Identifying and developing emerging leaders at your firm

At a time when only one in 50 accountants — only 2% — achieve partner status, it’s natural to wonder if there are certain personality traits that significantly improve (or detract) from reaching that lofty position. 

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A recent study we at Accountests conducted suggests the answer is no. Accountants who rise to leadership positions are not outliers — they’re just a little better than their peers at handling certain workplace situations and challenges. The bottom line is everyone has the potential to be an effective leader. 

Still not convinced? Let me share some results from the BDO Alliance USA Emerging Leaders program of which we’re a part. BDO Alliance USA is an association of independently owned accounting and consulting firms. Each emerging leader is selected by their firm to participate in a two-year leadership training program. 

As part of the program in 2025, participants were encouraged to complete our firm’s Pathway to Partnership leadership development module. P2P is an offshoot of our firm’s Accountants Personality Profile Questionnaire. APPQ is a “Big Five“-style personality profile which measures “OCEAN” — openness to experience, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness and neuroticism. It is often used to predict outcomes such as job performance and well-being. 

Kathy Sautters, leader of the BDO program for emerging leaders, said the group is a mix of both participants who have achieved partner status and participants on the verge of promotion.

“Many of their firms don’t have comprehensive ‘path-to-partner’ guidance,” Sautters said. “This tool provides an introspective summary of the intangible criteria required outside of the technical depth and client deliverables that are so often emphasized in staff development.”

Sautters added that participants find it valuable to compare “perceived strengths” of current partners to the expectations of future partners and their current ratings.

Of nearly 100 firms in the Emerging Leaders program, 66 completed the P2P. We analyzed the results in two ways:

1. How do emerging leaders from the BDO Alliance group compare to our norm group of accountants who have completed the APPQ?
2. How do these emerging leaders compare to our “ideal leader” profile?

When we developed the APPQ, we collected a substantial amount of personality data on over 300 accountants ranging from recent graduates to seasoned partners and CFOs. For each of the traits and sub-traits, we calculated a “norm group,” which shows the spread of candidate responses across each trait.   

How emerging leaders are different

Any candidate can be benchmarked against this norm group to see how their preferred way of working compares to the average respondent’s score. Based on responses from the emerging leaders in the BDO Alliance group, three important findings emerged: 

1. Emerging leaders were not statistically different (more than two standard deviations away) from the norm group for any of the traits or sub traits;
2. Among traits for which emerging leaders scored higher than the norm, the standout trait was calmness — a respondent’s tendency to remain steady, composed, and emotionally unreactive under stress. They also scored higher on affiliation (preference for teamwork and collective decision making) and self-confidence; and,
3. The only trait for which emerging leaders tended to be lower than the norm was emotional stability (resilience under pressure and the ability to summon the energy to push through difficulties).

As part of the P2P, we also compare a candidate against an “ideal leader” industry standard. We don’t expect any candidate to be 100% ideal, but the size of the variance in their responses gives interviewers, coaches and mentors a place to focus on how the candidate can adjust their work style to compensate for that gap.

For BDO Alliance’s emerging leaders group, two important trends emerged: 

1. They were closest to the ideal leader profile when it came to conscientiousness, affiliation and trusting; and,
2. They were furthest from ideal when it came to emotional stability and communication style.

You may have noticed that emotional stability comes up twice. Emotional stability is the tendency to experience consistent, balanced emotions and to recover quickly from stress. Some practical ways for leaders to improve their emotional stability could include:

• Verbalizing their feelings (e.g., “I’m feeling overwhelmed right now — give me a moment before I respond.”);
• Using a practiced and predictable process to respond to difficult situations or emails (e.g., the “three-minute rule,” which suggests waiting three full minutes before responding to an emotionally charged email. A brief pause allows the prefrontal cortex, which controls reasoned thinking, to regain control from the amygdala, which controls emotional reaction); or,
• Considering the reason why the other person is reacting as they do (e.g., leaders with low emotional stability often take things personally. Those with higher emotional stability carefully consider what the other person might be thinking).

Remember that emotional stability and calmness are not synonymous. Calmness reflects how relaxed and unflustered a person appears in the moment, while emotional stability reflects how consistently they regulate and recover from negative emotions over time. It’s not uncommon for those two attributes to be different — many people are outwardly calm but mask internal turbulence.

Key takeaways

1. Don’t look for perfection in future leaders. You won’t find it. Our data shows firms are not promoting outliers;
2. Future leaders can be far from ideal in terms of being effective leaders. Give them the coaching and mentoring they need. Cut them some slack. Provide realistic and attainable goals; and,
3. When an emerging leader makes it to partner/owner/leader, don’t take away their support. The journey to being a good leader doesn’t stop just because you achieve a leadership position.