Co-signers: The CPA Firm’s Leadership Group

It seems like consultants are always reading business books.  That’s not me.  I read a great business book once or twice a year, but most of my reading is novels, history and occasionally a sports book.  My “non-business” reading list rarely fails to supply me with thoughts and ideas highly relevant to my consulting with CPA firms.   I just finished “One Last Strike” by Tony La Russa, the legendary, recently-retired manager of the St. Louis Cardinals.  He went out on top – his Cardinals won the World Series in 2011, despite being down to their last strike – twice.  The book focuses on his 2011 Cardinals team, but he shares many of his experiences from a 40 year career as a player and manager.

La Russa makes frequent reference to “a committee of guys who were respected in the clubhouse.  This leadership committee – I called them our “co-signers” because they were responsible for “co-signing” onto the team’s priorities- was something I used throughout the season for all kinds of team issues.”

La Russa said “I can’t claim this idea as my own.  Bill Walsh, the great football coach, shared it with me.  He explained how you take the guys who are respected as leaders and you convince them that what you are “selling” is legitimate and they have a right to challenge it.  He always said that he did 75% of his talking to 25% of his team.”

Managing partners in CPA firms should have their own version of “co-signers.”

Trying to manage a group of CPA firm partners has frequently been compared to herding cats.  Herding cats implies an impossible task because everyone knows what impossibly individual creatures cats are, and getting them to do anything en masse is not easily done.  Partners are no different.

Show me a MP who is an island, who makes bold, controversial decisions without first testing the waters to win the support of a few credible, influential partners, and I’ll show you a MP who is doomed to fail.  It doesn’t make any difference if the MP feels his/her decision is best for the firm; it won’t be a good decision if he/she can’t get the partners to support it.

For those of you baseball fans who are curious, the main members of La Russa’s 2011 co-signers were Albert Pujols, Chris Carpenter and Matt Holliday.