How to Engage Partners in the Firm's Future: The Secrets Every Leader Needs to Know

Partners are the culture in a professional services firm – what they believe, what they reward, what they do and how they do it determines what and how things get done. And, if they don’t believe in what the firm is doing, they will never be effective role models who think firm first and actively bring the whole of the firm’s services to their clients. In this brief book, the authors identify six major challenges that firms need to address to engage their partners and to ensure everyone moves forward together. They are: 1. Un-motivational firm vision. 2. Lack of clearly defined core values. 3. Lack of clarity around what being a partner means. 4. Ineffective or non-existent partner performance reviews. 5. Performance systems not tied to strategic initiatives. 6. Lack of successful firm leaders. Most firms consider these six challenges to be merely “touchy feely” aspects of running a professional services firm. They take time to implement and the common response is that “we have clients to serve and this stuff just detracts us from our real job.” But unless you embrace these challenges and get your partners actively engaged and performing for the firm and its future, you may find yourself without clients and without a viable future.