Your First 100 Days As A Partner

You've been recruited as a direct-entry partner in a new firm. You have a phone, a desk, and a massive weight of expectation on your shoulders. What do you think you should do next? Panic!

I accept that this is overly dramatic, so what's the reality of the situation? As a partner, you are a strategically important hire tasked with executing a business plan - you own that plan, and its success or failure depends on you. As a direct-entry partner, you have been brought in above potential internal candidates and ahead of others in the market. You have no track record, reputation, or network within your new firm. To make matters worse, the transition costs of bringing in a direct-entry partner can be enormous, and due to a standing start and restrictive covenants on clients, it may take a while before the firm sees a return on its investment in you. Expectations are rightly high, and it would be understandable for you and your sponsors to feel some anxiety. It's therefore essential for you to make a good start in your new role. The first 100 days of your appointment will be crucial to your long-term success.

So, what is the concept of the first 100 days? The idea is borrowed from US politics - the theory is that what you do in the early days of a leadership role significantly impacts the rest of your tenure. Hopefully, you can quickly understand your environment, set a positive tone, establish credibility, build productive internal networks, execute well, and produce some promising early results. An average or bad first 100 days may not be terminal, but starting well is extremely helpful for your future success.

Hopefully, your new firm will have a strong track record of recruiting partners from the external market. If this is the case, they will understand your challenges and have a specific partner onboarding support program to help you in your transition. They need to protect their investment in you and help you thrive in your new environment, but what can you do to ensure a good start? It would be best if you took control of your transition - you need to own it.

So, what can YOU do to ensure a successful first 100 days?

Create and maintain goodwill. It is essential to create excitement and goodwill during the recruitment process and take those feelings into your appointment. You'll need to set the right tone during interviews, the negotiation process and the possible retention effort by your old partnership. For example, even before you've started, new relationships can be damaged by taking an unnecessarily aggressive tone or stance during earnings negotiations. Similarly, wavering in the face of a counteroffer may be understandable. Still, it could harm you as it does not display the exemplary commitment, enthusiasm and desire for your new firm.

Rest. Many partners will enjoy 12 months (18 months in extreme cases) of gardening leave as part of their transition between firms. This may be a once-in-a-career opportunity to benefit from paid rest and recuperation. Some partners have bucket lists for their time off, but even if you don't, please ensure you feel rested in your new firm. You can then attack your new role with the required energy, enthusiasm and clarity of thought.

Understand yourself. Moving firm provides you with an opportunity for personal and professional renewal. It's a fresh start with a clean slate. How do you want to be viewed in your new firm? Decide what type of partner you want to be. What do you want to do differently, and what do you want to do the same? Are there any behaviours that you would like to change? What do you think you could improve on? Be constructive in your assessment. You are at a significant advantage in your new role as you bring fresh ways of doing things to your new business - enhancing the business gene pool. In my experience, some of the most effective partners in the accounting and legal professions started their careers elsewhere. This allows them to fuse the best ideas from both organisations.

Understand the firm. Know and understand your new firm's culture, politics, structure, processes, policies, product range (services), resources and capabilities before you start. Do you need to change your style or working practices to fit in and succeed? What's your mandate? Who are the key stakeholders in the business? How should you work with them? What are the biggest challenges that you will face in the execution of your business plan? Would you like to change the team, resources or approach? Create a checklist - what do I need to know before I can start trading? Most importantly, understand how you will be judged and what success looks like.

Plan. As well as the business plan you have been brought in to execute, you must also have a first 100-day plan. It should be split into months one, two and three, followed by a review of your general performance and specific results at 100 days. What are your priorities? What are the market opportunities? Who are your target clients? How will you approach them? Along the way, measure your results and ask for feedback from your colleagues and stakeholders. You must always have a plan, but if the plan is not working, be prepared to make some "in-flight" changes.

Unveiling. The announcement of your appointment should be carefully timed and communicated to maximise positive PR. Your first meeting with the existing team should also be carefully choreographed - in particular, respecting their thoughts and fears is essential. You must take time to understand them as individuals and as a group. You'll need to establish trust with the team members and gain their support for your leadership. It is essential that you communicate your vision to the team in a way that they can understand and support. If it is expressed correctly, your appointment will invigorate the business.

Coaching and mentoring. Use the onboarding help available, including coaching, training, mentoring and online resources. Ask for a transition coach if one still needs to be provided. Make sure it's someone with whom you can work effectively, perhaps someone who's travelled a similar route. If they, too, are a direct-entry partner, they will understand the challenges you face - it's even better if they've joined the business from your old firm. The two most crucial roles of your onboarding coach are to help you understand the business and to help you build a new network. Creating a new network is vital to your success in your new role. Your new firm should happily provide you with as much help as you require. You might also be able to enlist the services of an executive coach.

Restrictive covenants. Understand and respect the restrictive covenants relating to your old clients and employees imposed on you by your previous partnership deed. You want to avoid spending the first few months of your appointment dealing with legal issues. It would be best if you were allowed to get on with your new role without distraction.

Massive action. Finally, although it is vital that you understand the business before you start trading and that you don't start changing things just for the sake of change, it is essential that you take massive action from day one of your appointment. It would be best if you started as you mean to continue. You need to create momentum. Often, people will want to understand everything about their new business before starting to trade. This is unrealistic as it will take too long. Sometimes, you need to learn things as you go along - often, it's the best way to learn. As the old saying goes, you don't have to understand electricity before you switch the light bulb on!

Finally, don't try to please everyone or attempt to take too much on. Focus on the activities on which your performance will be judged. And what happens if it all goes wrong? Be prepared to take remedial action and ask for additional help and support from the firm if required. Stay calm and refocus on what you're doing. Your first 100 days are important, but there are countless examples of partners who have started badly before recovering and going on to have great success.

Rob Thomas is a partner at Cavendish Stuart in London. He is an executive search consultant specialising in partner and team acquisitions in the professional services market in the UK and internationally. Please feel free to connect with him on LinkedIn to receive future articles and insights. Your likes and comments on articles are also greatly appreciated.?