44 Hard-Earned Tips from New Managing Partners

https://cpatrendlines.com/2021/07/08/advice-from-new-managing-partners/

Everything from gaining credibility to where to turn for help.

By Marc Rosenberg
The Role of the Managing Partner

The toughest lessons for new managing partners have nothing to do with taxes, accounting, or even textbook management. It’s all about people – such as people issues and handling partners, according to our straw poll survey of a handful of top-flight firm leaders.

We gleaned comments from 10 relatively new managing partners. Eight are from firms with revenues from $10 million to $30 million and two are from $5 million to $10 million firms.

MORE: Partner Compensation: A Potent Weapon | The Managing Partner’s Secret Weapon | How a Good Managing Partner Impacts Profitability | How a Great Managing Partner Impacts Firm Growth | Clarify Partner Expectations | Exceptional Managing Partners Offer Their Advice
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We posed three questions to the new managing partners:

  1. What advice would you give a new managing partner?
  2. What were your greatest challenges when you became a managing partner?
  3. If you had to do it over again, would you approach your ascension to the managing partner job differently? In what ways?

Their responses tell us as much about how to do the job well as how to fail at it.

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6 Focuses for Managing Partners

Businessman giving instructions to his colleaguesPlus 37 specific traits for evaluation.

By August J. Aquila
What Makes a Great Partnership

According to Marc Rosenberg, managing partners should focus on the following six areas*:

MORE ON GREAT PARTNERSHIPS: 13 Points of a Good Compensation Plan | How MPs Can Make a Real Difference | 5 Reasons That Leaders Fail | 11 Things All Partners Must Do | Why Partners Need Written Goals | The 6-Step Plan for Transitioning Clients | Fighting Restraining Forces | Chemistry and Mutual Respect Matter | Great CPA Firm Partnerships Begin with Trust | The 4 Best Ways to Use Pre-Retirement Partners | Work Together Better in 11 Steps | Drop Politics, Be Accountable | What Makes a Successful Strategic Plan?
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  • Leadership
  • Profitability
  • Strategic planning
  • Team building
  • Learning/Training
  • Asset protection

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10 Steps to Transitioning to a New MP

Senior businessman and another businessman talkingPlus 4 questions to answer if the MP is staying with the firm.

By August J. Aquila
What Makes a Great Partnership

One of the most difficult events that a firm faces is the transition of power from one managing partner to another, especially when it’s the first time.

MORE ON GREAT PARTNERSHIPS: 5 Ways to Keep Your Edge | 5 Reasons That Leaders Fail | 11 Things All Partners Must Do | Why Partners Need Written Goals | The 6-Step Plan for Transitioning Clients | Fighting Restraining Forces | Chemistry and Mutual Respect Matter | Great CPA Firm Partnerships Begin with Trust | The 4 Best Ways to Use Pre-Retirement Partners
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Knowing when to pass the baton and how to pass it are critical decisions every firm will have to make.
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Shape-Shifting at Jim Cunningham’s Warren Averett

When your biggest competitors aren’t always CPA firms, you need to re-define who you are.

Jim Cunningham, chief executive officer of Warren Averett CPAs
Jim Cunningham, chief executive officer of Warren Averett CPAs

By CPA Trendlines Staff

Success for accounting firms may depend on their recruitment of non-CPAs to handle some specialized business advisory services, according to Jim Cunningham, chief executive officer of Warren Averett CPAs and Advisors, the nation’s 27th largest accounting firm.


MORE from THE CORNER OFFICE:  
Henry & Horne Offers Flex Time, Loans to Future CPAs  Lee Beall: Finding Next-Gen Leaders at Rea & Assoc. | Joe Kask Leads ‘Paradigm Shift’ at BlumShapiro | CEO Charles Weinstein: EisnerAmper Targets Work-Life Balance | HBK’s Allegretti Says Firm Must Stress Excitement Factor | Lou Grassi Focuses on Recruiting, Retention at Namesake N.Y. Firm | Richard Berkowitz Drives Berkowitz Pollack Brant to ‘Warp Speed’ | Randy Myeroff at Cohen & Co.: Winning the Youth Movement | Rick Dreher Innovates Wipfli for Clients, Younger Workers | How Blain Heckaman Drives Value at Kaufman Rossin | WeiserMazars MP Blake Charts U.S. Expansion | Frank Longobardi: CohnReznick’s Battle for Top Talent | The Robo-CPA: Jim Sikich Prepares for Disruptive Technologies |
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“We should want our clients to truly value us, which means choosing us for discretionary services as things arise, rather than just turning to us for something that needs to get done,” says Cunningham.

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Should Managing Partners Drop their Books of Business?

Your firm deserves a full-time leader.

By Ed Mendlowitz
The CPA Trendlines Practice Doctor

QUESTION: About a year ago I became the managing partner of my 50-person, six-partner firm. We gross about $7 million. I still maintain my book of business, which is about $1 million, and have 1,000 chargeable hours.

MORE PRACTICE DOCTOR Q&A: Do You Want to Keep This Employee? | How to Know Everything | The Six Rules To Get the Most Out of CPE | Everyone Needs Strategic Planning | 19 Ways to Stop Wasting Reviewer Time | No Go On Pro Bono | Why Your Clients Need Annual Minutes – And How You Can Help | How Much Overhead Is Too Much?

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Needless to say, I have been working very hard, about 2,700 total hours, yet my partners are complaining I do not have enough chargeable time and I tend to agree with them, but do not know how I can increase these hours.
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How to Set the Managing Partner’s Compensation

Businessman holding multiple dollar signsA management stipend keeps the MP “whole.”

By Marc Rosenberg
Partner Comp: Art & Science

Many firms, especially under $10 million, have a partner on board with the title of managing partner who in reality functions more as an admin partner. This post only addresses how the true MP should be compensated.

MORE ON PARTNER COMPENSATION: How Large and Small Firms Allocate Income | Integrating Partner Comp with Strategic Planning Partner Pay: The Declining Importance of Book of Business | 3 Non-Performance-Based Comp Systems | 3 Subjective Compensation Systems | Partner Compensation 101

OK, for those of you dying to know what a true MP is, here’s the scoop. A true MP:
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Managing the Managing Partner

Businessman standing at conference table with 4 colleagues seated behindChecks and balances are key.

By Bill Reeb and Dominic Cingoranelli

As past success and personal development continuously demonstrate, organizations operate more effectively when people are managed. And since partners are people, rather than gods or superheroes, it makes sense that we put something in place to manage them as well.

MORE ON PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT: Accountability Is for Everyone | Succession Plan Requirements | Base Retirement on Today’s Operations | How Involved Should Retired Owners Be? | Firms Say What Would Change Retirement Pay | 4 Ways to Create More Capacity | 7 Succession Questions to Ignore for Now | How Partner Ratings Factor Into Equity | Hazards of Not Reallocating Equity | 5 Harmful Management Attitudes (and How to Fix Them) | Do CPA Firms Need Management or Leadership? |  Job 1 for The Practice Owner: Client Management

With this general background in mind, let’s dive a little deeper into how a managing partner goal-setting process might work.
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Partner Accountability: How and for What?

13 things to hold partners accountable for, 10 ways to do it and 12 questions to ask. BONUS: Example of a personal accountability plan.

By Marc Rosenberg
CPA Firm Retreats

Partner accountability means different things to different people. Some quotations:

“If there are no consequences to failing to achieve a goal, then it is less likely that the goal will be accomplished.” – Marc Rosenberg

“If people are not prepared to be held accountable for what they do, it is unlikely they will achieve much.” – David Maister

MORE ON RETREATS: 30 Marketing and Growth Questions to Cover at a Retreat | How Marketing for CPA Firms Is Different | Why Create a Marketing Plan? | Thinking of Merging? Discuss It At a Retreat | How to Take Action After a Retreat | 12 Simple Rules for a Retreat | Leave Your Retreat With a To Do List | Every Retreat Needs a Leader, But Who? | Retreats Are No Place for Clowns | Who Should Participate in a Retreat? | Retreat Logistics: How Long, What Kind? | What Should CPA Firms Discuss at Retreats? | Why Do CPA Firms Conduct Retreats?

“I’m a partner in this firm. That gives me the right to do whatever I darn well please, whenever I want to do it.” – Firm partner to whom “accountability” is a dirty word
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