• Work/life balance is a myth

    Work/life balance is a myth

    As the co-author of ‘How to make partner and still have a life‘, you would have thought that I would be all for work/life balance. I’m not, and I will tell you why. work/life balance is a myth There is no such thing as work/life balance. You only have one life. Therefore, you owe it…

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  • Why do so many professionals live their life by ‘default’?

    Why do so many professionals live their life by ‘default’?

    I was working with a group of mainly young accountants yesterday delivering 2 workshops on networking skills. As part of this workshop, I ask them to write down a 5 year career goal. What was interesting that in the discussions, many of my delegates felt that having a 5-10 year career goal was unrealistic, as…

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  • 5 steps to help you decide if you are a good fit for partner in your firm

    5 steps to help you decide if you are a good fit for partner in your firm

    How many of your peers when you started as a trainee or junior wanted to make partner? After all, isn’t that you are expected to do as a new entrant into a professional services firm? Make partner, and achieve the kudos, status and fiscal reward which is perceived to come with the title of ‘partner’….

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  • How to tell your partners that you want to go for partnership

    How to tell your partners that you want to go for partnership

    It can be hard to tell your partners that you want to go for partnership. You don’t want to come across as pushy or arrogant, or speak out of turn. In my interview with Jo Larbie, my co-author of ‘How to make partner and still have a life’, Jo talks us through how to do…

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  • What does ‘AND have a life’ really mean for you?

    What does ‘AND have a life’ really mean for you?

    In the last couple of posts we have been talking about your responsibility to drive your career forward and whether you have actually sat down and thought about what you want from your life and career. Very often in my experience professionals only tend to have clearly defined goals for their career. e.g. “I want to…

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  • Who is taking responsibility for YOUR career?

    Who is taking responsibility for YOUR career?

    You may be wondering, what does taking responsibility for your own career have to do with making partner?  Surely it’s your firm’s responsibility to help your career progress? Well, yes and no. At the end of the day, it is your responsibility to drive your own career. Your firm can help you to get to…

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  • Have you sat down and really thought about what you want from your career and life?

    Have you sat down and really thought about what you want from your career and life?

    The title of our book is ‘How to make partner AND still have a life’. However, how many of us actually take the time to step back and think about what the ‘AND still have a life’ bit means? We only tend to think about the ‘how to make partner’ – often to the detriment…

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  • Tip: How to keep focused on what needs to be done this week

    Tip: How to keep focused on what needs to be done this week

    I’ve come up with a great idea for a new book – and one that I am sooooo excited about writing. However, I’ve decided to put my excitement and ideas on hold for a week. You may be wondering why? In my mind my new book idea is strategically aligned to my personal and business…

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  • What ‘other stuff’ do I need to make time for to progress my career?

    What ‘other stuff’ do I need to make time for to progress my career?

    In yesterday’s post on ‘are you spending enough time on the stuff that will help you make partner‘, we talked about the importance of making time for the ‘sky blue’ types of activities. i.e. activities which are not chargeable, and unlikely in the short or medium term to lead to more chargeable work, but likely…

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