Do you have one or more aspiring partner candidates at your firm, but no road map or program to help them get there?  It’s not uncommon for firms who haven’t promoted a partner in a while to lack structure in this area.  However, without a better approach, you risk losing your high-potential staff to the competition, plain and simple.

The process for development of a program varies widely among firms and it depends upon a number of factors including the number of candidates in the pipeline, how early you would like to start them, and the resources available to dedicate to this initiative.

If you have between one and four candidates a common approach is to create a limited scope program that includes plan development for each candidate, internal meetings to review progress, external coaching to boost success, and possibly some external programs as well to fill the gaps in training and development as needed.

With five or more candidates, it’s more common for a firm to build a more formal path to partner program complete with an application progress, a standardized plan template, internal and external coaching, as well as timeline guidance and minimum performance expectations in a variety of categories.

If the goal goes beyond just your path to partner candidates and extends to your firm as a whole, many firms consider the development of an internal training university that gives people at all levels the opportunity to participate in a variety of personal and professional development programs.

If you’re curious as to what a path to partner plan might look like, click here to gain access to a template that may be a way to start the conversation at your firm.