If you’ve never stopped to consider the impact that leadership can have (or perhaps the lack thereof), then you’re missing out on a golden opportunity to bolster your business! While strong leadership can certainly help in many aspects of a business, it is especially useful within the accounting department! In the rest of this article, we’ll illustrate just how impactful great leadership is in improving the overall efficiency of your business!

Leadership Sets the Standard

Have you ever heard of the mantra: lead by example? There’s a reason why that saying is so popular. While you might not get all your employees to copy the work habits of your CFO, they’ll be much more likely to try them if they do notice leadership performing them.

It all comes down to the concept of perspective. As employees and human beings, all of your workers have their own unique frame of view in which they see the world. Based on their upbringing and a combination of other factors, they have a specific personality and behaviors that go along with it. This isn’t anything bad in itself, but it becomes an issue when these employees lean towards lazier tendencies.

Something that can be an even-more influential than upbringing is environment. The environment in which your employee works and operates will absolutely have an effect on them. If you’re following that, it means that you can positively influence your employees by impacting the environment, therefore giving them a new perspective.

This influence can be as simple as putting the right person in charge. You want leadership that will lead by example, showing other employees what they are actually capable of. It can be hard to fully understand your own limits unless you’re presented with an opportunity to test them!

Setting higher expectations for your employees gives them the chance to meet and exceed them. Similarly, if you expect your employees to fail and treat them accordingly, then you are effectively manifesting their failure. This means that your leadership plays a huge role in the overall success of your business!

Thorough Work

The first thing you’ll notice from strong leadership in the accounting department is more thorough work. When employees know their boss genuinely understands accounting, they’ll feel far more encouraged to thoroughly complete their work. Not only does this give your employees a perfect resource for clarification, but it gives them extra incentive to be thorough knowing that their boss will likely check and notice issues in their work later on.

Broader Understanding

Another great benefit of excellent leadership is a broader and deeper understanding of the accounting practice as a whole. With a knowledgeable and professional boss, this fosters a positive environment of constant learning and improvement. Rather than learning concepts just to complete a task, your employees will feel empowered to actually learn and understand the concept for themself. This makes your employees much more useful, as they can now provide their own useful insights and notice issues when they occur.

Less Fraud, Negligence, and Mistakes

When you have the right person in charge of your accounting department, you can feel the difference. Although it might not be something you can physically touch, you can tell that the overall morale of the department is much higher. When your employees are in higher spirits, it can help encourage them to do their job properly.

This can help avoid careless mistakes, but it can also prevent more nefarious problems like negligence and fraud. When you have strong leadership in charge, your employees won’t feel like they need to slip to the darker side of accounting. When employees know their boss cares about them, they’ll do their best to make their boss look good.

Better Processes

With strong leadership, you’re also investing in the overall function of your business as a whole. When you have an experienced CFO that knows what they’re doing, you’ll experience many benefits to how you operate! A good leader is capable of leading their team from point A to point B, but a great leader will also find ways to do it faster, cheaper, and more efficiently.

Not only will your CFO identify areas in which your business processes can be improved, but they should be able to empower employees to do the same! While an employee’s main purpose is to fulfill the requirements of their job, they can also provide useful input because they are the ones that actually carry out your accounting processes. With firsthand knowledge and experience, your employees can also help you better shape the processes of your accounting department!

Positive Image

A final benefit of strong leadership that should never be overlooked is the positive image it will give your accounting department. While it does feel nice to have a positive image, there is also a direct benefit to being viewed in a good light. If you have a CFO with an established track record of compliance and good faith, then you’ll have an easier time when it comes to tax season. You’re less likely to be audited when you have leadership that personifies great accounting!

Sharpening Your Accounting Department

By now you should see that leadership is absolutely key when it comes to the overall performance of your business! It may seem cliche to lead by example, but doing so is a fantastic way of changing the perspective of your employees!

When you put the right leadership in charge, you’re making a commitment to ensuring the success of your accounting department. With strong leadership, you can expect your employees to produce more-thorough work, foster a broader understanding for the profession, and make less mistakes, whether those are intentional or accidental. Additionally, you’ll be able to sharpen your processes and display a positive image for the department, helping prevent any audits come tax season!

If you care about the performance of your business and want to improve, then you need to look into putting the right leadership in charge of your accounting department. This will require a clear understanding of what makes a great CFO, something that the accounting experts at Evergreen CPAs understand well! Get a professional opinion today to see how you can sharpen your accounting department!