The most technically brilliant professionals don’t always make partner. This episode explores why, through the lens of the first, and most important, of the 12 key indicators of partnership readiness: Mindset.
Using the real example of a lawyer with 98.5% utilisation who was asked to wait another year, this episode unpacks the fundamental difference that separates the people who make partner from those who don’t. It’s not about working harder. It’s about understanding what you’re actually being assessed on, and adjusting what you are optimising for.
In this episode you will learn:
Why partnership is not a promotion and what the commercial reality of the partner role actually means for how you spend your time today
How the skills that made you a high-performing senior associate or senior manager can actively work against you at this stage, and what to do about it
Why only 49% of professionals on the partnership track see their own development as solely their responsibility, and why that gap is costing them time
What it looks like to start making business owner decisions before you have the title
Take the Partnership Readiness Assessment
The best first step. Free to complete, 15–20 minutes, and gives you a personalised report across all 12 key indicators: https://www.howtomakepartner.com/partnership-readiness-assessment/
Buy Poised for Partnership
What help is out there for you to progress your career in the professions?
The Progress to Partner Academy is curated by key indicator. If Mindset is where you need to focus, you’ll find everything in one place:
Inside the Mindset indicator, you’ll find practical support to help you think, act and progress like a future partner, including:
Courses and game plans on:
- How to Truly Commit to Moving Your Career Forward
- How to Be on Your A-Game Every Day
- How to Put Together a Development Plan to Achieve Your Career Goals
Plus guidebooks including:
- 10 Critical Lessons You Need to Learn to Make Partner
- Top 5 Mistakes to Avoid If You Want to Get Promoted Ahead of Your Peers in a Professional Services Firm
You’ll also get access to short video clips from Heather on topics such as:
- How to overcome imposter syndrome
- Why you don’t have a commercial mindset and how to develop one
- How to get noticed as a high-flying manager or associate
- How to change your firm’s perception of you when you’re seen as a safe pair of hands
And workshop recordings covering:
- How to stand out and maximise your chances of becoming senior associate
- Creating the space, energy, desire and time to take the step up to partner
- How to make sure your career development actually happens
- How to develop gravitas and strengthen your executive presence
Use code PODCAST10 for 10% off annual membership: https://www.howtomakepartner.com/get-progress-to-partner/
Books mentioned:
Poised for Partnership by Heather Townsend – https://amzn.to/3ETEYk3
How to Make Partner and Still Have a Life by Heather Townsend and Jo Larbie – https://amzn.to/4iLxugM
You can also listen to this episode on Substack and on Apple Podcasts
Hello, and welcome!
His business case read: despite achieving an average utilisation of 98.5% for the last three years, I have managed to generate £120k of my own work over the last 3 years.
His partners looked at that and said: come back next year.
Not because his work wasn’t excellent. It was. Not because they didn’t like him. They did. But because every line of that business case was screaming: I am an outstanding senior associate. And that is precisely the problem.
This is the How to Make Partner podcast with me, Heather Townsend, author of Poised for Partnership and co-author of How to Make Partner and Still Have a Life. This is the first episode in a new series where we go deep on each of the 12 key indicators we use to assess whether someone is really ready for partnership. New episodes are released weekly, so press subscribe so you never miss one.
Right. Let’s talk about why Mindset is the first indicator, and why I think it’s the most important one.
A question came from the back of the room at the end of a talk I gave to over 120 senior tax professionals. I had shared ten lessons on what it takes to make partner, and as I was wrapping up, a hand went up. “Which one matters most? The one you really need to heed?”
The answer came to me immediately: Mindset. Not business development. Not building your profile. Not the business case. Mindset. Because if you don’t get this right, nothing else will stick.
So what do I mean by Mindset in this context? Your Mindset is the collection of beliefs and assumptions you carry about your role. What your job is. What success looks like. Who is responsible for your career. And the reason it comes first is that your Mindset drives what you focus on. What you focus on drives your behaviour. And your behaviour determines your results. Every other indicator in this series sits downstream of this one.
The most fundamental Mindset shift you need to make is this: partnership is not a promotion. I know that sounds simple, but most professionals on the partnership track haven’t actually absorbed it.
Here’s what it really means. When you make partner, you resign from your firm, become self-employed, and are invited to buy a small slice of equity in the partnership. You become your partners’ business partner. Think about the business owners you know. How many of them would let someone become their business partner without a compelling commercial reason? Your partners are exactly the same.
They don’t need another high-performing senior associate or senior manager. They can pay someone less to do that role and not have to share equity with them. What they need is someone who is already thinking like a business owner. Someone who is building a profitable practice, not just billing impressively against targets they were handed.
Back to the lawyer with the 98.5% utilisation. His peers, the ones who got made up to partner that year, were generating £400k or more of their own work. His figure was £120k for the last 3 years. His firm asked him to do another year not because he had failed, but because he had succeeded brilliantly at the wrong thing. He had optimised for being an outstanding senior associate when what he needed to demonstrate was that he could grow a business.
That’s what makes this Mindset shift so hard. Everything that has made you successful so far — your technical excellence, your responsiveness, your drive to hit targets — can actively work against you at this stage if you are not careful. The skills that earn you recognition as a senior associate or senior manager are not the same skills that earn you a place in the partnership.
There’s a second Mindset I want to cover, because it comes up in nearly every coaching conversation I have, and that is ownership.
Only 49% of the professionals who have completed our Partnership Readiness Assessment see their own career development as solely their responsibility. Nearly half. And remember, these are people who have actively chosen to take an assessment to help them make partner. They are already more motivated than the average person at their level. And yet half of them, underneath it all, are still waiting for their firm to do something.
Your firm is not thinking about your career 24 hours a day. Your partners are not lying awake wondering how to develop you. Your firm will invest in your development when there is a clear commercial reason to. Beyond that, it is your problem to solve.
The professionals who make partner have internalised this. They don’t wait for feedback. They go and get it. They don’t wait for a partner to suggest they do more business development. They build it into their week. They see their career as a business they are running, because at partner level, it is.
The moment you genuinely own your development — rather than experiencing it as something that should be done to you — the pace of your progress changes. This is not about being aggressive or pushy. It is about being the person in the room who is already acting like a partner, rather than waiting to be treated like one.
The good news is that Mindset is not fixed. That’s the whole point of Carol Dweck’s work on growth mindset, and it’s backed up by what we now know about how the brain forms new neural pathways. Every time you practise a new way of thinking, those pathways get stronger. You are not stuck. But you do have to decide this is your responsibility. And then you have to start.
If you want to understand where your Mindset is sitting right now — and how you score across all 12 key indicators — the Partnership Readiness Assessment is the best place to begin. It takes 15–20 minutes and gives you a personalised report. The link is in the show notes below.
Inside our Progress to Partner Academy, the resources are curated by key indicator, so if Mindset is where you need to focus first, everything relevant is in one place.
You’ll find our course How To Truly Commit To Moving Your Career Forward in the Progress To Partner Academy. This course will help you identify where you need to change your mindset going forward.
I’ve put a link to the Academy in the show notes. As a thank you for listening, there’s 10% off annual membership using the code PODCAST10.
That’s all for this episode. Your action for this week: be honest with yourself about whether the decisions you are making day-to-day are employee decisions or business owner decisions. Pick one thing you can change this week to close that gap.
If you have enjoyed this episode please leave us a review on Spotify or Apple Podcasts or give us a comment on Substack. It helps us reach more people who need this. Remember to hit subscribe so you don’t miss next week’s episode, where we’ll be covering the second key indicator: Direction.
Thanks for listening!
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Links
Complete my FREE Partnership Readiness Assessment – to see where you have gaps in your own development – you’ll get a personalised report with actions for what progress your career forward
Connect with me on LinkedIn
Join Progress To Partner Academy and use the code PODCAST10 to get 10% off 12 months of premium annual membership.
Buy your hard copy of Poised for Partnership or buy the Ebook here
Buy your copy of How To Make Partner And Still Have A Life
Buy your copy of The Go To Expert
Buy your copy of The Financial Times Guide To Business Networking
Join my Progress To Partner Academy and access all my courses and use the code PODCASTBP10 to get 10% off 12 months of premium annual membership.
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