Episodes

Send us Fan Mail Episode #17: By taking more risk, you improve your chance to advance your career. By only doing your daily duties, you will most likely be seen as a competent, reliable worker, but really never able to show your potential for greater responsibility. Additionally, I am encouraging you to take more risk in developing your team Episode outline: 1) You must do more than your daily duties to advance your career, 2) Becoming comfortable means you have become complacent, 3) Develo...

Send us Fan Mail Episode # 16: Adapting to a People Focused Leadership style will create a dynamic environment where you develop and empower your team instead of only trying to complete items off your to-do list. There are three significant reasons to change your leadership style from being Task Focused to Becoming People Focused: 1) You can not do the work alone - you need a well developed team, 2) Productivity, effectiveness will increase as your team feels more appreciated and involved,...

Send us Fan Mail Episode # 15: Effective leadership is built on trust. Teams and relationships are built on trust. Once trust is lost, it will be difficult to recover. It takes time, and you may never get it back. In this episode, we discuss the following: What happens to a team when no one trusts the leader, and they can't trust each other? We must personally set the best example of character and work ethic,We must clearly communicate relevant information quickly,We must deliver resu...

Send us Fan Mail Episode # 14: Purpose gives us the reason for what we do, and why we show up every day. It's our job as leaders to communicate purpose to our team members so they better understand how they contribute to the organization and can get excited about the brand. When we know our purpose, we can better support the customer. Purpose is what we do, and vision is where we are going. Please connect with me on: 1. Instagram: stephen.mclain 2. Twitter: smclainiii 3. Facebook: s...

Send us Fan Mail Episode # 13: Earning a Professional Certification adds great value to your professional foundation and can boost your earnings and career potential. In the episode, I am discussing the reasons to earn a professional certification or license. Additionally, I list out a few finance and accounting certifications you can consider to pursue. Please connect with me on: 1. Instagram: stephen.mclain 2. Twitter: smclainiii 3. Facebook: stephenmclainconsultant 4. LinkedIn: stephenjm...

Send us Fan Mail Episode # 12: Developing your soft skills will enhance and develop your career. In January 2020, LinkedIn published a list of five soft skills that companies are looking for right now. Episode outline: CreativityPersuasionCollaborationAdaptabilityEmotional Intelligence The original show notes are no longer available. Please connect with me on: 1. Instagram: stephen.mclain 2. Twitter: smclainiii 3. Facebook: stephenmclainconsultant 4. LinkedIn: stephenjmc...

Send us Fan Mail Episode # 11: Overcoming adversity and building your resilience are the topics on the episode this week. Becoming resilient is the ability to bounce back and overcome an adverse event. In the episode, I list seven items that you can use to build a resiliency plan. Additionally, this episode is the debut of Season #2 of the podcast. This season will be focused on Leader Development with topics that include goal setting, critical soft skills, and licenses and certificati...

Send us Fan Mail Bonus episode # 5: How do we overcome our strong Organizational Culture, that normally helps us achieve excellence, when extraordinary circumstances require us to go against it? In this bonus episode, I talk about the strong culture of the U.S. Armed Forces, which requires close-in training by its personnel. But, due to COVID-19, military personnel have to get away from each other to protect themselves, which means they can't train like they normally have to do. And militar...

Send us Fan Mail Bonus episode # 4: Going forward, it's time to recession proof your business. After recovering from this very unprecedented economic downturn, I am encouraging business owners to prioritize recession proofing their business by developing a plan to survive the next downturn. It will be challenging to small businesses, but we need to do this. There are many tools available to have and acquire funds to cover operations and pay employees: 1) Prioritize retaining more earn...

Send us Fan Mail Bonus episode # 3: We will face change constantly in our careers and our personal lives. Doors will close and doors will open. For this bonus episode, I am discussing a few reasons why a door will close on us in our career. We should remain positive and keep looking for new opportunities. Always have your network ready and be helpful to others also. Please read my blog post on Increasing Your Promotion Potential. Please connect with me on: 1. Instagram: stephen.mclain 2. T...

Send us Fan Mail Bonus episode # 2: During this economic downturn, we are anything but "business as usual." This unique time requires creative leadership by business owners to save their businesses. The last few weeks, I have been thinking about a few critical issues that leaders will have to consider once we have recovered and to be better prepared for the next economic crisis. Business owners and senior leaders must consider the following before the next crisis: 1) Does your business have...

Send us Fan Mail Bonus episode # 1: We need leaders right now as we face many challenges. We need leaders of compassion who can provide hope and a vision to overcome what we are facing as a world. In this bonus episode, I am challenging Leaders to care for their teams. Additionally, I talk about wrapping up Season 1 and what is to come over the next few weeks. Season #2 will debut on April 28, 2020. Please enjoy this blog post on Personal Character. Please connect with me on: 1. Instagram...

Send us Fan Mail Episode #10: The goal of empowerment is to develop, grow, and then trust your team members to complete tasks and eventually make decisions on your behalf. This requires you to take risk and have the long-term view of what your team can accomplish. Episode outline: 1) What drives you as a leader? 2) How empowerment can encourage your team to excellence, 3) The two types of micro managers. The original show notes are no longer available. Please connect with me on: 1. Ins...

Send us Fan Mail Episode # 9: Invest in your personal development. Don't wait on others to invest in you. Commit your plan on paper, set goals, and develop a timeline for completion. Track your progress and re-assess your development needs. Episode outline: 1) The need to personally invest in your development, 2) Leaders need to set the example by emphasizing personal growth and development, 3) Developing your leadership can set you apart from your peers, 4) Leaders are readers. Please en...

Send us Fan Mail Episode # 8: Values make up our personal character. This week's episode is about the seven key leader values that we should strive to improve daily. These values show how we lead, and how we deal with tough decisions. Are we fair? Can we be humble? Are we an expert in our field? We are discussing humility, professionalism, technical competence, respect, duty, integrity, and courage. How you approach your duties affects your team members. We must be working to have a p...

Send us Fan Mail Episode #7: There are tools that can help you lead and manage the team better. This week, we talk about time management, prioritizing, back briefing, backwards planning, and delegating. One of the most important topics I discuss is about prioritizing the many tasks you have. Tasks and requirements come at you and your team constantly. Spend the required time to capture and properly sequence the tasks across the team, then communicate that priority to everyone. The or...

Send us Fan Mail Episode #6: Complacency helps you lose on opportunities for growth, innovation and seeing necessary change to keep up in your organization and industry. When you get comfortable, you miss out on opportunities. When you don't change, you fall behind. Challenge the status quo daily so you can improve, innovate and grow daily. In this episode, 1) I walk you through a mini-scenario about the complacent habits of Michael, a new manager, 2) The dangers of complacency, 3) How comp...

Send us Fan Mail You can have a great Impact as a Leader in your organization. In this episode, I talk about why I love to lead, and the positive impacts we get to make in our organization. While we perform our Finance and Accounting duties, we can get overwhelmed while delivering financial projections, completing our journal entries, and conducting monthly close procedures, but we also have a great responsibility to create an environment where our team can grow and thrive. As leaders,...

Send us Fan Mail Episode #4: Your mindset determines your outcome. How you view yourself and how you view the world will affect your career potential. Episode outline: 1) Leadership is the embodiment of making the impossible possible, 2) Mindset determines everything, 3) What is holding you back? 4) You can only control yourself, and how you view your abilities, 5) Remove negative influences from your life, 6) Our team will adopt our mindset, so we need to be self-aw...

Send us Fan Mail Episode #3: Effective leadership is built on trust. Teams and relationships are built on trust. Once trust is lost, it will be difficult to recover. It takes time, and you may never get it back. In this episode, we discuss the following: What happens to a team when no one trusts the leader, and they can't trust each other? We must personally set the best example of character and work ethic,We must clearly communicate relevant information quickly,We must deliver result...

Send us Fan Mail Episode #2: Leadership can be your defining characteristic to help advance your career. In this episode, I talk about the four key areas of responsibility that Finance Leaders must be doing every day: 1) influencing, 2) growing your people, 3) achieving results, and 4) seeing the future. Influencing is about achieving buy-in about a big idea you have or creating positive change in your organizationWe continually grow our people to mentor our team members to achieve thei...

Send us Fan Mail Episode #1: This podcast is for Finance and Accounting professionals to develop and enhance leadership skills. You are working in a complex and critical organizational function with very tight deadlines and most likely a hectic monthly close process. You are forced to use old accounting and finance systems that do not work to serve the current needs of the business. We are going to build a great community so we can all grow! In this premiere episode, we will lay the groundwo...