Tax Notes State Editor in Chief Jéanne Rauch-Zender talks with Amy Vetter, a keynote speaker and presenter, on how to survive — and thrive — personally and professionally despite the unique challenges presented by the coronavirus pandemic.
This post has been edited for length and clarity.
Jéanne Rauch-Zender: Hi, Amy. Thank you so much for joining us today.
Amy Vetter: Hi. Thanks for having me.
Jéanne Rauch-Zender: Will you share with us a little bit about your background?
Amy Vetter: I grew up working in my mom's maid service business doing odds and ends of everything that needed to be done in the office. I also had a grandfather that was a CPA, so I was definitely very business-minded and had a lot of stories about what it was like to be a CPA. I had the goal very early on of becoming a CPA and went the traditional route.
I went to college, started out in audits, and started at what's now a Big Four firm. I've made a lot of pivots along the way in my career. I've been a partner in a CPA firm. I've worked for the major accounting technology software companies. Now, I'm in business for myself doing advisory work and speaking.
Jéanne Rauch-Zender: That's great. That's what makes the experience so unique.
One thing I wanted to catch up with you today about is the term work-life balance. It's been tossed around for several years. I was really interested to see that you essentially say it's nearly impossible to achieve work-life balance, and that our goal should be to approach this relationship as work-life harmony. You concede that it's a difficult task, but you do provide several strategies that CEOs use to manage their work-life harmony. I was hoping you would discuss some of these strategies with us.
Amy Vetter: I changed the term a bit because very often the term "work-life balance" can cause stress itself because we feel we're not balanced, and then we're told we need balance. We force ourselves to do certain things or think we have to spend a certain amount of time on what we consider work-life balance. We are never fully getting the effect that we want from it, so I coined the term work-life harmony.
Besides being an accountant, my background has been heavily into music. When you're playing music, harmonies go up and down. They're short. They're long. That seemed to be a better reflection of what I was trying to get across.
To achieve what would be called work-life balance, it's important that we're getting freedom. We're getting release from the stressors that we have in our day of how we feel in our bodies. It's important that we identify what those things are that help us release those stressors and not put parameters around it like looking at the person next to us and saying, "Oh, well, they run. So running must do it."
We've got to go on our own journey of figuring out what things for us really work. We also need to not put pressure on ourselves that it has to be a certain amount of time. All the research that's out there says it could be five minutes. It could be an hour. It could be two hours. It really isn't about the quantity of time. It's about the quality of what you're doing to help you release that stress in your body.
When I talk about harmony, it could be taking a break during the day and listening to music. It could be going on a walk. It's whatever helps release your brain.
The term is really to help with taking the stress away from the term "balance," but also finding what works for you and how to fit it in your day without creating more stress for yourself.
Jéanne Rauch-Zender: Do you think that these strategies or this harmony that we're working toward have changed under COVID-19 to avoid burnout?
Amy Vetter: I think people's way of working has changed. I've worked remote for most of my career, so I was used to it. But I would say even having worked remote most of my career, this is still very different because I'm not traveling as much or getting out and seeing people. That really does adjust how your body is feeling and having that awareness of how you're feeling.
For a lot of people, this is the first time they've been remote and they really haven't figured out how to balance their day. It's really important that you do your own personal inventory of how your day is going and document what is happening during your day, just like you would if you were going on a diet.
It isn't fun to write down all the things that you're eating. There's a reason that you do it so that you have a very honest look at the food you're eating.
It's the same thing when you do this with your calendar. Write down throughout the day what are the things you're doing. When were you multitasking? Where did your attention float? Where did you start working overtime? Where did you start feeling like you were stressed out because you had too many meetings back to back? Where did you notice that you didn't have time for yourself in the day? And so forth. Start looking at what is happening in your day, and how could you reconfigure it?
For instance, one of the ways is to look at when your energy is the best. For me, I'm at my highest energy in the morning. When I was younger, it was opposite. I had a lot of energy at the end of the workday.
For me now, I know if I am going to work out, it needs to be in the morning. If I need to get my own individual work done, it needs to be in the morning because that's where I'm more focused and have more energy. As my day goes on, I'll set more meetings with people throughout the day to keep my energy up.
What works for me doesn't mean it works for everybody. It doesn't mean working out gives everybody that feeling to reenergize them. It might be something completely different.
It's really important to take that honest look at your calendar. What you're actually doing versus what the calendar's saying, and figure out what you can eliminate. How do you reorganize things to go with the way your energy goes during the day to keep yourself at optimal energy? What things can you start prioritizing?
Being really intentional about your day can really help you.
Jéanne Rauch-Zender: What do you find to be the best ways right now to create professional connections virtually, as a handshake is no longer acceptable given the disruption of COVID-19?
Amy Vetter: I think it's important that we, again, are very intentional about making these connections. They're not going to happen by happenstance because we see them at a meeting or a networking event. It's important to actually make a list of people you want to reach out to, whether it's people you work with in close proximity or people that you might want to network with that don't necessarily even do what you do.
Try to target each week how many people you want to reach out to and have those casual conversations. It doesn't always have to be business and agenda. We lose some of that relaxed conversation with remote technology, so it's important that we still create that.
Just because we're virtual doesn't mean these things can't happen. It's just that it's not going to happen because we bumped into them. It's important that we still target who we want to talk to each week.
Jéanne Rauch-Zender: I'm excited to hear your thoughts on taking risks. You state that it's important to take risks to rise above the competition, knowing failure will be a part of the equation. However, as a result of COVID, employment is very fragile for many people right now.
How do you embrace risks with the possibility of failure during such a fragile time in the job market?
Amy Vetter: I think there's a portion of everything we do in our jobs that we're always looking forward. This has been one of those times that has been the strangest time to try to plan and look forward. But I think we're closer to knowing, at least if things are the way they are, how things operate today.
First off, we want to look at what's working and what's not working. What do we want to do different going forward? That's a really important discussion to have with yourself, with your team, and with the people you work for.
The way that I always look at innovation or risk is that 20 percent of what we do should always be forward-looking. It should be about research and development, and looking at the latest tools, processes, or ideas to test. It's not taking risk in total. It's actually freeing up some time to evaluate something that you've never done before.
That's why it's so important to scope out our calendar to make sure we include time for thinking and creativity. To look at what thing, what service, what product, what process to test to keep us ahead of the game going into next year or two years. It may not be something we want to do after we've tested it and that's OK.
When I talk about failure, it's not necessarily that you did anything wrong. It's the idea that it isn't really something to keep pushing forward on. I think we make mistakes sometimes because we put time into something and we see it's not working, but we don't like giving it up because we've already put investment in it. That's one way to always make sure that you're staying ahead of the game, that you're staying innovative, and you're not becoming too complacent in the work that you're doing.
Jéanne Rauch-Zender: Along those lines, what are the best ways to champion professional development for one of your employees? Being virtual is a little bit more difficult. You're not in the office. As you stated earlier, it's not as easy as walking to the office next door or even across the building.
What would you suggest as great ways if you've got employees that really are raising the bar and putting it all out there?
Amy Vetter: I think it's important to ask your employees what kind of professional development they want. If they've been seeing trends that look interesting to them, I think it's important to give them the opportunity to pursue those.
If we want people to keep growing and not be fearful of all change, it's important that we scope out time for education and professional development so that they know we care about them as a person and an employee.
I think every conversation is very individual. There is a meeting of the minds between what the business needs them to learn versus their goals.
Jéanne Rauch-Zender: You say it's very important to have idle moments of chitchat or watercooler moments despite the physical separation due to COVID-19. I couldn't agree more. I have my team meet weekly and we essentially spend 30 to 45 minutes just talking about everything but work.
How important are these moments and will they keep teams motivated in this virtual world?
Amy Vetter: I think it's really important to think about culture. We have thought about it in an office environment traditionally, but maybe not so much from a virtual standpoint.
One of the tools I've always had is Slack. I think that's been very important to utilize instead of email as much as possible. You can create conversations and be working together all day long, just as if you were sitting in an office together.
If you're using Slack, make sure that there's parameters and rules around how you utilize it. What kind of communications go through there? You might have fun channels that are about hobbies, activities, or weekend ideas. But somebody should be monitoring communication and making sure that nothing gets nasty on there. That people aren't hiding behind writing things that could be taken in the wrong way.
We also want to make sure that you are putting parameters around what you use each communication tool for. For example, when to use email versus Slack. If you're going to discuss performance evaluations or give hard feedback, you want to make sure that's not written and that you are turning on the webcam.
It's important to find fun ways for people to connect, too. I've always paired up people in my businesses that don't necessarily work with each other every day to give them time each month to think about the business. I would call it coffee talk. I'd give them a gift certificate to Starbucks. They can go get their coffee and virtually meet together.
There's lots of ways to still create culture, but it's got to be monitored just as much as culture would be monitored in an office situation.
Jéanne Rauch-Zender: Along those lines, it is difficult to find ways to not only perform but excel with these COVID-19 restrictions. Do you have any advice on how to essentially take it up a notch and actually excel?
Amy Vetter: We're going to find ways of connecting that are not new to us, just different. It's also important to be proactive about reaching out to customers and clients just to check in. It doesn't have to be work. We need to be spending time checking in on them, too, so that they know we care. By that, we keep building that relationship and making it stronger.
If there was ever a time that accountants were needed, this is it. It is the time to take advantage of that opportunity. We need to make sure we're not just letting the work come over as a wave and take us away from people.
That includes reaching out to other internal departments in the business to make sure that those relationships are solid, and we understand what they're going through. There might be things happening that we don't even realize that could open up all kinds of services or things that we can do to help them.
Take advantage of the fact that this is one of those times people do want to see that you care, and this is really the time to build relationships.
Jéanne Rauch-Zender: I'd like to wrap up our conversation today with one of your blog posts titled, "Change Begins With Us." You recognize our instinct in this time of unrest and real pain to turn outward with anger and frustration as we struggle with racism, prejudice, school shootings, the environment, and many other issues. You rightly explain feeling overwhelmed with where to begin, where to help, how to help. Many don't know the answers. We only know to remember the problems in hopes of bringing about change. But I wondered: Is that enough?
Amy Vetter: I think it's important that we are really clear on what's going on in our own bodies and our own minds. We can get wrapped up in all the things we see on social media and what's going on around us. If it just starts escalating, that can affect our energy.
The way that we can truly help change is when we start making small changes in our own lives that then provide positive energy to those around us. There's just little ways that we can set examples without having to make big proclamations about it. It's about the way that we go about our life.
Part of it is to really understand how we're feeling internally and don't run away from it. Those are the moments that you should really sit with it. You should allow it to come up for you so that you're really clear on what is affecting your energy.
If we know what is happening for us internally, what can help us offset that feeling? Is it hobbies that we do? Is it little exercises that we need to do during the day before we go into a meeting to make sure that we come in with positive energy? Energy is contagious.
If we're really aware of how we're feeling, and we already feel depressed, sad, or angry that day, then we know that we're going to have to shift how we go about that meeting so that we don't come off that way when we are encountering another person. It's our responsibility to do the best that we can.
It doesn't mean that we're going to be perfect. But we want to try to show up the best that we can so that we create the energy that we want around us.
What I would say is it starts with us to take responsibility. We can't change other people and you may find yourself saying, "I can't do this because my manager always says this." Or, "They won't let me."
If our conversation moves to that, then we should start thinking about, "Well, what things can I control?" instead of what I can't control. Then start thinking about little things that we can do in our day to be able to overcome that so we can feel better during the day.
Jéanne Rauch-Zender: Is there anything else that you'd like to share with our listeners?
Amy Vetter: Well, sure. If you want more information on the work that I do, the methodology is called the B3 Method. It's business plus balance equals bliss. I have a book called Business, Balance, and Bliss that talks about lots of tips that you can put in your day. I also provide online learning, which is called the B3 Method Institute, that will give you little learning lessons each week, just like we're talking about today. You set an intention and really try it for the week before you get your next lesson.
For those of you that want to go further, I have coaching and advisory services as well. If you go to amyvetter.com, you will find all that information there.
Jéanne Rauch-Zender: Wonderful. It's been a real pleasure chatting with you today, Amy.
Amy Vetter: Thank you so much for having me on.