What Does Your CFO Care About and Why Should you Care?
Posted by Kelley Lear on Feb 22, 2012 in Finance, Leadership, Tax, Tax Planning | 0 comments
Every year, I take an in-depth look at what the CFO’s are saying and predicting for the coming year. Last year I shared my findings with you. I thought I would do that again, as this is a pretty important thing to understand. But, why should you care? Well, in most cases the tax department must rely on approval from the CFO for tax department budgets, operational decisions, and other strategic initiatives. Therefore, I believe it is critical to better understand what they are hoping for, struggling with and trying to overcome each year. It can only help you when putting together a business case or trying to prioritize tax department projects, as you may be able to better align with overall CFO and other corporate initiatives. Big fan of doing your homework!
read moreHot Tips to Negotiation for Tax Pros!
Posted by Kelley Lear on Feb 16, 2012 in Empowerment Series, Leadership, Tax | 0 comments
A standard definition of Negotiation is “a conversation or dialogue between two or more people, attempting to reach an understanding or gain advantage of some sort, to resolve a point or competing perspectives, to produce an agreement upon courses of action, or to bargain for an individual or for your team. Negotiation is a process where each party involved in negotiating tries to gain an advantage by the end of the process”. Do any of these descriptions fit your day to day activities? Or more fittingly perhaps, do you realize that on a regular basis it is tough to get what you want? Whether it be more money for the tax department to automate or add staff, to negotiate a tax position, or to argue for greater pay, bonus or benefits? Perhaps to negotiate different tactics to reduce ETR, increase tax savings or free up cash flow?
read more5 Tips to Shorten Meeting Time!
Posted by Kelley Lear on Jan 18, 2012 in Empowerment Series, Leadership, Motivation, Process Improvement | 2 comments
For all you business professionals out there, how many times have you sat in the meeting thinking one or more of the following:
1. Who called this meeting?
2. What is this the purpose of this meeting?
3. Are we going to accomplish something in this meeting or are we here to hear Joe/Sally talk on in tangents with no apparent end?
4. Who is in charge of this craziness?
5. I want to stick a pen in my eye just so that I can have an excuse to escape this meeting!
Seven Proven Ways to Executive Failure…
Posted by Kelley Lear on Jan 10, 2012 in Empowerment Series, Leadership | 0 comments
Just read a great article on Forbes.com titled “The Seven Habits of Spectacularly Unsuccessful Executives”, written by Eric Jackson. I am always reading about the “secrets of success” and the “how to’s” on every topic in executive leadership, but not many share the definitive ways that executives can fail. I kind of like to think about the flip side. In this article, Eric also uses some research also touched on by Sydney Finkelstein and Steven Roth who published “Why Smart Executives Fail”, which included over 50 former company senior executive profiles from companies like Enron, WorldCom, Rubbermaid, and Schwinn. Interestingly enough, their research found seven habits that all these senior executives had in common, and which the authors assert are the key indicators for failure.
read moreDo You Let What You Know Limit You?
Posted by Kelley Lear on Dec 14, 2011 in Empowerment Series, Innovation, Leadership, Process Improvement | 0 comments
Just read a great Harvard Business Review (HBR) blog post by Bill Taylor who is one of the founders of Fast Company magazine and author of Practically Radical: Not-So-Crazy Ways to Transform Your Company, Shake Up Your Industry, and Challenge Yourself (January 4, 2011). He was commenting on points made by Cynthia Barton Rabe, a former innovation strategist at Intel, who wrote the book “The Innovation Killer. I actually read this book before and enjoyed the main theme which ponders the question of “why are so many bright executives are so ineffective?”. Hmmm…we actually might be able to apply this question quite readily to our political leaders as well.
read moreSet Sail: 6 Ways to Avoid Being the Tax Department Anchor
Posted by Traci Wheeler on Oct 4, 2011 in Empowerment Series, Leadership, Motivation, Tax | 0 comments
A couple of weeks ago, I read the latest JP Horizons newsletter from Jim Paluch, and he was talking about sails and anchors. This is pretty unusual for a business newsletter, so it caught my attention. In his latest edition, he differentiated the employees within a company as either having set their sails or become the proverbial anchor.
Having worked with many people in corporate tax over the years, I have met my share of anchors. I’m sure you know who I am talking about…the person that sits in the meeting to discuss a better approach to dealing with IRS audit, nods their head like they are on board and then quickly leaves the meeting with no intention of following through. Or, the person that won’t explain their state income tax spreadsheets or admit they spend too much time working on them for fear they will lose control of a process they own?
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