When talented tax and accounting professionals leave, exit interviews cite compensation. But the real reason is often different: years of feeling evaluated rather than empowered. The cost of withheld trust shows up quietly in retention, team capability, and lost institutional knowledge.

What makes you exceptional at technical work might be holding your team back. Tax and accounting professionals are trained to verify, check, and withhold judgment—but when those instincts are applied to people instead of numbers, they create invisible leadership barriers that cost you your best talent.