three questions to evaluate firm culture

it’s part of the path toward partner.

by martin bissett
passport to partnership

this second c is a stormy and choppy one, often fraught with political icebergs but navigated diplomatically and with maturity, will lead you through.

more: make firm culture work for you | checklist: partner-ready metrics | checklist: 10 keys to landing your next client | focus on your client’s concerns, not yours | 8 questions for business success
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case study on culture

deborah had done well. she was bridging the firm’s culture gap and fulfilling its desire to be seen as an equal opportunities employer by becoming the practice’s standout rising star.

deborah had long felt marginalized by what she viewed as a chauvinistic fabric to the way the firm did business and promoted people. she had seemed invisible at times through the years.

her male counterparts had taken advantage of this way of business from time to time and got themselves invited to major client events, sporting hospitality and other “perks” while deborah had never received so much as an invite. now, thanks to tremendous technical work and management abilities, she had seen herself rise to the top of the pile and break the “old boys network” stronghold. a normally placid character, deborah couldn’t help herself in the canteen one lunchtime, in cutting down one of her male colleagues in conversation and flaunting her technical superiority, exposing his relative incomplete knowledge on a tax matter. the issue was reported and deborah found herself facing the managing partner.

the managing partner told her:

as a team we must be conscious of how we make other people feel by our words and actions because we are a team and no one member is ever greater than that, including myself.

this is a critical stage of your development and as such, you must be very careful to think before you speak and act.

a pause by a senior member of this firm in the face of intense debate or discussion does not indicate mental inferiority but rather that, as a professional they are carefully considering facts, experience and alternatives open to them, before responding.

if your contemporaries find cause to mock you for that, be reassured in the knowledge that your career is going in one direction by your measured behaviors whilst theirs is going in entirely another direction because of their behaviors.

you’ve come a long way deborah and we have high hopes for you, don’t slow down now.

partnership pointers

ask yourself and answer these questions when considering the current and future “culture” of your firm.

1. partner disagreements must have happened in the past at my firm. without naming names, what did the managing partner do about it? could i handle things that way myself?
2. what do the partners see as culturally critical to the identity of the firm?
3. if i spend all my time rallying against perceived injustices in the way my firm is run, i’m going to be viewed as small fry forever. one way in which i can overcome that sense of injustice is…

posted on october 27, 2021