Happy 2017! This time of year, most of us set personal goals for ourselves, whether it's committing to eat healthier, save more money, get more sleep, or another goal that will lead us to our happiest, healthiest year yet. While you're setting up your new gym membership or automatic savings plan, why not also give some thought to what you'd like to accomplish professionally this year?
We asked a few of our Kreischer Miller team members about their career goals for 2017. Hopefully their responses will spark an idea or two for yourself!
No more “busy season!” With all the tasks that come in hourly, daily, weekly, and even monthly, we all need an upfront filter that allows us to deal with tasks and priorities at the right time. Many of us don’t have that filter, so our method for determining how our work is done isn't optimal. We often do the easy tasks first and defer the hard tasks, or we complete tasks based on the order in which we receive jobs (first in, first out). These methods have fundamental flaws and can lead to poor choices in priority management.
So this year I'm committing to more effectively managing my time by putting tasks through a filter that focuses on high value items first – both personal and professional. The first four months of 2017 are being renamed from “busy season” to “value creation season.”
Rob Olszewski, Director, Audit & Accounting
My professional New Year’s resolution is to be more proactive with communication. This seems to be a trend that we have increasingly seen in our firm surveys and in the marketplace as a whole. Communication is key. In my role, I see this as one of the most important things I can contribute to the firm.
Bobbi Kelly, Director, Human Resources
Some of my professional goals for the New Year are to:
- Keep studying and working toward passing all four part of the CPA exam.
- Acquire a better understanding of the clients I am working on this year. By this, I mean the individual intricacies that are unique to each client. This is really important to me. When the time comes to prepare and plan for each of them next year, my goal is to have a good understanding of their business so I can efficiently analyze any new information and understand what has happened, why it happened, and how it will affect the upcoming returns.
- Get to know my coworkers better, and to also share with them who I am. I already really enjoy the people I work with, so I look forward to learning more about what each of them is like, where they are from, what hobbies they enjoy, etc.
Jim Quindlen, Staff Accountant, Tax Strategies
My New Year’s resolution is to resolve as many issues as possible when they first arise rather than deferring them until a later date. I have found that some of the most efficient members of our firm take action immediately when a decision needs to be made, then they have nothing left to add to their to-do list. Making strides in this area will alleviate unnecessary stress and help me to leave at the end of the day with a clean slate.
Stephanie Wright, Manager, Audit & Accounting
I spent some time over the holidays de-cluttering and organizing the non-finished side of my basement and was happy to find my workbench and a lot of new usable space…and it looks great. I did a similar job in my garage over Thanksgiving and can now fit two cars in there, which will keep them snow-free this winter!
So, I thought it might be a good idea to start the New Year off with de-cluttered desktops – both PC and office – to make my work spaces more organized and help me be more efficient. And it looks nice, too, which makes me happy. Of course, the real trick will be keeping them clean and organized going forward!
Mike Coakley, Director, Audit & Accounting
My goal for 2017 is to start graduate school after tax busy season, to earn my MS in taxation.
Lisa Pierce, Senior Accountant, Tax Strategies
I've always loved to read, both for work and for pleasure, but for some reason over the last few years my reading time has really tailed off. I was inspired by my colleague Steve's recent blog post about how he's managed to find more time for reading by listening to audiobooks on his commute to work a few days a week. So I decided to subscribe to Audible and over the holidays I downloaded a few books I've been meaning to read. First up? Amy Cuddy's "Presence: Bringing Your Boldest Self to Your Biggest Challenges." I can't tell you how often I've heard about this book over the past year and how excited I am to finally read it!
Melanie Vivian, Marketing Director
Here is some more valuable career guidance: