Previous Post
The Ideal Team Structure to Manage $1M in Fees
Next Post
Having Difficult Conversations

Seeking to understand before being understood

In the spirit of helping you deal with people issues in your team, we’d like to share with you this excerpt from Dr Steven Covey’s 7 Habits of Highly Effective People book:

“If I were to summarize in one sentence the single most important principle I have learned in the field of interpersonal relations, it would be this: Seek first to understand, then to be understood.”

When faced with an issue with another person in your team, it’s always good to first seek the facts. When you know all the facts, you’ll be in a better position to decide what to do. You’ll be in a better frame of reference to respond with empathy or/and assertiveness and lay down your boundaries.

Every firm owner in the world will face these types of people issues, but always remember that your teams are your greatest challenge but also your greatest asset. Leading people can be difficult, but the key is to master the leader in ourselves.

Always lead with empathy and kindness. Failing to see the full humanity of someone would obviously get in the way of understanding them.

In order to really seek to understand, you cannot have already judged a person or situation. You need to develop a desire to understand — a desire to see things from others’ points of view, to see their reasons, and to feel what they feel.

Before jumping on a decision and concluding your judgement on someone, have you asked their opinion and been open to really really listening to hear and understand, not just listening to respond or talk?

Signature Section

PS: Whenever you’re ready… here are the fastest 4 ways we can help you fix and grow your accounting firm:

  1. Take the Wize Accountants Scale Scorecard – Find out your potential to scale and the next steps you should follow – Start Your Scorecard
  2. Download our famous Wize Freedom Strategy Map for FREE – Find out the 96 projects every firm owner must implement to build a $5M+ firm that can run without them – Download here
  3. Need to Hire right now? Book a 1:1 FREE discovery call with our WizeTalent hiring coaches to help find your next team member the Wize Way – Click Here
  4. Book a 1:1 Wize Discovery Session – Spend 30mins with our Wize CEO, Jamie Johns, a $7M firm owner who is ready to give you his entire business plan to build a firm that can run without you – Find out more here