It always has been a little perplexing to figure out what exactly makes a top-notch firm administrator. Well-run concepts has been conducting research to quantify what is needed in the position of firm administrator today by defining these key areas:
• Attributes: personal skills or competencies
• Values: rewards and culture
• Behaviors: how they do the job
We used a comprehensive, validated, step-by-step process called the Trimetrix™ system to determine what is needed for top performance. This article will summarize our findings to date and here is what we found.
Attributes tells us if an individual can do the job by looking at what personal skills or competencies are needed in the job of firm administrator.
The top seven attributes are:
1. Self Management: the ability to prioritize and complete tasks in order to deliver desired outcomes within allotted time frames.
• Independently pursues business objectives in an organized and efficient manner
• Prioritizes activities as necessary to meet job responsibilities
• Maintains required level of activity toward achieving goals without direct supervision
• Minimizes work flow disruptions and time wasters to complete high quality work within a specified time frame
2. Results Orientation: the ability to identify actions necessary to complete tasks and obtain results.
• Maintains focus on goals
• Identifies and acts on removing potential obstacles to successful goal attainment
• Implements thorough and effective plans and applies appropriate resources to produce desired results
• Follows through on all commitments to achieve results
3. Objective Listening: the ability to listen to many points of view without bias.
• Values others’ points of view
• Regularly solicits input from others and listens to them without interrupting
• Represents others’ points of view impartially
• Verifies understanding of others’ feedback
4. Leading Others: the ability to organize and motivate people to accomplish goals while creating a sense of order and direction
• Inspires others with a compelling vision
• Empowers others to accomplish common goals
• Represents a positive, motivational example for others to emulate in becoming leaders
• Supports others through providing clarity, direction, organization and purpose
5. Problem Solving: the ability to identify key components of a problem to formulate a solution or solutions.
• Analyzes all data relative to a problem
• Divides complex issues into simpler components in order to achieve clarity
• Selects the best options available to solve specific problems
• Applies all relevant resources to implement suitable solutions
6. Teamwork: the ability to cooperate with others to meet objectives.
• Discards personal agenda to cooperate with other team members in meeting objectives
• Contributes positively and productively to team projects
• Builds and sustains a trust relationship with each member of the team
• Supports other team members and team decisions
7. Flexibility: the ability to readily modify, respond to and integrate change with minimal personal resistance.
• Adapts effectively to changing plans and priorities
• Demonstrates the capacity to handle multiple tasks at one time
• Deals comfortably with ambiguity
• Adjusts preset plans as necessary with minimal resistance
Values make up the next critical success factor needed, which tells us why an individual will do the job or, in other words, what rewards & cultures are they seeking on the job.
The top three values are:
1. Theoretical
Rewards those who value knowledge for knowledge’s sake, continuing education and intellectual growth.
2. Traditional/Regulatory
Rewards those who value traditions inherent in social structure, rules, regulations and principles.
3. Utilitarian/Economic
Rewards those who value practical accomplishments, results and rewards for their investments of time, resources and energy.
Behaviors tell us how an individual will perform the job. We analyzed which of the behaviors an individual should possess to perform well in the job of firm administrator. This is very important information to know in understanding communication styles.
The Top Three Behaviors are:
1. Urgency
The job requires decisiveness, quick response, fast action. It will often be involved in critical situations demanding that on-the-spot decisions be made with good judgment. The job will repeatedly face important deadlines that must be met on time.
2. Versatility
The job calls for a high level of optimism and a “can do” orientation. It will. Require multiple talents and a willingness to adapt them to changing assignments as required.
3. Frequent Change
The job requires a comfort level with “Juggling many balls in the air at the same time!” It will be asked to leave several tasks unfinished, and easily move on to new tasks with little or no notice.
Now that we have a clear picture of what the firm administrator job looks like, i would like to ask you this…
• If you are a firm administrator, do you have these critical success factors mastered? If not, what’s your plan to develop them?
• If you are CPA firm, how are you currently measuring the talent in your firm today?
• Do they have the above named attributes, values and behaviors?
• If so, great! You are ahead of the competition!
• If not, how will you develop them or better yet, select talent that already
Has it?
Here are a few suggestions to get you started:
• If you want to know for sure, then run a personal talent profile on yourself or your staff. Then match the results to the benchmark of the firm administrator job in this article.
• If you have a unique culture in your firm, you may want to be more specific and run a Trimetrix™ job benchmark with your own stakeholders. Then you can match your talent to your unique culture.
Either way, if you are not assessing your talent now, how can you meet the challenges of today’s evolving cpa firms clients needs?
Well-run concepts would like to work with you to develop a scientifically validated system for defining, selecting and developing top talent for your company.
