True Professionalism: The Courage to Care About Your People, Your Clients, and Your Career by David H. Maister

Author:David H. Maister [Maister, David H.]
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Publisher: Free Press
Published: 1999-01-06T14:00:00+00:00

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It is the cooperativeness and spirit of joint enterprise involved in effective cross-selling that create institutional clients—not the other way around.

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This reasoning raises the more basic philosophical issue of what a firm is all about. A group of senior professionals become a firm to the extent that they actually help each other out, whether in the ways described so far or in the innumerable other small ways that assistance, cooperation, support, and mutual encouragement are needed.

One professional observed to me: “At a minimum, there has to be some cohesion on a personal level. People don’t actually have to like each other [although that helps], but they do need to have something in common, whether that’s love of money [the weakest link], a practice area [i.e., a boutique], an ethnic background, school ties, and so on. At bottom, there has to be a commitment to the institution which is felt by all, so that there is no second thought given to helping other professionals, regardless of level, and to doing tasks that don’t necessarily show up in compensation.”

I think this comment is right on the mark. Firms must be bound together by something more than a compensation system. The importance of having something shared is illustrated by a firm which asked me to moderate a retreat between its two warring factions. One faction was involved in a transactional, high-intensity, premium-fee type of practice which demanded significant dedication, including long workdays and frequent weekend work. The other faction had a more small-business, relationship type of practice where the pace and the rewards were lower. These two groups respectively labeled themselves the Sharks and the Flounders.

We struggled mightily at the retreat to establish firm policies which would accommodate both kinds of practice. All concerned hoped that differences between the groups could be resolved through compensation system adjustments. Of course they could not, and the firm eventually split up—which was probably the right outcome in this case.

Neither group was wrong in any real sense. One group wanted the excitement of a fast-paced practice and the rewards that flow from it, and the other was willing to forgo high rewards for a more normal lifestyle. Either group could be happy and get what they wanted in a firm of like-minded souls. Neither could live with the other. Differences in intensity could not be papered over with dollar differentials. At bottom, there was no reason for these groups to be in partnership with each other.

In the final analysis, therefore, a firm needs to define itself by some sense of common purpose, common approaches, and shared underlying values. Fortunately, there is much that can be done to create these things through practice groups, technology, support systems, and joint marketing. Get started on the systems, and the philosophy will follow.

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