Transforming the Dysfunctional Professional Firm – Part Two

Link to Part One. (https://mailchi.mp/bbcb87be965a/resolution-for-15374845?e=[UNIQID])

Last week we looked at the features of high-functioning professional firms, as well as those of the dysfunctional professional firm. The astute reader probably sussed out where we’re going next.

Just like the recovering alcoholic, a professional firm which wants to become high-performing has to swear off the evils which ruined it in the first place. And just like the recovering alcoholic, there’s a need to make things right, all across the board. The Alcoholics Anonymous member never stops seeking healing for himself, and also for those he has harmed.

So you might think that fixing the dysfunctional firm is mostly about people stopping being selfish and following the Golden Rule. And that is a great first step, but it doesn’t deal with the core issues.

The single greatest feature of dysfunctional professional firms is a lack of wholehearted devotion to specialization. While it’s OK for a solo practitioner to offer a handful of service areas, you simply cannot create a powerhouse where most of the participants are “jacks of all trades and masters of none”. The most successful professional firms are full of the most successful professionals, and there’s no such thing as a highly successful “specialist in everything”.

The single largest reason dysfunctional firms can’t let go of the jack-of-all-trades collectivity is usually that they have a compensation model that focuses entirely or mostly on gross billings. Because everyone has an enormous nut to crack every month, you’re going to grab money from every source possible, even vacuuming up the crumbs in the last day or two of the month. You’re going to deal with clients you shouldn’t deal with, going to do work for which you’re not suited, going to be dancing with the malpractice devil, and going to be contorting yourself into whatever shape you must to keep those numbers up. No wonder you’re always on the lookout for greener pastures.

To transition to a model where everyone is following their Giftings, doing the work they love and which energizes them, calls for high levels of trust and commitment. It calls for a blueprint and business transition model that is realistic and allows for no cheating. You might be willing to walk away from a lucrative but not professionally satisfying practice area, but only if you’re not left out on on the tightrope all by yourself.

It may be possible for the dysfunctional firm to reform itself all by itself, but not likely. That’s like trying to form an Alcoholics Anonymous chapter in a tavern. Generally it takes some outside guidance combined with commitment and accountability. That’s where a consultant like me will come into play.

Next week we explore some of the “nuts and bolts” of saving a dysfunctional professional firm from itself.