Wipfli Leadership & Management

Being good leaders is something we all strive for. Leading well, while leading innovatively, is challenging. It’s also vital. On top of general well-balanced leadership skills, innovative leaders possess an insatiable hunger. Innovative leaders measure success and performance based on revenue, promotor scores and profitability, but are also driven to explore what’s possible. They bank on new ideas.

How do your managers coach and support sales team members to reach their goals?

It takes a village! The support doesn’t come from any one individual. The sales infrastructure for our sales team is made up of executives, performance coaches and peer advisors. Each persona helps in different ways. Whatever the goal, the infrastructure can help. It could be as simple as hitting your numbers or as complex as becoming a partner.

What practices or programs empower your salespeople to take ownership of their growth?

When discussing strategy and growth, our leadership insists our business development team bring solutions to the challenges we’re discussing. When the expectation is set that simply bringing problems to the forefront isn’t advancing us as an organization, it creates an environment where ideas and creativity are celebrated among the team. Once the best path forward has been decided, the entire team gets behind it.

How do you balance accountability with autonomy across your sales organization?

Clarity. Our sales team understands what success looks like and the effort required to get there. Clarity means clear expectations and operating with transparency with our clients. Our team is empowered to allocate resources, both time and money, to achieve our goals. It’s rare for a well-thought-out idea to be turned down. That combination of transparency and freedom creates a culture where people feel responsible for results and empowered to innovate.

Wipfli encourages leaders to serve as mentors and trusted advisors, creating an environment where employees feel comfortable seeking guidance on both professional growth and personal challenges. This approachable leadership style helps foster strong relationships, open communication and long-term career development.

“The thing I really enjoyed was being the senior manager who people were willing to come talk to for career advice. Associates would stop by my office to work through challenges, whether professional or personal. I always joked I should have had a mini fridge in my office with some beers to say, ‘Hey, just crack a beer, let’s talk.’”

What makes promotion criteria feel fair and clear — and what evidence supports it? 

Promotion criteria feel fair when expectations are transparent and reinforced through consistent coaching and not just annual reviews. At Wipfli, associates have ongoing conversations with their performance coach to understand how their current work aligns to the next level, so growth feels continuous rather than episodic. Advancement often reflects the work someone is already doing — if an associate is performing a significant portion of the next role, that progression can be recognized through an in-line or team promotion. 

We also reinforce fairness through visibility and internal mobility. Roles are posted internally with clear qualifications and associates are encouraged to explore opportunities and discuss readiness with their coach and HR partners. At the same time, much of our growth happens organically — from intern to full-time associate to leadership — which creates a shared understanding of what progression looks like in practice and builds trust in the system.

Which program most improved your team's capability — and what changed? 

One of the most impactful elements of our development approach is how we combine foundational training with real-world application. Programs like Outward Mindset, introduced early in an associate’s experience, build core skills like communication, feedback and self-awareness. What changed is consistency — teams develop a shared baseline for how they collaborate, communicate and approach client work, rather than learning those skills unevenly across teams.

Recently, one of our programs called “persona skills development” focused on key growth skills and leveraged a cutting-edge AI platform. Our associates gained confidence in skills as they relate to listening to clients, being a trusted advisor and helping clients solve problems quicker. Through AI role playing, associates were able to practice in a safe environment and improve skills prior to the actual conversations with clients. 

What recurring manager/mentor behavior accelerates growth? 

The most consistent driver of growth is ongoing, intentional coaching. Performance coaches connect at least once monthly with associates to provide feedback, align on goals and identify the experiences needed to progress. That cadence helps associates understand not just how they’re performing, but what they should do next to keep growing.

Another key behavior is actively shaping development through work. Managers often help associates gain targeted experience by adjusting project exposure or aligning work to their interests, rather than relying only on formal role changes. 

Finally, managers also encourage our associates to partake of the various formal and informal learning opportunities that are available. These learning opportunities range from self-paced learning to long term immersive experiences. 

Managers and performance coaches model the way by updating their skills in being a good performance coach and learning how to give feedback, set goals and develop associates.