It’s been a while since I referenced the key roles we tend to adopt in our firms. There are four essential such roles. Most firms need partners and team members with skills in each of these 4 areas.

• Finders – who go out and find the new work
• Minders – who look after the relationship with the clients
• Binders – who keep the team working well together
• Grinders – who do the work

It seems to me that most accountants focus on enhancing their technical knowledge and skills. Update courses tend to address such areas. Of course this is important. The focus though is simply on helping us to be effective or more effective in the ‘grinding’ role. What about all the others?

Sole practitioners will typically be good Grinders and Minders. If they have some staff they may need to be Binders too.

Those accountants who are looking to grow their practice need good ‘finding’ skills – perhaps in addition to the others.

What do you think about this analysis?