Reflection on who supports the supporter
The recession has thrown many issues to the fore. One of these is that whilst individual businessmen and women suffer huge amounts of stress keeping their heads above water, their advisers rarely remain unscathed.
In fact, as several of the accountants I’ve spoken to point out, they’re often dealing concurrently with more than one business going through life or death struggles and whilst cynics might say the only real worry is losing a client – people I’ve spoken to put this way down the list.
If you’re good at your job it’s unavoidable that your investment in it is also an emotional one and very often businesses struggling to stay afloat are ones you’ve helped launch and nurture so it would be unrealistic to expect to sail through unscathed.
Of course there are no easy answers although sometimes just being aware of a problem is a move towards dealing with it. As business advisors accountants are well-wired to deal with success. Failure with its close companions, fear, anxiety and stress are not so easy to handle, nor are you forearmed with any kind of training in the kind of support to offer.
Probably the most constructive thing professional financial advisers can do is make sure they have their own strong support network with whom they can off-load and get constructive input. The one thing they shouldn’t do is pack individual problems, stresses and strains into the briefcase to take home nightly.
At E-conomic this is a subject we’ve discussed with many of our accountancy profession partners and we’re always interested to hear your views so don’t hesitate to comment. Businesses aren’t just businesses – they’re people and it’s people who feel the strain. Goodness, just realised this is heavy stuff for a Monday. But if an issue has to be addressed then we’re man enough to do it!
Posted by Marilyn Messik
