Capability building

Capability building

Capability Building within your organisation is a clear pathway to achieve a great ROI from The Gap.

It is an important strategy for ALL firms, and particularly those who want:
  1. To develop their human resources to improve engagement and retention
  2. A cost-effective way to meet their professional body's Continued Professional Development expectations 
  3. To develop the soft skills that will serve them best in future
  4. To increase their average client spend
  5. To deliver more advisory services in the near future
  6. To scale their firm in a sustainable way

The mind is not a vessel to be filled but a fire to be kindled. - Plutarch

Why does building capability matter for my firm?

Building your capability and that of your team members allows you to differentiate your firm from others and develop a new recurring revenue stream.

Outsourcing, technology evolution and efficiency gains have provided opportunities for accounting and bookkeeping firms to focus less on how they deliver compliance and more on new ways to support their clients. With this in mind, there are new skills needed for accountants and bookkeepers to thrive in this forward-facing space.

Skills of today's accountant

  1. Be a good accountant. 
  2. Have the ability to numerate.
  3. Have rounded tax knowledge.
  4. Be commercial (have the ability to speak wider than the numbers).
  5. Be a good communicator.
  6. Have sales skills.
  7. Have empathy.
The first three skills are the recruitment filters accountants have traditionally adopted. Today, accountants need to be good with numbers and have a good understanding of accounting, but brilliance is not essential - it’s simply a matter of knowing what you don’t know.

The remaining four skills are generally not taught at university or at traditional tax and compliance courses. These skills are your greatest opportunity to differentiate from other firms - to delight and grow your client base.

Build your team's skills

Identify your skills gaps  

Ask your accounting team to brainstorm what the above seven traits mean and then assess themselves (giving a score out of 10) against the traits to identify where they would benefit from building capability.  

We have a range of reflection and self-assessment resources in the portal to help your team, whatever their role, become more aware of where they'd like to grow their capability. Use the Search in the portal to find and review these documents:
  1. The  Job Performance Wheel. An eight-spoke wheel where team members (or their leaders) can assess strengths and weaknesses.
  2. The Leader's Wheel. Another eight-spoke assessment wheel with a leader's focus.
  3. Team Member Reflection Questionnaire. Take it a step further and ask your team some deeper reflection questions to understand where they'd like to grow their capability personally and professionally.

Make a plan

Consider the areas where your team would like to stretch their skills in combination with the services you want to deliver and make a plan that engages everyone in learning and developing. 

Key areas within the portal to build capability

The Mindset Tools area

The  Mindset Tools area contains branded mindset cards and short, explanatory mindset videos. The tools relate to the following categories: Leadership, Purpose & Core Values, Organisational, Time Management, Business Growth, Change Management, Coaching, Performance, Conflict, Marketing, Sales and Systemisation. 

Using mindset cards and mindset videos:
  1. Mindset cards are a visual expression of a model, theory or principle
  2. Mindset videos provide a short explanation for additional context on when and how to use them
  3. Hover over a tile or mindset name to read a short description of the mindset
  4. Practise drawing mindsets on a flipchart in order to demonstrate to clients during meetings or workshops

You never really know something until you can teach it to someone else. - John C Maxwell

The Training area

The Training area contains a broad training offering with access to view previous monthly training sprint s. Our monthly training sprints are held on the third Tuesday of each month, we recommend watching the training sprints on a large screen with your team and dedicating time afterwards to digest the information and plan any resulting actions.

Tip
Ensure you've blocked out this time in your calendar and prioritise it the same way you would a client meeting. You'll obtain much more value attending live as you can ask important questions of our presenters.

Note
We recommend accessing the training sprint workbook and taking digital notes during the session.  

The Gap has your CPD covered

All Gap training sprints and workshops qualify as verifiable CPD hours. 

The Gap Community Facebook Group

Our Gap Community Facebook Group is a great benefit of your membership.

Engaging with your network of like-minded accountants and bookkeepers via this channel is an invaluable way to learn and build your capability. You'll find members ask and answer questions, leveraging each other's experiences for continuous learning.  

Make the commitment to ongoing learning 

Five ways to continue building capability:

  1. Run a self-assessment session. Find out what capabilities your team would like to build, then use the portal to set a plan.  
  2. Set clear expectations for your team.  Allow them to complete at least one hour of training in the portal per month.
  3. Commit to learning a mindset a week. View the card, watch the video and draw the concept on a flipchart or virtual whiteboard.
  4. Commit to watching the monthly live training sprint as a team. Share your greatest takeaways afterwards to cement the learning. 
  5. Join the Gap Facebook Community Group. 

Note
Unsure where to start? Speak with your Member Success contact to make a plan.

The growth and development of people is the highest calling of leadership. - Harvey S Firestone

Tip
Check out our Holding Better Meetings pathway to translate your learnings to better client engagement and sales outcomes.

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