Chair's Message - Leadership
Next month, we (my apologies to our neighbors to the north, who while not eligible to vote in US elections, are still very valuable members of the CPAFMA) will elect our 45th President of the United States. Years ago I had the pleasure of meeting Doris Kearns Goodwin, the best-selling author and noted presidential historian and she offered several lessons for today’s leaders, including you and I, that are common denominators among some of her bibliographers:
- Share the glory by giving team members an opportunity to claim credit.
- Build strong connections and make people feel they have skin in the game.
- Learn from your mistakes, acknowledge shortcomings and strive for continuous improvement.
- Know yourself and find your own sources of strength.
- Identify, recruit and effectively manage the best and brightest people, including people unlike yourself.
- Use inspiring language; if you can’t communicate, you can possess all the other attributes and still fail to make a positive impact.
So be the best leader…be the best firm manager…be the best at whatever you do. And don’t forget to vote on November 8th.
National Practice Management Conference
The 2017 National Practice Management Conference Planning Committee (Larry Sheftel (Director of Education), Ann White, Kim Fantaci and Julie Giacobbe) and your Board of Directors have been busy planning next year’s conference. More information will be forthcoming but please make sure you have your dates reserved. The conference will be in Fort Worth (ranked the number one downtown in the country) the week of June 19. Our theme is Deep in the Heart of Texas and you won’t want to miss what we have in store for you.
AAAPM to become PAFM
See the article on this change later in this newsletter and don’t forget that once you have earned this honor, it means you pay less for the National Practice Management Conference and you can attend MAPCasts for free.
CPAFMA and its Strategic Plan
On Sunday, August 14, your Board of Directors spent the entire day working to refine our Strategic Plan under the very capable leadership of one of our Advisory Board Members, Bill Reeb (our other Advisory Board member is Roman Kepczyk).
The top 5 strategic items we will address in the coming months include (in no particular order):
1) Evaluate the organization’s leadership structure to engage members, develop new leaders and accomplish more.
2) Find more ways to engage our members through mediums that are relevant.
3) Communicate and enhance our value proposition.
4) Leverage and expand our alliances to increase our market.
5) Enhance, elevate and advocate the CPAFMA/PAFM brand.
If you have any comments, suggestions or questions please feel free to contact me.
Thank You
Thank you to all of our members who have contributed time and ideas to make the CPAFMA better. We need your input and we want your input. This is your organization…make it better! Thanks to all of you who participate in the Q&A FM. If you are not reading and posting your questions and answers on Q&AFM you are missing out on potential answers to some of the issues you deal with every day within your firm. Get involved!
You can reach me at rbiddle@bowmanllp.com.