Leadership Lens

Moving Forward: One Step, Conversation, and Coffee at a Time

Jared Theis

As I sit here this evening, following the first presidential debate, my initial thought is that we have not progressed much in the last few months – the pandemic is still significantly impacting our lives and business, there continues to be social unrest, and we seem to have somehow become more divisive in politics. I also think about how much our state, our profession, our friends and families have been affected. And weirdly, I have not been in Seattle or on an airplane for more than six months (or really anywhere outside of Eastern Washington for that matter). I miss those trips, which prior to the pandemic I took weekly from Spokane for almost six years to connect with clients and friends. Let’s not forget another tradition that we cannot enjoy this year, WSU tailgating in Pullman!

Yet, with everything going on that concerns me, I somehow feel optimistic about our future. I have confidence that we will overcome the current challenges and implement changes that will have long-term positive impacts on all of us. It feels strange, but then I reflect on the many conversations I’ve had over the past several months with colleagues, friends, and family, some of which were on topics and issues that we’ve never discussed before as they were normally avoided.

While there is still a tremendous amount of work to be done, the fact that we are having some of these conversations to better understand the issues, and each other, is certainly a step in the right direction. Technology has allowed us to stay connected or re-connect, including through virtual happy hours to unwind and for myself, even a game of virtual charades. I see a silver lining: the current environment has allowed me to spend more time with my wife and young kids, which has offered me a new perspective that I previously took for granted. Progress is being Illustration: © iStock/ Anna Minkina made if you look at the glass half full. Like all of our members, colleagues, and friends, the WSCPA has seen its share of struggles these past several months as well. However, the WSCPA staff has been putting forth tremendous effort to support the activities of the Society and our members. I continue to be impressed by what they can accomplish. The foresight of the team and leadership over the past several years to invest in technology has paid dividends, and they continue to find creative solutions to provide value and assistance to our members: from adjusting the timing of membership renewal deadlines to allow financial flexibility, rapidly providing online education on current topics (CARES Act programming anyone?), hosting share forums for professionals and virtual career fairs for students, and even creating a new member benefit – Coffee & Conversations – to help connect students and new professionals to our community of leaders. All the while, they are continuing to focus on being fiscally responsible to position the Society, its staff, and members for long-term success. They certainly have seized the opportunity and maintain the perspective that the glass, or shall I say coffee cup, is half full.

We also continue to focus on strategic initiatives for improving diversity and inclusion within our profession. The board and leadership team have been actively discussing these issues with firms, businesses, organizations, and universities to better understand how we can use our powerful CPA network to support and create meaningful change for the profession in our beautiful state. More to come on that in the future, and please reach out if you want to be more engaged with us on it. It may not always be easy to see, but we are taking steps and moving forward. We will not be able to fix all the issues, and new ones will arise, but with the right perspective, we can all do our part to create a better profession. So, grab a cup of coffee (virtual or in-person) with a friend, colleague, peer, mentor, or anyone for that matter, to listen and learn a bit more about each other – these relationships will continue to provide the help we need to move forward together.

Thank you for your support of the WSCPA.

Jared Theis, CPA, is an Accounting Advisory Director in the Seattle office of KPMG LLP and chair of the WSCPA Board of Directors. You can contact him at jtheis@kpmg.com.