Tackling Partner Conflict
Source: The Marc Rosenberg Blog
The following includes excerpts, reproduced with permission, from a blog entry by Marc Rosenberg.
One of the biggest problems in CPA firms isn't talked about too much. But partners know it well. They see it every day. The problem is partner conflict.
Unfortunately, the way partners typically deal with conflict is by…not dealing with it. What kinds of conflicts are we talking about? Here are some examples:
- A managing partner with a dominating personality underperforms and habitually violates firm policies, feeling he is “entitled” to do so.
- Partners who are “lone rangers”; partners and staff never know their whereabouts or how to contact them.
- Older partners upset with younger partners for not bringing in business and wanting to be paid as if they did.
- A partner who does everything last minute has an argument with another partner who had a staff person pulled off his project to bail out the “last-minute Charlie.”
- Some partners feeling that they never get the “better staff” assigned to their jobs.
Firms shoving problems under the carpet is something I've seen countless times at partner retreats. A sensitive issue, similar to those above, is “on the table,” but the majority of the partners don't speak up.
I recently discussed this with my friend and colleague Jennifer Wilson, of ConvergenceCoaching. She has a phrase for this: Too many partners in the middle. When there is a conflict, the worst thing partners can do is be in the middle. Partners need to have opinions and they need to be heard. If you see one of your partners behave inappropriately, you owe it to your firm to take a position and make your voice heard.
For the complete blog entry, read “CPA Firm Partners in the Middle.”
From The Marc Rosenberg Blog, May 15, 2012, http://blog.rosenbergassoc.com/.