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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

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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.