Managing partner: why do the job?

Having joined my firm 33 years ago, I have never moved nor been tempted to do so. However, after 16 years as managing partner, I am going to retire from my firm and hopefully find a market amongst some of you who want to learn from both my successes and my mistakes. I feel that I am stood at a crossroads now – I have quite mixed feelings looking back on my past role and some trepidation as I embark upon my new venture.

Like many of you, I never felt particularly well qualified to be a managing partner, beyond having an intimate knowledge of my firm and the people in it, coupled with a good track record of winning business and delivering an acceptable level of revenue.

It is often remarked that the latter is a strange qualification for the role of managing partner, but is it really? The benefit that the big biller has is that he or she does have instant credibility amongst his partners, who can’t very well say “but you don’t know what it’s like at the coalface”.

You embark upon the role of managing partner full of energy and optimism, before the realisation occurs that the biggest challenge is managing the comfort zones and insecurities of a sizeable number of one’s partners. Provided that support and explanation is given, employees rarely fail to do their best to satisfy any reasonable request made of them, but with partners it just isn’t so simple.

Then, of course, there is the whole imbalance in the relationship that you have with your partners. Your partners need to be given recognition, praise and thanks, but are under no reciprocal obligation. A good year is because partners bill a lot, whereas a bad year is down to management. Of course, I exaggerate in order to make the point, which I am sure is familiar to many of you.

Looking back, I always think that instead of doing Law Society finals, I should have just qualified as a psychiatrist.

Looking forward is exciting. While VAT registration may not fall into that category, getting design undertaken, a website built and buying a complete set of Apple products certainly is. Colleagues from both inside and outside the firm have been tremendously supportive and seem just as excited as me (and no, I don’t think that’s because they want to see the back of me).

Looking back, I muse as to what I will miss. I certainly won’t miss getting up at five o’clock in the morning. I won’t miss the inevitable aggravation which we all encounter in the role. I won’t miss dealing with the problems of my partners. I won’t miss subrogating personal interests to those of all of my colleagues. Most importantly, I won’t miss assuming responsibility for everything, which again I am sure will strike a chord with all of you.

However, having said all that, the really odd thing is that, in looking at new roles and relationships for the future, both with my own firm and other firms with which I have agreed to work, the real driver for me is building relationships.

My only conclusion from this is that, no matter how frustrated we might become with the role, the payback has to be in the value of the relationships which we enjoy with our colleagues.