If you - as a leader of your team, your department, your firm, even - want to build a profoundly successful business, you'll want data at your fingertips. You'll want the data that enables you to make the best decisions and that will enable you to grow the business that you've got in your mind's eye.

As well as the data, you'll want to better appreciate how to grow and develop the knowledge, skills and habits of your team so that they bring a client focus in a way that ensures that your clients believe they're in the best hands, that they're working with the best possible firm for them.

Data, team, clients - these are the three topics of the discussion I was fortunate enough to have with Dawn Marriott, ex-CEO of Azets. Dawn is currently working with the funder HG Capital and with their rising stars across the 50 companies in which HG Capital invest.

If you want to hear more of what Dawn's got to say about some of the key aspects of growing a highly successful firm, go to your favourite podcast platform or, if you prefer, go to humanisethenumbers.online.

Please scroll down the podcast’s episode page for contact information for Dawn and for the additional, downloadable resources mentioned in the podcast.

Stop thinking that return on investment is what drives the financial performance of your business, and start thinking that return on humanity is the ultimate starting point, the foundation of the success of your accounting firm.

This is the subject of Philippa White's book, Return on Humanity. In this podcast discussion, Philippa dives into the practical, tangible skills necessary to build a more human firm, and she’s profoundly shifted my thinking around a number of things.

First, the importance of building flexibility into your working model – the way you as an individual work, as well as the way your firm works – plus the need for and power of vulnerability. Also, simply being curious, perhaps coming from a place of doubt, can establish a greater degree of connectedness between you and your team and you and your clients.

So why not go to the podcast discussion with Philippa White at humanisethenumbers.online. You'll also find it on Spotify, iTunes and other podcast platforms.

Please scroll down the podcast’s episode page for the contact information for Philippa and for the additional, downloadable resources mentioned in the podcast.

It’s sometimes easy to become distracted with the bells and whistles, the proactivity and the value-add of the way you serve and work with your clients and, as a consequence, you can lose the need, the essential need, of delivering brilliantly at the basics.

This podcast with Jolawn Victor, Chief Growth Officer of Go Cardless, got me thinking (and will likely do the same for you) about the basics around helping clients collect cash. She shares insights to help you and your firm become better at collecting cash, as it is one of the fundamental basics of running a healthy business – it’s the oxygen of the business. As everyone says, cash is king.

If you want to learn more and dive deeper into the insights shared by Jolawn, go to humanisethenumbers.online or go to your favourite podcast platform, including Spotify and iTunes and seek out the podcast discussion with Jolawn Victor.

Please scroll down the podcast’s episode page for the contact information for Jolawn and for the additional, downloadable resources mentioned in the podcast.