Partners in professional services businesses need to balance the revenue-generating activity in their business whilst also taking the time to be an inspiring leader and manage the day-to-day activities of the business.
Over time, partners can get pigeon-holed in their roles. The ‘diligent’ partner is rewarded with more and more work and tight deadlines. The ‘dominant’ partner gets their way because the other partners are tired of, or fearful of, more conflict. The ‘nice’ partner is burdened with listening to all the challenges and complaints from the wider team.
Sometimes, partners take on a role to fill a gap and become stuck, feeling they have much more to offer the partnership and business.
Is it time to renegotiate the dynamic in your partnership?
It’s not enough to wish and hope that something will change in your partner relationship. Making a sustainable change requires commitment to a plan with external support.
We have worked with partnerships in Legal Firms, Accounting Firms, Strata Managers, Childcare Providers, Project Management and more, across Australia, to help them redesign their partnership dynamic. We guide them through the process of defining a new approach to working with each other agreeing a new set of behaviours to support the change. It’s important to help them understand and adapt their styles and approaches to drive the shift to a more productive and supportive dynamic.
Case Study: Agreeing a new way of working
A partner from a fast-growing professional services business was really struggling with her very dominating partner who would not listen to her ideas or input. She had a strong background in business development, communication and was great at staff and customer engagement. Her business partner had a finance background and loved building structure and processes. On paper it was an ideal mix of skills for a partnership.
However, there was no clarity around their individual roles, how issues were escalated, decisions made or how they would manage conflict.
As the business expanded, the partners started to disagree. One would reactively ‘fix’ issues as they arose without any discussion. The other partner being the primary contact point for staff and customers, had to deal with the fallout. The attempts to be involved and have an equal voice in decisions created conflict.
We facilitated a series of workshops where both partners were able to voice their issues and concerns. They agreed to reset the partnership dynamic and build a new way of working that put them on an equal footing. The details were documented in their partnership protocol, describing the key aspects of their roles, behaviours and working standards. This clearly defines the agreed standards and expectations of how they lead the business together and jointly handle any challenges or conflicts that arise.
In the following three years with the partners worked far more effectively together. This led to 600% growth for the business and a far more engaged team!