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Addressing Common Objections to Remote and Hybrid Work

Challenged with firm leaders or team members who aren’t convinced remote or blended work will work? ConvergenceCoaching facilitators and remote-work experts address the common objections that impede the move to a more-remote environment. In this session we'll discuss strategies for addressing objections including:

• Understanding the latest market drivers causing firms to embrace the remote and blended paradigm
• How to manage a remote or blended workforce
• Why remote resources are productive and how to communicate this to your team
• How to train and develop remote resources
• How to maintain firm culture in a remote or hybrid environment

Attend this course to increase buy-in of remote and hybrid work at your firm!

Anticipate the Market – Today’s Trends Affecting You Tomorrow

The market is dynamic and fast-moving, and it’s our job as leaders to stay abreast of the changes that will have the biggest impact on our firm, team and clients. When we anticipate the hard and soft trends ahead, we can develop strategies to lead our team to capitalize on those changes. Which trends should you plan to address in the current year and beyond? Join us to explore:

• The most important trends in three areas – Talent, Technology and Client Experience – paired with insight on how firms are anticipating and addressing them
• Strategies for prioritizing your firm’s efforts in each of the three areas to facilitate real change and prevent overwhelm
• Methods for staying current on trends going forward

Leave this session with ideas for anticipating and maximizing market trends as you plan for the future!

Avoiding Common Remote and Blended Work Pitfalls

Want to ensure that you firm's remote or blended work strategy is a viable, long-term solution for your firm? Join this interactive discussion facilitated by remote-work experts from ConvergenceCoaching, LLC. Together we’ll prioritize and address the common pitfalls that impede the move to a more-remote environment. After completing this course, you will be able to:

• Identify the mindset and strategies that allow leaders to manage a team they can’t always see
• List common misconceptions about productivity and recognize the importance of creating new measures
• Recognize the strategies that will accelerate learning and growth in a remote or blended environment
• List specific approaches that will protect your culture and have your people feel connected to one another no matter where they work

Attend this session to expand your ability to overcome the common remote and blended work obstacles!

Becoming an Inspiring, Difference-Making Coach

Are you doing all that you can to motivate your talent and provide feedback in ways that are meaningful to them? Coaches that provide motivational and engaging experiences with timely, specific feedback will win in the recruiting-and-retention race. In this session, you will:

• Understand the role of a coach and strategies to make it successful for all involved
• Identify strategies to build rapport with your coachees and questions to ask to learn their motivators, interests and desires
• Recall the fundamentals of delegation and discuss different strategies that lead to accountability including effective goal setting
• Generate ways to deliver feedback to help your coachees thrive

Leave this session prepared to motivate and inspire team members who partner with you to drive firm results!

Building a Truly Progressive, NextGen Firm

With impending succession and the proliferation of automation, the profession is facing unprecedented change. Firms are challenged to now focus on the dreams, goals and desires of their multi-generational team members and clients. Leaders who recognize this shift and drive cultural change stand the best chance of remaining relevant, competitive and sustainable. Together, we’ll explore strategies to proactively prepare for and drive changes to ensure your competitive advantage        :

• Learn engaging leadership cultural attributes centered around letting go, “getting better,” being open to change and failing forward
• Understand the three big factors driving change inside your firm: demographic shifts in talent, driving changes in client expectations, shifts in talent and the next technology revolution
• Discover strategies to empower and engage NextGen while still embracing traditional team members and clients

Leave this session with ideas and tools to build a culture that inspires, excites and makes NextGen talent and clients proud to work at – or with — your firm.

Building a Truly Progressive, Talent-Forward Firm

With all that’s happened in the last few years, the profession is facing unprecedented change. Firms are challenged to now integrate the dreams, goals, and desires of their talent into their core firm strategy. Leaders who drive cultural change stand the best chance of being a destination firm for high-potential talent. Attend this highly interactive, discussion-based session to explore strategies to engage, empower and develop your talent. After completion of this course, you’ll be able to:

• Identify critical cultural components that today’s talent are seeking, including a leadership culture centered on getting better, letting go, being open to change, and failing forward
• Recognize how embracing the changes facing our firms - remote and blended work, flexibility, technology, business model shifts, and new ways of learning to bring future leaders along faster - can create higher levels of engagement

Leave this session with ideas to shift your firm’s culture and identify new strategic priorities that inspire, empower, and retain your talent, providing a bright future for your firm.

Capacity Issues? Rightsize Your Client Base

Across the profession, firms are facing tremendous opportunity yet have limited capacity to capitalize on it. Capacity-building strategies are available but take precious time and resources to plan and implement. There is, however, one strategy that everyone can implement immediately to significantly improve capacity before their next busy season - reducing your firm’s client load. Together, we’ll explore the reasons to take this on and share tried and true strategies to support a more successful client reduction initiative. The learning objectives for this course are to:

• List the six reasons why culling is the right strategy for your firm, your leaders, your team members, and even your clients
• Recognize how to get started quickly and impactfully with timing and an approach that honors relationships with long-standing clients
• Identify strategic communication strategies and consistent position statements to protect your brand and reputation in your communities
• Recognize potential barriers that might get in the way of a culling initiative and how to proactively overcome them

A client reduction strategy isn’t easy yet it’s the fastest way to create capacity while demonstrating your commitment to improve the work life of your increasingly weary team members. Leave this session prepared to expand your capacity immediately!

Client Advisor Program™ (CAP)

Duration: Five remote roundtables over 4 months

Format: REMOTE

Who Should Participate: Experienced managers, senior managers and partners who control and manage client relationships and have some business development experience

CPE: Up to 12 credit hours in the areas of Personal Development and Communications & Marketing

Class Size: 14 participants

In this dynamic and uncertain market, clients require a different level of service to support their business continuity and financial well-being. Their needs demand more than our compliance deliverables, providing information and guidance to help them make swift decisions as they manage cash, pivot their business models, and navigate staffing, technology and other infrastructure changes. To make the shift to a truly strategic client advisor, you’ll have to shed old ideas and habits and develop both your advisory skills and an advisory approach to engagements.

The ConvergenceCoaching Client Advisor Program™ (CAP) is an entirely remote, modular program designed to teach experienced CPAs and consultants advisory skills and strategies to deepen their client relationships, broaden the support they provide clients beyond compliance services and ultimately make a bigger difference in the lives and businesses of their clients.

The program seeks to teach CPAs and consultants how to identify their ideal clients for advisory and coaching services and implement various strategies and frameworks to develop deep rapport with clients, engage in query to uncover needs and to develop, scope, and price solutions, too. CAP participants will partake in five, web-based video roundtables covering a range of client-centric topics. After each roundtable, participants will complete specific homework assignments related to the ideas covered and will report back on their outcomes to experienced coaches who will provide them feedback. The result is participants become more indispensable to clients and drive growth with every module mastered.

Click here to learn more about the CAP.

ConvergenceCoaching^®, LLC Leadership Development Program for Seniors and Supervisors™

CPE: Up to 13 credit hours in the areas of Personal Development and Marketing and Communications

ConvergenceCoaching^®, LLC Leadership Development Program for Seniors and Supervisors™ is an opportunity for seniors and supervisors in accounting and consulting firms to learn foundational leadership skills and grow their personal effectiveness and productivity. Over the course of seven weeks, participants will engage in four live remote roundtables and one self-study course on the following topics:

Leading From the Middle We all influence others, regardless of our roles. Every day, you have the opportunity to engage and inspire others, just by who you are being. Are you being the type of leader you would want to follow? Attend this session to explore ways to elevate your leadership, including:

• Becoming self-aware  by exploring your strengths and shortcomings and how you manage yourself accordingly
• Learning how to solicit and embrace feedback on your performance so that you can grow
• Understanding your role and gaining confidence in being a senior or supervisor in your firm
• Leading with generosity and operating from a leadership mindset

Leave this session with enhanced emotional intelligence to step up your leadership game!

Creating a Culture of Ownership on Your Jobs In your role, you're likely both the giver and receiver of delegated tasks. When you exhibit and convey ownership of assignments, you produce and achieve so much more than the expected results! Attend this session to:

• Explore ways to exhibit ownership on your assigned tasks and within your role
• Learn a method for effectively delegating to and receiving delegation from others
• Understand ways to take ownership for your career progression

Complete this segment ready to convey ownership to others so you can take on more yourself.

Becoming an Excellent Communicator There is no such thing as a silent leader. If you want to influence others and make your ideas heard, you must be able to effectively communicate. If you want to address what's important to others, listening is critical, too. In this session, we'll:

• Identify strategies for actively listening so that you learn from what you hear
• Understand methods for communicating more effectively to ensure your message gets across, especially in a remote or blended environment
• Recognize common pitfalls in verbal and written communication
• Learn one method for delivering feedback constructively to others

Leave this session with actions you can begin immediately to increase your impact as a leader.

Increasing Your Professional Visibility and Reach Building relationships early in your career provides you numerous benefits. You're more likely to have influence over the types of clients you work with, deeper client relationships, more new client needs, greater buy-in to your ideas for the firm and more opportunities for growth and progression. In this session, we'll:

• Explore ideas for networking internally to foster relationships with colleagues and firm leaders
• Define ways to build relationships and trust with clients
• Understand an approach for developing your external networking strategy

Leave this session with ideas to raise your profile and build a valuable network!

To learn more about this program, click here.