Team Engagement and Performance

Towards optimal team performance and wellbeing

The professions are critically dependent on the performance of their professional and support teams. This is in large measure due to the importance for all firms of insuring that partner/owners are 'geared' or 'leveraged', in other words run teams of high calibre, highly committed and highly performing professionals. The accounting profession pioneered this structure which has become commonplace in most professions. At the heart of it is good delegation and feedback systems skills and appropriate training to support these.

In turn, team member performance and overall contribution and wellbeing is determined largely by their feeling of engagement or otherwise within the organisation. A massive challenge for every organisation is to achieve high levels of 'engagement' amongst such staff. This is so as engaged personnel will strive (go the extra mile), stay (are more likely to remain loyal to a firm) and will say (ie will speak well of the firm to prospective hires and alumni), all of which adds up to a powerful momentum for an organisation.  This makes it possible to recruit good calibre staff, keep them for longer (with attendant reduced turnover and recruitment costs) and achieve a good return on training and development, as well as top performance.

Some of the issues firms address in this area:

• The struggle to achieve the right balance between the factors which achieve high levels of engagement amongst professional and support staff combined with high levels of performance;
• the influence of  the X", "Y" and even "Z" generations and the challenges incorporating them into firms and retaining their tenure, performance and loyalty;
• identifying what it is that really motivates team members and then implementing appropriate systems to ensure these factors are supported at an individual and institutional level.

"In my years of running professional service firms in Australia, New Zealand and South Africa I have always striven to create a values-based culture where real interest is taken in the professional and personal wellbeing & development of both professional and support staff. This I found had to happen at both an institutional, firm-wide basis, and at an individual and team level. In the present highly competitive, dollar-driven professional community we operate in, such an approach, while highly rewarding, is a challenge for leaders and the organisations embarking on it. In fact, it wouldn't suit the cultures of some firms.

Early in my management career I came to the view that this issue of team engagement and performance was at the heart and soul of a firm, and was, at an individual level, also really about heart and soul. This was based on my experience of running a large team of lawyers and support staff in my former life as a commercial and tax lawyer. I realised quickly that the more interest one takes in one's professional and support staff, the more of their true potential is realised, the more they deliver and the happier, engaged and loyal they are. Also, this gave me immense personal satisfaction. I felt there was no reason why this approach could not work for a large corporate firm and hence the Responsible Partner ™ role was born. It has been very rewarding seeing it taking successful root in leading firms in three different jurisdictions; functioning slightly differently in each, but ultimately successfully."
Sean Larkan, Chairman, Authentikos

Managing 'Investment Time': As David Maister and Patrick McKenna point out (First among equals, Simon & Schuster 2005) a massive challenge for professional service firms, but seldom met, is to manage and obtain a good return on so-called investment time i.e. all the non-billable time we expend in our firms. I would suggest that the Responsible Partner methodology is the ideal way to do this.

To support this important role a particular form of review and appraisal was developed. I had always found that the traditional review and appraisal was feared by staff, was negative, was retroactive looking and did not address the need to support the Responsible Partner ™ role in a practical way.  It was for this reason that the further concept of the Development Discussion™ was created in the late eighties at Werksmans.

"The unique and innovative Responsible Partner™ and Development Discussion™ methodologies, introduced to Werksmans by Sean Larkan, our former Managing Partner, have flourished in the firm, and become fully entrenched. They facilitate the effective leadership, management and development of our most valuable asset, our people. Systems such as these, introduced by Sean, have been of vital importance to the firm."

Des Williams, Chairman and Head of Litigation, Werksmans, South Africa

"Of particular note was his ability to inspire others to take ownership of their responsibility to perform, both functionally and behaviourally. It was this dual pronged approach that really added value to the individuals and the firm. The manner in which Sean achieved this was truly consultative, manifested y the firm, focused and fair discussions. This approach was far more successful than typical draconian approaches demonstrated by leaders in other similar positions. When faced with tough people based decisions, he would often say 'I will make my decision based on what is best for the firm and what aligns with our values'."

Nigel Speakman,  Impetus Business Development, New Zealand

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