Positive Self-Talk to Thrive During Your Busy Season
By Jon Lokhorst, CPA, PCC If you are a CPA, no matter your role, you are going to encounter crunch time for one reason or another. If you’re in public accounting, mid-April marks the end of tax season (at least the first one of the year). If you’re in industry, government, or the nonprofit world, crunch
3 Steps for Taking Your Leadership to the Next Level
Even when you’re at the top, there’s always room to improve. Here are three steps every leader should take to make the new year their best year yet. How am I doing as a leader today? What’ll it take for me to get better? How will I make it happen? These are the questions every leader
HOW SUCCESSFUL MANAGERS LEAD UP, ACROSS, DOWN, AND INWARD
By Jon Lokhorst, CPA Most leadership development focuses on being a good boss to the people who report to you. While leading down is important if you want to be successful, it’s mission-critical that you lead well in all directions. Mission-critical leadership, as I define it in my book by the same title, is “using influence to
Who Was Dorothy Vaughan and What Can You Learn from Her Leadership?
By Jon Lokhorst, CPA, PCC Chances are, you don’t recognize the name Dorothy Vaughan. More likely, you recall the portrayal of Vaughan by the award-winning actress, Octavia Spencer, in the much-lauded 2016 film, Hidden Figures. Although she died in 2008, Vaughan stands out as an exemplary leader for us today. So much so that I featured her
‘Enterprise Thinking’ Is Key to Your Next Promotion
Prioritizing your organization’s success over your own is a necessary step for climbing up the leadership ladder. Are you looking to move up in your organization? Perhaps you aspire to become your firm’s managing partner or your company’s next CEO? While it’s natural to look out for your own best interests or those of your team—thinking this
Refresh your Leaders with Sabbaticals
By Jon Lokhorst, CPA, PCC, Lokhorst Consulting LLC The word sabbatical has roots in Hebrew, Greek and Latin terms that all mean a rest from work. The concept of a sabbatical leave traces back to ancient Israel when Jews took a one-year break every seven years from planting and growing their fields. In the late 1800s,
Build Your Leadership Capacity on a Strong Personal Foundation
Jayden,* a newly appointed supervisor, approached me with a question at the end of a leadership program. “What can I do to advance quickly as a leader in my company?” he asked. Jayden was surprised when I responded, “Start by building a strong personal foundation.” As I went on to tell Jayden, you can’t build a
Take Your Leadership to the Next Level: Lead Well in All Directions
Is it possible for you to be a good boss and, at the same time, underperform as a leader in your organization? That was the dilemma facing Peter,* a coaching client who served as a manager in the financial services industry. Peter had the respect of his functional team, which was known for reliable, consistent performance.
From Restless to Rest: 3 Steps to Find Meaning in 2020
While 2020 draws to a close, one prevailing sentiment is, “Good riddance.” As a leader, you may be growing restless to wrap up this year and move forward to a better year in 2021 (whatever that means). Not so fast, I say. Don’t overlook the opportunity to discover meaning from a year that no one anticipated,
Leading Yourself Through a Crisis
Strengthening your self-leadership skills will not only make you a better team leader—it will also empower you to face the stress and distractions of a historic crisis with energy and insight. I will never forget March 9, 2020. The morning started off like any other day on the road for me. I left a client meeting