partner

successful strategy execution requires focus on people

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business people working in group in the officeby robert j. lees, august j. aquila and derek klyhn

momentum is critical in driving change, so it is no surprise that the initiation of activities that drive and support the strategy is key.

more on leadership: managing partners must remember partners’ needs | 5 questions about your firm’s direction | like herding cats: partners must ‘walk together’

it is also one of the reasons why focus is critical. and yet one of the mistakes we see are initiatives having too much time between them.

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managing partners must remember partners’ needs

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a businessman with some jigsaw puzzle pieces in his handand 4 questions to consider.

by robert j. lees, august j. aquila and derek klyhn
creating the effective partnership

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

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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like herding cats: partners must ‘walk together’

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businessman hand holding puzzle pieces

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.

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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partners have love-hate relationship with leadership

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aquila leadership context modelby robert j. lees, august j. aquila
and derek klyhn
creating the effective partnership

regardless of their ownership structure, most firms either operate as partnerships or would prefer to operate as partnerships.

the tensions between being a business and the loss of the values and ethics of being a partnership feature strongly in our research.

but accounting firms are different from their corporate counterparts in a number of ways, which impact their functioning and, therefore, their leadership. read more →

partner aging strikes smaller firms the hardest

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older man and younger man in meetingas partners work longer, average partner incomes decline.

the aging in the partner ranks of the cpa profession is by far most prominent at  smaller firms, according to the most recent edition “the national map survey of cpa firm statistics.”

at firms with less than $2 million in fees, the percentage of partners over the age of 50 has risen to a startling 73.3 percent, up from 65.4 percent last year.

and at firms with fees of $2 million to $10 million, the number has risen to 66 percent from 65.3 percent. read more →