Don’t Ignore Underperforming Partners

Source: Accounting Today

L. Gary Boomer, of Boomer Consulting in Manhattan, Kansas, says personnel shortages may cause firms to tolerate poor performance.

Performance should be measured by four things:

• Financial results.
• Relationships with clients.
• Conformance with systems and procedures.
• Personal growth.

Partners who operate individually, not as part of a team, can drag firms down.

Ironically, expecting people to work longer hours to compensate for staff shortages aggravates the shortage. Often, partners who work fewer hours are defined as underperforming. This may be symptomatic not of underperformance, but of different values operating in today’s workplace.

Performance may suffer from an outmoded compensation system. Firms perform better when they compensate people for contributing to the firm rather than to themselves.

Partners who refuse to delegate are inefficient. If they delegate, they can devote more of their time to the things they do best.

Partners must:

• Commit to the firm’s strategic plan.
• Agree to work toward fulfillment of expectations.
• Be accountable.
• Communicate.

While client service is crucial, partners cannot focus on client service to the exclusion of the above.

Underperforming partners who will not change should leave the firm.

From Accounting Today, June 18, 2007, SourceMedia Inc., One State Street Plaza, 27th Floor, New York, NY 10004, 800-221-1809. For the complete article, click here, then select the article Dealing with Underperforming Partners from the June 18, 2007 issue.