Now that you know all about our Coaching Cohort and how it develops our more senior team members, we’d like to spotlight Julia, a Senior Manager of our Tax Team! Julia has been at Howard for over nine years, and her dedication is invaluable to the firm. Two years ago, Howard offered her the opportunity to participate in executive coaching. She completed the first six months allowing her to become involved in the Coaching Cohort. Read more below about how becoming a coach helped her find additional purpose in her work!
Making a Change
Around her seventh year at Howard, Julia felt the desire to go beyond the technical parts of accounting and see the bigger picture. That’s when she was presented with the opportunity to participate in executive coaching and decided to give it a shot. This kind of coaching entails learning about yourself and developing your leadership skills, which pushed Julia outside of her comfort zone. However, in her words, it’s been one of the best things she’s done for her career!
Julia’s executive coach helped her put her finger on what she enjoys, which happens to be coaching and developing others. It’s been a game changer for Julia to find this passion, and she’s discovered so much enjoyment in this new direction of her career. While tax compliance is still a primary component of the job, Julia finds herself looking forward to supporting those around her each day.
Something that aided Julia in making this transition is the accessibility of our leadership and their willingness to give opportunities and make changes. In nearly a decade at Howard, Julia has never felt like she couldn’t go to a Partner to ask for or suggest something. She looks back at her time with the firm so far taking pride in knowing that she’s genuinely cared about. Now, she takes that support and extends it to all team members.
Investing in Herself and Others
Julia has found that executive coaching helps her be intentional about doing things for herself. She’s continued that coaching far past the required six months and still meets with her executive coach today! She sees herself continuing to be coached for the foreseeable future with the goal of determining the direction she’ll take for her career long-term.
This investment has helped Julia make a tangible, positive impact on her coachees. She’s known for going above and beyond to assist in their development. One coachee in particular that she’s seen reap the benefits of coaching is Tax Senior Brandy. Brandy started at Howard as an intern and then became a full-time member of our team. Julia has seen the way she carries herself and manages other team members be transformed in a short period of time. She’s watched team members open up to Brandy and trust her as a leader. Brandy has also had a critical role in our post-busy season feedback, Lean Six projects, and improving our internal processes. Julia is proud to be able to support Brandy as she continues to develop.
Now that she’s made strides in her leadership skills and developing others, Julia also gives back to the firm by helping make Howard the best it can be. She consistently asks how we can make our processes as seamless as possible and set our staff up for success, looks for ways to improve the Coaching Cohort, finds enjoyment in recruiting and finding the right people for Howard, and views coaching as one of the best ways we can help our people on the production side of the job and beyond. Essentially, Julia is passionate about anything that pertains to supporting her fellow team members.
It’s truly been a treat to watch the impact that being coached and becoming a coach has made on Julia’s career. If you’ve found yourself looking for additional purpose in your accounting work, coaching and supporting others at Howard could be that next step you’re looking for! Call us or connect with us online for more information.
This just about wraps up our series for National Career Development Month! We hope you’ve enjoyed learning about the difference coaching has made in the lives of some of our incredible team members at Howard.