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BAP Ep. 7 - The Advisor Leap Part 5: The Advisor Leap and the AI Question with Heather Esposito
198 Plays18 days ago
AI isn’t just changing accounting workflows—it’s changing what clients need most from their advisors. As part of a five-part series, Heather Esposito joins us to reframe the fear of “being replaced” into a powerful question: what makes you irreplaceably human? She shares why anxiety shuts down good decision-making, how accountants can shift from having all the answers to navigating uncertainty with clients, and why real growth takes practice, feedback, and vulnerability. If you want to feel more confident—and more valuable—in an AI-driven profession, this conversation will change how you think about your future.
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Transcript
Introduction to the Human Side of Leadership
00:00:02
Speaker
Music
00:00:09
Speaker
Hi, my name is Chris Mitchell and welcome to another episode of Becker Accounting Podcast. And I'm here with Heather Esposito and we're going to spend some time talking about the human side of leadership.
00:00:20
Speaker
And what I mean by that is that we're all caught up in AI and that being a solution set, but I'm telling you, being human is important. So I'm excited to sit down with her today and have the conversation.
00:00:32
Speaker
know, my
Addressing AI Anxiety in Accounting
00:00:33
Speaker
first question is about anxiety, accounting, the profession, where things are headed. What is there to be worried about? Because I know there's a lot of hesitation, a lot of concern.
00:00:45
Speaker
It's hard just being human nowadays. So what is AI doing? I know it's a disruption, but what is the anxiety? What is there to be worried about?
AI vs Human Skills in Decision-Making
00:00:54
Speaker
Yeah, so I think the anxiety is coming from this major question that people have been asking, which is, is AI going to replace me? And if that's the orientation that we're evaluating this new technology and the power it can have in our lives, we're kind of playing a playing not to lose, if you will. And going back to neuroscience, what we know is that if we're in a state of anxiousness, we're kind of operating out of a survival orientation.
00:01:26
Speaker
And when we're doing that, we just don't make good decisions. We don't have access to our full thinking capacity. And so I think there's really a better question that we can be asking ourselves when it comes to AI, which which is What part of our work is distinctly human?
00:01:48
Speaker
And not do we have it, but what are we doing to consistently develop it? And I think if we came from that perspective, because we can talk as we get into this about the work that AI can do.
00:02:03
Speaker
And arguably, I think we're at a stage now where we've done enough research that some pieces of our technical work, AI can do better than us and do it faster and take in more volumes of information.
00:02:17
Speaker
But what it can't do, at least for now, is the things that make us distinctly human. And are we focusing on developing those the same way we focused on developing our technical skill up to this point?
Human Qualities in Complex Situations
00:02:31
Speaker
So my question would be, what is distinctly human? Because I'm distinctly human, at least I think I am, but I could be thinking the wrong thing. What does that mean?
00:02:41
Speaker
think it's the things that... Well, let me kind of give you an example that's not in the accounting profession, because I think sometimes when we can take a step out of listening to something like this and evaluating it through our world, sometimes it gives us a different insight.
00:02:58
Speaker
So one of the ways I think about this is think about the medical field. Think about a doctor. And if I showed up in the emergency room with a strange group of symptoms that And maybe what I don't know yet is that I have a condition that maybe only one in 500,000 people will ever experience.
00:03:22
Speaker
The likelihood that the doctor who treats me or even the team of doctors who treats me have ever experienced, witnessed, read about this group of symptoms I'm experiencing might be pretty rare. It might be like a house case. And so if I'm counting on one doctor and their limited base of knowledge, even if they are the expert in their field, they still might not know how to treat me.
00:03:52
Speaker
So they go out and they're trying, they're putting things out to their network. Has anybody ever seen anything like this? They're going to the research. They're trying to figure out what all of these symptoms mean.
00:04:04
Speaker
Well, if they went to AI and started plugging in my record and AI can access a vast amount of knowledge and experiences in those one in a million cases, it's highly likely that they're going to be able to send information to my doctor about potential diagnoses or things to look for or further tests to run.
00:04:28
Speaker
Do I really care that the doctor reached out to other resources to get the knowledge they needed? Does that make the doctor any less credible? I would argue no.
00:04:40
Speaker
But if I'm sitting there in the room getting a diagnosis that I might not have been prepared for or sitting in an operating room getting ready to go under for a risky surgery,
00:04:52
Speaker
I want somebody there holding my hand saying, we're here with you. We're going to take care of you. We're going to let your family know as soon as we have any updates. We'll see you when you come out on the other side. We're going to be here with you through this and we're going to figure this out together.
00:05:10
Speaker
That's being uniquely human. That's the ability to be present with someone in something that's really hard, that may be stressful, that maybe where there are no clear answers and be able to like make me feel not alone through going through something, trying to figure out something that may be really, really difficult.
Bringing Humanity into Accounting
00:05:33
Speaker
Yeah.
00:05:34
Speaker
So on that same note, because I think about accounting professionals and I i know AI is moving at Mach 1. It's not slowing down. In fact, the gains that have been made over the the past six months have been incredible.
00:05:48
Speaker
So when I think about our value and I think about being human, I mean, what do we bring to the table? I know that. There will be some conversation a little bit later on about advancements and how we advise and how we, you know, appear to be more human and not so mechanical in how we go about doing things. Because my wife tells me from time to time, accountants, and she's I don't want the audience to take it in the wrong way.
00:06:12
Speaker
She says, accountants, you know, you guys are very linear. you but You think and you process in a certain way. And I keep telling her no, but my behavior is still consistent with that. So, What do we need to do? I mean, how do we stand out? I mean, when we're as an accounting professional, where's our value now? what's my How do I communicate my value as a human, and as being you know um understanding, a good listener in the moment? I guess those would be some of the characteristics. But what does that look like for the modern day professional as we we're trying to deal with AI and understanding that value?
00:06:47
Speaker
I think we we hear so much talk today about the skill of the accountant of the future is more of that advisory mindset. having all the answers or knowing all the rules, again, this is these are places where AI can augment and actually probably do things quicker and better than what we can do from a technical perspective.
00:07:12
Speaker
And so if our new job is to act as that advisory role and to help a client navigate the things that they're facing and help them, and oftentimes part of the reason why We struggle as accountants is we pride ourselves on having all the answers.
00:07:33
Speaker
We pride ourselves on being the expert in the room. And to be honest, I think that's what the the profession has rewarded, both internally inside firms, as well as what clients were looking to us to do.
00:07:48
Speaker
Now, the things they're bringing us, the things that we're facing in the world, I would argue there aren't clear answers. There aren't best practices. If there were always best practices, they could get that information anywhere.
00:08:04
Speaker
What they're bringing us are things that feel unsolvable, feel like things that we can't plan and prepare for. I'm sure you've heard the term VUCA. Have you heard the term BANI, B-A-N-I?
Understanding BANI and Its Implications
00:08:20
Speaker
Okay, so it's, I don't know, I think the first time I read about it was maybe about three or four years ago. But BANI stands for brittle, anxious, nonlinear, and incomprehensible.
00:08:33
Speaker
And I think some people would argue that that's the evolution of VUCA. But I read an article in Forbes about three years ago, that kind of flipped that a little bit differently. And I thought it was super interesting that VUCA kind of describes the world.
00:08:52
Speaker
Like, so it's kind of this external piece to us of the world in which we're operating. And you could argue that with Bani, but what it also does is it focuses the lens back on us.
00:09:07
Speaker
And it's really about breaking up some of the illusions that we've held that we actually do have control or that we have this knowledge that's going to be able to support us and protect us.
00:09:22
Speaker
oh We believe things are stronger than what they really are. That's this brittle piece. If you think about the supply chains of 2020 during COVID, nobody thought that a whole supply chain system was going to break up over toilet paper. i mean, who could have predicted that? We we would never have worried about that.
00:09:41
Speaker
But that showed us how precarious our supply chains were when we really were under control. ah a pandemic.
00:09:52
Speaker
ah You think about some of the things going on in the geopolitical world, you know, tariffs, like there might be a tariff today, there might not tomorrow, there might be a different one a week from now.
00:10:03
Speaker
There aren't clear answers to that. And so the problems that our clients are bringing us, they have a lot of emotion wrapped around them. They have a lot of, I need you to sit in this with me.
00:10:14
Speaker
And I realized that there may not be one best answer But I want you to sit here with me and help me navigate it.
Developing Human Skills in Accounting
00:10:22
Speaker
And again, getting back to that deeply human piece, like the illusion that we ever had control or the illusion that we had enough knowledge for what we're facing in our world today. i think it's really sitting with the fact that those were illusions. And so given that, how are we developing ourselves in a way That can have the capacity to sit with a client and not know all the answers, but still be extremely valuable to them.
00:10:52
Speaker
Wow. And that's really different than what we've been trained for. You know, I think about AI and disruption and I think about exactly what you're sharing. Okay. And I'm going to think like an accountant, so ah forgive me.
00:11:04
Speaker
But what are those steps when I think about steps that I need to take in order to be more present, more human, more engaging, a good listener? I mean, what does it look like? I mean, how do I evolve? I can't do it overnight, but help me understand how I can take some steps that would make me better in front of a client.
00:11:23
Speaker
Well, I'm really glad that you said you couldn't do it overnight because I think that's the most fundamental truth. And oftentimes we like to approach approach problems as problem fix. OK, I've got this problem. Give me the quick answer. Just tell me what I need to do. I'll go do it and let's move on.
00:11:41
Speaker
And the things that you're talking about, there is a skill component to them so they can be learned. But this isn't something that's going to be solved with one one hour webinar or an e-learning course that I take and get my certificate for and say, great, like I've got that now.
00:12:03
Speaker
There are skills behind it, but there's also this fundamental piece of.
00:12:11
Speaker
how we're developing as humans and developing ourselves to hold greater capacity for these things. It takes a lot to be willing to set aside that I may not always have all the answers and I may not always be right about the things I know, especially when you've come up through a profession like accounting And there's some vulnerability in and that. And that's not a skill. That's work that we have to do to unpack a lot of beliefs and assumptions and things we've been rewarded for our whole life.
00:12:51
Speaker
At that developmental work, that's what I love doing is sitting with leaders to say, like, let's let's get behind and underneath some of those things. Let's talk about how you're increasing your capacity.
00:13:05
Speaker
ah I like to think about it like an operating system. We all have an iPhone or a Samsung or some type of phone. And if I tried to plug in and turn on my iPhone 6,
00:13:20
Speaker
and I tried to access some of the same apps that I use on my whatever version we're on, iPhone 17, or I think I have a 15, it will tell you this app can't work on this operating system.
00:13:34
Speaker
The hardware of that computer, the the level of processing capacity it had could not process the things that we're doing today with graphics and demands.
00:13:46
Speaker
But if I use an iPhone 15, which is on a completely different operating system, in fact, those old phones can only upgrade to a certain operating system, and then they reach their limit.
00:13:57
Speaker
My iPhone 15 can upgrade to be able to work with the new apps and things that are coming out. And we're the same exact way. We can't keep running on an old operating system and expecting these new competencies and these new skills to boot up in the same way.
00:14:14
Speaker
And i just think so much of what we look at, and I hate the T word, but from a training perspective, does not really support true learning and true development. Right.
00:14:28
Speaker
And that's where we're going to have to make a big shift in how we think about skills and competencies and capabilities coming online. How are we upgrading our operating system, not trying to run new apps on old ones?
Coaching Accountants for Engagement
00:14:44
Speaker
So when I think about what you're, how you've been involved, okay, working with accounting firms, leadership development, how are you coaching these folks? I mean, I know this is a question that's not on our list, but I'm just curious, how are you delivering the right a message?
00:15:00
Speaker
How are you coaching them along these lines? Because accountants have a tendency, consultants, Internal auditors, however you want to label us. hey um We're not thinking that way. You know, I have a solution.
00:15:11
Speaker
i've I've got a balance that I need to tie out. I've got a report that I need to do and I'm going to deliver that. So how do i how do I flip the script? OK, and how would you coach me if I if I was good, a really good deliverer of information? But I did. I wasn't there. I couldn't hear. I couldn't listen to what they needed me to do.
00:15:31
Speaker
I couldn't frame it the way they'd like me to. how What does that look like? I mean, your strategy and how you go about working it. Yeah, so there's like there's a couple of things. So first of all, there's probably very little that I would be telling you because our brain just doesn't respond well if I just come at you with telling you what you need to do, what you should do.
00:15:53
Speaker
and People often hear me say, don't should on yourself, don't should on other people, because our brain, that shuts us down. That does not open us up to new ways of thinking. So there's a couple of ways I go about it. First is just examining and helping someone else be self-reflective about how are those strengths serving them and where are they starting to run into the limits of them? Because we're aware that certain things that we're doing aren't working the way we need them to, but we don't know what to do about that and we don't know what to do to put in its place.
00:16:30
Speaker
ah But acknowledging that what got us here may not get us to the next place and it may not be having the same success is the first step. I love doing cohort based work because I think those conversations Having those conversations together, not just doing the work as an individual to develop, but also doing it in the collective where, eight we talked about earlier, I don't feel so alone sitting in this complexity to hear that other people are navigating the same things and then giving feedback.
00:17:08
Speaker
Giving them things to try. And I am hesitant to use that language. Maybe the better word is exposing them, because if if I give it to you, it makes it sound like you've got to do it this way.
00:17:20
Speaker
But exposing them and helping them think through other ways they would want to show up. The real work is going back to the situation and experimenting with something that Not changing everything you do overnight or trying to like change your whole being, but saying, you know what?
00:17:42
Speaker
I'm going to ask a second question instead of jumping to an answer after the first one. What's that like? And then we come back together and say, you tried it. What did you experience? What was that like for you?
00:17:54
Speaker
What was going on in your own mind? How did your client or how did your team member respond when you did that? And then you're going to go iterate and you're going to try something else. So most of this really significant behavior change does not come in one fell swoop. This happens over time of experimenting, reflecting on how it worked, what worked, What didn't? What do I want to try next time? Iterating, trying again, and doing this in collection and partnership with others who can say, you know what?
00:18:28
Speaker
I actually observed you doing that. And here's what I noticed when I saw you do that. And we start getting that type of feedback into our feedback systems.
00:18:39
Speaker
And then we're like, okay, this isn't just something that I'm feeling that I'm doing differently. I'm actually hearing from others that they're noticing it and seeing it as well. And then we start to see the impact that it has and what types of results we're getting that feel very different from when our value came from providing all the answers.
00:18:59
Speaker
But what was it like to sit with somebody in co-creation? and unlock maybe new insights or new
AI's Urgency in Human Skill Development
00:19:06
Speaker
ways of thinking. And I think that's the value we can provide in the future.
00:19:11
Speaker
When AI is taking care of a lot of the technical work for us, we've got a new role to play in doing our own development work to be ready to do that is the work of today.
00:19:24
Speaker
You know, when I think about AI in general, and I think about the accounting pipeline, and I know that we've had some struggles in the past and how that's evolving. And now we're tossing something else in the mix, which means I need to be more human. I need to change the way that i I deliver, you know, information, my patience and my energy in the field when I'm working with the client.
00:19:45
Speaker
um What do you think about that? Do you think it's just too much? Do you think it kind of changes the... I guess the opportunity for and hit it from two angles, hit it from the person that's come out of school and the experienced person that's already out there that's been delivering for four or five, 15 years.
00:20:02
Speaker
I mean, what's your thoughts on that? Yeah, so again let's talk about the younger professional first, because I think this is where we're really struggling technology.
00:20:15
Speaker
what academia is preparing students for what we need today and what we know we need in the future. And the reality is that where some of that, I'll just say simpler work, because if you think about accounting as an apprenticeship profession, you start off by doing some of the simpler tasks, seeing the patterns in that work, and then you progress and take on more difficult things.
00:20:41
Speaker
It's, I think it's non-debatable that where we're going to see some of AI replace the work initially is in that simpler work. And then we're going to continue to integrate it into the more complex.
00:20:55
Speaker
And so if I was a student today and we have lost a lot of people being interested in the accounting profession, because there are some sexier careers out there that seem really cool and really trendy. Okay. So, so we've got to get this reputation of still the green visors and and the bean counters and being very,
00:21:18
Speaker
rule-based and strict and conservative and all of these things. If we start to talk about this new role of the accountant and that, yes, the technical is still important. We have to know our work. We have to be able to check the outputs of AI. We can't ignore that.
00:21:37
Speaker
But there's this whole other aspect that is developing more prominence I think that actually becomes more intriguing and will draw a different crowd than maybe we've drawn in the past.
00:21:51
Speaker
And I start to think about if we could improve those, um, And maybe improve is not right. ah Help people be more effective in those human skills earlier in their career.
00:22:05
Speaker
i think that would change the trajectory of a career path, because oftentimes in the past, we've said, just focus on your technical, just focus on getting good at the work.
00:22:16
Speaker
And as you get to that senior role or supervisor role, whatever your firm refers to it, that's when we start to say, oh, we need you to get some human skills because you need to start reviewing the work of others. You need to start developing skills.
00:22:31
Speaker
the team that's working on your jobs, giving them better feedback, giving them better review notes. And then we start them into these coaching or more ah performance management type roles. And we try to develop these human skills much later in their career path.
00:22:48
Speaker
I think this is going to AI is going to shift where we start introducing that. And that's going to be a skill from day one. So that's kind of how I see for the younger professionals. I think it makes our profession much more exciting to them and much more appealing because it's a different type of job than what it may have been 5, 10, 15 years ago.
00:23:10
Speaker
For the experienced professionals, you know what you What you were successful at and the the knowledge that you gained and the context that you earned and the experiences you've had, that is what the work required. So there wasn't anything that you were doing wrong.
00:23:29
Speaker
It's just that now, if the moving more into the advisory mindset is the direction that the profession's headed, and all the signals are telling us that's where it's going, then what do I need to develop now to be the most effective I can be?
00:23:49
Speaker
Because I bring this great bank of credibility and experience to And if I want to work with clients in their most vulnerable, um in their sitting and ambiguity and complexity and all the things they're trying to navigate in running their business effectively.
00:24:11
Speaker
I need these skill sets and maybe I don't have them today because I've been able to rely on my technical expertise and just keeping my head down. But it's a developable skill.
00:24:24
Speaker
I mean, we can do that if we're putting as much intention into developing these human things as we have been in the past to developing the technical. You know, a question I have for you, because I know your background, a little bit about your background, and I know you're CPA, and all of a sudden yeah you're doing leadership development.
Heather's Career Journey and Passion
00:24:43
Speaker
I want to back up a bit. I mean, how did you change from being a CPA, you know, the way CPAs are, and now you're on the leadership development side? I mean, is that part of it? Were you able to do it? Did you take those steps? I mean, I'm just curious, because I think it's a nice blend as to what's happening today.
00:25:02
Speaker
Yeah, so ah so my story is a little bit different. When I was in school and I was going to school for accounting, I really thought I was going to be a tax attorney. that was my path. I was going to go to law school, get my CPA license, and I took a hard left into education. Education led me to direct sales. Direct sales led me to B2B sales. And then B2B sales led me back into learning through like sales enablement and learning and development roles.
00:25:32
Speaker
I just got my license a couple of years ago. awesome And yeah, i I came back to it ah when I was at BPM because we offered exam prep to all of our employees. And every year i set a goal for myself.
00:25:49
Speaker
That's something that really stretches me. i had a leader many years ago in my career who every year said, what are you going to do to stretch yourself? And I used to do kind of easy things that I knew I could accomplish, but she would always support me.
00:26:04
Speaker
And then I realized that she really did support me. So I started picking more outlandish things and she still never told me no. So um so now it's kind of a personal challenge with myself. And I don't like to fail at things. So I started picking things that stretched me that I honestly could fail at because I wanted to just put myself in that environment and get more comfortable with that.
00:26:27
Speaker
And literally, you can fail the CPA exam. So I went back and that was my stretch goal for the year was to study, prepare. And the work that I had been doing and learning and development and developing things technical training materials would qualify under that other experience route, I could ah document how I had done that. So I came back to accounting to my CPA license, actually,
00:26:52
Speaker
Just a couple of years ago, my career has been built around just helping to unleash the potential of people. That is what I'm about at my core, whether it's helping you be good at your job as a first year associate or whether it's helping you be a more effective leader.
00:27:15
Speaker
I'm so passionate about creating environments of psychological safety where we can bring our best. I'm passionate about helping leaders unlock the mindsets that are holding them back and what needs to transition at each stage.
00:27:30
Speaker
And so for me, this work just naturally flows together. And i have found accountants to be really open to learning new ways of doing things, especially when I can share the science behind it. And that's where this neuroscience piece comes for me.
00:27:46
Speaker
It's like the reason we're doing things differently is because here's how, here's what's happening in your own brain. Here's what's happening in the brain of your client or the brain of someone on your team.
00:27:58
Speaker
And people are much more willing to do these I'll call them human things, but oftentimes people refer to them as soft skills or this fluffy woo-woo type stuff and want to dismiss it.
00:28:11
Speaker
But when I can show you the sort science behind it around helping your team be high-performing or helping to ah build a stronger relationship and trust with a client,
00:28:23
Speaker
All of a sudden, those things feel like hard science skills, even though they're rooted in our human nature. And so that's what I've spent my career really developing. And my CPA license was just an aspect of that for myself.
00:28:40
Speaker
You know, when I think about AI and I think about transformation and the human brain goes to the fact that, hey, it's going to replace me. OK. And I always think about you can't replace being human.
00:28:54
Speaker
OK. And the things that you're describing are absolutely important. I mean, yeah it's not a frou-frou. It's not just a soft skill. It is understanding how you need to engage and interact with your team and folks around you. AI can't do that. May help me get solve things a little quicker.
00:29:10
Speaker
You know, to be a little more efficient in some areas, but the comforting um touch of ah of a human is completely different. And so when I when I look through all of the notes and stuff that you presented me, I'm like, my goodness, this absolutely makes sense.
00:29:24
Speaker
Now, that said, if we get it right, we do all this inner work. You know, we start balancing the equation. We start focusing on the client in a different way. We start understanding the need to be present and advise and so forth. What does that mean for the profession?
00:29:38
Speaker
what What what does the future look like? If we get it right. Yeah. If we get it right, I think the profession looks bright. I think that we get to redefine it for ourselves. So that question you asked is, will AI replace me?
00:29:56
Speaker
We're just trying to survive. That is that is not never that is never a good place to operate from is like, how do I just make it through here? But if we flip that script and we say, what makes me irreplaceable?
00:30:11
Speaker
What is the value I can provide that these systems can't? then now we're playing to win. And actually, we have more agency in that because I can take on the developmental agenda I need to take on to be able to show up in all of those very human ways if I choose to.
00:30:32
Speaker
And to me, that is empowering. And that feels like we get to control where the profession heads rather than this being something that's being done to us. We have navigated lots and lots of technological advancements. Some of them have been huge, like the computer.
00:30:52
Speaker
And we've always, to a certain extent, been afraid of them. You know, well, what happens if, I don't know remember when Excel came out and what happens if like this spreadsheet can now do all these calculations I was doing with a calculator and a pencil by hand and what's the value I'm gonna bring? Well, Excel didn't eliminate anybody's role permanently. It changed the work we did, but it didn't eliminate their job.
00:31:20
Speaker
And this will just be the next iteration of that. I believe this is a lot bigger than Excel. But at the same time, as humans, we're amazingly adaptable. Our brains have something called neuroplasticity, which means they can form new connections. We can learn to do new things. It's OK if we don't have this fully developed yet.
00:31:40
Speaker
But now's the time to start. And I think AI is making that more urgent for us. And it's also clarifying what value are we really bringing.
00:31:51
Speaker
And we in the past, I think we've relied a lot on our expertise, on the knowledge that we have, the experience that we can provide. And that is changing now and we're not able to ignore it anymore.
00:32:08
Speaker
But I think it's I think it's amazingly bright. And I think that the future of the profession and where we can um improve business, where we can improve public trust, where we can improve the relationships with our clients is just going to be mind blowing.
00:32:26
Speaker
You know, when I think about AI and I think about replacement and I've used those words, sounds very harsh, but I look at AI as a gift. It's not a human. hu It's a machine.
00:32:37
Speaker
It helps me process things differently. What? I mean, do you feel the same way when I say AI is a gift and it's a gift for a lot of reasons and how we go about doing business, but it's not human.
00:32:47
Speaker
And the reason I say that is because I'm still centered. Everything is still centered on being a human. and being able to ah engage and and solve problems using a tool. That's the way I see it. I mean, how do you feel about it?
AI as a Business Asset
00:33:01
Speaker
I definitely think it's a gift. It's been a gift for me starting my own business. I told my husband, I said, I don't know how somebody would have started a business even five years ago and had as much success as I can today with the tools that are available to me. And maybe that's why so many small businesses are not successful is because we were trying to do so many things that we weren't good at and didn't have the capital to go pay the experts and didn't have tools to do it.
00:33:32
Speaker
um But I also think it keeps me focused. Well, not just focused, but gives me capacity to do the work that I really feel I'm best at, where I can have the most impact, the stuff that really gives me energy.
00:33:48
Speaker
ah Just one brief example. i had a had a program I was delivering, had designed it to be delivered over four hours. And the client came back to me and said, we only have three hours for this workshop because we're going to need to build lunch and a break in. And i said, OK.
00:34:07
Speaker
Now, in the past, if I had to take that four hour facilitator guide, And pick through it and go, okay, I could probably shorten this, that would give me 10 minutes. Okay, maybe I could do this here, that would be three minutes.
00:34:20
Speaker
Going back and forth and trying to make these core decisions and calculate time would have probably taken me an hour or two to redesign that facilitator guide.
00:34:32
Speaker
I plugged it into AI and I said, what recommendations would you make about what I can cut without losing the core things? Here's what's mostly what's most important to me.
00:34:43
Speaker
What recommendations would you make? Don't do anything to the guy yet. Just show me what I could cut and then we'll decide what to do. Within 45 seconds, it had listed out places that I could bake cuts to get that hour back.
00:34:58
Speaker
Some of them I made a couple tweaks to But again, two hours that within 15 minutes, I was able to cut down a four-hour workshop to three and didn't lose any of the core content or the core experiences that were important.
00:35:13
Speaker
That right there gave me back an hour and a half in my day. And that's not work that lights me up. That's not my zone of genius. It has to get done, but it's not the work that I want to spend two hours doing.
00:35:27
Speaker
I think that's where AI can help us take away the things either that are not our strengths or the things that we don't enjoy, but are an important part of So yeah.
00:35:39
Speaker
so I do believe it's a gift. And i think we need to be smart and ethical with how we use it. And so I always like to give that as a codicil that this is not unfettered access to everything.
00:35:52
Speaker
But man, it can do some amazing things if we let it. So who are you connecting with? if You go and you put your coaching hat on and you're partnering with folks in turn on the walls of the a public accounting firm.
00:36:04
Speaker
Are you working with ah HR? Are you working with leadership? I mean, how do you mix and mingle amongst the leadership team to make them more successful? Yes, as ah my previous role was director of learning and development. So I have an extensive network of my L&D peeps throughout the profession. And so I talk a lot to them and many of them are embedded in their HR teams. And so by extension, I spend time there.
00:36:32
Speaker
But I'm talking to managing partners and especially in the smaller firms that don't always have large L&D teams or resources.
00:36:43
Speaker
I find that's where I can add a lot of value is that the larger firms have access to a lot. ah They have a lot of access. They have more dollars sometimes to put towards L&D initiatives, whether it be leadership development or ai training or coaching.
00:37:02
Speaker
But also, too, there's there's just economies of scale. So sometimes smaller organizations just can't get access because, frankly, some companies will just not work with organizations of a certain size.
00:37:16
Speaker
And so I feel like I'm able to bring to smaller organizations the things that larger organizations have had access and reach to for a very, very long time.
00:37:29
Speaker
So if I'm on the ledge, so we've been saying all these positive things and you're a coach, so we got to make sure that we hone in on your skills as we're laces. I'm freaked out about AI. I'm frightened out of my mind. I don't know what's going to happen.
00:37:42
Speaker
You know, I just wonder from day to day if I've got the skill set that's required in order to be successful. How do you calm me down and help me see the value? and me being a human. I mean, how do you do it? Like on the spot? I mean, what do you do? What would you coach me through that very first 30 minutes hour? I don't know. It probably takes incredibly long time to get me through it, but I mean, but I'm freaked out about it. So how do you calm me down and help me see the value in that transformational exercise and all that promise?
Coaching Through AI Fears
00:38:13
Speaker
So the first thing I would I would ask you is, well, what fear is sitting beneath that? I'd want to explore that with you because The thing that's getting in the way of opening our minds or experimenting or trying something new is usually a fear.
00:38:31
Speaker
So if I can help shed some light, and a lot of times in coaching, that's what I think about. It's not that I'm telling you what to do. That is not true coaching. ah There's mentorship, there's consulting, and some of those are about advice giving, but truly in coaching, I'm just asking you questions and shining a flashlight.
00:38:53
Speaker
What you choose to do with what we've shown the spotlight on is your own work. And so if i we start to explore what's the fear behind that, how true is that fear?
00:39:05
Speaker
What's the risk for you of trying something new? If we can start to uncover those things and dispel them, if you will, because oftentimes they're fears that are rooted in earlier experiences we have.
00:39:21
Speaker
And maybe at that time, it really was true. Maybe there was an experience you've had in your past, your professional career that helped create and form that belief.
00:39:33
Speaker
But we carry it forward as if it's true 100% of the time in all situations. And we hold ourselves back by this false belief. And it's like, actually, i don't think that's true.
00:39:48
Speaker
But we run it behind the surface all the time. So if I start to help you unpack these things that are actually getting in the way of doing and trying the things that you want to do, have what would it mean for you if you weren't the expert in the room that had all the answers?
00:40:06
Speaker
I don't know how you'd answer that. But we start to unpack that. And what would it mean if you could sit with somebody going through something really hard and ask them better questions that helped you both navigate it together so that you could support them through it and they got to a better place?
00:40:25
Speaker
Then you start to paint this vision of what's possible today. And then we start to go, well, where are you on those things? Where are you today? And how do we start building? What's the first milestone you want to hit?
00:40:36
Speaker
Like, again, it's not it's not a lobotomy. i don't get to put a chip in your head and say, hey, like everything you've known up to this point, we're just going to change that. We're just going to upgrade the operating system overnight.
00:40:49
Speaker
But we can do it over time. and And I say time, but for some people, it can be a few months of just actively working on it. Sometimes it takes longer because there's more work to do, more skills to build, more at-bats and reps we need to get.
00:41:05
Speaker
But our brain's plastic. It can continue to grow, develop, create new wiring if we're willing to do that. But the first thing we've got to do is get behind or get underneath the fears and risks that keep us from trying.
00:41:23
Speaker
You know, I think about how important it is for us to always be learning and trying to figure things out.
Leadership and Complexity Management
00:41:30
Speaker
And it's not just a work thing. It's a life thing. I mean, there are always things that are surfacing that are going to make us better. And we just need to get comfortable with it. Look at you challenging yourself. You're not sitting for the CPA exam. It's a hard exam.
00:41:41
Speaker
OK, you could have done a lot of other things instead of passing the exam. But that was that was something you wanted to get and on your resume, which is fantastic. What are those takeaways, Heather? What are those three things that you want the audience to take away from this exercise? I know that humans are valuable.
00:42:00
Speaker
That's one. That's the only thing I know. We are really valuable. It's not a piece of equipment that's going to overshadow a Chris and what I bring to the table for an organization. So what are those three key takeaways that you want to leave with this audience so they can feel more comfortable about how they can evolve in this new framework?
00:42:20
Speaker
So first, I would say, let's not discount the value of the human skills. You'll never, ever, ever hear me refer to them as soft skills because I don't think they're soft. I think they're some of the hardest things to learn.
00:42:35
Speaker
And the other piece that makes them so hard is not just they're challenging for us to learn and deploy, because we're navigating our own physiology and our own biology and our own emotions and our own experiences that we're bringing to the party.
00:42:52
Speaker
But humans are so incredibly complex. So, Chris, if I'm talking to you and I'm like navigating a conversation with you, you're bringing your background, you're bringing your culture, you're bringing your experiences to the table.
00:43:08
Speaker
And then I go talk to someone else and they're coming at it from a completely different worldview and perspective. So what may have worked in my conversation with you may not work with my conversation with someone else. So it requires us to be present, to be adaptable. And that's hard, but just stop discounting them.
00:43:27
Speaker
We have to to say that they are equal, or I would even argue more important than the technical skills that we give so much emphasis to.
00:43:38
Speaker
ah The second thing i would ask if you are a managing partner or a partner leader in your firm is what are you modeling?
00:43:50
Speaker
Because if we want people to demonstrate this with our clients, the first place we need to look is in the mirror. And what am I modeling for them? Because the chances of someone developing something that isn't modeled for them is, it's a large hurdle to overcome because it means I need to go somewhere else to see what's possible and then learn how to do it.
00:44:16
Speaker
So when I say that, How do we act if somebody doesn't have the answer right off the bat inside of our own firm? What if somebody is asking more questions and getting curious?
00:44:29
Speaker
Do we reward that or do we say we don't have enough time for that? We're in a billable hour environment. We've got to keep moving. How fast can you get this done? That will send a message that this other skill set is really not valued.
00:44:44
Speaker
What is it like for an employee who says, man, I am really struggling right now and I am finding it hard to balance my responsibilities of work and my family and busy season and all of these things.
00:44:56
Speaker
Do we say, well that's too bad, figure it out. Like, that's not our problem. Because if we do that, then we're not going to teach other people. We're going to teach them how to sit with our clients in complexity and things that are hard to figure out and things that are emotional.
00:45:13
Speaker
heaven forbid. ah So that's the second thing. And then think the third thing that I would say is a reminder that AI can't hold complexity.
00:45:29
Speaker
People can hold complexity. AI can model complexity. AI can give us different alternatives and solutions to consider, might even be able to make a recommendation.
00:45:44
Speaker
But when somebody is sitting in something that they really don't know what to do with, It's ambiguous. There aren't any clear cut answers. There's a lot at stake.
00:45:55
Speaker
That person who's sitting there with you saying, let's figure this out together. i'm going to create an environment and ask you questions to help bring more to the surface. Because if we're not creating psychological safety with our clients, they're only going to tell us what they want us to hear.
00:46:13
Speaker
And we may be operating from a really bad place of missing information to even help them navigate potential solutions. But so are they because they're not acknowledging what might be real.
00:46:28
Speaker
So I think just remembering that, that as humans, if we're doing the work to be able to handle complexity, and by that I mean, can we sit with somebody? Can I sit emotionally regulated with somebody who's not and not get enmeshed in their stuff, but be able to have an intimacy with them that feels like trust? Hmm. But also know where my professional boundary is.
00:46:54
Speaker
That's a skill. But it's also an art. And AI can't do that with and for us, at least not yet. And I'm hoping never because I want to maintain the things that make us uniquely and distinctly human.
00:47:10
Speaker
But that's the work ahead of us. That's the work to be done. And the things that I'm really passionate about helping leaders and firms navigate both as individuals, but as collective organizations. so
Conclusion: Valuing Human Qualities Over AI
00:47:25
Speaker
Awesome. Awesome. It's been an absolute pleasure chatting with you today. This is this is so much good information. Hopefully the audience understands their value.
00:47:35
Speaker
They can see the promise of transformation, kind of where we're headed with ai It's a gift. That's the way I look at it. It's going to allow us to evolve as professionals. And I'm looking forward to it just based on what I've learned today. So I thank you for making time for us today.
00:47:50
Speaker
Thank you for having me. I appreciate it. It was a great conversation. Now, as I look into the camera today, I want to talk about the human side of doing things. Don't be afraid about what's going on as relates to AI.
00:48:04
Speaker
AI is not going to replace us because we are human. There are things that we do that it can't deliver. Being able to nurture and care and listen and be and respond to our clients is of key.
00:48:16
Speaker
So just keep that in mind as you're trying to figure out what your position would be go forward. You are human. So therefore, you'll always be above AI. So I enjoyed our time today and look forward to few future conversations on Becker Accounting Podcast.