By Connor Smith, Accountant at Hive Business

Perhaps it is part of my training in a profession where, most of the time, there is a definitive right or wrong answer. This option saves you more tax. This expense is or isn’t allowable. But sometimes I find myself struggling to comprehend a more subjective topic, one where the answer isn’t so cut and dried. Once I have my mind set on what I think is the ‘right’ decision, I find it particularly hard to let go of this.

Here at Hive, we’ve recently implemented a new project management system that can be adjusted and designed to best fit the needs of the team. The process evolves as the team gets to grips with what needs to be tracked as a priority and adapts to different project types. Because this new system is malleable, every member of the team has ideas on what should be tracked and how best to organise the system to maximise effectiveness.

Being the stubborn soul that I am, once things didn’t start fitting with the model that I’d created in my own head, I realised that I was shutting off from other suggestions that I didn’t initially think of. Once this hit me, I took a step back and began to listen to different opinions, and quickly realised that my own plan wasn’t as good as I first thought. That’s a huge benefit of the mix of professions we have at Hive, new ways of thinking are constantly presented to you.

In some ways, there’s a lot of similarities between accountants and dentists. We’re both trained in technical fields with a right and wrong way of carrying out a task, so when it comes to more abstract or creative topics, seeing the other side of the discussion can be like trying to look at the dark side of the moon!

If you’ve always run the marketing side of your business in one way and never adjusted, why? Are you missing out on the potential benefits of giving someone else’s idea a go?

Similarly, are you still trying to find the time to complete your bookkeeping yourself because this is what you always used to do as an associate? This probably means you’re not keeping up with your records as often as you should to provide accurate performance data. Maybe it’s time to let go of that responsibility and pass it over to another member of the team.

Try to make a conscious effort on a regular basis to step back and review the system you have in place. Encourage your team to make suggestions on how to improve efficiency. You’ll probably find you’re sitting on a bank of innovative ideas waiting to be deployed.

If you need help in identifying areas for improvement, book a Diagnostic Day and see how powerful an independent evaluation can be.