Managing the Professional Service Firm

strategy is really all about: changing current methods of operating in order to render more value by existing partners on existing services to existing market segments.

Top producers shouldn’t be attempting to become managers to increase their pay and status.

Since few professionals like to be told what to do, the manager must act through persuasion and cajoling, even where the manager sees the way clear. Living with the frustrations of building consensus and resisting the temptation to just act are a permanent struggle.

The strategy development task is not an exercise in forecasting. Rather, the goal is to create the responsive organization;

The only piece of documentation that matters in this process is that listing action commitments: who will do what and by when.

One part of this system is critical: Follow-up.

Coaching takes time, patience and ingenuity. It is often frustrating and only occasionally rewarding. The practice leader must have the ability to interact with others in such a way that critiques are accepted as welcome assistance, not as interference.

1. Profitability of work supervised 2. Client satisfaction on work supervised 3. Coaching on work supervised 4. Contributions to practice development 5. Contributions to the success of others 6. Personal growth (career strategy)

If you’re making progress on client satisfaction, skill building, productivity, and getting better business, you’ve got all the strategy you need.