As you’re well aware, there’s a lot of concern about the accounting pipeline. And there should be. One of the reasons is that the cultures inside many public accounting firms have become experiences no one really wanted to be part of.

The Party You Were Invited To

Think of it like a party.

You get an invitation to a party this weekend. It says there’s going to be swimming, all your friends will be there, there will be great challenges and excitement, live music and great food. Come on over.

You’re going. You show up with your trunks on, a beer under your arm, wearing a crazy Hawaiian shirt. You’re ready to go.

You walk in, and there’s no pool. There’s no water slide. There’s no great food and no live music. You watch your friends leaving, and you’re just biding your time until you can leave and find a better party.

That’s kind of public accounting in a nutshell. And it’s why culture matters so much.

Culture Is Values in Motion

To me, culture is values in motion. Remember that: values in motion.

The invitation is your list of core values. Say it reads teamwork, innovation, family and service. You read that and think, “Yeah, I’m going to that party.”

Then you show up, see the culture, and think, “That’s not what the invitation said. This isn’t what I signed up for.” So you leave to find another party.

What a Value Should Look Like at the Party

Take family. If you see “family” on the invitation, what do you expect to find at the party?

You expect flexible schedules. You expect remote work. You expect supporting benefits, maybe help with daycare or membership dues paid. You expect people to talk to one another, care for one another and support one another.

That’s what you expect, because that’s what the invitation said.

Go Back to the Invitation

I think a lot of firms have good core values. They’ve just forgotten they’re supposed to throw a party with them.

Plenty of firms list family, service or innovation, and there’s just no evidence of it at the party. If those firms went back to their core values and looked around at how the firm is acting now, at what kind of party it has become, they might find real opportunities to change.

They don’t need new words to define who they are. They just need to go back to what they were supposed to be: the party they meant to throw, rather than the one people are leaving or skipping altogether.

Culture Is Eating Our Pipeline

“Culture eats strategy for breakfast” is often credited to Peter Drucker. I think right now, culture is eating our pipeline.

If we go back to our roots, back to our core values and the invitation, and remind ourselves of the party we were trying to throw, we’ll have opportunities to put those values into motion. We can create evidence of them, and a better party for public accountants.

Put Your Own Values Into Motion

Author John Blumberg wrote that core values are the central, innermost, most important parts of you. So let me put on my life coach hat for a second.

You have core values, too. Maybe you can name them, maybe you can’t, and that’s okay. But if you can name them, look around and see whether you can find evidence of them in motion in your life.

If you can’t, you can throw a better party for yourself, too. Put your own values into motion.

Put Your Firm’s Values Into Motion

If you’re a CPA firm partner, owner or leader, executive coaching can help you close the gap between the values on your invitation and the culture people actually experience.

Explore coaching with The CPA Coach →

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