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Issue 26 – Spring 2011
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Wilson's Writings
Leadership Lessons
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Practice Perspectives
You Need Capable Successors for a Seamless Transition
As Vince Lombardi said, “Contrary to the opinion of many people, leaders are not born. Leaders are made, and they are made by effort and hard work.”
To experience a seamless transition as your leaders grow up, and then eventually out of your organization, identifying and developing your up-and-comers must become a core competence. Without these critical abilities, there won’t be anyone to carry out the vision of your firm, serve your clients, or pay your retirement benefits and/or buyout. In this edition of Practice Perspectives, we’ll share ideas for developing leaders in your firm, identifying your partner potentials, and preparing them to step in and lead when the time comes.
The first step is to make a cultural commitment to develop leadership skills in your people. Some firms offer a leadership development program (LDP) that allows people at various levels and in different roles, including administrators, to enroll in the program to enhance their ability to lead.
Your firm’s leadership development program could include training in skills that all levels and roles can benefit from including:
- Enhancing your professional image
- Developing a personal code of conduct
- Business etiquette
- Time management
- Communications including business writing
- Delegation and ownership
- Creating a culture of accountability
- Managing conflict
Some leadership development programs also include course work in personnel management, delivering feedback, networking, business development, and practice economics. Your firm will be more competitive in recruiting, retention, and succession if your people have access to education in these important areas.
The next step to developing your firm’s successors is to develop a specific process and program for identifying and then mentoring your partner potentials as discussed in step seven in Leadership Lessons. You can use our Partner Candidate Criteria template as an example. Ask your partners to rank your up-and-coming team members against these attributes and competencies and then schedule a partner meeting to review them. From there, you can determine who your partner potentials are, make mentor assignments to partners or other great role models who will work with these candidates, and meet regularly to review and discuss their progress.
Once you identify your partner potentials, consider providing them with a personalized path-to-partner coaching and development program. The place to start is to assess their strengths, weaknesses, unique challenges and opportunities, personality preferences, and other attributes, providing a level of personal and professional insight that is not usually afforded staff in standard performance reviews. Ways that we’ve helped firms with these program elements include:
- Having the partner potential, their managers, subordinates, and peers complete a SWOT analysis and Leadership Attributes Evaluation (available in our Leadership Toolset at www.convergencelearning.com) and comparing the responses to identify the consistent themes and gaps between the partner potential’s perception of themselves and how others see them. These insights can be invaluable and will highlight the areas to focus on for growth.
- Conducting a survey assessment to explore the partner candidate’s vision for their career and the firm and exploring the things they feel they can do or change to contribute most to the firm.
- Administering the Myers-Briggs and/or DISC personality assessment to explore preferences in communication, data gathering, decision making, teamwork, planning, and organization.
By conducting these assessments, you’ll get to the essence of the individual's potential and understand their natural abilities, what makes them “tick,” and the most critical areas to focus on in your coaching and development program. From there, you’ll construct a development plan that allows them to pursue education, coaching, and job shadowing to improve their skills and behavior in the areas that are most important to fulfilling their future leadership duties.
In addition, consider providing more transparency for your partner potentials so they can learn what it means to be a partner and what it takes to be an owner in your firm. Teach the economics of your firm by sharing financial information, allowing them to participate in the strategic planning and budgeting processes, and educating them on the metrics that are important to your leadership team. Allow your partner potentials to participate in partner meetings (excusing them for comp discussions or other sensitive matters as needed). When you engage your partner potentials in these activities, you will deepen their education and also gain a means to gauge their aptitude and character as a member of your partner group.
As you commit to leadership development as a core competence of your firm, be sure to communicate your leadership development and partner potential programs to your entire team, including your vision for them, the benefit to your team members and to the firm, and how team members can become eligible to participate in either or both. Be sure to let team members know who to go to for questions or express interest in leadership development for themselves.
To ensure the future of your firm, you have to have the right people with the right skills ready to step in and replace your transitioning partners. And, because life has a way of throwing us curve balls, you may need your future leaders to be ready sooner than you planned– so it’s best to be prepared.
For additional information about developing your up-and-coming leaders and creating a leadership development program and/or partner potential program, contact Tamera Loerzel at tamera@convergencecoaching.com or (952) 226-1780.
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