‘Mindset, structure, culture’: Key themes to thriving advisory

The 12 traps included a compliance comfort zone, reporting versus strategy, the answer trap, confidence gaps, a one-person model, under-resourced businesses, ad hoc data, lack of packaging, reactivity instead of proactivity, lack of purpose, human skills gap and a training bottleneck.

Szalay said learning how to “do advisory” properly definitely wasn’t easy, but it was a journey, and that was the main takeaway he had gained from working with his clients.

“We've learned so much about what's happening with them, what's working well with them, and how they go back to their world and start to try to apply this. And it's challenging. I can tell you now. No one goes back and just sits there and starts nailing it,” he said.

“Accountants are all being asked for advice and they give it. So, they’re doing advisory. However, it has to be that structured approach about how they can proactively make an impact.”

“And that's what they’re trying to do, make that impact strategically, proactively, and by design. That's about affecting the client's future and their goals and not looking backwards.”

Szalay mentioned that from the 12 traps he had identified, these could be broken down into the three key themes of mindset, structure and culture.

Mindset was linked to the idea that accountants needed to get the headframe right, as being an industry that had been “bashed in compliance” over the years, it was a matter of identifying how it could be reframed or reset.

“It's so much work to do and it's really hard to not to get on top of that. You only have to look in your inbox. You only have to hear a new change of law. There's new work coming from everywhere. All the time, from clients and from the industry,” Szalay said.

“If you have a passion for advisory and you really want to do it, getting to what you want to do is so difficult. So, changing the mindset and saying, well, how do I make space for both of these so they can both coexist? I need to be able to make some space and segment some time in the week to do the advisory work.” 

In terms of structure, Szalay said it was essential to have a strategy and a plan to give business advice without looking at the numbers or the financials.

Szalay said accountants often said to him that they were already doing advisory, yet he believed they weren’t because they were sometimes too attached to the numbers. 

“I would say accountants are really across wanting to have the right advice and wanting to have the answer because they're attached to the numbers and they always say the answers in the numbers, it's right there. But that's not always the case,” he said.

From the three themes identified by Szalay in the podcast episode, he said culture was the most important one as it needed to reflect the type of people, team and clients an individual wanted to attract.

Szalay said culture wasn’t just about the conversations being had with clients, but how someone was “bringing others into their world”, and attracting people who wanted to work with them.

“If you have a culture of wanting to help clients with their business and helping them in that future focus and their goal setting, that’s inspiring and I think that’s where some people want to be,” he said.

“Culture is led by leaders, Leadership has to set culture and has to understand and define values. And, what you value is what you talk about and embed into your activities and how you behave as a team.”

“Are you making a meaningful impact? If you’re not, you need to think about how to change your approach. You change your approach by thinking and interacting with your purpose. Making your clients lives better or easier, requires leadership and clarity in what your messaging is, your values and your purpose.”

Szalay concluded by adding that meaningful impact through culture was critical to success and happiness, encouraging all people in the industry to “connect with their purpose and lead with their purpose”.