"Fellow Tradespeople"

The partners, young and old, are sitting together. It’s yet another “strategy session.” But they haven’t been partners for a long time now, which is why they keep going over the same ground. They can’t seem to reach an agreement. One emphasizes the business itself as the foundation for both work and growth. Another wants to invest in marketing to generate leads for everyone. A third wants to tap into new sectors, but a fourth wants to maintain focus.

In the discussion, there’s room for everyone’s professional perspective. But it turns out to be difficult to generalize from that. What you do doesn’t work for me or my clients. This results in too little common ground; everyone’s own way prevails. And that is precisely the strength of a partnership or any other form of governance in which Ownership, entrepreneurship, and management come together. But there must be a mechanism to define the boundaries between hobbyist activities on the one hand and generic tasks on the other.

The difference in performance between these individuals appears to be significant. Are they on equal footing? That’s difficult to assess. How do the results of one—as a managing partner—compare to those of the other, who is involved in the professional association? And how should the lower commercial results of both of them be weighed against those of the young innovator who is achieving great success?

Multidimensional boundary discussions like these are tricky. Especially when things aren’t going so well. When the weather’s nice, everyone can “sail.” As long as no one is cutting corners, there are nothing but happy faces on the annual ski trip. When things aren’t going so well, whose belt is the first to tighten? That calls for an honest conversation about performance—preferably while the sun is still shining.

The colleagues I’ve been mentoring haven’t done that. The (dimensions of) results aren’t transparent, and power dynamics have crept into the group dynamics over the years. The person with the smallest commercial contribution dominates the conversation with marketing results, supposedly on behalf of everyone. The partner with the highest bottom-line results is asking for room to invest, but the rest see that primarily as a risk. The turf war at the table is a legacy of years of bickering. In the boom years, a real conversation wasn’t necessary. Now we have to lay our cards on the table.

In this partnership, the younger generation must take on the established order, whose direct contribution to profits—with many hard-won privileges—has receded into the background over the years. They have drifted far from the business. It is the youngest who ultimately tells it like it is. “If, as an owner, you’re not running your business with your feet on the ground, you’d be better off selling your shares and becoming a board member somewhere.” His bold argument aims to rally his fellow professionals to roll up their sleeves. He continues, “It’s precisely those with a lot of experience who can add value; raise your rates and bring a few people along to share your experiences.”

The cat’s out of the bag. Back to the trade! Working together. Fellow tradespeople. They agree to weigh the results annually as follows:

1) everyone’s primary contribution (sales, service, and healthcare for your group);

2) all involve a generic task (marketing, methods, knowledge center, management, etc.) of comparable scope (in terms of time and/or money) that does not come at the expense of the primary contribution and

3) Include investments (in innovation) with a two-year payback period in the company’s own P&L, and thus also their results.

Furthermore, the managing partner upholds the minimum standards for quality and ethics. And they agree to inspire one another while remaining free to pursue their own initiatives. Example: “If you play golf to land clients, by all means do so. We’ll see the revenue come in naturally. But don’t go around mandating that we all have to play golf.”

Months later, I ran into one of the older partners again somewhere. When I asked him how he was doing, he beamed and replied, “It’s so much fun—I’m back in my element!”