Practice Leadership

“You’re the best!” The two of our colleagues cried to their Technology practice leader after narrowly winning the deal over the competition. “We couldn’t have done it without you! “ As they celebrated, I couldn’t help but notice that their coach was the same person who was pushing them to do their best in the pursuit and demanding to bring the best out of the information they have to showcase and delight the client with our extraordinary capabilities to deliver that project. The practice leader is the one who is extremely focused in achieving excellence and tries to bring the best out of all the odds. . If you're young and ambitious and driven, don't run from the challenge, run towards it. If you're terrified of a star manager in your organization, go find a project to do with him or her. Cram as much learning as you can into the front end of your career. You may not love it while you're going through it, but you'll carry that learning and success with you as you move up the ladder. Today ,when we embark on the CoP (Communities of Practice) initiative I would like to role the crystal ball and see what we would benefit if we do this right.

A well-coached, coordinated team would be able to achieve any (or all) of the following possible benefits:

1. More effective practice development efforts through pooling and coordination of individual efforts
2. Better utilization and development of professionals through collective decisions on staffing of client work, allocation of resources and mentoring
3. Collective development of tools, templates, IPs and other practice aids to benefit everyone
4. More rapid and effective dissemination of expertise and skills among the group
5. Better client service through greater ability to put the right people on the right job
6. Better market image through development of a collective reputation, not just the sum of individual reputations
7. Comfort of “belonging” to a small group rather than being “lost” as one member of a very large group of professionals
8. Informal coaching on a “one-on-one” basis acting as a source of help for personal growth rather than relying only on annual performance appraisals
9. Improved profitability from focusing as a group on ways to enhance billing rates and leverage
10. Critical mass of time and resources created to develop innovative service offerings, which no individual could afford to do alone

The success of CoP depends how truly we are prepared to act as a team and not as a loosely affiliated group of independent practitioners. They must make an informed, conscious decision to give up a few degrees of autonomy in exchange for the benefits listed above. Naturally, the precise role of the practice lead will derive directly from the objectives chosen for the group. However, there are certain key choices that must be made in any circumstance. For example, is the practice lead expected to do any or all of the following?

1. Spend time with individual professionals (senior or junior), serving as lead to help them develop themselves and their practice
2. Be knowledgeable about the development of r professionals and intervene (delicately) to “suggest” reassignments between projects in order to build skills and advance their careers
3. Be in touch with clients of other professionals in the group to help the professional to grow the relationship, to monitor client satisfaction and to act as a “conscience” so everyone can excel at client satisfaction
4. Monitor the profitability of assignments conducted by members of the group and discuss the results with them
5. Devise methodologies to capture and share knowledge acquired while serving clients both within the group and across the firm
6. Spend time recruiting and interviewing potential new staff (junior and senior)
7. Spend time following up and actively helping members of the group execute their planned activities
8. Initiate and run regular meetings of practice group members to collectively plan the group’s activities and initiatives for the coming quarter

The next essential component of the practice leadership is that how credibly we convey to our professionals that activities conducted during nonbillable time are valued, monitored and considered as an essential part of their performance. Much of what practice groups do, and what practice leads try to get their team members to do, involves investment of nonbillable time in activities that build the future of the practice. Obvious examples include various kinds of innovation, development of tools, conducting training programs and so on

Communities of Practice are undeniably powerful, but it is equally a radical change of mindset for many of us. Done properly, it can bring not only greater success but also enhancing collegiality, mutual support and a winner in all of us.

Cheers

DC*