Keep Your Best Leaders: Four Keys to Build a Flourishing Leadership Pipeline

11:00 p.m. Wednesday

By Jon Lokhorst, CSP, CPA, PCC
Your Best Leadership LLC

Grant was an early-career transfer into the accounting profession. After starting out in another field following his college graduation, he was enticed by the promising opportunities offered by a large local CPA firm in his home state. The firm’s leadership was impressed by Grant’s prior work and life experience, along with leadership qualities they said would put him on a fast-track for advancement within the firm. Grant accepted the firm’s offer with those expectations of advancement in mind, later finding a reluctance to even revisit the conversation from the recruiting process about leadership opportunities.

Sensing a dead-end with that firm, Grant left and eventually pursued an opportunity with a similar-sized firm in another state. Once again, the firm’s leadership was impressed by his background and said they anticipated moving him quickly into greater responsibility and opportunities for advancement. Unfortunately, Grant later encountered the same type of resistance from this firm’s leadership, which wasn’t open to further discussion about the opportunities they offered in the interview stage.

Thinking a larger firm might provide more realistic leadership opportunities, Grant then moved to a regional firm which said they wanted to fast-track him into their leadership ranks. To his surprise and dismay, he felt stonewalled again when the firm later seemed to forget that the conversation had even taken place. After these experiences with a lack of clarity, communication, and follow-through, Grant no longer works as an accountant.

Although Grant isn’t his real name (it’s been changed for confidentiality reasons), the story is true. And he’s not the only promising CPA leader who’s left their firm, or the industry altogether, due to similar circumstances, an often-overlooked factor in the leaky pipeline challenges of the accounting world. Beyond a cautionary tale like Grant’s, recent surveys highlight the high risk of turnover at the manager level.

Leader Retention Concerns

Recent Gallup research found managers more likely than non-managers to be disengaged at work, burned out, looking for a new job, and feeling like their organization doesn’t care about their well-being. Among managers surveyed, 55 percent indicated they were watching for or actively seeking a new job, a significant uptick from 44 percent who said that in 2019. In a similar study, Gallup found that engagement declined most among managers under age 35 and for female managers.

More specific to the accounting industry, CPA Trendlines cited research from Live Data Technologies indicating that over 82 percent of accountants who left the profession had at least six years of experience, compared to 71 percent of accountants leaving the profession in 2021. 

Similar concerns arose from last year’s Accountants Annual Professional Satisfaction Survey by Randy Crabtree of Tri-Merit Group and Hank Berkowitz of HB Publishing and Marketing. They found only 17 percent of managers were highly satisfied with their careers. The directors and senior manager group scored only somewhat better, with 24 percent responding with a highly satisfied rating. Among the factors diminishing career satisfaction: a lack of support in dealing with difficult clients, work-related mental and physical health challenges, a lack of positive firm culture, and limited variety in client and work responsibilities.

Amid these intense challenges, what can you do to keep your best leaders? You simply can’t afford to lose them. Nor can you allow ambiguous, unfulfilled promises to discourage people like Grant from staying on board for opportunities that don’t materialize. Here’s a more intentional structured approach to building a flourishing leadership pipeline that produces future leaders from within the organization: Identify Them, Engage Them, Develop Them, and Empower Them.

Identify Them

Identifying your best leaders can be as simple as answering the question, “Which leaders are you most afraid of losing?” Seek input throughout the organization, focusing on individuals currently serving in leadership roles, as well as potential future leaders. Take note of those with the strongest influence and rapport among their coworkers. Watch for signs of initiative, one of the first indicators of leadership potential. At the same time, ensure these individuals are aligned with your organization’s mission and values.

For a more structured assessment, create a leadership competency model that outlines expectations for leaders at each level in your organization. Include core technical skills, but don’t stop there. Address crucial nontechnical skills, such as strategic thinking, emotional intelligence, stakeholder management, and the ability to develop others. One of my public accounting clients created a grid with a column for each leadership level, showing the progression required for leaders to advance from one level to the next.

Conduct a pipeline analysis, identifying leadership succession needs over the next several years. Look at each position, anticipating when significant transitions in leadership will occur. Identify the next individual, or potential individuals, in line for each role. These individuals are likely to be your best leaders.

Engage Them

After noticeable improvements in the early stages of the pandemic, employee engagement has been on the decline over the past three years. The top two causes identified in Gallup’s report are unclear expectations at work and feeling disconnected from the mission and purpose of the organization. If these factors are problematic for the workforce as a whole, they are doubly problematic when experienced by your best leaders.

Assign leaders meaningful work that enables them to see how they contribute to your organization’s mission, purpose and strategic plan. Seek their input on opportunities to make an even greater impact. Recognize their contributions to ensure they feel appreciated. Cultivate a positive, healthy culture that reminds them why they enjoy working in your organization. 

Develop Them

According to Gallup’s research, a lack of opportunities for development ranked third among causes for the drop-off in employee engagement. In addition, only 48 percent of managers surveyed said they strongly agree that they have the skills needed to be exceptional in their current jobs. Imbedding leadership development in your culture will provide a competitive advantage in your retention efforts.

Engage your best leaders regularly in career path conversations, with a realistic view of what it takes to get promoted in your organization. When appropriate, include them in discussions about the pipeline analysis described above. Highlight their current readiness for promotion and identify gaps that need attention. Work with them to create an individual development plan, offering a variety of growth opportunities, both formal and informal.

Provide stretch assignments with exposure to complex business challenges, giving regular feedback on their performance. Invite them to shadow senior leaders, expanding their understanding of leadership at higher levels within the organization. At the same time, protect them from being overwhelmed with a too-heavy workload, as your best leaders are also the go-to person when others assign work.

Empower Them

Let your best leaders lead. Entrust them with ownership of important projects, and the decision-making that is required. Encourage them to innovate, experiment, and even fail at times. Allow increasing levels of autonomy, providing the resources they need to succeed. Reward their success by including them in bigger decisions affecting the team or organization, as appropriate. Challenge your best leaders to develop their leadership outside of the workplace, too, through charitable or community involvement.

A Proactive Approach to Keep Your Best Leaders

In today’s rapidly changing business environment, keeping your best leaders requires a proactive, intentional approach. By identifying, engaging, developing, and empowering your best leaders, your leadership pipeline will flourish, producing the leadership you need for long-term success and viability as an organization.

An earlier version of this article was published in the Minnesota Society of CPAs Footnote magazine.

Jon Lokhorst, CSP, CPA, PCC, is a leadership speaker, trainer, coach, and author of Mission-Critical Leadership: How Smart Managers Lead Well in All Directions. Jon works with organizations to develop leaders everyone wants to follow, build teams no one wants to leave, and deliver exceptional results. Jon is a frequent speaker for CPA events and facilitates training programs for emerging leaders. You can reach him at jon@yourbestleadership.com.

The Ignite blog is an official publication of the Kansas Society of CPAs, Copyright 2025.

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