Unlike most accounting conferences, TOAcon leaves out technical topics and regulatory updates.
While those are valuable, TOAcon focuses more on the personal breakthroughs that leaders need, yet are often too busy, too caught up in their day-to-day challenges to unlock.
An extraordinary setting helps. This year, TOAcon took place in the Shangri-la Boracay Resort and Spa in the Philippines.
From November 30 to December 2, our attendees stepped back from their everyday routines and environments and reflected on their own growth.
They leaned on the stories, advice, and research that our speakers have spent years studying. Here is a partial look at what they shared at TOAcon.
For TOA Global clients: Leadership advice and tips
Remember: “The better you get at something, the more invisible your expertise becomes to others and to yourself.”
Remind yourself of the value of what you’ve already done—this is part of having a sense of agency—so you can lead in a way that inspires your team.
So, the next time you observe a process that isn’t working, or you learn about one in your interactions with people, or your customers or team get frustrated, recognize that opportunity.
Give yourself at least five minutes a day to think about what you can do better. (And break out of habitual thinking!)
The year had its challenges, which included protecting both business continuity and employee wellbeing after three quakes and two typhoons in just six weeks in Q4.
But the year offered more wins, from industry awards to investments in IT and security, as well as improvements in learning and community-building within TOA.
“If you went and grabbed a polar bear and put them in the desert, they wouldn’t do well. We are that polar bear. We don't do well when we sit down all day, eat energy-dense food, don’t interact with real people, don’t see any natural light, and don’t move our bodies.”
Whenever you spend five minutes a day thinking about challenges in your business and innovative ways you can solve them, "do it moving, do it walking in nature, even better with someone. When we move our bodies, oxygenated blood gets to our brains, and we just become smarter. We get dumber the more we just sit down and ruminate about a problem.”
Our challenge as leaders: ‘Making the truth happen’
“The single most important conversation we can have in any organization anywhere in the world right now is how we harness the power of making truth happen. Telling the truth is a behavior. You're either doing it or not.”
"When you get this right, it fundamentally transforms the quality of your individual life. It massively and sustainably improves the performance of organizations, and it gives us the best chance of building societies that work.”
"I always looked so far ahead. Has anyone ever set a five-year goal and then achieved it in two or three years? I was always running this race, always trying to do better. But I didn’t actually design the life I wanted."
He challenged attendees to think clearly about their goals, how they want to feel, and why it all matters.
“Your next breakthrough doesn’t start when you look externally. It starts internally. Your team cannot deliver what they don’t live themselves. If your team has a terrible experience at work, how are they going to show up for your customers? How are they going to show up for each other?”
After being told she would never walk again, among her many achievements since then are writing a best-selling memoir in 2022, “The Girl Who Fell from the Sky”, and walking the 2025 New York City Marathon, where she raised $100,000 for the Perry Cross Spinal Research Foundation.
Her challenge to everyone: “You don’t have to wait until you nearly die to start living.”
A community for accounting leaders
Since 2013, TOA Global has helped more than 1,200 accounting practices and teams take charge of their growth.
We’ve connected them with the experienced accounting talent they’d been struggling to find on their own—as well as to a community of accounting and business leaders with whom they can exchange practical insights and advice.
If you’ve been meaning to build your global accounting team and have the time and energy to unleash more breakthroughs as a leader, we can help. Book a chat at a time that suits you.