What is a partner?

One of my favourite questions to ask any professional services firm is: 'what is a partner?'. An eyebrow may be raised because the question is 'dumb', but after a  short while a frown betrays the importance of the question and the problem with the answer. 

Why does this matter? Simply, if the answer is not clear, there is, somewhere in the firm, an expensive problem.

I've worked through this question with top-5 firms and local boutiques, across different professions and several countries. After the first confusion, powerful answers and insights emerge that affect the growth of the firm.

'Partner' means many things.

The problem can be because of success. As time passes, the firm grows and the answer to 'what is a partner?' shifts from one or two people to many interconnected systems. In one case, looking at the firm's documentation produced over 200 definitions of 'partner'. We were looking because the cohort of new partners that we were coaching happened to raise it over dinner as a conversational game. But in reality they were confused and concerned about what they'd got themselves into. Each person may have a notion of what 'partner' means, but what is your system saying? 

Where is it written? 

'A partner is.... ' appears in some form: 

• In the partnership agreement.
• On the website.
• On individual partner profiles, on various platforms. 
• In the partnership nomination documentation that prospects see. 
• In the partnership nomination documentation that prospects do not see. 
• In the induction to partnership process. 
• In the firm's online and offline gossip. 
• At partner conferences. 

Each of these locations approaches the question from a different perspective, so some difference is natural. The language of marketing is different from the language of the legal agreement. However, there are real costs to the firm and individual partners in being incoherent. That's quite apart from whether contradictory statements about a fundamental aspect of a firm constitutes excellence. 

1. The time wasted is significant but unmeasured. Reflect for a moment on how many cumulative hours are spent formally and informally dealing with misunderstandings, confusion or outright conflict about what is expected of a partner. 

2. There's a war for talent. Talented people will go where the expectations are clear, supported and rewarded when met. Mixed signals repel talented professionals. 

3. It's a symptom that there are no clear milestones for partner growth. High performers don't just lean on their laurels. They love to learn and grow and stretch their capabilities. Fuzziness about 'partner' implies fuzziness about future growth (other than billables... ), career shaping, and how to direct one's ambition. 

4. Can 'partners' lead when we don't know what it means to be one? In striving for excellence, bright young professionals (and astute clients) gauge whether you are excellent all-round. If the way you talk about partners is not crisp, it begs the question whether the firm is well-led. 

Decide

You have the freedom to decide what a partner is. In doing so you have to balance the imperatives of all professional firms. To what degree is a 'partner' like this: 

• A rainmaker. 
• A technical genius.
• A client hero.
• A leader. 
• A business guru. 
• A visionary. 

There are professionals - and I'm sure you know one or two in your profession or elsewhere - who clearly fall under one of these descriptors. But what about you and your colleagues? What do you communicate to your senior associates and clients? Do you say you're all visionaries, yet the bills are 120 days late? Are you great at relationships but fluff the delivery? 

• What exactly, today, do you need your partners to be?
• How do you help your associates become that? 
• How do you help your experienced partners build on their acknowledged strengths?
• How do you ensure clients understand the value of your partners? 
• What is professional pride - in your firm - primarily focussed on?
• Where is this written down? 

On the negative side, if you don't have good answers to these questions, your most talented professionals will be seduced to the many alternatives open to them. Client roles. Start-ups. Boutique specialist firms. Passion projects. 

On the positive side, as you work towards great answers to these questions, you develop: 

• Career clarity for the 'brilliantly insecure' - one firm's description of their target recruits. 
• Innovative synergy. 
• Strategic alignment. 
• Motivated juniors. 
• Client loyalty, engagement and joint innovation. 
• Higher fees, charged with confidence. 

Future challenges are making this question even more pointed. 

• AI is dismembering the commodity components of professional knowledge. 
• The generations entering the workforce are not bedazzled by the notion of partnership. Confusion won't help attract the best. 
• Partners have freedom, income, longevity, security - and risk, stress and perhaps unreasonable expectations. What's the attraction for talented professionals with many career options? 
• Competitive differentiation is now multi-faceted. Technical excellence or client relationship are no longer enough. Excellence is needed across the board. Confusion on the basic issue  of partnership seeps into other aspects of the firm and does not convey excellence. 

As a partner, and in particular if you're in a leading role, it is your responsibility to answer this broad 'dumb' question crisply and ensure it is answered well, wherever people encounter it.

In refining your answer, in my experience, you'll throw up a series of insights, initiatives and conversations that will deepen your understanding of the firm's strengths, help you lead and sharpen some of your most important, partner-related processes.