Reflections
Letter from the President and CEO
Communicating Leadership
FROM:
MAR-APR 2006 ISSUE
Leadership. It is the hopeful aspiration of every manager and the holy grail of corporate governance. Strong leaders can transform a mediocre company into a world-class organization. Weak leaders can turn a great enterprise into a mediocre one — or worse. It is no wonder that in the worlds of business and politics — from Julius Caesar to Tony Blair and from Marco Polo to Bill Gates — success is measured in terms of the strength and vision of leadership.
Leadership matters. In work and in life we either seek it out or create it in a constant effort to improve and grow. Sometimes we choose to impose it upon our environment and sometimes the environment demands it of us. Today, I believe the latter to be true. A succession of events in recent years has squandered public confidence in our political and corporate institutions and placed ethics and accountability at the top of the priority list. Society and business are seeking leadership to help restore trust and I see a role for
CGA-Canada as one of those leaders.
Certainly, in the world of finance and accounting the need for sound leadership has never been stronger. The push towards more extensive rules and regulation has created a growing pressure among accountants, especially those with small and medium-sized practices. They seek out direction and counsel to help them meet the demands of an evolving marketplace. Regulators and legislators need experts to help inform and develop standards and codes of conduct that achieve stringent regulation, but don't impede economic flows.
As the fastest growing designation in one of Canada's most trusted professions, Certified General Accountants must respond to these challenges and help lead the way. We must bring to bear our financial expertise, our strategic perspective, and our
ethics-based approach to meet these challenges. But we will not meet them alone. The effort is necessarily a collaborative one and our success as leaders will only be as good as the relationships we forge — with our affiliates, our members and students, our fellow designations, our international counterparts, and numerous other bodies and agencies.
Many factors coalesce to create great leaders — technical mastery, consummate people skills, sound judgment, to name a few. And effective communication is key. With it, corporate vision and strategy are shared across enterprises and throughout the wider world. Effective communication can foster a thriving, creative environment by encouraging the free flow of information. Without it, you risk the "silo effect." Through communications we convey our messages, values, and positions to our audiences. We build partnerships and find solutions. As we face the challenges of professional and financial standards reform amid the opportunities of an evolving profession, our ability to communicate will be critical to our leadership success.
For inspiration, I often reflect on the wise words of Peter Drucker who said, "Leadership is lifting a vision to higher sights, raising a performance to higher standards, and building a personality beyond limitations."
I couldn't have said it better.
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