Develop your Team with Progress to Partner Academy.
Your firm is full of excellent people. They deliver for clients, hit their targets and are committed to the firm.
But when partner-track decisions come around, the same problem keeps appearing: strong senior associates and managers who are good, but who haven’t shown the commercial and leadership behaviours the partnership is looking for.
And nobody has told them what those behaviours are.
You see the consequences more clearly than most:
- A thin partner pipeline, which makes succession planning harder
- High performers who feel overlooked and start taking recruiter calls
- Expensive lateral partner hires to fill gaps you could have filled from within
- Promotion decisions that feel inconsistent, because “partner potential” is never defined
The people who miss out aren’t short on ability. They’re working constantly (client demands, billable hours, team management), so there’s little time left for the things that get them noticed, and no clear guidance on what those things are.
Progress to Partner will close that gap
I’m Heather Townsend, author of Poised for Partnership and co-author of How to Make Partner & Still Have a Life. I’m the leading global expert in what it takes to move from senior fee earner to partner . Here are 5 ways to work with me
Tax Director, UK
“I worked my way through the ‘How to truly commit to moving your career forward’ course first as I had no career plan. Already, feedback from my Managing Partner is that my attitude has improved – I am much more business focussed, delegating more work than I ever have.”
Give the rising stars in your firm everything they need to build their “partner-ready” skills
Give your rising stars access to Progress to Partner ACADEMY
14 self-paced courses plus videos, exercises and guides that have helped hundreds of ambitious lawyers, accountants and consultants stand out as future partners and win their promotions. It’s designed specifically for professional services, so it doesn’t feel like generic leadership training.
It doesn’t tell your people to work harder. It shows them how to redirect their effort to the right things:
- Clarity on what “partner-ready” means, through guidance on each of the 12 Key Indicators that show someone is ready to make partner
- Business development habits, including building a referral network and a steady rhythm of activity that, over time, wins work for the firm
- Leadership skills, including confident delegation, managing a team and giving feedback
- A robust business case for partnership, so promotion decisions are based on evidence, not guesswork
14 self-paced courses, all practical rather than theoretical. Your people can apply what they learn at work straight away, which matters in firms where nobody can step away from fee-earning for days of classroom training.
Give your rising stars access to Progress to Partner & they will learn:
Full access to the entire Progress to Partner Membership site, including access to on-demand courses such as ‘How to win work by becoming the Go-To Expert’ “How to Delegate Like a Pro, “How to Lead & Manage a Team”
All aimed specifically at people like you who work in a professional service firms – our members are accountants, consultants, auditors and lawyers.
Bitesize self study learning videos and short courses
Professionally created on-demand courses to help them to master the skills needed to get to the next level.
What Courses are in Progress to Partner Academy?
Work through our self-paced courses and your team will end up with actions and plans in their diary. They will know what to do and why you are doing it. You will feel confident that their actions will slowly and steadily get them ready for partner-track.
Build a cast-iron business case for partner and have a concrete plan to build connections on LinkedIN, generate referrals, lead and manage your team and start winning work for your firm.
Each course has videos that will help you to really understand what the partners are looking for and how to work on building your skills.
Actions and Exercises will make sure you actually follow up on your understanding and put everything into practice when you are next at work.
How to Build a Cast-Iron Business Case for Partner
How to become known as the Go-To-Expert and win work for your firm
How to be on your A-Game Every Day
How to Truly Commit to Moving your Career Forward
How to Make Time for Business Development
How to Choose your Niche
How to Create a Career Development Plan
Creating a Business Development Plan
Getting Confident on LinkedIn
How to Excel as a Line Manager
How to Manage a Hybrid Team
How to Give Negative Feedback
How to set Performance Objectives for your team
How to Start Winning Clients (when you don’t know where to start)
Progress to Partners members say
Tax Director, UK
“The Go-To Expert course in Progress To Partner has really helped to focus my mind. We are now more focused on those specific areas that I get the most enjoyment. I’ve now completed my first transaction on my own client for a £25K fee.”
What’s the cost of this programme?
Annual subscriptions to Progress to Partner for 1-4 people in your firm is £290 +VAT per person. Get in touch with us if you have more people that you would like to subscribe as we can offer a discount for this.
Why invest in Progress to Partner for your high potential senior fee earners
The problem: How to retain and develop your senior fee earners
You Need
You need to be seen to invest in your top talent to help them progress their career or risk losing them to your competitors
Talented senior individuals are hard to replace right now
But
Executive Coaching is very expensive
Senior fee earners have individual development needs that can’t be cost effectively met by providing a training programme which is why Executive Coaching is most often used to developing senior fee earners
Partners are struggling to find the time to develop this kind of development (and may not want to or have the skills to do this)
What is the cost of replacing a senior fee earner?
It is estimated that to replace a salaried employee it can cost, on average, between 6-9 months salary
The fee to the headhunter
Opportunity cost while transitioning to the new fee
earner
Risk of clients following the exiting fee earner
Cost of gardening leave, i.e. paying the exiting fee earner to not work
Time for new fee earner to get up to speed
What is the answer?
”Invest in annual membership of Progress to Partner”
Why invest in membership of Progress to Partner
Progress to Partner is a proven development tool for people from Big 4 firms or a Top 10 law firm
Annual subscriptions to Progress to Partner for 1-4 people in your firm is £290 +VAT per person. Get in touch with us if you have more people that you would like to subscribe as we can offer a discount for this.
Included within Progress to Partner are all the on demand self study courses a manager or director in a Big 4 firm or a Top 10 law firm would need to progress their career
The set-up of Progress to Partner is such that there is less requirement for a mentor or Partner to put together a development plan for their direct report. The site does this for members.
Who developed Progress to Partner?
Author of Poised for Partnership, The Go-To Expert, The Financial Times Guide To Business Networking
Co-author of How To Make Partner And Still Have A Life
Over the last 15+ years she has coached and worked with hundreds of fee earners from Big 4 firms or a Top 10 law firm helping them on their way to partner
Founder of www.howtomakepartner.com the leading website on how to progress your career in professional service firms. (Over 32k page views in last month alone)
What’s the cost of this programme?
Annual subscriptions to Progress to Partner for 1-4 people in your firm is £290 +VAT per person. Get in touch with us if you have more people that you would like to subscribe as we can offer a discount for this.
What are they saying?
Senior Manager EY Germany
“I thought the Partnership Readiness Assessment was very helpful. Gave me some more insights into which skills/areas I need to develop.”
Partner at Deloitte, Nigeria
“I want to use this opportunity to say a big thank you to you. I have been following you and utilising some of your materials since 2018. I am glad to inform you that I am now a Partner at Deloitte Africa, here in Nigeria.”
PwC Director, UK
“Many thanks again for the great course, its been very helpful in developing my career further. And the knowledge I gained will continue to support me and others aroud with their progress.”
Senior Manager, Insolvency
“I’m grateful for coming across Heather Townsend many moons ago on Twitter. I’ve read all of her books and I’ve followed her advice and I received confirmation this week that I’ve (finally) secured promotion to Senior Manager (with effect from 1 October) which will hopefully lay the foundations for Director/partner in due course.”
