When people are the problem, make them the solution

The partnership had a performance program in place, but the partners themselves weren’t following it. They were promoting people in their teams who hadn’t been meeting expectations, let alone exceeding them. It had become an accepted practice driven by the fear of losing people in a tight employment market. The firm’s leadership knew this was not the road to excellence.

The solution was to work with the partners themselves. The first step was to listen to the partners individually to determine the underlying problems, then to feed an assessment of those problems back to the partnership as a group to gain a shared understanding. A workshop was then able to gain agreement on the approach so an implementation plan could be put in place.

The plan addressed the underlying problem of poor performance on the part of the team members. Partners were coached on how to hold effective performance conversations with their team members and staff received training to upskill them in their areas of need.

The program reaped huge rewards for the partners as well as staff, and especially firm’s overall performance.

New ideas for a new service

The business consultancy was adding a new service line, one that had the opportunity to bring in work for the rest of the firm. But how to market the new offering and differentiate it, not just from what exists already, but competitors’ offerings, too?

The solution was to use the existing to leverage the new. Rather than an announcement and a lavish party that left little more than a big bill and even bigger hangovers, the launch was considered strategically. First, all the business development tools were created so the partners had everything they needed ahead of time.

Then a launch was planned with a hand-picked guest list of clients (existing and potential) that would show clearly how well positioned the firm was. Instead of just drinks and speeches, a highly informative event was crafted with a panel of influential people as well as the firm’s experts. The event tackled a topic everyone in the industry would like answers on.

After the event the follow-up business development plan kicked in – first with strategic communications that reconnected with those who came to the event and showed those who didn’t what they missed. This was followed by a carefully orchestrated program of strategic meetings with well-informed agendas and quality thought leadership shared via social media that kept people engaged. The new service line was soon feeding work into the existing practice areas.

Personal brand vs. firm brand

The firm leadership knew the importance of the personal brand and the need for partners to have an individual presence in the marketplace and were worried that some partners were doing this at the expense of the firm’s overall brand. They wanted to strengthen the firm’s public image as well as that of individual experts and needed help to find balance between the personal brands of their partners and consistency with the firm’s brand.

The solution was to work with the partners as a group to clearly identify and articulate the firm’s brand and how this should be used going to market. Once this was shared and understood, it was possible to work with each partner to create a personal plan that included key messaging, a content plan and individual coaching. This created not only effective messaging for the firm, but injected enormous confidence into its partnership that saw people achieving more individually and together.

A guiding hand for leadership

The firm valued its culture and took pride in how its values guided everyday behaviours. But they had noticed that this didn’t always help the more senior people in the firm when they needed to step up in new management roles. They wanted a program that would guide leadership behaviours and help make leaders more effective in line with the desired culture.

The solution was an assessment of the current situation – what was working and what wasn’t. Then a workshop with the leadership group to distil their perspectives of what was important, what they wanted to create for the firm, and the behaviours they felt would create that. The result was a robust set of leadership principles to complement the existing values. The team felt they had created these themselves and were happy to own and follow them. The principles were supplemented by a coaching program to help the new leaders get the most out of their position and their people.

How to sell different services consistently

The accounting firm realised its partners needed to be able to differentiate its practice areas in the market, but still send a consistent message about the firm as a whole. The partners, although excellent at their work, needed help with what to say about their business when speaking with clients.

The solution was a series of workshops with partners and senior staff to distil the key value each practice area provided to clients. This resulted in succinct key messages for each practice area to use to present a consistent face to the market and easily explain the value of each practice area. The messages were used as a basis for conversations and pitches and were a springboard for other marketing activity. The clarity and confidence had a significant positive impact on winning work.

Dealing with negative behaviour internally

Stress, high workloads, and some poor role modelling had led to the increasing poor behaviours within the firm and leaders became aware of significant bullying. They were worried about losing staff and a negative change in their culture.

The solution was not exactly what the firm had requested. Leaders wanted to put the whole firm through inappropriate behaviour training. Past experience told us this alone rarely fixes the problem because the perpetrators don’t see themselves as such and usually don’t attend. So, additional measures were required.

Firm-wide inappropriate behaviour training therefore included a focus on the importance of calling the behaviour out and was backed up by discrete individual coaching for repeat offenders. At the same time, it was important to make sure the firm’s leaders had the skills to deal with these situations in their teams and that the firm’s policies and procedures covered the right circumstances.

Tackling the situation from all angles fixed the problem. The bullies ceased their inappropriate behaviour, staff were empowered, and the firm’s policies and procedures were updated to deal with anything that might arise in the future. All this made for a happier workplace.

Negative client feedback?

The firm was receiving consistent client feedback that their people were arrogant and difficult to work with. The high quality of their work was the foundation of success, but leadership was worried that this behaviour could result in a bad reputation and loss of work in the future.

The solution was an independent client review program combined with internal workshops to determine revised values that expressed how the firm wanted to be seen in the market. These were made real and consistent in the firm though a comprehensive behaviour change program and strategic internal communications firmwide. The result was that both clients and staff were much happier, positive aspects of the culture were reinforced and reflected in a recruitment uplift. Leadership felt disaster had been averted.

New Ownership, new values

The firm was taken over by a new global parent company, which meant the firm moved from family ownership to shareholders.

Overnight everything changed – ownership structure, strategic objectives, and especially the way of operating. The new ‘top down’ approach resonated badly with a staff used to being involved in operations and decision-making and who had enjoyed the family culture.

The new owners feared losing staff and productivity, but knew the firm had to adjust to being part of a global entity.

The solution was working with the firm staff to develop a new set of values for the firm that aligned the two cultures. Through a series of workshops the staff and the new leadership took the global firm’s values, reward and recognition structure, and policies and adapted them to suit their firm and its people.

The workshop process was valuable in itself, as the two parties came to understand each other. The outcome was a new set of values that helped the business contribute meaningfully to the parent company and to feel it belongs.