Five Questions for Measuring Partner Potential

Plus how to read your firm’s cultural blueprint.

By Martin Bissett
Passport to Partnership

What conclusions can you draw from your knowledge of how the promotion system works in your firm that you need to keep in mind?

MORE: Culture Can’t Be Ignored | Why Firm Culture Matters for Partners | Three Things That Rich Accountants Do | Four Reasons It’s Hard to Sell | Win Your First Client: Yourself | 10 Questions for Reconsidering Your Prices | A List Is Not a Pipeline | Are You Committed to Your Firm?
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In terms of firm culture, you need to understand the four navigational points of the compass:

Who do I need to stay on the right side of?
What are the unwritten rules in my firm?
Whose opinions can be trusted?
What really impresses the partners?

Posted on August 15, 2023

Martin Bissett

About the Author

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Martin Bissett is the author of

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Winning Your First Client,
Passport to Partnership, and
Meet Your New Best Client

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He is the founder of The Upward Spiral Partnership Ltd., the UK-based consulting firm that specializes in the implementation of professional selling and leadership skills in the next generation of accounting professionals.

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Previously, Martin served ten years on the board of directors of the UK’s leading provider of high-quality new business appointments for accountancy firms. There, he held the responsibility for the nurture and organic growth of the organization’s new client base, including six of the UK’s top 30 firms of accountants.

Martin became fascinated by the apparent juxtaposition of partners not vocalizing what they were looking for in terms of an accomplished skill set from their potential future partners and their managers not asking to discover what that skill set included, despite wanting to reach that very position. In a profession with a supposed “Succession Crisis” on the horizon, this apparent stand-off struck him as curious.

This has led Upward Spiral Partnership to personally interview several hundred partners and managers in the US and UK to learn what partners are looking for and how the managers see their own future in the firm. There are, of course, firms that have addressed this issue already, and their initiatives have also been captured.

The results of the research, including both the consensus and the exceptions to the general opinion, is called “Passport to Partnership.” This study provides the highlights of each factor that the majority of partners interviewed use as their criteria when evaluating whether someone in their organization can make it to the top.

As a result of the combination of his experience, intellectual property, and this proprietary research, Martin now consults with accounting firms in the UK, Europe, and the USA to support them in their transition through to the next stage of their development and growth.

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