Why Your Leadership Team Needs More Disagreement

Why Your Leadership Team Needs More Disagreement

From One Step Better Podcast by Whirks

May 29, 2026 · 29 min

About this episode

The episode discusses the importance of disagreement in leadership teams and the challenges of letting go of control in accounting firms.

We got into it this week. Real conflict, in a real leadership meeting, between two people who have worked together for almost eight years. Matt came in having already made a call. Mike thought they were still in the conversation. It got tense. And about ten minutes later they were fine.But what happened in those ten minutes, and why it happened, is worth talking about. Because if you're building a leadership team around you as an accounting firm owner, you already know: letting go of control is hard. And when it goes sideways, even over something small, it can feel like a lot more than it is.In this episode: The exact moment the leadership meeting went sideways and what was really behind it Why letting go of control is the hardest part of scaling an accounting firm Why Mike tells every new second chair leader to find something to disagree about on purpose The line between influence and manipulation and how to know which side you're on What servant leadership actually feels like from the inside (it's lonelier than it looks) Why surrounding yourself with yes people makes scaling your firm almost impossible 💬 Got a topic you want us to tackle? Drop a comment, send us a message, or…

Topics covered

  • leadership
  • disagreement
  • accounting firms
  • scaling
  • servant leadership
  • control

Keywords

  • leadership team
  • conflict
  • scaling firms
  • servant leadership
  • disagreement
  • control
  • influence
  • manipulation

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