Covey Champions Power of Trust

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The theme of NASBA’s 111th Annual Meeting was “Building Trust”, which was promoted by author Stephen M.R. Covey in his keynote address. He told the NASBA meeting that he would make a business case for trust as he shared with them three big ideas:

1. Trust is an economic driver, not merely a social virtue.
2. Trust is the number one competency of leadership needed today.
3. Trust is a learnable skill, a competency.

Mr. Covey went on to explain that what he is promoting is “smart trust,” which combines the feelings of the heart with those of the head, trust and verify. Trust is a function of two things, credibility and behavior, he stated. “It takes two to have trust, but one to start – and let us each be the start,” he advised.

“There are real economic consequences to trust,” President Bishop said in his report to NASBA’s Annual Business Meeting. “Trust is the only way we can be successful. Ninety percent of the time we are in agreement with the professional associations. Sometimes we are not, but that is okay. You can’t have the associations that speak for the profession and the association that speaks for the public always in agreement.” He noted recently some states have seen CGMA promoted to those who are not CPAs, which the AICPA had said they would not do in a state without the agreement of the State Board that it was permissible under their law. This seems to be “slippage” of the agreement, President Bishop observed. “The important thing is that if we trust, we can probably fix it,” he stated. Similarly, there has been some guidance issued on who can be on a Peer Review Oversight Committee and “we will come to a better decision on that,” he assured the NASBA meeting.

Total registration for the 111th NASBA Annual Meeting, held in Scottsdale, AZ, October 28-31, was 411. Of the 298 participants in the meeting, there were 118 delegates and 41 associates from 52 Boards of Accountancy and representatives from 14 State CPA Societies.