within your influence, put it into practice, and follow up to learn whether it helped.

What habit of yours makes the work harder than it needs to be? That is a useful place to begin.

Improve the Experience of Working With You

If you’re a CPA firm partner, owner or leader, executive coaching can help you examine your leadership habits, clarify expectations, and turn insight into changes your team can experience. Bring a workload decision, boundary issue or difficult conversation you’re working through, and we can explore your next steps.

Explore coaching with The CPA Coach →

Related Perspectives

Continue exploring with CPA Firm Leaders: Your Team Is Watching What You Do, CPA Firm Leaders: Are You Someone Your Team Wants to Become?, CPA Firm Culture: Your Values Only Matter If People Experience Them, and How to Set Clear Expectations and Build Accountability in CPA Firms.

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