The final directive to the assembled pre-teens at the first Monday caddy school was to “keep up!” What our caddymaster Pat Higgins really meant was “stay ahead!” What golfer who has the privilege of taking a caddy wants to look for his own ball? When I first started caddying I would lag behind my golfer when I wasn’t entirely sure where the ball had traveled thinking I would be forgiven for being a couple of steps slow but not for failing to follow the flight of the ball. What I learned was they knew I didn’t see the ball and thought I was a couple of steps slow. The lesson I learned was to get ahead of the game, be the first to arrive at the most likely landing area and furiously survey the area to increase the likelihood of being the one to discover the right answer.

So, going back to that Zoom meeting, it means thinking ahead before the meeting and understanding not only the topic being discussed but doing the research necessary to answer the most likely questions. The group isn’t interested in watching you furiously review documents or access another application on your system.

They also want you to make a decision. The endless search for more information will have people tuning out of your online meeting both literally and figuratively. Early in my CPA firm career an audit manager said “make a decision and move on, we didn’t hire you because you know what to do, we hired you because we believed you were smart and will make good decisions about what to do!” I captured this from a national firm partner instructing an Ohio Society of CPA’s continuing education session – “Your only consistent value add is in decision making and that comes from the training and practice that informs your sound analytical thinking combined with your objectivity and judgement.”