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How to Make Partner and Still Have a Life

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How to Make Partner and Still Have a Life

Kogan Page,

15 min read
10 take-aways
Audio & text

What's inside?

Becoming a partner in a professional firm is tough. Being a partner can be even tougher. Are you sure you’re ready?

Editorial Rating

7

Qualities

  • Applicable

Recommendation

Making partner in a private professional practice has always been tough, but with business retrenchment across the globe, it’s tougher now than ever. Executive coach Heather Townsend and talent management consultant Jo Larbie detail a viable partnership path for accountants, architects, engineers, attorneys and other professionals in today’s competitive corporate environment. Note that the authors spend more of the book’s attention on making partner than on still having a life, but that’s what being a partner is like. getAbstract recommends Townsend and Larbie’s guidance to those who work at partnership firms and charge clients for their time. This very basic career manual explains how to win the partnership war and how to survive the stresses of battle and of victory. It’s up to you to decide if it is a war worth winning.

Summary

Earn It

Contemporary professional firms have too few high-ranking slots for all those who want to become a partner. Nonpartners may work around the clock every day but still not make the grade. Those who become partners often sacrifice their personal lives to remain in good standing. Yet if you handle your career properly, you can make partner and still enjoy your life.

At a professional service firm (PSF), clients come first, so these companies depend on their professionals to serve their customers. Without partners’ expertise, PSFs have nothing to sell. Partners are the shareholders, managers and proprietors of their companies. To maintain their positions, partners must drum up new accounts, do the work they demand and retain them.

In the past, clients would stick with a PSF forever. Today’s customers are not reluctant to abandon their PSF for a new firm. This new trend alters the way professional firms handle cases. In a bygone era, partners’ main role was to tend the firm’s established clientele. Their most important responsibility in the current environment is to maintain a profitable portfolio. This means finding new patrons to replace those who move on...

About the Authors

Heather Townsend is an executive coach. Jo Larbie handles talent management for professional service firms.


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