Three Questions About Your Competence

How do others view your partnership readiness?

By Martin Bissett
Passport to Partnership

The Passport to Partnership study collated a number of responses in a conversational style.

MORE: Competence Is Step One of Seven | When Would-Be Partners Aren’t Candidates | Make Your Expertise a New-Client Magnet | Don’t Think of It as Selling | Experts: What It Takes to Become Partner | Where Is Your Next Money Coming From? | Your Website Promises. Do You Deliver?
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But two brief but succinct examples on the realities of how a firm assesses an individual’s “competence” for leadership are showcased really stood out:

They need to explain technical data to me in a way that I know they understand.
What kind of lifestyle does this person have outside of work? We’ll be looking at Facebook, Twitter, and Google to find out.

Posted on July 18, 2023

Martin Bissett

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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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