Developing Staff with Broad Based Business Knowledge

by Jim Wagoner, CPA, Partner, Director of Tax Services Group

and Larry K. Greenwalt, CPA, Chairman of the Board

For more than 10 years, we have engaged our staff in book discussion groups each year to read and discuss business and professional related books with a goal of broadening our business knowledge and applying what we learn to improving the Firm for the benefit of clients and employees. You might be interested in what we have read and discussed.

We introduce new staff to their role as professionals by reading and discussing TRUE PROFESSIONALISM. We often follow that up with Michael Gerber’s book, THE E-MYTH REVISITED, and by the time staff gets to the supervisory level we read and discuss THE 2-R MANAGER. Our more experienced staff have read and discussed BUILT TO LAST and GOOD TO GREAT (two of our favorites), THE FIVE DYSFUNCTIONS OF A TEAM and THE TRUSTED ADVISOR. This summer, an experienced group of Managers, led by Larry and Jim, read and discussed A WHOLE NEW MIND (now this is one of our all-time favorites!), THE FINE ART OF SMALL TALK and THE TRUSTED ADVISOR. This fall one of our Partners will lead some of our newest supervisors through a discussion of THE 2-R MANAGER, and another Partner will be leading our newest group of employees through TRUE PROFESSIONALISM.

Why do we do this? We have experienced a number of benefits from doing this over the years. We have found that staff participating in our book discussion groups develop at a much faster pace than those at many other firms. We also believe that focusing on what makes businesses tick enables our staff to better understand the client’s business, and as a result we can add more value to the client. A great side benefit is that by having our Partners involved in these informal discussion groups (each series typically takes 7-12 weekly meetings to complete), we get to know our employees better, and we can share first hand with them our Firm’s values and philosophy. We have found this to be far more effective than just having them read policy and procedure manuals!

If you would like to learn more about the format for our book discussion groups, please do not hesitate to contact us.