30-Item Checklist: Getting People to Listen to You

7 businesspeople in meeting

Lessons in effective communication for partners and wanna-be partners.

By Martin Bissett
Passport to Partnership

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

MORE ON THE PASSPORT TO PARTNERSHIP: 3 Questions to Evaluate Your Firm Culture | Competence: More Than Technical Skills | Partnership: Competence Is Just the Foot in the Door

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A couple examples really stood out as the first steps in effective communication: READ MORE →

Why Communication Matters So Much

Two businessmen talking at officeThe experts weigh in. Hint: It’s not about you.

By Martin Bissett
Passport to Partnership

What does communication mean at the partner level?

MORE ON THE PASSPORT TO PARTNERSHIP: 5 Ways to Get Buy-In for Firm Culture | Competence: More Than Technical Skills | Partnership: Competence Is Just the Foot in the Door

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Ask yourself and answer these questions when considering the current and future communication tactics that you’ll employ.
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Are You Driving Your Best Partners Crazy?

Businessman holding two papers with happy and angry face each on themThe best firms know another way

By August Aquila

Professionals loathe anything bureaucratic. But we know of many firms who ask their partners to account, in detail, for every minute of their time.

MORE ON LEADERSHIP:Work Together Better in 11 Steps | Drop Politics, Be Accountable | What Makes a Successful Strategic Plan? | Innovate or Die | Partners Love, Hate Leadership | 8 Ways Leaders Destroy Firms | How to Combine Two Firms after Merger: Carefully

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To ask high-need-for-achievement professionals at the top of their field to provide what, to them, is bureaucratic data immediately implies a complete lack of trust and respect for their expertise and their position. It is simply a motivational disaster, which distances the partners from the firm. Partners know that they have to account for their time but we know too many firms that, often at the behest of the finance function, ask for a level of specificity that drives the partners to distraction.
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Best Practices for One-on-One Communication

4 winning habits of top accountants.

Component parts of how the other person perceives your in-person communication
Component parts of how the other person perceives your in-person communication

By Martin Bissett

I’ve had the benefit of meeting, speaking and observing hundreds of very successful and unsuccessful partners over the last two decades and there is indeed a set of differentiating factors that set a partner apart from the chasing pack.

MORE ON THE PASSPORT TO PARTNERSHIP: 3 Questions to Evaluate Your Firm Culture | Learn to Read Your Firm’s Culture | 5 Ways to Get Buy-In for Firm Culture | Competence: More Than Technical Skills | Experts Advise What Partnership Takes | Partnership: Competence Is Just the Foot in the Door | Are You Partner Material? Maybe Not

Here are the four “best-selling behaviors” that I’ve observed:

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Why ‘Walking Together’ Is So Important

Three partners, one male and two female, walking and smiling outside a buildingPartners must show a unified front.

By Robert J. Lees, August J. Aquila and Derek Klyhn
Creating the Effective Partnership

In our work with managing partners, we always talk about the importance of the partners “walking together,” of sharing that common vision.

MORE ON LEADERSHIP FOR PRO Members: 7 Warning Signs for Your Firm | The Checks and Balances Your Firm Needs | Don’t Weed Out the Roses | Back to Basics: 25 Ways to Grow Your Practice | 3 Ways to Halt a Poor Leader | 8 Questions That Staff Ask In a Merger | 8 Financial Ducks to Line Up Now

But if the partners are to share the vision, they have to play an active part in determining the firm’s direction – and, critically, how it’s going to get there.
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7 Levels of Communication Management

Chart showing Passport to Partnership's 7 levels of communication management4 reasons that senior managers struggle.

By Martin Bissett

Ultimately, when we have to interact with clients, subordinates, superiors or peers, the questions are always the same: Who do I need to deliver this information to and what approach would they respond most favorably to?

MORE ON THE PASSPORT TO PARTNERSHIP: 3 Questions to Evaluate Your Firm Culture | Learn to Read Your Firm’s Culture | Competence: More Than Technical Skills | Experts Advise What Partnership Takes | Partnership: Competence Is Just the Foot in the Door

In arriving at “Communication” we come to the most intangible of all the components to obtain a “passport to partnership.”
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Buyout: The Flip Side of Buying In

Three businessmen shaking handsPlus 9 reasons why goodwill averages 80 percent.

By Marc Rosenberg
How to Bring in New Partners

One of the benefits that new partners receive in exchange for their buy-in is that they will receive a buyout when they retire.

MORE ON PARTNERSHIP: What Does Buy-In Buy? | How to Structure Partner Buy-In | Keys to Bringing in New Partners

The flip side of this is that they must agree to buy out the older partners when they retire. Therefore, any plan for bringing in new partners must include a provision for a partner retirement/buyout plan.
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5 Ways to Measure Partner Potential

Learn to read your firm’s ‘cultural blueprint.’PTP_2ndC

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 ON THE PASSPORT TO PARTNERSHIP: 3 Questions to Evaluate Your Firm Culture | Learn to Read Your Firm’s Culture | 5 Ways to Get Buy-In for Firm Culture | Competence: More Than Technical Skills | Experts Advise What Partnership Takes | Partnership: Competence Is Just the Foot in the Door | Are You Partner Material? Maybe Not

In terms of firm culture, you need to understand the four navigational points of the compass:

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

And here’s a five-part analysis to see how you measure up:

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