Your Partnership Track Plan is what will keep you literally ‘on track’ to achieve your goal of being voted into the partnership. Given the multiple demands on your time when you are on partnership track, particularly if you are on Partnership Track in a law firm, it can be so easy to lose focus on what is important to you right now. This is where your Partnership Track Plan comes in. In this post, we explore what should be in your Partnership Track Plan. What goes in your Partnership Track Plan will be personal to your own particular circumstances. However, it is likely to contain all or some of these parts.
Marketing plan:
This is used to show your partners that you are able to build and maintain a partner-sized profitable client portfolio. It is likely to contain:
- Your personal marketing plan to attract new clients
- Key account plans to grow your current client portfolio and generate work-winning opportunities for other people in the firm
- A networking strategy to build strong referral networks, grow your profile and reach
- Your pipeline and what you need to do to progress each opportunity so that it becomes a client
Internal PR campaign plan:
When it comes to the partnership vote you want every partner to say yes to you becoming a partner in the firm. This means that they need to know who you are, respect you, and feel that you are already thinking and acting like a partner. It is likely to contain:
- A stakeholder map of the key movers and shakers in your partnership and how you intend to positively influence and engage with them
- An activity plan to grow your profile across the firm
Personal development plan:
The skillset needed by partners in a firm is very different to non-partners. For example, most people find that running a business is a skill set that needs to be learned rather than something that comes naturally to them. This part of your plan is likely to contain:
- How you will gain the skill set and experience to be seen to be acting as if you are already a partner
- Identification of your weaknesses and strengths, and how you will capitalise on your strengths and mitigate your weaknesses
- How you will actually get the time to recharge and keep your energy high
Team development plan:
You are unlikely to make it to partner without the support of a team behind you. After all, you don’t want your own partnership ambitions to be jeopardised by the lack of successor to take over your current workload! This part of your plan is likely to contain:
- Individual development plans for your team
- A development plan for your whole team to engage them in your vision for the future
Short-term 90-day action plan
With so many plans to keep an eye on, it can be easy to forget about the action steps in one of the plans. Your short-term 90-day action plan will be where you condense all of your plans, into one document detailing what you need to do and achieve in the next 30, 60 and 90 days.
In summary
Getting through partnership track to partner is a hard slog. With the many demands on your time with just doing the day job it is easy to deprioritise your own career progression. Use your Partnership Track Plan to help you keep focused on your own development and enable you to see how far you have truly come.
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