Save content
Have you found this content useful? Use the button above to save it to your profile.

Who needs to be in your support team if you are going to make it to partner in a Big 4 or large firm

30th Sep 2016
Save content
Have you found this content useful? Use the button above to save it to your profile.

The road to partner is a long and winding one, with many twists and turns. At times it can and will be all-consuming. This is why you need a support team. It’s your support team which makes getting to partner much, much easier. In fact, no support team normally equates to no partnership prospects. In this blog post Heather Townsend shares an exclusive extract from the 2nd edition of ‘How to make partner and still have a life’ (free sample chapter here)  and details who should be in your support team.

Who should be in your support team?

Everyone’s support team will be different. However, we suggest that an effective support team will have people playing five different types of roles.

Sponsor: Sponsors are influential backers who identify high performers (the protégé) and actively champion the protégé for partnership.  A sponsor can help a protégé (you) to gain high visibility career accelerating opportunities and influence decisions about their promotions and remuneration, client opportunities, leadership, and entry into networks of influential business and community contacts

Mentor:  A mentor informally or formally helps you navigate your career, providing guidance on career choices and development. Having someone in your firm who is more experienced and can act as a sounding board, provide objective guidance and feedback is essential if you are going to make partner.

Business coach: A coach provides guidance for your development, often focused on personal, leadership and management skills (rather than technical skills) required to make partner.

There are many benefits to having your own coach who is independent from your firm, although your firm may be paying for their time. Your own coach helps you to take time out from the hurly-burly of your work life to focus on what really matters to you. See Chapter 6: How to develop yourself on the way to partnership.

Family: Having a supportive and happy home life is important if you are to become a well-rounded individual who is properly equipped to handle the stresses and strains which are part and parcel of the everyday life of a professional adviser.

Friends inside work: You are going to be at work for a significant part of your working life. Therefore, if you are going to ‘fit in’ (see Chapter 10) and enjoy your time at work, then you need to have friends at work.

Friends outside work: Good friends unconnected to your work life give you the opportunity to truly let your hair down, relax and let off steam outside work. It is important not to let your friendships outside work slide, as you never know when you may need them.

 

 

Get your copy of the 2nd edition of How to make partner and still have a life

How To Make Partner and Still Have a LifeTo get your copy of How to make partner and still have a life at a 20% discount, use code HTMPG20 at the checkout on the Kogan Page website. Click on the image buy your copy

 

This article originally appeared in a different form on the How To Make Partner website.

 

Heather Townsend helps professionals become the The Go-To Expert. She is the author of the  award winning and best-selling book on business networking, the ‘FT Guide To Business Networking’, Poised for partnership and the co-author of ‘How to make partner and still have a life’, and ‘The Go-To Expert’. Over the last decade she has worked with over 300 partners; coached, trained and mentored over 2000 professionals at every level of the UK’s most ambitious professional practices. 

 

Heather blogs regularly at How to make partner and still have a life and works with future and current Big 4 partners and professionals from mid-tier firms all over the world

 

Tags:

Replies (0)

Please login or register to join the discussion.

There are currently no replies, be the first to post a reply.