Nikki Winston, CPA: Okay. So I wanna talk today to those of you who have ever left a job because you didn't like it. You maybe were bored with what you were doing. Maybe it was beneath you, or you just did not feel like you were adding any value. You didn't understand how the work that you do at your desk is part of something bigger or something grander that makes the department better or faster or provide some deeper insights that weren't there before.

The thing that we need to talk about today and the thing I want you to understand is that you cannot say that you don't like your job if you haven't challenged it. So again, you can't walk on a walk around and say, I don't like my job, or I'm quitting because I hate this job, but you've never challenged what it is that you're doing. So this is what I'm talking about. When you come into a new job, many cases, you're a backfill, and you're coming in to pick up where somebody else left off, who may have quit, or been fired, or laid off, or whatever. So, a lot of times, you're inheriting whatever that person had, whatever they were responsible for, and there's this expectation that because you're new, they need you to follow whatever that other person was doing first.

Right? And, you get to a point where you're onboarding in the job, and you're ramping up and starting to figure out how things work. But you never go back and question what you're doing, why you're doing it that way, if it can be done a better way, and how is this helping paint a better picture for the department, for the company, etcetera. And, until you go back and do that assessment, you're basically doing somebody else's job. The job of somebody who's no longer there, and you have to figure out if you're doing it the right way, if you're doing it the best way.

And then, that's where the added value comes in in your role, is that you have that eye to say, there's an opportunity here. Or you feel like, we can do this a lot better. Or, I don't know. I'm I'm I have accounting examples going through my mind of, why do we close the books in 11 days instead of 6 days? What's the bottleneck?

What's taking us so long? Are we waiting for invoices to roll in when we can accrue and move on? Or are we bottlenecked by some report from HR about contract labor that we still have not received, and it's day 5. Things like that. Asking those bigger questions instead of being a warm body in a seat is how you add the value in the role.

So, one thing that you will hear me talk about ad nauseam, if this is your first time, welcome. If it's your 50th time, welcome back. One thing you'll hear me talk about ad nauseam is having conversations with your manager and, occasionally, your skip level, your manager's manager. And the reason for that is a lot of the turnover, when we decide to leave a job, or we quit, or fired, laid off, whatever the circumstance is. It's just like being in a relationship.

A lot of your reason for leaving is probably something that could've been addressed with a conversation. And it really blows my mind, the number of people that I talk to, either we're at a networking event, they've booked a career assessment with me, they've reached out in some capacity. And one of the things I ask everybody is, how often are you talking to your manager about what you have going on, about what's keeping you up at night, how they can support you, days that you have off that are coming up soon on the calendar, in case somebody needs to cover your work. Because it might be on their calendar, but you might have put it on the calendar 3 months ago, but they forgot, because there's a lot more shit going on. And so, it it blows my mind because these are the the things that need to be talked about, And this is the purpose of you booking time with your manager.

At minimum, once a week. It can be 20 or 30 minute conversation. Doesn't have to be super formal. There are some managers, and I'm gonna talk about this in detail in another episode. I think I did already.

Yeah. So there's already an episode where I've gone into detail about the importance of managing your manager. And keeping in mind that your manager is also managing their career. They're managing people. So they're having things come down on them from their managers and their skip levels.

And then they have to disseminate things to you and still be there for you in terms of guidance and coaching. So, you have to make sure that you keep yourself on the radar, and don't expect your manager to approach you to have conversations or initiate these sorts of things. Because at the end of the day, and the beginning of the next, you are in the driver's seat of your career. And, this is an aspect of you taking charge and really owning your career and building the career that you want. And so, if you have not had these conversations because you feel like, that feels awkward, or I don't know how to initiate the conversation, or I don't wanna just be sitting in the conference room across from my manager, and we don't have anything to talk about.

And I was the same way early in my career when I was trying to figure out how do I make sure that my manager knows that I exist, because there's a bunch of people on my team. I don't wanna get lost in the sauce. And I said I put myself in my manager's shoes, and I said, if I was my manager and somebody came to me and wanted to talk to me, what are some things we should be talking about? And so, talking about what's on your to do list, what you have going on at work, a recent meeting that might have happened, a team meeting, or a department meeting, something that you wanted to dive deeper into. Admin kind of stuff.

Hey. I just just so you know, my my week long vacation to Mexico is coming up on the 23rd. I just wanna just kinda put that out there just so you know. You know? And it like I said before, it might be on the calendar already, but over communicating is better than not communicating or having a conversation with your manager, and you're blindsided by the things that they're saying to you, because there's no regular cadence of communication.

So there's even times where you can go in there and say, hey. I'm in this role right now, but a year from now, I wanna be in that role, or I wanna do this, or go to that department. So start having those conversations now and putting those things in the air so that however your manager can support you in getting to your next your next role and where you wanna be professionally, they might know somebody in that department. And they can help you starting to with with you getting that exposure to that department that you wanna work in or that senior level role that you're going after. And it's really important for you to put that stuff out there because not every manager is going to say, hey.

You're new to the team. Or even if you're not, hey. Let's talk about where you are with your career and what you wanna do and how I can support you. Not every manager is going to make themselves available in that way. Could be because that's just their personality, or it could be because they really want to, but they don't wanna pile something else onto their plate.

But, if that initiative is coming from the team, then most managers will make time to say, yes, let me be available and be present with Nicole and talk through some questions and and some some things that she wants to talk about. And then that might lead to you influencing your manager to initiate conversations with other people on the team as they begin to see the value in having these conversations. And so it's it's really it's it's tough to move around in the corporate streets by yourself. Because you're usually a phone call, a meeting, an email away from somebody who knows the somebody who knows the somebody that can push the button. Right?

So it doesn't have to be pushy. It doesn't have to be awkward. In fact, me, as as a people manager, I respect when employees come to me and they wanna have those conversations. A lot of times, they're put off out of fear. The they're put off employees are hesitant to book time with their managers because they're afraid that they're gonna be perceived a certain way, as being aggressive or as being confrontational, or I I don't know what that sentiment is.

I get it. A lot of times, it's it's the hierarchy thing. You feel like you're the employee. You're the manager. So those types of things should come from the top down.

But, again, when we're talking about careers, individual career paths, and going after what you want, that's up to you to initiate. And the other thing, from a leadership perspective, is that as much as I have coached and mentored my team and taught them things, and when we were in the office full time, which feels like eons ago, bringing them to the table and pulling out my markers and writing on the whiteboard, and weird journal entry ing out transactions that happen. Even then, it was me teaching them something and giving them something. But for everything that I shared and that I offered, I also learned something. And so, there's a lot that a leader learns from their team, and there's this perception that you have to abide by that hierarchy, that it's the leader, and the leader's in the the superior position.

And so it's their responsibility to disseminate things downward and to hold the hand of the team when the truth is it's more of a it's a seesaw, right, for everything that the leader is giving you or teaching you or showing you or exposing you to, then there's a lot that we also learn as leaders. We learn how to, at least from my perspective, what I've learned over the years as a leader is how to flex in terms of flexing my leadership style. I might have people on my team where somebody just graduated last year, and they're new to accounting. And so they're still very green and trying to figure things out, how the month end close works. And the journal entries at work probably don't look like the journal entries they saw in the textbooks.

So trying to explain those sorts of things and impart some of the foundational and non technical aspects of accounting. So there's a there there may be a little bit more handholding that has to happen. And I wanna be clear, hand holding, which is voluntary, not micromanaging, which is involuntary. I cannot stand micromanaging. I was micromanaged, and it was the worst thing ever.

That person eventually got fired, if that says anything. But I am not at all a micromanager, but I am that manager that will sit down with you and do t accounts and look up different, accounting standards in the codification and ification and get down to the root cause of what we're doing, how we're doing it, and why we are doing it, if that's what it takes so that the new accounting professionals can get into the rhythm early and understand the the rigor and the cadence which with they may have to operate. But then I've had people on my team who are older than me, and they they've been they have more years of experience than I do. And there's some things that they can show me about how different things get done. And it so it's it's more of a, like I said, a seesaw where you you learn.

You you lead and you're led is is what I did a leadership talk about some years ago when I was a speaker at the accounting show in LA. That was fun. That was fun. So let's see. How long have we been talking?

We're at 15 minutes. So I usually try to keep the episode short because I realize y'all are at work, or y'all are at the house loading dishes or cooking or in traffic, or on the train commuting back and forth, or whatever you're doing. So I try to make these episodes bite sized episodes that you can digest to the point where you can take what you've heard here and what you've learned here and put some action behind it and elevate your own career, and make sure that you are not in a place where you're stagnant, or you feel lost, or you feel stuck. So, the point of this podcast is for you to not feel those things. And if you are, to get the guidance in order to move forward and get out of that place.

So, there's one thing to go out here and work, but it's another thing to find that job and that career that you love that also loves you back. And so, I appreciate all of you who are tuned in listening to me right now. After this episode, feel free to check out some of the other conversations that we've already had and that will be upcoming. And I've had a few people reach out about booking a career assessment, which is you being in a place in your career where you feel like something needs to change, but you're not really sure what that change needs to look like. So back to the the feeling stuck, the feeling like you're at a crossroads in your career and you need to go to the next level.

So I have a few more, I'm looking at my account. I have a few more spots on the calendar for a few more people just to talk through knowing when it's time for a change, whether that's growing in your current role or moving into a role of higher responsibility, sometimes you need to get out of that work environment and and find a new employer or find a new place to work. And the purpose of the career assessments are to get real about where you are now and look at how the sky's the limit in terms of where you want to be. And then we work together to build the bridge to get you there. Right?

So if you gotta get up and go to work every day and put your best foot forward and go out here and do what you love, then do it in a way that brings you some satisfaction at the end of the day and makes you happy and fulfilled and gets you excited about getting up and doing it again the next day. So that is it for now. Thank you all for listening to this episode of Career Convos with Nikki. Feel free to check out the other episodes. You can visit nickwinstoncpa.comforward/career for a ton of guides, workbooks, negotiation guide, job interview, workbook, onboarding checklist.

So many things just to really help you in all aspects of your career. You could also book your career assessments there. I'll also put the links in the show notes. But thank you all for listening. I have to go and refill my what was I drinking?

I think I had vinegar water. Lemon water. My lemon water. And go get some mint some mint leaves from my mint plant outside, because it has been popping lately. So y'all be good.

I will talk to y'all soon.