Advisory work

Laura works with senior leaders and partners in professional organizations around the world to identify, understand, and address significant organizational challenges, to stimulate fresh thinking, and to inspire change.

Synchronising research and practice

As any leader of a professional organization knows, the biggest challenge is not working out what to do but how to persuade your colleagues to do it. My decades of research and my extensive experience advising professional organizations come together to provide a uniquely valuable skill set.

As an academic I am able to draw upon my own rigorous research, together with knowledge of leading edge management theory more generally, to get below the surface of professional organizations, to challenge conventional thinking, and to analyse and diagnose organizational problems with a unique degree of insight. As an advisor I am able to develop these insights into highly practical recommendations.

In my experience, when professionals are resistant to change, emotional anxieties often lie behind their intellectual arguments. My academic expertise gives me considerable credibility and authority with professionals, enabling me to set their concerns in the context of my research more generally and add weight to my proposals. In this way I work closely with leadership to help bring about challenging and far-reaching change.

What?

Laura draws upon her more than 30 years of academic research and advisory work to challenge assumptions, encourage fresh thinking, and resolve her clients’ most challenging issues.

How?

Laura delivers a combination of discrete advisory projects, facilitated leadership offsites, and longer-term change management interventions.

Who?

Laura works with leaders of the world’s most prestigious and successful professional organizations, as well as founders of ambitious professional organizations eager to grow.

Why?

Leaders of professional organizations approach Laura for a variety of reasons.
See below and expand for details of case studies.

Because they are undertaking a specific project and need expert technical advice

Governance review

Example: In advising on governance redesign I help leaders build thriving organizations by steering a careful path between encouraging autonomy and exercising control. In my experience, as organizations grow there is often a need to improve the efficiency of decision-making processes. However, overt attempts to centralise power through redesigning governance arrangements can provoke a backlash among professionals. Alternatively, where power is too centralised, professionals may become disenfranchised and disengaged. I work with clients to create a governance structure to resolve this paradox.

Redesigning partner appraisal and remuneration

Example: It is an uncomfortable truth that it is not possible to create an “ideal” system of partner appraisal and remuneration. It will always involve difficult compromises among multiple competing priorities. Attempts to change even unpopular systems may provoke resistance among the partnership. Through my research and long experience of helping leaders with these complex challenges I show how to navigate competing interests and develop a partner appraisal and remuneration system which, while inevitably not ideal, is definitely optimal and implementable.

Because they disagree and need to be brought together to develop a solution and implementation plan

Resolving dysfunctional leadership dynamics

Example: Professionals tend to be passionate about their work and eager advocates for their areas of interest. At the top of the firm this can result in very challenging discussions and dysfunctional leadership dynamics, as members of the Executive Committee or Board struggle to reach a consensus on major strategic decisions. Such conflicts can come to a head at leadership offsites. Through my research on leadership dynamics I see beyond the rhetoric and quickly get to the heart of the underlying tensions. I work with the senior leadership group to broker consensus and resolve seemingly irreconcilable conflicts.

Preventing post-merger disintegration

Case study: : One year after an international merger, relations among senior professionals in the two firms were deteriorating. Passive resistance was flaring up into outright hostility. I was invited to broker a resolution. Beginning by presenting my research on mergers and acquisitions, I helped the partners to recognise that their anxiety and hostility was “normal”. I provided an academic framework to understand and manage their emotions. I created an environment where they could speak more honestly to each other about their concerns, to identify like-minded colleagues in the merger partner. I showed them how to create structures to identify opportunities for cooperation and begin working successfully together.

Because they have a more general problem and want to diagnose the underlying causes and develop proposed solutions

Leadership counsel and mentoring

Example: My research shows that the typical senior professional does not aspire to a leadership role and may need to be coaxed to take it on. Once in this role they may find themselves unprepared and out of their depth. I work closely with the most senior leaders in professional organizations, whether they are new to the role or dealing with extreme challenges I help them steer their way through complex political dynamics to secure their own position, bring about meaningful change, and develop the next generation of leaders.

Strengthening and sustaining a collaborative culture

Case study: The Founder and Managing Director of an international consulting firm, the leader in its specialised field, expected the business to expand rapidly over the next few years. They were concerned this rapid growth would threaten the highly collaborative culture which had contributed to their firm’s success. I analysed the social and economic dynamics within the firm to understand better the reasons for its success. I identified how the collaborative culture could be institutionalised, whilst retaining the flexible and intuitive ways of working. I recommended various changes and worked closely with members of the firm to develop and implement these recommendations.

Because they have a plan but need help to persuade their colleagues to adopt and implement it

Establishing a common purpose and mutual covenant

Case study: The Managing Partner had been elected to reverse a recent decline in the firm’s league table position and had made huge strides in growing revenues and improving profitability. The firm was now back on top. But in the process partners had become concerned that the Managing Partner was accruing too much power and some felt threatened and distrustful. I was brought in to work with the entire partner group and the leadership team to establish a common purpose and develop a mutual covenant about how they would work together. I led a series of working groups to redesign the governance structure and partner management systems, and to strengthen the bonds of trust and commitment among partners and the leadership team

Creating the role of senior partner

Case study: The firm was run by a Managing Partner working alone. At a partner conference he proposed a change to the governance structure – to create the role of Senior Partner to help him manage the workload of leadership. His proposal met with significant opposition among the partnership. Because my research had established the benefits of the dual leadership model I asked the Managing Partner to let me discover the partners' real reasons for opposing the change. I developed a new proposal for the role which directly addressed their concerns. At the next partner conference, I presented my recommendations, alongside my research explaining the value of a dual leadership model. The partners voted overwhelmingly in favour to accept the proposals. Within a few months they elected a Senior Partner.

Contact

Testimonials

“Your analysis of our culture and how we can strengthen and maintain the best parts of it has been pivotal in the growth journey that our firm has been on. All of our partners were highly impressed with your ability to quickly grasp our somewhat unique leadership dynamics, the values that bind us together and the risks that we face going forward. Thank you for your insightful work.” CEO, Consulting firm

“I want to emphasize how important our work with you has been over the last three years. With your assistance I think we have changed the firm for the better forever and you have been a critical part of that process. I couldn’t have done it without you. On a personal note, it has been great fun.” Managing Partner, Law firm

“I have been particularly impressed by your ability to get ‘under the skin’ of our firm, to identify some of the peculiarities of our leadership dynamics, governance structure, and organizational culture. You have brought a highly original and perceptive insight into some particularly complex problems. The Board and I have welcomed your challenge because it has forced us to question our assumptions. I am pleased to say that your recommendations are already yielding tangible results.”
Managing Partner, Big Four firm

References available on request