Taxing Tax Penalties

Five leadership principles

Robin, accounting manager for an aggregate and paving company in Redmond, Oregon, told session seven of the Leadership Development Lab:

“January 31st is the deadline for W-2’s and 1099’s to be electronically transmitted to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), Social Security Administration, and the state of Oregon. The penalties for not filing on time are substantial. Needless to say, in 35 years of processing payrolls, I have never missed a deadline!

“Two weeks before the January 31st deadline, we received an update for our new software. The update is supposed to simplify the filing process considerably. I forwarded the update to the appropriate person and followed up twice with a face-to-face conversation where I stressed the importance of the update and the looming deadline. (Leadership Principle #15 Appeal to their noble motives)

“As of January 30th the update was still not installed. I felt my stress level starting to rise, but rather than panic, I dove in hoping to find an alternative answer. My solution was to transmit the W2’s and 1099’s manually. A process which took several hours longer than it would have taken if the updated software had been installed. I was able to keep my emotions in check and was pleased with what I accomplished.

“The lesson I learned is when I keep my emotions under control I can find solutions to my problem that work.

“The action I call you to take is when someone you rely on drops the ball, try using these Leadership Principles:

#1 Lead from high ideals
#5 See their point of view
#7 Play yourself down
#13 Avoid arguments

“The benefit you will gain is a much greater likelihood that the next time you are counting on them they won’t let you down.”

We are all faced with the challenge of winning the cooperation of those we have no control over. We can’t “make them” do anything. We must find ways to cause them to want to deliver high-quality service on time and meet our needs. We call this motivation. It would be great if everyone delivered excellence ahead of schedule every time. Don’t hold your breath. The reality is people operate out of self-interest. They, like you, are plagued with fear. We all suffer from inertia. There is no single solution. No magic silver bullet. A great place to start is to build relationships so people don’t want to let you down. Be sure you make the context understood and your requests clear. Provide acknowledgement for services provided as you experience fulfilled requests.