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Self-Knowledge: The Inner Accelerator

“Knowing others is intelligence; knowing yourself is true wisdom. Mastering others is strength; mastering yourself is true power.”

~ UNKNOWN

In this chapter, I will deal with a subject that many budding leaders fail to master: understanding themselves. When you understand what makes you tick, what drives you, and how you come across to others, you will better be able to lead others. A man or woman who can’t lead himself or herself will never achieve a level of personal power to attract others to his or her team. I’ll share with you some personal stories of leadership, understanding, and growth and challenge you to begin the journey to understand yourself better.

I first took a personality assessment when I was 35 years old. The DISC profile scored me as a high “D,” or driver (the other choices were “I” for influencer, “S” for steady, and “C” for conscientious). It was about 15 more years before I learned that I was overusing my natural communication style. Although the high “D” is good for developing determination and willpower, I overused my dominant style, and it hurt me with people.

I took a 360 degree survey when I was about 50 years old, and it surprised me that I was coming across as overly assertive, aggressive, and authoritarian. Having developed some horrible habits, it was very difficult for me to learn new ways of leading people. Had I had this information much earlier in life, perhaps my effectiveness could have improved sooner. The high “D” style served me well in building a business, but great people are reluctant to follow a domineering leader.

Although the other chapters in this section are also important, I’ve learned that a leader cannot engender trust, which we’ll cover in chapter 3, “Trust: The Leadership Imperative,” until that leader understands his or her personal blind spots. The leader with the most selfknowledge will also be better equipped to critically think, prepare, and discipline himself or herself.

Your Leadership Style

Your natural communication style affects the choices that you make in life, and the choices that you make relative to other people will influence them to follow you or not follow you. The more self-insight that you can develop, the more likely you will be to make effective choices in life. Without self-knowledge, we make choices based on habit or emotion rather than thought. The very best leaders have a great deal of self-understanding, and I want this for you.

Why is it that some leaders succeed and others don’t? Some leaders live life to the fullest and develop their personal potential to its maximum. Some grow themselves to lead large groups of people, but others’ growth becomes stunted at some level in their development.

Growth can stall for several reasons. Sometimes, you don’t even realize that you’re in a rut, or immediate demands of work distract you. Some people have no interest in improving themselves, others remain bogged down by the demands of basic survival, and some focus mainly on status or materialism. Others’ personal growth is limited by obstacles, such as family dynamics, childhood coping mechanisms, physical or emotional illness, or through being beaten down by circumstances or other people.

Most people—even good leaders—have blind spots: areas of their personalities, communication styles, or personal habits that sabotage their leadership influence. When your blind spot negatively affects others’ willingness to follow you, your leadership influence will be diminished. The most effective leaders have studied their blind spots and have been able to alter their behaviors to become more effective. These effective leaders will also be able to adjust to the needs of the team, as we’ll discuss more in the chapters on leading staff (chapters 7–10).

Most of the time, we cannot discover our blind spots without the help of others. It’s often very difficult for leaders to gain self-knowledge because their followers may tell them what they want to hear, rather than what they need to hear. If the leader doesn’t probe, then the leader may think that he or she knows when he or she doesn’t.

Phil Holthouse, founder and managing partner of the top-100 multioffice firm Holthouse, Carlin & Van Trigt LLP in Los Angeles, CA, agrees. “It’s particularly tough for somebody leading a firm or a team to get real, honest, constructive feedback. I think no matter how open you try to make yourself, because you’re the boss, people are reluctant to critique you, and I think you can end up in a little bit of a bubble.”

Gordon Krater, managing partner of the megaregional firm Plante & Moran, PLLC, in Southfield, MI, says

I think knowing yourself is really important because there is a tendency for people to tell you what you want to hear. I saw it with others, and I experienced it myself. I think some of this is unintentional. I think it’s just people trying to curry favor. It’s just how human interaction can be. I insisted our management team go through the psychological testing we offer our clients because I wanted to understand myself and understand what we might be missing as a team.

I think you can be deluded into believing your “press clippings.” If you really don’t know yourself, you are going to lose credibility with the people you are trying to lead. You really have to know yourself because they know you. If your perception is markedly different from others’ perception of reality, then you have a problem.

In most cases, we are born with similar brainpower and the ability to grow into higher beings. As we mature, our self-esteem gets damaged, mainly due to misinformation from those around us, resulting in a lack of self-knowledge. The damage is subtle and keeps piling up, but it can destroy our motivation for self-development.

Keith Farlinger, CEO of the national firm BDO Canada LLP in Toronto, Canada, shares, “Self-awareness is critical to developing as a leader. We have a psychologist who works with our senior managers to help them develop skills to be a partner. So he suggested that we put partners through that same 360-degree process. It’s very, very enlightening. If you understand how other people see you, it’s a very powerful tool to help you change and adapt.”

He learned a great deal about how others perceive him, and it has made a difference in the way he leads his firm, Keith says.

The biggest blind spot that I found is that a lot of the people see me as not all that open, which is kind of strange because I feel like I’m very open. Many times, the strategy is ongoing in my head, and I’m thinking about what I’m going to deal with next. I might walk down the hall thinking I want to have this strategic discussion with someone, and I kind of ignore other people. Along the way, I need to slow down a little bit and interact more with other people who I walk by on a daily basis.

It can be difficult to get staff members to give honest feedback, Keith says, but it is very valuable for individuals and the organization.

We have partners who believe the staff love them, and they’re doing a fantastic job. When we do staff surveys, we find out totally the opposite. Some staff members interpret what the partner is doing as very negative, and we lose good people. So we need to understand ourselves. It’s very difficult because most people don’t want to be honest with you. They don’t want to tell you how they see you, so you just go on and on not knowing yourself and not knowing how people see you.

Tony Argiz, founder, CEO, and managing partner of the megaregional firm Morrison, Brown, Argiz & Farra, LLP, in Miami, FL, shares, “When I first took over the firm in 1997, I lost about 40 percent of my partners in a matter of 12 months. I was too driven and too demanding, so I had to change. Great people are not going to work very long for a dictator. I learned to be careful in the way that I communicated with people.”

The Value of Self-Knowledge

I didn’t start reaching my potential in life until I was nearly 50 years old and discovered the pursuit of self-knowledge. I learned that many of the coping mechanisms I learned as a child were not as effective in adulthood. Psychologist Bill Plotkin describes these coping strategies as loyal soldiers. The strategies were helpful to you when you were young. Much like a soldier is loyal to his brethren, you become loyal to these childish coping mechanisms. They helped us cope with big, scary people when we were children, and we’ve remained loyal to them for many years. In developing greater self-understanding, you must recognize your strengths and weaknesses. Most businesspeople love to talk about their strengths, but don’t like to admit that they have weaknesses.

Jim Metzler, vice president of the AICPA, says

I’m not going to give you any names, but many of us in public accounting are very analytical—some say anal—in which we see things like a spreadsheet. Oftentimes, our own analytical skills overtake our ability to really listen, hear, value, and respect the opinions of others. I have seen many leaders trapped in that typical analytic behavior, which is critically important for accounting and tax.

Through knowledge of self, 360s, and leadership coaching, people get that painful yet important feedback from others. I’ve seen some great changes come from understanding oneself. I’ve seen those analytical skills couple together with listening and consideration skills really make 1+1=10.

Ted Mason, president and CEO of the top-100 firm Laporte Sehrt Romig Hand in New Orleans, LA, shares

Trying to understand what makes myself tick actually started when I was working at a bank. When they were considering moving the internal audit function to the CFO position, I was part of that evaluation process. I was subjected to a psychological evaluation over a two-day period. The result of the evaluation did not surprise. I was aware of my tendency, but it was amazing to me how accurate that information was. To give you an example, I was hard on people; I used to throw hand grenades at partner meetings just for the sake of sport! I was a high-performing line partner and sort of a renegade. I didn’t want to follow policies; I didn’t want to follow procedures; I just wanted to be evaluated on results. Having that attitude, it was easy for me to throw hand grenades, which given what I understand today, some 15 years later, was just an absolutely horrible trait.

One of the first things I recognized when I became managing partner was that my style as a line partner and the director of the audit practice was not going to serve me well. I will tell you I had to have some very serious discussions with some of the other partners. There was a huge concern as to how I would handle the role. Sure, I could demand things, but ultimately, people would never buy in, and so we would ultimately never end up being able to achieve the objectives.

So, I got started with the 360 process myself, then our partner group went through it, and then we implemented the 360 through our entire organization. I have monthly one-to-one coaching with my mentor, where we go through the critical strategic things that we are dealing with. This helps crystallize my thinking.

Jim Metzler says

The thing that I look for first in a high-potential young leader is an emotional maturity to be able to seek feedback from others and make changes to be more effective. They must have an ability to connect with others through relationship skills. The way they make themselves vulnerable, disclose even the weaknesses about themselves, is a connection. I think connection skills are gigantic, and leaders must understand themselves to succeed.

Characteristics of Good Leaders

The first step on the road to achievement is being honest with yourself about yourself. Each of us can achieve more than we have achieved to date by constantly examining our actions and beliefs. The world that we live in changes constantly, but many people are so inflexible in their thinking that they fail to change with the environment. These people get left behind in every aspect of life.

Debbie Lambert, managing partner of the top-100 multioffice firm Johnson Lambert & Co. LLP, in Raleigh, NC, says

As I have learned more about leadership, one of the things I’ve changed is that I’m less directive. When I first became a leader, I tended to tell people what they ought to do. And now, if I’m talking to somebody who’s an office lead, I’m much more collaborative. I sit down, and I hear them describe what’s going on. I go in with an agenda. But clearly listening to their perception of something is information I need first. And then I listen to where they think they’re going with it. Often, things turn out differently than I would have come up with on my own. And it’s usually better.

I know people in their 80s who are young, flexible, and enjoying a successful life. I also know people in their 20s who are so inflexible that they are almost brain dead. Self-knowledge will teach you how you are holding yourself back. When you feel negative, you must work to change your attitude. Negativity is a disease that blocks your progress in life. When Christ expounded the theory of forgiveness, he was speaking about a model for life. If you cannot forgive, you become bitter; bitterness breeds negativity, and negativity is the language of failure.

Self-knowledge is the key to high achievement. Rich Caturano, managing director of RSM McGladrey, Inc., in Boston, MA, says

I have been through all the testing. I have had a personal coach for 7 years. He knows my personality, but he never tells me to do anything; he just gets me to tell myself what the answer is. When I was tested, one of the interesting things that I found out is that I am an introvert. And when I looked at what my goals were in life, I had to realize that introversion was not my path to success. Now, I am able to get up in front of 1.000 people and not be nervous. It doesn’t bother me at all. Natural introversion is my blind spot, and I have to be aware of it all the time.

Even small habits can make a big impact, Rich says. “Through understanding myself better, I also learned I had the bad habit of saying, ‘to tell you the truth’ when I started a sentence. It was just a habit and a throwaway figure of speech. But then a client asked me, ‘So, part of the time, you don’t tell the truth?’”

The best leaders are lifelong learners about themselves: why they think the way they think, and why they act the way they act. Self-knowledge is the most powerful learning one can gain. When the leader is a lifelong learner, others in the organization will be inspired to learn and grow, as well. The most effective leaders are those who realize it’s what you learn after you know it all—after you rise to the top of your profession—that counts most!

The Crisis of Success

When times are great, business leaders and owners are often lulled to sleep by a malady that I’ve termed “a crisis of success.” That simply means that during good times, owners become complacent, arrogant, and greedy. I’m sure there are other results of the good times, but the great leaders focus to avoid being sucked in by the downside.

Another symptom of this crisis is arrogance. When profits are at all-time highs, and clients are standing at the door begging to be served, some accountants develop an extremely overblown sense of self-worth. These business leaders appear on podiums and talk about how “I” did this or that. But just as the best leaders give credit to others, here they tell everyone that the reason we are in this up cycle is not something we’ve done. They are saying things like, “It’s the new legislation,” or “We didn’t do this, and we are planning for the next downturn.”

Greed shows its ugly head in the compensation plans that partners use to distribute all the money that is being made. Another subtle way that greed manifests itself is through the endless 2,500-work-hour years posing as diligence. Partners’ pay plans zoom out of control.

When the economy is in an up cycle, or Congress has passed one of those laws that puts millions of accountants to work (like the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002), many partners forget about the inevitable busts that come along every so often. While some partners are celebrating the good results of their firm, the effective leader is in the background thinking about how to prepare for the next down business cycle.

It is during the good times that accounting firms have available funds to invest in planning, training, reserves, building infrastructure, upgrading the IT systems, building a brand, building strong relationships with clients, and preparing for the downturn that will come. Unfortunately, over the last 20 years of consulting with firms, I’ve not seen one business plan that anticipated a down cycle.

“You can do your best work as a leader in the good economic times because you lay a solid foundation. It doesn’t get recognized until the bad times,” says Steve Mayer, founder, chairman, and CEO of the regional firm Burr, Pilger & Mayer LLP in San Francisco, CA.

In the bad times, you have to make the toughest decisions, and I think that’s where you have to steady the course. I think that the true leaders did phenomenal things in the worst possible circumstances. In the difficult times, you have to focus people on the good times ahead. Some of the most accomplished people fell on their butts and did nothing in the worst times. They were so used to winning that they never knew what losing was about. You know, even though we’ve grown, the last two years at our firm have been terribly trying in the sense of trying to motivate people: getting partners to agree to invest in the future in what I call R&D. We’ve brought on, I think, six or seven partners—hired direct partners—over the last two years and explained to everybody that this is an investment; this is going to help us in the future. And I think our firm right now is poised to do great things.

It can be hard to focus on preparation for the worst when times seem good, Mayer says.

One of the most difficult tasks is to keep your key partners from becoming complacent during the great times. One of the things I’ve learned is that the partners who attracted a lot of work during the good times gave it to other people and then went out and picked up some more work; they’re doing great now because they’re in shape to do that. But the partners who just held on to their clients, they’re not refreshed, and they don’t know how to attract work and delegate it.

There’s a lifecycle for a client. Let’s say you keep clients for an average of five years—just as a theoretical concept. If you have your same clients for five years, and you do nothing, at the end of five years, you’re going to have less business. But if you take those same clients, and every year, you give a couple to somebody else, so they get refreshed, and they get a five-year term going, and then you go out and get some new ones, you’re always going to be fairly busy. But people who hoard work lose business during the down times.

Building Leadership Ability for Better Effectiveness

Leadership determines a firm’s effectiveness, and leadership ability determines a person’s level of effectiveness. John Maxwell refers to the leadership lid. He says that a leader whose leadership ability is a 4 (on a scale of 1–10) will not attract anyone to his firm higher than a 3. What is your level of leadership ability? If you want to raise your entire organization or team, raise your own ability, and the total effectiveness of your team will also rise.

Though many of us would like to think otherwise, Maxwell says you can only improve so much through dedication and hard work. Accountants are hard workers. Do you fall into that category? If you are a 9 in the hard work department, there isn’t much improvement you can make in the effectiveness of your team by working harder. You must improve your leadership ability.

The higher you want to climb in your team and firm, the more leadership ability you will need. Becoming the best businessperson you can be is complicated. You probably have a busy life filled with work, family, social life, and other activities. It’s difficult to find time to do everything. By understanding yourself, you’ll know what you need to work on to be efficient and focused in your efforts.

Commit to the Process

In Malcolm Gladwell’s book, Outliers: The Story of Success, Gladwell theorized that if you invest 10,000 hours in something, you will master it. When accountants complete approximately 7 years of audit, tax, or consulting experience, they have achieved approximately 10,000 hours of billable time. Why, then, do we think we can simply read a book, take a class, or watch someone else lead in order for us to learn to lead?

The question is, Do you want to know about leadership, or do you want to learn to lead? If you want to learn to really lead, you will set yourself on a path to invest 10,000 hours in learning and leading over the next 5–10 years. Perhaps you’ve already begun the process. If so, then keep at learning to lead and attracting clients to your firm. (Don’t get me wrong, you can develop habits, such as listening, reinforcing people more, or getting 360 feedback, that can quickly help your leadership, as well.)

Rick Dreher, CEO of the megaregional firm Wipfli LLP in Green Bay, WS, pushes partners and their staff to find and nurture the area of the business where they are strongest.

My first 100 days as managing partner, I went out and sat with every one of our partners. The most important question I asked them was “Where’s your passion? Don’t tell me what you have to do when you walk through the front door on a daily basis; tell me what you want to do. Where’s your passion?”

I explained to our partners, the goal was a mindset: if I can find your passion, you will work, and you will never tire; you will work relentlessly; you will work with blinders on. You’re happy and fulfilled. And you think that’s not contagious in our hallways?

Opening Up for Growth

Nobody likes to admit, much less focus on, their weaknesses. Yet, when you gain self-knowledge—both appreciating your strengths and confronting your weaknesses—you are opening up new possibilities for growth and advancement in your career. So, be receptive to self-knowledge. Rather than being uncomfortable with facing your weaknesses, be willing to consider the information in a positive and constructive way. When weaknesses are identified, it doesn’t mean that you’re incapable of performing well. It may be that you haven’t had to use these skills in your current position, or you’ve been able to hide them with your strengths. Self-knowledge gives you the power to makes changes in those weaknesses. It will enable you to understand your strengths and weaknesses and plot a course to maximally leverage both to achieve your goals.

If you want to know your strengths and weaknesses in material areas of your work (for example, preparing corporate financials), they are usually quite evident on paper (or monitor). However, the psychological, leadership, and social aspects of the business world are neither tangible nor easily measured. Self-knowledge is required to discern our needs in this realm.

Ray Strothman, managing partner of the local firm Strothman & Company, PSC, in Louisville, KY, says, “When we did a 360-degree employee survey, I learned some things about myself that I didn’t know. I had a tendency to put off the things that were difficult to do. I would delay calling back a client until I had the full answer. It’s easy to put it off.”

Ken Baggett, co-managing partner of the national firm CohnReznick LLP, says that he has learned a great deal about himself through his firm’s formal self-development program, including both personal strengths and weaknesses in his work habits and communication style. “Not everyone has my drive. Not everyone has my initiative,” he says. “I love people. I have always been a people person. And when you enjoy others, it’s sometimes hard to deliver that direct, straight, tough message.

I tend to forget I spend a lot of time and energy thinking on a subject before bringing it up to my partners. For others, when I bring up an item, this may be the first moment they’ve ever been introduced to the idea. In my impatience, I want them to catch up quickly, and I have to sometimes take that deep breath and say, “Okay guys, what don’t you know?” I’ll review things thoroughly and give people time to process.

They’re required to go through a pretty extensive psychological evaluation and selfawareness and a structure. It is a very detailed 360 assessment where you pick a boss, 3 peers, and 4 subordinates. Everyone answers 70–80 different questions on you to really kind of assess your strengths, your weaknesses, your style, your personality—things of that nature. You also then do a self-assessment.

You then spend a full day in Ann Arbor in Dr. Joe’s office. You usually get there the evening before; you start about 8:30 AM, and you go on till about 5:00 PM. And at the end of that day, you have covered your life. He doesn’t start out with reviewing the report with you. He starts out like if you are in any other psychologist’s office. He starts out with a blank piece of paper and says, “So, tell me about how it was growing up.”

You walk out of there with probably four or five action plans. You’re required to go back to your entire 360 group, collectively, and say to them, “Here is what I have learned; here is what I’m going to work on, and I’d like you to help me be held accountable to those changes.”

Sometimes, how you act around your peers or your boss is much different than how you react to the people who work for you. There is a natural instinct to that, obviously. So, I think there is a lot more insight that comes out of the people below you than there is above you.

Build on Strengths or Improve Your Weaknesses?

Terry Harris, managing partner of McKonly & Asbury LLP in Harrisburg, PA, says

I am a big fan of a strength-based organization and strength-based leadership. One of the most influential books that I have read was Marcus Buckingham’s book First, Break All The Rules. To this day, it is required reading for our team. From that book and successor books from the Gallup organization on strengths, we developed a culture that focused on individual self-awareness, with each person discovering their strengths. Each member of our team takes the StrengthFinder 2.0 assessment, and that is shared among all team members. It is part of how each team member approaches their individual goals in the performance evaluation process. We fundamentally agree with Buckingham’s premise that greater growth will be achieved by focusing on strengths rather than on weaknesses. Having said that, we also believe that it is a mistake to ignore any work on weaknesses.

As part of my own journey of self-awareness, several tools have been helpful. First, the StrengthFinder assessment has given me insight into my natural talents, which for me are primarily relational. Some other tools that have helped me understand my leadership style, communication style, and decision-making process are the Myers-Briggs, FIRO-B assessment tools, and the Team Dimensions Profile.

I believe more in dealing with both. I believe that the “focus on your strengths” model will actually limit your climb up the leadership ladder. Buckingham himself worked hard to improve a weakness. When he was young, he had a serious speech impediment. He worked hard at overcoming this serious weakness and has turned this weakness into a great strength because he is a very effective public speaker.

Most businesspeople think that they’re as good as their greatest strengths. For example, an audit manager may believe that her financial and analytic capabilities will enable her to one day become an audit partner. The truth is, however, that you are only as good as your biggest weakness. If the audit manager lacks leadership and communication skills, her specialized abilities will only take her so far.

Improving your strengths has a ceiling effect. If you work really hard to improve yourself, you can only get so much better. But you will get more bang for your buck when you focus on improving your weaknesses.

Think of business strengths and weaknesses as a mathematical equation. If you are an 8 at tax planning, but you are below average at communicating with clients (say a 4), then your overall performance would be moderate (12 out of a possible 20). If you focus on and improve your tax planning capabilities (say, from 8 to 9), you wouldn’t improve significantly overall because you were already a capable tax planner (9+4=13). But if you improve your client communication abilities (say, from 4 to 7), then your overall performance would rise significantly (8+7=15). The more you improve your weaknesses, the better you’ll be able to function as a leader, and the more prepared you’ll be for advancement toward ownership in your firm.

Phil Holthouse agrees that improving a weakness can make a big difference in your effectiveness.

I think most of the people of my generation are not terrifically current on technology and not as facile with it as the 23-year-olds that are coming out of college. I think it’s a mistake if people in our positions within the firm don’t force themselves to try to get decent at that stuff, even if we’re never going to be as good at it as somebody who really grew up with a cell phone in their hand.

Internal performance reviews, like 360-reviews, are critical as well, Holthouse says.

If you had a client that wasn’t thrilled with your services, would you want to know? Absolutely you’d want to know, so you could try to fix it. And if your management style isn’t going over real well, wouldn’t you want to know? You can use 360 reviews as a launching pad for a constructive conversation about specific things you could do to improve in those areas. So, shift the dialog from, “My score was low,” to, “How could we collectively do better in this area?”

Experience Matters

Do people ever know enough about themselves to determine the direction of their career journey? Historical self-knowledge—understanding the past experiences and influences that led to one’s current level of development—is a key to shaping the future. Ask any first-time job seekers the main reason why employers rejected them, and they will tell you, “Lack of experience.” Though this may seem unfair to the student who has worked hard in school, it should not be a surprise that employers value experienced workers. Experience is integral to knowing and understanding oneself and how one relates to different situations, circumstances, and roles.

Building Self-Knowledge

Self-knowledge is simply a matter of understanding yourself and knowing what makes you tick. Each of us is a unique individual, and not one of us is perfect. The first step to achieving what you are capable of is to know yourself and to be aware of all your strengths and weaknesses. The more you understand yourself, the more powerful your self-development.

Self-awareness may in itself be a necessary condition for self-knowledge to be sought after and developed in the first place. It requires a greater level of awareness for a person to become truly self-aware. It is the knowledge of one’s self and properties and the desire to seek such knowledge that guide the development of the self concept. Self-knowledge informs us of our mental representations of ourselves, which contain attributes that we uniquely pair with ourselves and theories on whether these attributes are stable or dynamic.

True self-knowledge requires a lifelong journey. Sometimes, some extreme events or emotions can reveal new corners of our minds. I believe that it’s possible to acquire such knowledge from different sources: from thinking in solitude or from communicating with other people. All the paths to self-knowledge are important to understand ourselves thoroughly.

Self-Knowledge Through Interaction With Others

Leadership requires on-the-spot interaction with people. Communication with other people is a very powerful tool to learn about new emotions, such as love or hate; therefore, it helps to investigate our own characters more completely.

Scott Dietzen, managing partner, Northwest Region, of the national accounting firm CliftonLarsonAllen LLP in Spokane, WA, says his wife pointed out a bad communication habit of his: he would continue to mentally process a disagreement he’d had earlier while he was speaking with someone else.

In a meeting, it would be so obvious on my face. Sometimes, I would even start to mouth the words [rethinking the earlier conversation], and she would realize what was happening. She would say, “Who are you arguing with?” and I would realize that I had carried over a prior discussion. I was trying to defend my position, and it had so taken over my being that I was letting it influence other relationships. And so I have to be very aware of continuing to process something from a body language standpoint or my facial expressions.

Larry Autrey, managing partner of the top-100 firm Whitley Penn LLP in Ft. Worth, TX, also feels that self-evaluation is critical here, and he is aware of some of his characteristics that his own partners would regard as weaknesses. “I would acknowledge the fact that I may not have all of the details that some other person may when I needed to make a decision. But I went ahead and made a decision without all the facts, and you know, I have some partners who that really bothers,” Larry says.

I think about it, but I’ve not changed it. I’m okay with making quicker decisions, and a leader must be willing to do that; otherwise, the firm will be gridlocked. I have been more careful around them and saying it openly as I had done in the past. But I’m not sure I actually changed that trait of mine. I have heard it referred to as making a “Marine decision.” My tendency is don’t spend three weeks gathering facts. Make a decision with whatever facts you have got in front of you.

The Undeniable Link: Lifelong Self-Learning and Leadership

Gary Confessore, Ed.D, is an adult learning expert, professor emeritus of higher education at George Washington University, and principal and owner at the consulting firm Human Resources Development Enterprises in suburban Washington. The opportunity to apply new self-knowledge on the job is one of the most underrecognized, yet most influential, motivators among adult learners, but Gary says that employers often underestimate its power. “Because the opportunity to use new knowledge on the job is so motivating, unexpected leaders often emerge from the shadows when given practical training opportunities that build their self-awareness,” says Gary.

We usually say, “It’s important for you to learn these skills because ….” The employer provides the motivation to learn. That approach encourages dependent learners; I provide the motivation for you to learn, and you depend upon a teacher or system to organize learning events.

But that approach doesn’t account for the person’s motivation in the natural state. Natural motivation is really important. After a lifetime of going through K–12, college, and corporate education, we almost lose the habits and skills of being active learners in which we look at our situation and say, “The world is changing rapidly, but I need to not only stay abreast of the latest skills but ahead of the curve.” Instead, people reach a point when they say, “I need to catch up.” But if they want to stay ahead of the curve, that support system doesn’t exist. Conventional systems take too long to get ahead of the curve.

Firms often mistakenly assume that the professional’s motive to learn is job security, advancement, and professional compliance, when, in fact, the opportunity to attain new heights of leadership effectiveness is usually the more powerful motivator.

Because it’s practically impossible to identify lifelong self-learners in the hiring process, it’s almost impossible to identify who will be a future leader during the hiring process, Gary adds. “There’s a disjunction between the behavioral intentions you’d seek and the likelihood that you’ll discover them before hiring,” he says.

Don’t try to find out if they’re leaders beforehand. Hire them and see their strengths. Accounting firm executives understand that you have to provide CPE, that you can’t just get an accounting degree and say, “You’re trained forever.” But the parallel they have to ask is, “Is this individual likely to be a lifelong learner who takes advantage of the opportunities we present them?” It’s not just a matter of training but the intentions of the participants.

Other research shows that leaders of successful professional services firms perceive themselves as lifelong learners. For example, a 2004 study of CEOs at large American real estate companies found that self-identification as a lifelong learner was the number one common theme to which they attributed their success. The CEOs recognized that their job success requires a dedication to being a lifelong learner because continuous learning enables them to deal with the ongoing challenges in business. They also collectively believed that taking advantage of opportunities for continuous learning was one of the most important reasons that they were successful in business. They used phrases such as “learning faster than competitors” and “being a quick study” to express concepts that made them love their profession. Participants in the study agreed that with the development of new technologies, new laws, and constant restructuring of companies, they must continue to adapt and learn in order to remain successful. They actively sought robust training programs to obtain and develop new skills.

Another common characteristic was their shared appreciation for expertise, both in themselves and others. Participants in the study agreed that the accumulation of knowledge through experience and practice enabled them to become experts in the real estate business. They actively sought opportunities to continue learning from professionals in other fields.

Self-Knowledge for a Fulfilled Life

Bob Hottman, CEO of the top-100 firm Ehrhardt Keefe Steiner & Hottman PC (EKS&H) in Denver, CO, believes

Self-renewal is about recognizing you need a good work-life success. You need to be successful at home, as well as at work. If it’s all about work and never about your home life, you’re not going be a balanced individual, and you’re not going to do your family any good.

Any time somebody has any kind of family issues that are significant, the first thing we do is we step in and let them know that the most important thing to them right now is the family. We’ll take care of all their other needs with the clients and everything else, but it’s important that they get that figured out, and we’ll work with them to do that. When they see our support, their commitment back to the firm is exponential.

Hugh Parker, executive partner of the regional firm Horne LLP in Jackson, MS, says

When I was about 18 years old, I was engaged in some bad behavior, not unlike any teenager. My granddad said, “You know son, when you make a decision, you need to be sure that that’s a decision you can sleep with when you go to bed tonight.” In other words, he was telling me that my actions should integrate with my sense of what is right or wrong.

I’ve recently experienced an “aha” moment, where one of my direct report team members came in during a normal meeting and moved into a discussion about how he was looking at life and his direction. He said that one of the things he might consider was leaving the firm. For me that was an “aha” moment about our culture and the level of trust that person had in me. He was able to tell me that it was just something he was exploring. For me, it was a huge moment in that it really demonstrated the value of respecting people.

One of the major difficulties in leading an accounting firm is we have trouble in separating our roles. The owners of an accounting firm have trouble in separating the roles from that of the owner and that of one who provides services to clients.

Do you have your share of leadership awareness? If the answer is no, then you may not be achieving your potential and have given somebody else your share. Start looking at your own self-development and asking some pertinent questions. You must take responsibility for your own path in life.

The only thing stopping you from reaching your full potential is self-knowledge: knowing what makes you tick and divining the direction you will go.

Ted Mason shares

One of things that I discovered in my self-assessment was that I have a tendency to not be in the moment and not be focused on the issue at hand. So now, I work very hard to discipline myself to do be in the moment in every meeting. I put a couch, chair, and coffee table in my office. Whenever there is an issue somebody comes in they want to talk about, I make it a point to get out from behind my desk, and we discuss the issue in more of a living-room-type setting. That’s one of those self-triggering mechanisms that forces me to be disciplined and stay in the moment and truly focus on the conversation at hand.

Conclusion

Studies show that people who lead happy and successful lives make full use of their talents and strengths. Most of us are so preoccupied with our busy routines that we operate on autopilot. We often don’t know why we do what we do because we are driven by unrecognized impulses, preoccupations, and emotions.

Human beings are complex creatures, often wonderful, but sometimes perverse and sometimes destructive. Along with all our good qualities, there is a dark side to the human makeup. Though each of us is unique, we all share certain basic characteristics that have evolved with us and become hardwired (such as egotism, aggression, competitiveness, and tribalism). Knowing what these are can help us control them in ourselves and predict or forgive them in others.

It is not possible for individuals to meet all of their own needs. To develop our individual potential, we need close, supportive relationships. The greatest pleasure comes from our association with other people. We need each other, but we also can confuse, disappoint, and hurt each other.

To reach our potential, we need to develop such things as maturity, motivation, serenity, self-esteem, healthy boundaries, clear thinking, creativity, autonomy, and much more. As a leader, you have a great opportunity to help yourself and those around you develop fuller lives as more complete people.