September 12th, 2011 by Kira
No one ever said that being a leader was easy. In fact, it takes skill, patience, and practice to learn to lead with confidence. Being in a leadership role can be one of the most rewarding parts of your career. But if you are just starting out, leading new team members, or even moving up the rankings, you’ll want to learn to lead with confidence.
Here are a few tips on leading with confidence:
- Good leaders are good followers. As you move into a position of leadership, don’t lose perspective. There will always be someone who you can learn from as well. To be a good leader, allow yourself to be lead by others. Perhaps that means finding a mentor or hiring a coach. It could even mean finding someone within your organization that you look up to, and whom you can ask for support and guidance.
- Never stop learning. We can never “know it all,” so don’t forget to put time and energy into learning new skills, enhancing your leadership ability, and thinking outside of the proverbial box. Attend team trainings, leadership conferences, and management seminars to keep growing, learning and improving.
- Instill confidence in your team. Teams want to be led. They love a good leader. The way to make your team fall in love with you, so they will always have your back (and your front), is to lead with confidence. That means you keep your word, do what you say you are going to do, and be kind or “take care of” your people.
- Collaborate don’t compete. Never put yourself in a place where you are competing with your own team members. If you have to perform similar duties to the people you are leading, ensure there is enough space and differences between how you are measured and evaluated that you are never in competition with their goals and abilities. People need leaders they can collaborate with, not compete against.
- Lead by example. People will never do something that they don’t believe their leader will do. If you request a policy or system change, but don’t follow it, neither will your team. Be sure to always follow through on anything you ask them to do, and never ask people to do something you wouldn’t be willing to do yourself.
Being a leader can be an incredible opportunity and experience. Just be sure that you follow these tips, and ask yourself and everyone else that you meet – “What was the best example of leadership that you have ever witnessed?” You’ll be pleasantly surprised by the results!
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February 7th, 2011 by Kira
Perhaps it’s time to step outside of the box and lead in a new way – innovative. Most team leaders tend to step into the ways of their successors, doing what’s always been done, and most likely get the same results. While that may not be negative, in fact, that has its own advantages. Besides, if something is working – why fix it?
However, while your leadership style may not be evolving, your team is likely to be. As technology increases, work-life demands shift, and staff members come and go – your team and workforce will experience changes. While many employees resist change from management, they do in fact appreciate when management catches up to their evolution.
For instance, most employees who are in the trenches may be tech-savvy and your company software may be very outdated. Advancing your company’s innovative levels in small or large ways, helps your employees to stay in a cutting-edge environment, where they know their skills are always current, and that their company cares about moving into the future.
There are many other ways you can lead through innovation as well, such as considering what your team wants and desires. Do you have all working mothers in your office? Would child care, even just a few days a week contribute to their overall happiness or productivity? Do you have a stressful work environment where employees typically put in long hours? Perhaps you could create a space for exercise in the office, or bring a yoga instructor in a few times a week.
Leading through innovation is about forward thinking. It consists of going beyond what is normal, standard, or typical and seeking out opportunities and experiences that can make a difference for your team, your company, and your clients.
Tags: Innovation, Leadership, team
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July 26th, 2010 by Kira
The other day I searched for a good list of what types of accounting jobs were out there…just check out all the options!
Thanks to Careers in Accounting website for this info!
Audit
Work in audit involves checking accounting ledgers and financial statements within corporations and government. This work is becoming increasingly computerized and can rely on sophisticated random sampling methods. Audit is the bread and butter work of accounting. This work can involve significant travel and allows you to really understand how money is being made in the company that you are analyzing. It’s great background! (Find jobs like this)
(Guide to Accounting Firm Recruiting Professionals)
Budget Analysis
Budget analysts are responsible for developing and managing an organizations financial plans. There are plentiful jobs in this area in government and private industry. Besides quantitative skills many budget analyst jobs require good people skills because of negotiations involved in the work. (Find jobs like this)
Financial
Financial accountants prepare financial statements based on general ledgers and participate in important financial decisions involving mergers & acquisitions, benefits/ERISA planning and long-term financial projections. The work can be varied over time. One day you may be running spreadsheets. The next day you may be visiting a customer or supplier to set up a new account and discuss business. This work requires a good understanding of both accounting and finance. (Find jobs like this)
Management Accounting
Management accountants work in companies and participate in decisions about capital budgeting and line of business analysis. Major functions include cost analysis, analysis of new contracts and participation in efforts to control expenses efficiently. This work often involves the analysis of the structure of organizations. Is responsibility to spend money in a company at the right level of our organization? Are goals and objectives to control costs being communicated effectively? Historically, many management accountants have been derided as “bean counters”. This mentality has undergone major change as managemnet accountants now often work side by side with marketing and finance to develop new business. (Find jobs like this)
Tax
Tax accountants prepare corporate and personal income tax statements and formulate tax strategies involving issues such as financial choice, how to best treat a merger or acquisition, deferral of taxes, when to expense items and the like. This work requires a thorough understanding of economics and the tax code. Increasingly, large corporations are looking for persons with both an accounting and a legal background in tax. A person, for example, with a JD and an CPA would be especially desirable to many firms. (Find jobs like this)
Places Where Accountants Work
- Public Accounting Firms
- Public Accountants work in partnerships which provide accounting services to individuals, businesses and governments. The largest, high-profile public accounting firms are known as the Bix Six and dominate the field of accounting. This field offers advancement potential to audit manager, tax manager or partner reached by only two to three percent of new hires.
- Government
- Government accountants may work at the local/state level or the federal level and administer and formulate budgets, track costs and analyze programs. This work can have high impact on the public good but can also get political and is subject to bureaucratic obstruction. Government accounting offers advancement in most organizations to controller and possibly to higher administrative positions. Places which hire heavily at the federal level include the Department of Defense, the General Accounting Office and the Internal Revenue Service.
- Corporations
- Corporations big and small typically have an accounting group which prepares financial statements, tracks costs, handles tax issues, works on international transactions. The work is exciting and offers tracks to audit manager, tax manager, cost accounting manager and controller on the accounting side or to manager of financial planning and analysis and Treasurer on the finance side.
- Solo
- A time-honored form of employment is to become a CPA and hang out your own shingle. This form of work requires you to generate your own business, but has the benefits of offering close customer contact, a high degree of independence and, depending on how good you are, high financial rewards. This work can be risky but puts you in the midst of community affairs.
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April 5th, 2010 by Kira
Okay, it’s time to have some fun and think outside of the box. If you are doing what everyone else is doing to find a new position, then your resume may be getting lost in the 3 inch stack of resumes on the corner of the hiring manager’s desk.
First things first, network. Use the power of relationships to find a back door into a company. Attend local networking events, chapter or association meetings, or industry conferences. When meeting people let them know that you are in the market for a new position, if they are willing to chat, share your qualifications with them and what type of company you are looking to work for. Ask if you can follow up, send your resume, and if there’s any way you can support them (and be sure to do it if you can).
Social media. Find the big players in your industry through social media sites like Linked In and Twitter and engage in a conversation with them. Once you know that you’ve noticed them, open the door to take the conversation offline and see if there’s a way you can provide your resume, take them to lunch to pick their brain, or some other creative way.
Make friends with recruiters and staffing companies. These people have first hand contacts with employers who are looking for quality people. Let the recruiters know you are looking, what you are qualified for, and how you can contribute to their clients companies.
Regardless of what strategy you use, in a crowded marketplace, finding something creative to help you stand out could be the difference between getting a job and not getting one.
Tags: Hiring Manager, Market, New Position, Social Media, Staffing Companies
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March 15th, 2010 by Kira
I’ve always known that FORTIS and my philosophy on staffing was different than other companies, so a few months ago I enlisted the help of an outside third party to interview some of my previous clients and I must admit I was pleasantly surprised with the results.
There were many things that came out of the information, like delivering quality applicants, a fast turnaround time, and an incredible retention rate but the one thing that came up over and over again was that we at FORTIS actually listen. As a small, privately owned staffing service we take incredible pride in really understanding and meeting the needs of our clients but because we just assume it’s part of the process we’ve overlooked how extremely important this is to our clients.
We understand that being heard isn’t just important, it’s critical. When a staffing company doesn’t listen to their client it creates more stress, wasted time, and poor candidate selections. What we do know is that the simple act of listening and hearing a person’s needs goes a long way and a trait that isn’t easy to come by.
We know and have seen that a lot of our colleagues within this industry aren’t concerned about the long term relationship and just the immediate hire at hand, but we feel differently at FORTIS we are here to listen, to strive to understand your needs, the companies needs, the position and what you are looking for, and the dynamics of your company culture so we can partner with you for life.
Tags: customer service, interview, poor candidate, staffing company
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March 8th, 2010 by Kira
With social media being an easy access point for potential employers to check out their applicants, it’s important to follow these few easy tips on social media sites.
1. Your Picture. A picture is worth a thousand words. Ensure that all of your profile pictures are professional and accurately represent your work ethic and personality. A picture of you enjoying a beer at your favorite watering hole and watching your alma mater may not be the most appropriate when looking for a job. Choose a picture that shows your face and that your mother would be proud of.
2. Privacy Settings. The privacy settings can be managed on the various social media sites. The ones where you can block your private information, be sure to do so. Also remember that other sites like Twitter, everything is essentially public and lasts forever. Think about your posts and if they are something you wouldn’t mind your potential employer seeing, if necessary clean up your past updates just to be safe. In Facebook, check to make sure your photo albums are set to private as well.
3. Accuracy. Some of the sites, especially Linked In which is used by many job seekers and searchers can show all of your past employment information. You want to ensure that this matches up with your resume and is current. Don’t allow someone to assume there is some fudging because you haven’t kept your profile current.
Tags: job searching, picture, privacy settings, socail media
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February 12th, 2010 by Kira
Company culture is often a mysterious thing, it evolves as employees and managers move through the ranks, as people come and go, and new employees enter the scene. Company culture has the power to make or break company morale.
So how can you raise the bar on your company culture? Here are a few tips at keeping the culture high.
1. Avoid competing against one another. Using competition within the company can create conflict and resentment, instead use team competition and reward the company or group for meeting their goals. For example, instead of using sales people against one another make a team goal for all sales people to increase sales by 20%. Pair them up with the accounting department to decrease past due payments by 7%. Make the competition fun and light hearted and all around to support the overall good of the company.
2. Encourage philanthropy. You can do this as a company or for individuals. Support and recognize employees who donate their time and money to charitable organizations. Offer additional “community service” days off to encourage employees to take time to give to others. This is extremely beneficial to company morale., Employees who are happier with their company work harder, and are willing to go the extra mile when they know their company will go the extra mile for them.
3. Listen to your people. Employees like to feel heard and understood. Unfortunately, many corporations make decisions and let them filter down without considering the people the decisions will affect. Simply asking for what the people think, how things can be done better, and what changes they think will have the biggest impact can significantly improve your company culture. There’s nothing worse than employees who feel that nothing they do or say matters within the company.
4. Celebrate successes. As your company reaches its goals, reduces overhead, goes a year without an injury or whatever it is – celebrate! If there’s a reason to celebrate at the end people may work harder to achieve what you (the company) wants.
5. Values. Honor the company values and the employee’s values. Values like family, time off, and honoring religious or spiritual beliefs goes a long way. Work and life shouldn’t be separate and instead they should be integrated and balanced. Allow your employees to feel complete in all aspects of their work and life by allowing flexibility based on values.
Tags: company, company culture, employees, recognize, team
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December 1st, 2009 by Kira
You can help Big Brothers Big Sisters of Orange County match more at-risk children with a positive role model – it’s easy and it’s free! Chase is giving away $5 Million to charities and YOU can help them decide which charities should get their support.
Simply vote for Big Brothers Big Sisters in the Chase Community Giving Program on Facebook and encourage friends and others on Facebook to do the same! Vote by December 11 by clicking on the link below or visit 
http://bit.ly/5IVQry
By supporting Big Brothers Big Sisters, you are impacting that child and the community in which they live. Children with a Big Brother or Big Sister are:
- 46% less likely to begin using illegal drugs
- 27% less likely to begin using alcohol
- 52% less likely to skip school
- More confident in their schoolwork performance
- Able to get along better with their families
Forward this on to your friends and family, post your vote on your Facebook wall or tweet about it – help us spread the word!
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