THE PARTNERSHIP

Five Reasons That Leaders Fail

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Do you have these habits of highly ineffective CEOs?

By August J. Aquila
What Makes a Great Partnership

Several years ago there was an interesting article in Fortune magazine. It dealt with the topic of why CEOs fail. For example, “Chainsaw Al” Dunlap was let go by Sunbeam after two years of dismal performance and questionable conduct.

MORE: What Managing Partners Must Be Doing | Managing Partner: The Toughest Job in the World | Eleven Things Partners Must Do | Do Your Partners Pay Their Own Way? | Why Partners Need Written Goals | Seven Keys to Becoming an Equity Partner | How to Create Firm Accountability | Eight Criteria for Partnership | How to Achieve Partner Unity | Five Questions to Ask Your Partners about Accountability | How You Can Get Partners to Change | The Seven Building Blocks of a Great Partnership
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What do CPA firm managing partners have to learn from corporate America?
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Public Accounting as a Business, 101

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Two men at whiteboardKnow your profession.

By Marc Rosenberg
How to Bring in New Partners

“Engaging your employees – involving them in the business – can drive revenue growth. An educated workforce can also make better decisions, work more efficiently and seize opportunities faster. Teaching your employees to be smart businesspeople can be a big investment, but it’s one that can have a significant return.” – Keith Lamb, Inc. magazine

MORE: Nuts and Bolts of Mentoring Staff | It Shouldn’t Take So Long to Make Partner | Three Types of Skills You Need to Become a Partner | Seventeen Basic Expectations of Partners
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Personnel in any organization, from widget manufacturers to hospitals to baseball teams to charities, work with more enthusiasm and commitment when they genuinely feel part of the organization. When people understand how they fit into the overall scheme and what their role is and grasp the essentials of how the organization operates, they produce higher quality work and are more energized. CPA firms are no exception to this rule.
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Forged in Fire: The Pains of Leadership

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Businessman bursting through flames and fireworksThink of it as an upward spiral.

By Martin Bissett
Passport to Partnership

Unhappy and difficult clients help our firms to improve our client management skills and present opportunities to refine our leadership skills.

MORE: Perception Is Reality, Client Version | Your Website Promises. Do You Deliver? | Five Reasons Firms Don’t Thrive | Four Biz Dev Tasks to Start the New Year | What the Next Generation of Practice Leaders Faces | Nine Points to Check Before Hello | Why Clients Struggle with Growth | Nine Biz-Dev Metrics for Making Partner
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It is tough for us to build a successful firm without difficult clients or internal personnel issues in order to provide learning experiences for us to build a robust and commercially successful infrastructure.
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Nuts and Bolts of Mentoring Staff

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three people: woman between two men pointing at desktop computer screen in explanationFour keys to being a great mentor. Ten skill areas to develop. Eight training best practices.

By Marc Rosenberg
How to Bring in New Partners

Firms have two levels of expectations of new partners. Many firms aren’t consciously aware of these alternatives, but they exist nonetheless, and they are quite different from each other.

MORE: It Shouldn’t Take So Long to Make Partner | 16 Steps to Creating a Partnership Path | Six Ways New Partners Differ from Managers | The Four Essentials for Every New Partner | Tell Potential Partners What It Takes
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Expectation 1: The new partner is qualified for the job.

New partners must drive the firm by

  • Increasing revenue by bringing in new clients.
  • Retaining clients and expanding services to them.
  • Developing staff, helping them learn and grow.
  • Providing proactive, world-class service to clients.
  • Having the leadership skills to take over the firm from existing partners.

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What Managing Partners Must Be Doing

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Young man facing image of himselfBONUS: Questions for self-evaluation.

By August J. Aquila
What Makes a Great Partnership

The responsibilities of a managing partner can be captured in the following two paragraphs:

General responsibilities include reporting directly to the governing committee and the firm, being responsible for the firm’s overall management and practice, supervising the overall marketing and business development effort, managing the professional staff and providing guidance for the support staff.

MORE: Managing Partner: The Toughest Job in the World | Eleven Things Partners Must Do | Seven Keys to Becoming an Equity Partner | How to Achieve Partner Unity
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Specific responsibilities include coordinating the firm’s practices among the different offices and departments, implementing the partnership agreement, appointing heads of various committees, representing the firm in community and professional organizations, supervising the functioning of the governing committee, overseeing the functioning of standing and ad hoc committees, providing guidance on financial policies and working with the governing committee to develop personal and administrative policies.

These are without doubt good areas, but are they the ones managing partners should focus on?
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It Shouldn’t Take So Long to Make Partner

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Group of four young professionalsBONUS: A 15-point checklist for the path.

By Marc Rosenberg
How to Bring in New Partners

Not too long ago, Accounting Today published a very interesting piece of research titled “The Long Path to Partner.” The polling question: How many years does it take to make partner at your firm?

MORE: 16 Steps to Creating a Partnership Path | Nine Ways to Measure Staff Performance on the Path to Partner | Five People to Keep Out of Partnership
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The results:

  • Less than 5 years: 9%
  • 5-7 years: 12%
  • 8-9 years: 12%
  • 10-13 years: 30%
  • More than 13 years: 17%
  • Don’t know: 20%

Why does it take so long?

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Managing Partner: The Toughest Job in the World

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Five cheetahs strolling on a pathYou enjoy herding cats, right?

By August J. Aquila
What Makes a Great Partnership

Wanted: Managing Partner

Requirements: Unique individual who can lead a group of independent-minded professionals; keep some semblance of normality; deal with super egos, unproductive partners and dysfunctional partners; grow the business, stay competitive in a rapidly changing and unfriendly environment, and figure out how to compensate everyone fairly. Interested parties should send resume and salary requirements to Box AA.

Why would you want this job? Managing a practice today has never been more difficult, but it doesn’t mean that it’s impossible or not rewarding. It all depends on your focus and your willingness to solve the important problems at hand.

MORE: Eleven Things Partners Must Do | Do Your Partners Pay Their Own Way? | How to Create Firm Accountability | Five Questions to Ask Your Partners about Accountability
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It has been said that the “firm can never be something the leader is not.” It should be added that the “firm can never be something that the partners are not.”
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16 Steps to Creating a Partnership Path

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BONUSES: 12 questions to ask staff about the future. Advancing from staff to senior to manager.

By Marc Rosenberg
How to Bring in New Partners

“I think nothing is more important than what a firm does to create partners. I mean from Day 1 of someone’s career. Or maybe when a person is identified as a star. It’s critical what the firm does to nurture that person so that they become a partner someday.” – Harry Steindler, partner, MichaelSilver (Chicago)

MORE: Nine Ways to Measure Staff Performance on the Path to Partner | Three Types of Skills You Need to Become a Partner | Seventeen Basic Expectations of Partners | Nine Ways to Woo a Prospective Partner
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Here is what the best firms do to create a path to partnership. These practices are not ranked strictly, but items at the top of the list are more common and effective than those toward the bottom. However, all the items are important.
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