is your staff truly empowered?

three people having discussion at table over document and water glasses

this doesn’t overlook accountability. quite the opposite.

by alan anderson, cpa
transforming audit for the future

i don’t know if it was luck or by design, but when i started out at mcgladrey, i landed on a team that was already doing the kinds of innovative work that i coach teams today to try out. i’ve never been a status quo type of person, so that resonated with me. i was always trying to find a better way to do things.

in my first six months, we were already working with data, using the primitive data software tools available back then, or, more likely, that we built ourselves. i was in an environment that created the art of what’s possible. we were willing to try new things. i didn’t have mentors or co-workers who would tell me “that’s not the way we do it here,” so i was able to actually do the things i thought about.

more by alan anderson
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audit has become an exercise in filling out forms

back then, at the beginning of my career, we weren’t under fee or time pressure. we were encouraged to talk to the client, to ask questions and to understand their business. but as fixed fee and fee pressures started to grow, the mindset of audit became focused on getting the work done quickly, not on providing insights or value to the clients. the empowerment mindset that i got from my team in those early days began to fade.