Congratulations New Partner … Now what?

Making partner is a big move ~ Congratulations! This is quite an exciting, yet slightly (OK – more than slightly) intimidating accomplishment. Along with partnership comes bigger financial, prestige and other “intangible” rewards but also bigger risks and LOTS more pressure. You may be asking yourself “Now that I’ve made it this far, what do I do next?”

Here are a few steps to help guide your path to accelerated partnership success!

1. Establish (and continuously evaluate and re-evaluate) long term goals. First, take sufficient time to get really clear about what you hope to accomplish professionally, socially and personally in your first 5 years of partnership. Do not shortchange yourself here by planning for less than five years, because anything less is too short. Achieving long-term success and stability at this stage of the game requires that you develop the skill of long-term strategic thinking. Hire an UpwardAction Coach if you need help in this regard. Once your long term goals are clearly defined, determine what it will take to accomplish each goal and create a step by step action plan. Then, group your steps into monthly and weekly objectives.

Although this process may sound like a ton of work, it really is not as burdensome as it appears at first glance. Investing time upfront to chart your path will keep you focused and positioned to achieve great things as a new partner.

2. Reward Yourself

Remember to be good to yourself as you make progress on your path to accelerated partnership success. Use your action plan to identify milestones and then reward yourself for accomplishing each milestone. A reward can be as extravagant as an exotic trip to Thailand or a simple as a free afternoon to read a book or enjoy a conversation with a friend at your local coffee shop.

3. Assess Your Strengths and Weaknesses. You must have an accurate view of your strengths and weaknesses to succeed at this high level of your game. Once you really know where you stand – you are in a position to maximize your strengths and augment your weaknesses. You can also work on developing a rainmaking/connecting style that works for you and not waste time on those that are outside of your interest. For example, if you love speaking , spend your time speaking to and connecting with audiences. Then, write outlines for your articles and commission more junior lawyers to develop articles from the outlines. When working with more junior lawyers, always remember the important of sharing authorship.

4. Forget networking and begin connecting. Connection is the result of actively listening to others [LINK TO newsletter] and seeking opportunities to add value to their lives. The wonderful thing about consistently striving to add value to the lives of others is that it also increases your own value and reputation. It is also useful and highly profitability to start developing informal strategic alliances with professionals who may not be in the legal field. Let your circle of friends and colleagues know what you are doing and ask them to support you by sending referrals your way. Make sure that you also continue to support those in your circle.

5. Find a Mentor. Identify a mentor and spend your time & energy building a strong relationship with this person.

6. Cultivate loyalty and feelings of goodwill with support staff. Do not let being a partner “go to your head”. Remember, administrative assistants can help make your professional life really good – or really bad. Also, be firm and respective with support staff so they can help you accelerate your performance, impact and profitability.

7. Create accountability for yourself (by hiring a coach or working with a “buddy”) and those who work for you. Be clear and firm – but also compassionate- and you will be well on your way to realizing an interesting and fulfilling career as a law partner.

Always – Live with Passion!

Coach TC

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