Smaller accounting practices operate close to the pressure. Leaders are often balancing client demands, deadlines, staffing challenges and constant change while remaining highly visible to the people around them.

In a larger organisation, workplace wellbeing may be supported by formal programs, HR teams or employee assistance services. Smaller firms do not always have that infrastructure. The owner or practice leader may be carrying the pressure personally while also setting the tone for everyone else. In a lean team, there is often no separate layer between the person feeling the pressure and the people experiencing its effects.

That matters because stress rarely stays contained. Short replies, a sharp tone or a sense that everything is urgent can influence how the team communicates and whether people feel comfortable raising concerns. Over time, team members may become more cautious, mirror the leader’s tension or avoid bringing forward problems they expect will be poorly received.

In an accounting practice, the issues people hesitate to raise can include a missed deadline, a difficult client interaction, an error in a file or a workload problem. When those issues stay hidden, they can become harder and more costly to address later.

This is the link between leadership stress and psychological safety. It is not about expecting leaders to remain calm at all times or pretending that workload pressure is not real. The work can be genuinely relentless. It is about recognising that, in a smaller firm, the leader’s behaviour has an outsized influence on whether the culture feels safe, reactive or constantly under strain.

“In a small firm, your stress is the culture.” 

In this episode of Small Firm, Big Impact Express, Chartered Accountant and Khoh Partners founder Jeremy Khoh explores why wellbeing in a smaller practice often needs to start with the leader.

Jeremy explains how leadership stress can influence the way people communicate, respond to pressure and decide whether it is safe to raise concerns. The focus is not on elaborate self-care routines or telling busy practice leaders to simply relax. It is on recognising how everyday leadership behaviour can affect the experience of the wider team.

The episode also explores why constant urgency can become difficult to escape in a smaller firm. Client work and deadlines will always demand attention, but when every available hour is absorbed by immediate delivery, it becomes harder to create the capacity needed to improve how the practice operates.

Jeremy shares three practical actions leaders can begin using now to create more breathing room, set healthier expectations and lead more sustainably. They do not require a new wellbeing program, a large budget or a spare afternoon. Nor do they replace the need to address genuine workload or resourcing problems.

For smaller firms, the goal is not perfect calm. It is creating a culture where pressure is managed more consciously, and team members feel able to raise problems before they grow. In a small practice, how the leader handles stress can shape the experience of everyone around them.

This version remains rich enough for SEO and AI discovery, but the listener still needs to play the episode to learn what the three actions actually are and how to apply them. Google can also draw search snippets from the visible page content, so clear, relevant body copy is valuable even when the meta description is deliberately more concise.

Resources and further reading:

• Learn more about what Jeremy does
• Connect with Jeremy on LinkedIn
• Visit the CA ANZ member wellbeing hub
• Visit the Smaller Practices Centre for general practical tools and guidance

View the transcript within the platform.