I came across a blog last week titled It’s Just Hitting and Catching, posted by AICPA Insights. The title caught my eye regardless of the forum, and one might imagine how quickly my competitive brain began making an argument for why hitting a baseball is the hardest thing you’ll ever do in sports. I clicked on the link, transitioned out of mental meathead mode and immediately saw a bunch of numbers that should mean something to me, but only one looked familiar…1040. It clicks, we’re talking taxes here, so I read on.
At quick glance, you don’t have to read too deeply into the 5 keys to preparing for an upcoming busy season to see the correlation. You’d like to think such a list goes unsaid, but even here at GBQ, we kick off tax busy season with our annual Tax Gear Up Busy Season Meeting. It never hurts to say some of these things out loud, time and time again, and in no particular order.
In my opinion, there’s one thing missing, one I’ll call, Practice Getting Your Bunts Down. While hitting is clearly a very difficult part of the game, laying down a successful bunt can be just as complicated. But what it really speaks to is teamwork, moving the runner over, giving up your at-bat for the good of the team, and maybe even scoring a run.
Preparing your teammates, or in this case coworkers, for being able to recognize an opportunity for personal sacrifice for the benefit of the entire team, and in some cases the client, is equally as important as the rest of the list. Those opportunities are hard to spot, but given the right mindset of the team, easy to jump on. It may come in various forms, it could mean covering for a coworker who needs to catch their daughter’s school play, it could mean staying late to help out with return processing.
Remember, we win as a team…Let’s Play Ball!
