Lessons in Leadership and Growth

Marissa Lynn Graves, CPA, CIA,

CFE, is the director of accounting & finance at Sportiqe Apparel Co. in Tempe, AZ. She has several year’s experience in public accounting, internal audit, and now in industry as a finance executive. As a graduate of Northern Arizona University, Graves volunteers her time with the alumni association and is also the accountant for the AriZoni Theatre Awards. She is a published author in the AICPA’s consumer book, Save Wisely, Spend Happily, and also a member of the ASCPA Emerging Leaders Committee and an ASCPA Champion.

by Marissa L. Graves, CPA, CIA, CFE

Like many of us, I’ve been working remotely the last few months and had some immediate and impactful changes to my professional career and personal life. I have used some of this time as an opportunity for reflection and gratitude. Most recently, I am immensely grateful for a specific opportunity from the ASCPA – the Leadership & Growth Alliance.

Almost a year ago, I sat in a room with a committee of other professionals to decide the future of our training opportunities. In past years, we had offered halfday or full-day seminars with impressive speakers and topics. But this past year we decided to shake things up a bit and follow a cohort program; meeting every other month as a group to learn and connect together.

Our group of 19 professionals met six times over the past year with a focus on developing our leadership skills. I wanted to share some of the topics and advice that really resonated with me from those sessions. We had a variety of perspectives on leadership, learned practical skills we could implement immediately, and even had “homework” to bring to sessions and personalize the content. Although we were led by inspiring facilitators, the participants really made this an experience worth sharing. I hope you’ll agree.

We’re in This Together

One of the biggest takeaways I had during the series was that regardless of our position or company, we were all dealing with similar challenges that we were able to discuss. The irony was that at the beginning of our session a year ago, I don’t think we realized that. We focused and celebrated the diversity of the group in terms of title, area of specialty in tax or audit, working in industry or public to give us a variety of perspectives. However, we quickly formed bonds and built trust in our first exercise where we anonymously submitted our biggest personal and professional successes and defeats. Barriers went down immediately as we each read the projector screen that scrolled with honest and transparent comments; things that brought tears to eyes, and things that sparked laughter. We weren’t alone and had the ability to encourage and learn from one another in a safe environment. That unwritten theme carried us throughout our sessions and serendipitously into

our final meeting — which was virtual as a result of COVID restrictions — an interactive panel discussion about challenges and successes working through our new environment. And no surprise, there were commonalities in what we were all working through. A sense of community comes with sharing struggles and working through them together, and we experienced this firsthand through the LGA sessions.

Values are More Than Just A Company Motto

In one of our sessions, we learned about the importance of values as leaders and how, whether we realized it or not, it guided much of our decision-making. Having awareness about ourselves as leaders is critical to successfully communicate, motivate and manage others. Imagine a room of eager leaders full of coffee one morning anxiously sorting through a deck of cards. The cards contained various words (values) to help us identify and label how we instinctively make decisions; not exactly a natural habit for accountants. Narrowing down the deck of 55 to six sounded like a simple task, but we quickly learned how nuanced each term could be. And of course, it was comical to see how decisive or indecisive some of us could be!

I found this exercise so rewarding that I purchased a deck that I used to facilitate one-on-one meetings with my employees at work and even spark fun conversations with my husband! We have posted our values in our work areas and celebrate examples of them in our decision-making to help us understand each other’s perspective. I’m looking at my core values right now, creatively displayed on my computer monitor. They define my decisionmaking especially in times of intense stress or pressure. Staying true to those things means not every decision will be perfect, but I will be confident that I am showing authentic leadership consistent with my character.

Career Pivoting

Pivoting was a topic we learned about before the newest buzz word appeared during COVID. The concept of career pivoting is the opposite of a career change. Rather than making an abrupt change to something unrelated, you leverage what’s already working and channel your energy toward that. Many of us are high achievers, dedicated employees, and truly invested in career success. This means we have steep learning curves and love challenges. With any learning curve, we reach a “boredom” plateau where there is a point of success with choices; we can maintain the status quo (comfort zone), we can completely change everything (panic zone/career change), but ideally we should seek our stretch zone between these two.

After listening to a recorded presentation by Jenny Blake and having

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a facilitated exercise, I realized that I can quickly achieve a plateau and have to balance burnout and boredom. By focusing on something that I am already successful at (learning and teaching), I find passion and am actively seeking it out, in what could be mundane daily tasks. Consider this prompt – if you had a Saturday with no obligations, no other people involved, and could spend time on something you are passionate about, what would it be? How can you inject a little bit of that passion each day or week into something you are already doing?

As with any speaker or series, we all came with different expectations and goals, so please don’t think of this as an exhaustive list of what each of us learned. Rather, just a few notes to whet your appetite for next year’s LGA cohort and encouragement for what our leaders are working on. And we’re already in the midst of planning the 2020-2021 series, so if you’re a CPA in the first 10 years of your career, stay tuned for more information and see below for the upcoming program. l Sessions Planned for the Upcoming Series • Session 1 | Zoom | August 18,

8 – 10 a.m. | Work/Life Balance

• Virtual Networking 1 | Zoom |

September | Networking (NonCPE Event)

• Session 2 | Zoom | October 27,

8 – 10 a.m. | Vulnerability and Communication

• Session 3 | In-Person |

December 8, 3:30 – 6:30 p.m. | Generations in the Workforce

• Session 4 | Zoom | January 7, 8

– 10 a.m. | Professional Image & Values Development

• Session 5 | Zoom | February

9, 8 – 10 a.m. | Finding and Maintaining Mentorship

• Virtual Networking 2 | Zoom |

March | Networking (Non-CPE Event)

• Session 6 | In-Person |

April 29, 3:30 – 6:30 p.m. | Personalities, Values and EI

Leadership & Growth Alliance Series 2020-21

August 18, 2020 – April 29, 2021

Recommended CPE Credit | 10 hrs

The Leadership & Growth Alliance is a growing community of Arizona professionals, within the first 10 years of their CPA career, who are looking to develop leadership and professional skills and get involved in the profession and the local community.

New alliance members participate in an eight-part professional development series in which they will: • Attend exclusive Zoom and in-person events designed specifically for series participants, earning up to 10 hours of CPE (based on individual attendance). • Develop leadership and professional skills and knowledge in areas such as communication, work-life balance, mentorship and professional development strategies. • Network and collaborate with series participants, alliance alumni and ASCPA Board of Directors. • Access to the online Alliance Community in Connect and early access to future alliance sponsored events hosted by the ASCPA.

Space is limited! Register today to reserve your seat and become the next generation of the ASCPA Leadership & Growth Alliance.

Series Fee: $295 (members) Register at www.ascpa.com/alliance

Not-for-Profit Conference Sept. 17, 2020

Desert Willow Conference Center

Available In-Person or via Webcast Recommended CPE Credit: 8 hours

Get up to speed on the most pressing issues facing not-for-profit organizations today. Plan your perfect day with a mix of auditing, accounting, technology, leadership, strategic planning and tax topics relevant to the changes in the not-for-profit industry due to COVID-19. In a fast-paced accounting world, not-for-profit leaders must know how to operate efficiently and effectively, making the most of their limited resources in an ever-changing and often challenging financial environment. Panelists: General Sessions Robin Wilson, Unity of Phoenix Better Together – The Not-for-Profit Susan Kuster, Children’s Museum of Community in Arizona Phoenix Kyla Quintero, Arizona Community Jerry Mendoza, Friendly House Foundation Successfully Select and Implement Strategic Planning: Your Role in Software Providing Strategic Leadership for Jim Mulligan, Makewise, LLC Organizations Jason Matthews, ASU Watts College, Dashboards & Data Analytics: Using Nonprofit Management Institute Data to Drive Greater Social Impact in Our Communities. Breakout Sessions David Paddison, Impact Analytics, An Update From Washington LLC Brenda Blunt, Eide Bailly LLP Taxes for Tax-Exempt Organizations Intelligent Automation: A Buzzword Brian Ess, Henry+Horne We Can Finally Get Behind Nick Mortensen, Eide Bailly LLP Reach for the Stars (Charity Navigator) Audit and Accounting Update Sarah Zelhart, Make-A-Wish America Allan Klose, CBIZ MHM, LLC Elegant Financial System Design — One Size Does NOT Fit All — The Power of Aligning Your Financial Considerations for Out-sourcing Your Systems to Your Mission Not-for-Profit Accounting Curtis Klotz, CLA (CliftonLarsonAllan) Moderator: Lisa Lumbard, Lumbard Consulting, LLC Common 990 Errors Amy O’Loughlin, CBIZ MHM, LLC Kristen Bass, CBIZ MHM, LLC

Financial Market Update and Investing for Not-For-Profits Jason Gove, National Bank of Arizona Mark Weisbrod, Zions Bancorporation, N.A.

Thank You to Our Sponsors

Platinum Sponsor

Gold Sponsors CBIZ MHM, LLC CLA (CliftonLarsonAllen LLP) Heinfeld Meech & Co., P.C. Henry+Horne Your Part-Time Controller LLC

Register online at ascpa.com/npc20 by phone at (602) 252-4144