How to Make Partner and Still Have a Life

The Smart Way to Get to and Stay at the Top

Heather Townsend, Jo Larbie

• Publisher: Kogan Page
• Year: 2019
• ISBN:
  9780749498382
• Edition: 3
• Topic: Personal Development
• Subtopic: Careers

Becoming a partner in a professional services firm is for many ambitious fee-earners the ultimate goal. But in this challenging industry, with long hours, high pressure and even higher expectations, how do you stand out from the crowd? How do you build the most effective relationships? And how do you find the time to do all of this and still have a fulfilling personal life? Now in its third edition, How to Make Partner and Still Have a Life equips individuals at the start of their career through to partner with the skills needed to reach and succeed at the leadership level. How to Make Partner and Still Have a Life details the expectations and realities of being a partner and outlines how you can continue to achieve once you have obtained the much-coveted role. This edition is updated with guidance on developing the right mindset for success and the importance of mentoring and sponsorship. There is a specific focus on women and BAME professionals and the challenges faced by individuals coming from non-traditional or under-represented backgrounds. Heather Townsend and Jo Larbie provide a guide to help you tackle common obstacles and work smarter - not harder - to reach the top. Start your journey to partnership and still have the time for a life outside of work.

Part One

Is partnership right for you?

01

What does being a partner in the 21st century actually mean?

Topics covered in this chapter

• How the professional services firm is changing
• What it actually takes, mentally, physically and financially, to be a partner
• What makes a partnership environment different from a limited company
• The different types of partners

“A partner needs to know their subject and be good at it because the expectation of the client is that someone at partner level has a certain amount of expertise. However, that is often not the defining characteristic – successful partners are generally people who are good at relationship building, both internally and externally.”

Amber Moore, Amber Moore Consulting

This chapter is a scene-setter for the book and gives an honest, warts-and-all look at what being a partner really means in the 21st century.

Note: There is no one definition that fits all, both in terms of structure and culture for a professional services firm (PSF). This chapter aims to give you the most likely scenario for your firm.

The common characteristics of professional services firms are:

• The client is king – everything the firm delivers is driven by the client and is in service of the client. Client satisfaction is paramount.
• A professional services firm harnesses the talents of skilled, knowledgeable individuals to provide advice and support to companies and organizations.
• To meet the needs of clients, professional services firms are totally reliant on their skilled and motivated professional team.
• Professional services firms make money by selling their knowledge and expertise.
• The strength of a partner’s position is based on their ability to win, serve and retain clients.
• The partners are ‘player managers’: they combine the roles of producing, delivering services and managing the firm. They value playing above managing: doing the client work is often felt to be more interesting and fun to them than managing the firm.
• People become professionals because they want to practise what they have spent years learning and training to do. They want to practise accountancy, surveying, law, engineering, architecture, financial services and business consulting. Managing other professionals or going out and winning work are rarely things that a newly qualified professional puts at the top of their list of things they want to do.
• Professional services firms are slow to change and, in our experience, often resist change. Despite the introduction of limited liability partnerships (LLP), the basic partnership model remains relatively unchanged.

What makes a partnership environment different from a limited company?

Ask any consultant and they will tell you that every company and industry thinks that they are unique. In their experience, very rarely is that the case. However, the professional services sector is one such industry that probably can lay claim to being unique. Most professional services firms adopt a partnership structure, as opposed to a corporate business structure. You may be thinking, ‘So what? How does that make PSFs different?’ Unlike most other businesses, the senior people, ie the partners responsible for delivering the firm’s services, are also the firm’s only shareholders. For example, if the firm has 20 partners, then there will be 20 people who feel that it is their right as owners of the business to direct and influence most matters. In a limited company, those 20 shareholders would not have the same rights – which brings a very different dynamic to a partnership from that of a limited company.

Table 1.1 Differences between a partnership and a limited company

Partnership	Limited company
All owners of the business work in the business	Most owners of the business don’t work in the business
Partners own the business	Shareholders own the business
Partners rather than directors are the senior decision makers in the business	Directors are the senior decision makers in the business
Decision making by committee	Decision making by role
Collegiate atmosphere	Corporate atmosphere
Partners are considered to be self-employed	Directors of the business are employed by the business
Loosely defined teams and structure	Typically clearly defined teams and structure
Managing partner and management board elected and appointed on the basis of their influence within the partnership	Managing director and board members appointed on their suitability to run the company

The changing world of professional services firms

Go back only 40 years and the marketplace for professional services was very different from the present day. Those were the days when clients tended to remain with one professional adviser for life – and that was probably from the firm that their family or business had always used. When one partner retired, a senior level employee would get the ‘tap, tap, tap’ on the shoulder and be asked to join the partnership. The newly promoted partner would inherit the retiring partner’s portfolio and normally fulfil the following criteria:

• be seen as a safe pair of ‘technical’ hands;
• be trustworthy, ie they were not going to run off with the partnership’s or client’s money;
• be a ‘good chap’;
• had ‘done their time’ in the ranks.

When I made partner, 30 years ago, it was in the days when clients stayed for life and paid what the work cost, without any quibbling.

Peter Gillman, former Managing Director, Price Bailey

Fast-forward to the present day and clients have become, in comparison, very price sensitive and happy to change their professional adviser if they think they can get better value and service with another firm. PSFs can no longer rely on clients staying for life, which has meant a fundamental change in the role of partner within a firm. Suddenly the role of partner has changed from someone who looked after a portfolio of inherited clients to someone who has to run a business while building and keeping a profitable client portfolio.

Technology has also changed the way that we do business, and the professions are no different. Communication technology, such as video conferencing and the adoption of ‘cloud-based’ technology, is also enabling firms to be able to extend their geographical reach and no longer be confined by their proximity to a client. It is becoming commonplace for firms to use virtually located teams or outsourcing companies to service clients’ work. As a result, partners and partnerships, to survive, have to be more technologically savvy and see technology-based...

Table of contents

• Cover
• How to Make Partner and Still Have a Life
• How to Make Partner and Still Have a Life
• Contents
• List of Diagrams
• List of Tables
• Foreword
• Acknowledgements
• Overview and introduction
• Part One Is partnership right for you?
• 01 What does being a partner in the 21st century actually mean?
• 02 What do you want from your career and life?
• 03 Is partnership for you?
• 04 The four different routes to partnership
• Part Two Building a strong foundation for your partnership career
• 05 How to keep your mind and body working at peak performance
• 06 Creating and writing your own career action plan
• 07 How to become partnership potential
• 08 How your role will change as you move upwards
• 09 How to develop yourself on the way to partnership
• 10 Building your support team
• 11 Keeping your eyes on the prize
• Part Three The essential skills
• 12 How to be seen as ‘one of the club’
• 13 How to look, sound and act the part
• 14 How to build your network for life
• 15 How your firm makes money
• Part Four Leading, managing yourself and others
• 16 How to find the time to fit it all in
• 17 Managing and leading your way to success
• Part Five How to develop and win work
• 18 How to become the ‘go to’ expert for your firm and profession
• 19 Building your own client portfolio
• Part Six On partner track – the final steps
• 20 Overcoming the final hurdles to making partner
• Part Seven How to succeed as a partner and owner of the business
• 21 How to make a successful transition to partner
• 22 How to build strong leadership teams
• Index
• Copyright