Words matter.

I'm putting the finishing touches on my upcoming book, Break the Mold. It's filled with real-life stories and examples of the principles I write about in these weekly emails.

If you enjoy these articles, you'll love the book because it's not just about accounting or running a firm; it's about thinking differently to create remarkable outcomes. The pre-order link will be available very soon...

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Words matter in everything we do, both professionally and personally. How we phrase compliments, instructions, or criticism make all the difference. Words are like individual pinpricks—each one creates a reaction, an emotion, a response.

And as such, we have to be thoughtful in our choice of language. I firmly believe that any leader who doesn’t understand this is likely not living up to their full potential.

Through decades of leadership experience and during my time as CEO of Baker Tilly, I was intentional about the language I used as a leader and the language we adopted as a firm. That meant Breaking the Mold of common language used in professional services and replacing it with something new.

Here are some examples...I'd suggest they had a massive impact on our culture and collective success during our incredible growth journey at Baker Tilly:

But/Or → Both/And

I’ve always been an abundance guy. A leader who envisions all that is possible over what’s beyond our reach. And as an abundance-driven individual, my words support my stance.

Just think about small words like “but, or” and “both, and.” The former depicts scarcity: You can do this BUT you can’t do that; you can do this OR that—but not both. The latter represents abundance: You can do BOTH; you can do this AND that.

I’ve long embraced abundance words because they represent greater possibility. Scarcity words exclude and pit concepts against one another.

For example: We can embrace Breaking the Mold OR continue to rake in revenue. I was successful shutting down this type of limited thinking during my CEO tenure, and as a result, led Baker Tilly from a nearly $500 million to a $1.5 billion business by doing BOTH—breaking the mold and elevating revenue.

It was proof enough to me that an abundance mindset leads to abundance outcomes.

Staff → Team Members

The term “staff” has been used universally across professional services industries—a clear distinction from “partner.” And whether intentional or not, it created a disconnect.

One day, it hit me that “staff” represents a small part of a larger machine, even though they worked hard to earn their positions. They graduated college, earned certifications, participated in training, and were responsible for delivering services to clients. Nothing about any of this is small.

I had this realization on a vacation and knew that when I returned, I would kill the word “staff” and replace it with “team member.” Team members are a collective. They work in collaboration with others across the organization—no matter one’s title.

Change → Progress

Change is required to advance and chart an organization’s different future state, including new processes, practices, organizational structures, operating models, compensation plans, and elevated expectations.

But change also brings with it the unknown—and we all know how scary that can be in a world cemented in tradition and rules.

I watched people hold on to old ways of doing things even when they didn’t believe in or support its current state—just to avoid the perceived pain that comes with change: I don’t like the compensation model, but it’s familiar and safe. I don’t like the culture, but it’s been in place so long, why change it?

“Change” triggered too much disruption and feelings of “things being done to us.” It invoked feelings of insecurity and instability. We needed a word that fostered inspiration—a substitute that would incite motivation over fear.

While change invokes deep-rooted feelings of resistance—feeling of things being done to people—progress (or progress management) promotes feelings of things being done with people. It depicts forward, universal movement towards a clear destination, and reaching an agreed-upon destination is possible via a universally accepted strategy.

The Firm → Our firm

When you hear partners say “the firm”, pay attention. I’d suggest it means you’ve got a problem on your hands.

At Baker Tilly, early on in my CEO tenure, I’d hear Partners refer to “the firm” as though they were talking about some other organization.
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“Why is the firm making us do this?”
“Why do we have to pay for what the firm is doing?”
“How is the firm helping us?”
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They’d use "the firm" like they existed outside of it, and it was some third-party. It suggested a lack of ownership and buy-in toward a collective future. So I started challenging partners every time I heard "the firm is making us do this."

“Who exactly is ‘the firm’? You ARE the firm.”

At first, people sort of brushed away the remark. “Here goes Whitman again…” Slowly, partners started to shift their thinking and see how they played a role in our collective success. Buy-in started to happen over time, and the “our firm” mentality was adopted.

That mindset shift from “the firm” to “our firm” ended up being a massive accelerator on our growth journey because it promoted ownership and collaboration.

Accountable → Responsible

“Accountable” carries a negative tone to it. Like, “If you don’t do what you are accountable to do, you’re going to be in trouble!”

It’s outwardly focused—like people are accountable to something outside themselves. As CEO, I stopped saying “accountable” and started saying “responsible”.

“Responsible” indicates that someone is the steward of something. It’s more internally focused on the person and their role vs having to answer to some outside entity.

The Bottom Line

Don't overlook your words.

As leaders, the things we say and write carry real weight to them and have a much broader impact than we realize in the moment.

Be intentional.

Maybe one of these examples resonates and is something you'd like to implement within your firm. Or, maybe it's helped you identify another word or phrase you've always been resistant to and want to change.

This is your sign to do so... because words matter.

In fact, I believe they matter so much that I dedicated an entire chapter of my upcoming book, Break the Mold, to this concept. Chapter 4 is all about the new ways of speaking that we implemented at Baker Tilly and, more importantly, the why behind each one and the impact it had on the greater firm.

The book contains many more examples than I've written about here.

Stay tuned, as the order links will be available shortly...

See you next week.

With intention,
Alan D. Whitman