Managing Partners: Leaders or Administrators?

Source: Solutions for CPA Firm Leaders

The following includes excerpts, reproduced with permission, from a blog entry by Rita Keller.

Does your managing partner lead? Or, does he/she manage, administrate and coordinate?

I have found, via 30 years of experience in interacting with hundreds of firms across the country, that the most progressive, successful firms have a strong, future-focused managing partner who absolutely LOVES the firm and has its best interests at heart.

A question for new managing partners: Have you been selected because you have the strong leadership skills necessary or because some of the partners think you are the easiest candidate to manipulate? I know, this is a tough question and it might offend you, but think about it.

Bryan Shelton, consultant with The Rainmaker Consulting Group, notes that a managing partner truly leads the firm and pushes it into the future. A coordinating partner is focused on maintaining the status quo.

My advice to CPAs transitioning into the MP role?

• Outline and officially document your position description.
• Make sure you know what your partners expect of you.
• Define your scope of authority – what you handle on your own and what FEW things the entire ownership group needs to be involved in.
• Define your communication plan so that ALL owners are “in the know” but not necessarily in the decision process.
• Research and then define your personal development plan. (What conferences should you attend? What should you be reading on a regular basis? Find a coach who will push you to improve and hold you accountable.)

Step up to the role; embrace change; earn respect and trust; put the good of the firm before [the good of] individuals; implement; be true to yourself; and make it enjoyable, rewarding and even fun.

For the complete post, read “The Leader's Role.”

From Solutions for CPA Firm Leaders, the blog of Rita Keller, president of Keller Advisors, LLC, [email protected], September 7, 2010. Visit http://ritakeller.com/blog/.