Clearly, staff assignments need to be made with the client in mind. However, you must also consider the career development of junior professionals. Katzenbach Partners, a New York—based consulting firm, tracks the development of its associates by keeping a running record of their different growth needs and of the content of their assignments. That kind of dedication to associates pays off. Katzenbach, however, is a small firm of only about professionals. The challenge at bigger organizations is not to let their professionals fall through the cracks.
David H. Maister, one of the first researchers to study PSFs and whose book Managing the Professional Service Firm remains the seminal text on PSFs, warned that one of the biggest problems in these firms is the underutilization of talent. It was true in and is even more so today. It can be very hard nowadays to promise associates the stretch assignments they need to learn. The competition for market share is so brutal that there are simply fewer plum assignments to go around, except at the very top-tier firms.
When plums are not available, the junior professionals grow frustrated that the partnership group is not really interested in their career development. One useful tactic, especially in times when the firm has few good assignments, is to let your junior professional shadow someone senior.
This is particularly important for juniors who are very high fliers. As soon as possible after an associate joins the organization, a partner should take him on an assignment to a client and flood him with insight and expertise. Another way that PSFs can make up for a lack of choice assignments is to give individuals projects that are not client related. Research projects, for example, provide an opportunity for an associate to delve more deeply into a field of interest.
One senior associate at a consulting firm was asked to research the connection between branding and new drugs being developed by a pharmaceutical client. Soon this associate developed a reputation throughout the firm as a branding expert.
Extracurricular work need not even be germane to the business. Heller Ehrman, a top-tier law firm, allows valued associates to spend time on worthy, high-profile pro bono work during downtime. That not only gives the firm good PR but also keeps a strong associate stimulated and allows her to feel like a partner. Not all the responsibility for mentoring rests with partners. Too many associates at PSFs give up quickly and look for greener pastures rather than learn how to thrive by catching the attention of mentors and partners.
If you want a mentor, start acting like you do and you will eventually find yourself connected with a core group of partners and associates who are invested in your personal development. In effect, these colleagues become part of your personal advisory board.
These colleagues are the glue that keeps me at the firm. Co-mentoring encourages young professionals to take some responsibility for their own careers. Partners should keep an eye out for professionals at all levels who are particularly gifted at being mentors. Reciprocal mentoring is not only advantageous to their careers, but it also builds up fundamental team skills among professionals, many of whom are not natural team players. Consider a partner who was asked to develop a new asset-management arm of an investment bank.
He reached out to a handful of junior partners and vice presidents to help develop the new business. Team members, leery of one another, sought to stake out positions based on old relationships or old functions. The meetings of the new group were less than effective, and they struggled to devise a competitive strategy the entire group could support.
A wise leader told the group that only by supporting one another could they be competitive. He created team metrics that encouraged them to work together not against one another. In effect, they became co-mentors as they began to work more collaboratively in anticipation of competing in the marketplace and being rewarded economically as a group. Despite their inclination to work individually and compete with one another, these professionals functioned effectively as a team when they were motivated to do so.
More than any other type of organization, PSFs live and die by their intellectual capital. If you fail to nurture this talent, you will lose the heart and soul of your firm, as well as the very people you recruited to give you an edge in a hypercompetitive world. Unfortunately, as these types of firms bitterly compete for market share, their achievement-driven partners give priority to their clients over their colleagues—and the more success they have with the clients, the more they focus on them.
That dynamic is simply unsustainable; partners in PSFs must take active steps to correct it. They will need to build time into their schedules to nurture all their associates, not just the ones most like themselves. They will have to involve juniors frequently and substantively in important client work and, if such opportunities are lacking, offer them other challenges. For their part, associates must learn to take charge of their own careers and seek out mentoring opportunities with one another as well as from their bosses.
The partners and associates at the best firms recognize these challenges. If your firm is to compete with them, it will have to as well. You have 1 free article s left this month. You are reading your last free article for this month. Subscribe for unlimited access. Create an account to read 2 more. Developing employees. Why Mentoring Matters in a Hypercompetitive World. DeLong, John J. Gabarro, and Robert J. Reprint: RH Professional service firms PSFs , like so many other companies, are juggling the modern challenges of global competition, increased regulation, and rapid employee turnover.
The Idea in Practice DeLong, Gabarro, and Lees recommend four principles for mentoring your professional staff: Make Mentoring Personal Associates at PSFs want individualized attention from senior professionals who take a personal interest in their careers.
Include Your B Players You may be tempted to mentor only your A players, especially if you identify with them. Assign Projects Judiciously There are never as many plum assignments as there are associates who want them.
To combat this perception: Let associates shadow you on assignments where you share your insight and expertise with them. Research projects, for instance, enable associates to delve more deeply into a field of interest. Let them do worthy, high-profile pro bono work. That gives your firm good PR and keeps associates stimulated. Encourage Associates to Find Mentors Senior partners are stretched too thin to form a relationship with everyone who needs to be mentored.
Again and again, our interviewees said that a good mentor… is someone absolutely credible whose integrity transcends the message, be it positive or negative tells you things you may not want to hear but leaves you feeling you have been heard interacts with you in a way that makes you want to become better makes you feel secure enough to take risks gives you the confidence to rise above your inner doubts and fears supports your attempts to set stretch goals for yourself presents opportunities and highlights challenges you might not have seen on your own.
A version of this article appeared in the January issue of Harvard Business Review. Read more on Developing employees or related topics Leadership development and Mentoring. By continuing to browse this website you agree to the use of cookies. Accept Cookies More Information.
Privacy Policy Powered by:. Human Resources Article. By Lauren Bidwell. What is a mentor? What do they do? Why do they matter? Improved career outcomes. References Hart, Eby, Allen et al. About the Author. Mentors can listen, share advice, ask thought-provoking questions, and more, including:. The mentor-mentee relationship is a two-way street. Mentees can provide feedback and new perspectives to mentors, while helping them work on their leadership skills and growth.
Plus, with a formal program in place, more mentorship relationships can flourish, particularly with people employees and students who are traditionally underserved by mentoring of an informal nature. Mentoring is a timeless practice, and while the format or method of the relationship between mentor and mentee may have shifted, the fundamental goals and advantages remain the same.
Madeleine Burry is the former associate managing editor for Parents. You can follow her on Twitter at lovelanewest. Posted in: Best Practices , Mentoring. Skip to Navigation Skip to Content.
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