Succession Planning Advice from a Partner Like You

Throughout my 20+ year consulting career, I’ve said this a thousand times: “I’m one firm smarter than the last firm I worked for.” We learn from our clients. It’s that collective accumulation of best practices (and worst practices) and experiences in hundreds of firms that make us valuable consultants to them.

We recently worked with a $10M firm in the Midwest. Their founding (now retired) partner composed these words of wisdom on succession planning and client transition. When I read it, my jaw dropped because his advice was so articulate, prescient and deep, yet so simple. The firm gave us permission to print the founder’s “Wisdom on Partner Transition”.

The firm is #1. It’s not because the firm represents the partners’ wealth. It’s because the firm is all of us – including staff. It’s the group as a whole that is the greater good. Any transition decision must benefit all

It’s not about you. It’s the opposite. It’s about removing yourself from the picture with the least disruption. You need to step back and become invisible. It’s about you not being there.

It’s not about the client. The clients are important but only if they support the firm’s goals.

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Avoid trying to achieve your dreams. If they aren’t accomplished by now, it’s too late. You can only pass on what has already been achieved. Others’ dreams now take precedent. Your ideas about future growth and staff development must be let go. What is important are the younger partners’ ideas for growth. We need to support those. We can only hope to pass on the structures that are already in place.

Let go. You are no longer the main client contact. Push other partners and staff on to clients. The goal is to make clients dependent on others. Go into the background. If clients still see you as their main contact with the firm, you haven’t started the transition. Your job is to help them when they ask.

Let others’ ideas take precedent. Where the firm goes now is up to other firm personnel, not us. Wait until you’re asked before you offer an opinion.

Staff should be in place. It takes 5-8 years to develop someone to take on partner responsibilities. If they are not in place now, it’s too late. We need to work with what we have.

The structure is the key. We need to follow the rules. If we don’t, the structure we have built will crumble.

Humility. The last and hardest skill for a partner to learn is humility. We don’t know everything. Others can do it as well or better than us.

Succession planning requires you to acknowledge that it’s time to move on, and for that to happen, others need to move up. The more you support them, the more successful your legacy will be.

Any succession planning words of wisdom you would add to our list? Leave your comment below.