Inspired Ideas

In this special ConvergenceCoaching 20th Anniversary episode of our Inspired Ideas podcast, partner Tamera Loerzel sits down with co-founders Jennifer Wilson and Jim Metzler to discuss the origin of ConvergenceCoaching, LLC and tell some formation stories. Join us to learn more about what inspired the founders to set out on this journey, fun memories along the way, and how they handled their separation so they maintained a healthy relationship throughout each stage together.

James C. Metzler CPA, CGMA is the founder of Metzler Advisory Group LLC, a consulting firm that serves the CPA profession. Previously, he was Vice President/Small Firm Interests for the AICPA and a member of its senior management team. After co-founding ConvergenceCoaching, LLC, Jim joined the AICPA in 2003. Jim also spent 32 years with Gaines Metzler Kriner and Company CPAs in Buffalo, NY.

Jennifer Wilson is a co-founder and partner of ConvergenceCoaching, LLC, a national consulting firm dedicated to developing leaders and transforming teams through coaching, practice consulting, strategic planning and learning and development. Jennifer’s ultimate goal is to make a transformational difference in the lives of her clients and their businesses.

In this Inspired Ideas episode, Tamera Loerzel and Renee Moelders deepen their conversation from the Flex and Remote Work episode and explore flexing further with remote work. Renee and Tamera dive deeper into the details of how to make virtual programs work in your firm and how doing so can make us better managers and collaborators – with our team and our clients. Flex is critical for resolving capacity and recruiting challenges. When we can make remote work part of our culture, we can remove geographic barriers and work across offices and with people wherever they live. This evolution creates endless possibilities in recruiting, retention and capacity.

Join us to learn more about how remote work can create increased sustainability for your organization.

During our first Inspired Ideas podcast, Jennifer Wilson and Tamera Loerzel discussed The Change Imperative.  One of the client and talent-driven changes is the move to Anytime, Anywhere Work™ (ATAWW).

In our fourth survey of the ATAWW work practices of nearly 200 accounting and consulting firms, 99% say that they have Anywhere work and 96% say they have Anytime work. However, when we delve deeper, we find opportunities where you could flex further in alternative time programs and expand remote and virtual place programs, too, making them more widely known and available to all team members.

This podcast will provide new insights and actions to ensure flex is consistent and supported by leaders for all employees across the firm. And, for those of you that may just be exploring the idea of flex, you’ll leave with ideas and changes to explore this coming year.

The capacity challenge has been going on since the dawn of time in public accounting, but certainly more-so in the last couple of years. Firms feel understaffed during the high-volume periods. People feel flattened out upon finishing busy seasons, including partners.

We feel firms need to stop talking about the capacity problem and start solving the capacity problem.

If you enjoyed this episode, check out the video, show notes and more at https://convergencecoaching.com/ep2

The amount of change in our profession can be overwhelming at times but it definitely is the word of the hour. Everything feels like it's changing, and every one of us needs to change in a lot of different ways.

Thus, we've named this first episode, The Change Imperative. Why is so much change happening? What's causing it? What are the areas of change we should be focused on?

If you enjoyed this episode, check out the video, show notes, and more at https://convergencecoaching.com/ep1/ and follow at https://twitter.com/ConvergenceSays