Resetting Clear Expectations During Busy Season

Hey 👋 - Brandon here.

Happy Saturday to 1,524 growth-minded accountants.

Here’s one growth tip for you and your firm.

Today’s issue takes less than 4 minutes to read.

I didn’t have time this week to map out this newsletter issue.

So I’m going to reinforce a topic I recently discussed:

Setting expectations.

I’ve spoken to three firm owners over the past couple of weeks who are struggling with their tax staff production. Each believe their staff are doing a good job but the firms have a ton of work stacking up…

Why can’t the staff see that and step up?

When digging into the issue with them, I helped them realize it’s not an employee problem… it’s a leadership problem. The firm owners asked their staff “what does success look like” and didn’t receive answers that aligned with their expectations.

But that’s because the expectations had changed and weren’t effectively communicated.

At the beginning of tax season, the firm owners laid out a plan to get through the work. Each staff was provided production goals and the expectations were clear.

But even the best plans fail.

Now it’s middle of tax season, clients didn’t upload timely, the tax bill is messing up process, and projects are stacking up. With the expected production through 4/15, these firm owners can’t see how to get all the work done.

Interestingly, for 2 of the 3 firm owners, the staff are still meeting their original expectations set at the beginning of busy season.

What do you do in this situation?

1. Immediately reset expectations with your team. Own the fact that you didn’t plan well and this is not because they are failing.

2. Confirm every employee understands the new expectations.

3. Consider buying employees a nice appreciation gift/service.

4. Jump into the fray and help move projects forward.

If you are an avid reader of my weekly newsletter, you know I’m not an advocate of #4 (leadership doing client work).

It is the lowest form of leverage you have over your time.

But in a case like this, you need to lead from the front. Preparing and reviewing returns will reinforce your message of “I screwed up the planning and I’m going to try to fix it” - your team will rally around you even if they are displeased with the additional work load.

In the future, use this data set to build on when devising your staffing plan. Predict the points of failure for your busy season plan and develop a plan of attack to survive them.

You will get through this and be better for it.

That's all for this Saturday. See you next week.

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See you again next week.

Cheers,

Brandon

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