Mindset and culture are paramount when it comes to change, transformation, learning and winning. Having been involved with the Winning Is Everything conference for several years, there were always critics of the name. The human tendency is to think “win-lose,” but I believe “learn-win” is a better and healthier approach, especially in today’s transformational environment.
Many in the accounting profession are experiencing an occupational identity problem, even to the degree of leaving. The accounting profession is much more than compliance work. In fact, most growth comes from advisory and consulting services. Understanding what you do, or even how you do it, pales in comparison to knowing why you do what you do. This is not a debate over the value and relevance of traditional services, but rather about how you can increase value in the market and sustain success.
Since childhood, we have been asked, “What do you want to be when you grow up?” or “What are you majoring in?” Even today, people ask what we do for a living in most introductions. As members of the accounting profession, we have an adaptation advantage. But you must let go of your identity as an accountant, tax preparer or auditor by defining yourself, your skills and your knowledge beyond the scope of your job to maximize your value and remain future-ready.
The profession is in a transformational period where we’re seeing the least amount of change at the slowest rate we’ll experience during the rest of our lifetimes. You may experience some failures during this transformation, yet you should embrace them as learning experiences because they can be your best career boosters.
Those are strong statements and generally require some time to think about and process. In his book, “The Practice of Management,” originally published in 1954, Peter Drucker describes a parable of three stonecutters who were asked what they were doing. The first said, “I am making a living.” The second, without stopping work, said, “I am doing the best job of stonecutting in the entire country.” The third had a visionary gleam in his eyes and said, “I am building a cathedral.”
This parable illustrates the importance of seeing the bigger picture, having a shared vision, and not being distracted by the means to the end. The first individual is highly manageable, the second represents the real problem, and the third is a true leader and visionary.
Today we need a different type of workforce — one in which everyone can think, adapt, learn and create new value. I often simplify by saying, “Think — plan — grow.” As Dan Sullivan, founder of Strategic Coach, says, “Simplification is needed to break through the ceiling of complexity.”
The three sets
Identity tied to specific skills is extremely dangerous when the world is moving rapidly. A purpose-driven identity — a sense of self that transcends job titles and skill sets — is the best defense against work-related obsolescence. This isn’t easy for anyone trapped in a job that doesn’t provide the opportunity to think, plan and grow. Innovation is much different from “keeping the lights on” because it requires time to think, collaborate and debate.
Here are some tools and shortcuts that may help you accelerate your transformation. The process is as complex as described above, yet the solution can be summarized into mindsets, skill sets and tool sets.
1. Mindsets. Many are familiar with Simon Sinek’s famous TED talk about his concept of the “Golden Circle” and his best-selling book, “Start with Why.” To me, mindset is the biggest challenge for our profession. It requires unlearning as well as continuously learning new skills. It has the potential for generational collaboration but runs the risk of competition and missing the opportunity to leverage the most trusted business advisor designation. Our credentialing and continuing education systems must be transformed to remain relevant. Mindset often requires outside coaching and participation in a peer community focused on continuous learning and development — not just technical skills and continuing education credits.
2. Skill sets. The good news is that most accountants have good technical skills and the ability to learn. Flexibility is the ability to pivot from one tool to another, while adaptability requires us to add something new to create value. Please remember that all value is created through leadership, relationships and creativity.
3. Tool sets. Technology is rapidly providing new tools and augmenting human capacity and capabilities. Technology is a disruptor, but more importantly, it is an enabler. It is making many jobs obsolete and creating new jobs requiring new mindsets, skill sets and tool sets. Adaptability may require you to discard an existing tool and forge a new tool or shortcut. It may require unlearning an outdated business model. Therefore, the ability to learn and change faster than your competition is the only way to sustain a competitive advantage. Collaborative robots (“cobots”) are key to automating mundane tasks while increasing productivity and freeing people up to perform more meaningful work.
An example of adaptability is the cellphone. Twenty years ago, most people were able to memorize important phone numbers. Now, few people remember phone numbers; they simply tell their phone to “call {Name} — mobile.” We can choose to be paranoid about artificial intelligence and technology taking our jobs, or we can rest assured that technology has a way of augmenting (cobots) our human capacity and capabilities. Humans make sense of these applications, and the technology frees us from steps in our processes that can be automated and often add little or no value. This is already happening in most firms and will continue to accelerate with a focus on the employee and customer experience.
By making reskilling and upskilling an everyday activity, we can continuously adapt so the new technologies are not so disruptive. In other words, new technology is anticipated, and we can plan accordingly. Work is being automated, atomized and augmented. Automated work is repetitive and known, while atomized work is discrete and predictable. Augmented work is more complex and ambiguous, with higher-level tasks and less-defined problems. Not only is the augmented work more complex, but it is also more valuable.
Complexity is often associated with technical expertise, but in today’s world, complexity is more about the convergence of technology and resources (internal and external). The cloud enables the world to come together in a virtual workplace. Work that can be replaced by an algorithm will be. Future jobs will focus on computer-augmented expertise, portability and learning agility.
Think — plan — grow!
